It’s estimated that tablet use will triple in New Zealand in the next six months, which bodes well for publishers hoping to find a way to distribute their content electronically without giving it away for free. But while apps and jabscreens are all well and good, you still can’t beat the feeling of wood pulp in your hands, especially if it features a quality cover like Idealog’s design issue.
Telecom’s Tommy and Boris campaign has been going great guns but while the masses are busy fawning over Tommy and his cute turtle, elsewhere Telecom is busy rallying up young’uns in school to spread the word on the potential of ultra fast broadband (UFB). Its Amazing Ideas Search (AIS) was launched last month, inviting pupils across the country to consider what UFB will make possible in the future and what that future may look like.
While New World is busy trying to win shoppers’ hearts with nostalgia, and Pak ‘n Save with stickmen, Countdown is once again tugging at the most powerful of consumer heartstrings, free stuff. Off the back of its popular knives promotion, which saw more than 700,000 free Thomas Knives snapped up by customers, the supermarket has launched its Royal Worcester glasses promotion, and it’s confident this one will be just as successful as its predecessor.
‘Tis a tussle of the telcos this week, with Vodafone’s ‘Do Your Thing Better’ and the return of Tommy and Boris for Telecom scooping the prize.
Stories about ASA complaints that weren’t upheld are generally the marcomms equivalent of ‘there was no accident on the bridge today’. But in the case of an advertisement for Carefree Acti-Fresh Panty Liners, otherwise known as vagina discharge-gate, we’ll make an exception, because none of the 18 complaints received will get to have their day in court.
Over the past few months, discussions around the future of the media have come to a head, thanks in part to a couple of big announcements from the other side of the Tasman and a big one here in New Zealand too. This has brought about loads of discussion within the New Zealand industry about the role of media in society and changing trends in how consumers select and consume news. Worryingly, lots of commentators have been all too willing to eulogise New Zealand’s robust newspaper market. So I’m putting my hand up to remind you all that newspapers and magazines are alive and well in New Zealand.
We had a chat with Telecom’s chief marketing officer Jason Paris yesterday for a profile that will feature in the next edition of NZ Marketing magazine and he said one of the best things about the new Tommy and Boris work is the fact that everyone thinks it’s a brand campaign. That’s understandable, given the set-up ad is the only one that has been released so far. But it’s actually a retail platform that’s being used to promote different aspects of the Telecom business. And the first examples of that strategy were launched last night, with one spot focusing on ‘New Zealand’s best pre-paid pack’ and another classy number showing some of the lesser known benefits of broadband.
When it comes to inspiring fear, public speaking is up there with spiders, heights and getting stuck in the lift with John Banks. But a Kiwi app development company called Sush Mobile hopes it can reduce the number of sweaty palms, dull thuds in the chest and embarrassing stutters with a new iPhone app called Speak Like a Pro. And it’s already proving popular, with the app reaching No. 1 in the iTunes entertainment app charts and, within 48 hours of its launch, No. 9 in the iTunes business app charts.
Spark PHD welcomes back an old friend, CAANZ announces its international Effie judge, Healthy Life Media’s allergic reaction, Adshool students have something to crow about, The PR Shop goes corporate, TEDx announces its speaker line-up and Adobe appoints a new communicator.
The Rock is certainly no stranger to controversy. The radio station is aimed squarely at men, and, more specifically, 18-35 year old male bogans, so on-air hijinks like win a divorce and un-PC promotions like win a wife (after some mild outrage the comp name was changed to ‘WIN A TRIP TO BEAUTIFUL UKRAINE FOR 12 NIGHTS AND MEET EASTERN EUROPEAN HOT LADY WHO MAYBE ONE DAY YOU MARRY’) are often the order of the day. Such activities don’t always go down to well with, for example, those who listen to The Breeze or Concert FM. But rather than shy away from these complaints, the station has embraced it as part of a new campaign.
As the numerous press releases attest, the launch of the “smaller, but smarter and deeper” weekday New Zealand Herald is seen as a pretty important step for APN NZ. And along with the new format, readers can expect to see a new masthead on 10 September—and, in the future, a bill for the content they consume online.
Vodafone has just launched its new brand positioning ‘Do Your Thing Better’, a very quirky, very Kiwi ode to the inventiveness of New Zealand that stars actor James Rolleston in the lead. Vodafone’s chief marketing officer Greg Campbell and DraftFCB’s planning director David Thomason tell us about the thinking behind it.
Last week we welcomed Telecom’s new mascots Tommy and Boris, which took the telco steaming back into its heartland territory of New Zealandness and connectivity. Vodafone has long played the exotic foreigner role and, for obvious reasons, hasn’t really played—or needed to play—the patriotic card. But that’s all changed now, because it’s gone the whole Kiwi hog for its big new brand campaign, which features the tagline ‘Do Your Thing Better’ and celebrates the fact that New Zealand is a nation of doers.
There’s danger in being good at something: you create expectations. Air New Zealand has created some pretty high expectations for its inflight safety videos after releasing a few stunners and most seemed to think they weren’t met with the last animated effort. But it’s trying again and, in line with Tourism New Zealand’s new 100% Pure Middle Earth slogan, it’s a tribute to The Hobbit movies.
In 2011, Good’s cover featuring a handmade pohutukawa wreath was crowned winner of the second edition of The Maggies. And it went on to win the supreme magazine title at this year’s magazine awards. Coincidence? We think not. So get your nominations in for this year’s edition of The Maggies, a national poll to recognise and celebrate the best New Zealand magazine covers of the past year.
M&C Saatchi caused a bit of a stir last year when it used stencil art in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland to tell some extraordinary police stories. That work, created by Otis Frizzell, received some international media attention (and, in Auckland, some attention from taggers). And the latest phase of the campaign builds on that idea, with TVC, radio, online, and ambient/out of home activity that aims to challenge prevailing perceptions of what it takes to become a cop.
The whisk(e)y is being gargled, the leather vests are being shined and powerstances are being perfected. Which can mean only one thing: preparations are underway for The Battle of the Ad Bands. Seven agency bands have put up their hands to rock your world this year. So here are the contenders gunning for rock godhood, along with the classic movie songs they’ve been given to perform.
The profitability of Big Pharma’s brands can collapse suddenly when patents expire and generic ‘knock offs’ flood the market. When this happens, the accepted norm is for up to 90 percent of an originator brand’s volume and share to be lost almost overnight and it’s an issue the industry hasn’t yet been able to resolve, so, typically, blockbuster compounds and their brands are simply written off or retired. But the local Pfizer branch wasn’t going to take the early patent expiry of Viagra in New Zealand lying down, so to speak, so it took the very unusual step of launching its own generic brand called Avigra and trying to migrate consumers to the cheaper, Pfizer-made alternative. And now, after a pun-laden press campaign and a bit of TV masthead activity, it’s stiffened its resolve by creating a new TVC.
Whatever the creatives—and creative agencies—can do, so can the clients, because it seems Westpac’s head of marketing Ian Moody has swapped red for blue and joined BNZ.
If the last two rounds of the ORCAs are anything to go by, making the move from one agency to another bodes well for an ORCA win. Last month Clemenger BBDO’s Jon Pickersgill and Sarah Jackson picked up an ORCA just before they headed across the ditch to Sapient Nitro in Brisbane, and the July round has been won by Matt Williams and Freddie Coltart for a campaign they created just before they left Ogilvy for Draft FCB.
With a customer base of over four million paying subscribers and over 15 million active users, it’s fair to say Spotify’s rise has been nothing short of gigantic. And, as it seeks new ways of monetising its service, it has set it sights on big brands that are equally keen to tap into the service to create unique marketing opportunities. The likes of McDonald’s and Reebok are already on board with their recommended playlists, and it’s even making tracks in political circles, with the creation of the official 2012 Obama campaign playlist. It recently gained some traction locally, too, with ASB and Saatchi & Saatchi teaming up to create what it says is a “New Zealand media-first” branded Facebook app that integrated with the Spotify platform and industry commentators to create an ‘Olympic Moods’ soundtrack to the Olympics.
From ‘it’s not the drinking, it’s how we’re drinking’ to the ‘ghost chips’ legends, our collective love for the bottle has been referenced in advertising far too many times to count. Now a billboard for Radio Hauraki’s ‘Drive’ show that normalises drinking has fallen foul of the Advertising Standards Authority, but the same ad placed in the New Zealand Herald was deemed acceptable.
Some see it as tax on the stupid. Others see it as a golden ticket. But whatever your opinion, Lotto is part of the Kiwi furniture. And to celebrate its 25th birthday, it’s launched a new campaign centred around the joy of Saturdays.
The latest newspaper readership and circ figures might not be much to boast about, but there’s plenty of life left in The Press according to advertising creative agency Simpatico. And to prove that point, it recently launched its direct marketing campaign ‘smell the numbers’, whereby the offices of 100 North Island media agencies were exposed to a pungent smell in a bid to encourage them to smell the positive readership numbers the newspaper has been generating.
The market for specialty food certainly seems to be growing in New Zealand. Farmers’ markets are cropping up all over the place, there’s websites dedicated to it, supermarket refrigerator sections seem to be hosting an ever-growing selection of it and there’s even entire supermarkets dedicated to it. But in a market where locally produced foods are often competing with the cheaper, mass-produced alternatives produced by the big boys, and increasingly, each other, presentation and marketing is key. And Hunter, which dubs itself the “world’s smallest global creative agency” reckons it got it right when it comes to its packaging design for new boutique ice cream company, Little Paddock.
By pretty much every measure—New Zealand’s medal haul, design and branding, entertaining memes, social media hijinks, overall awesomeness of the host city—the London Olympics were a success. And McCann Worldgroup, the agency chosen in 2009 as the official marketing services provider for the Games, thinks so too, as evidenced by this cheeky print ad proudly announcing that it had lost a client that ran in some of the UK papers.
After extensive drug testing, Telecom, Quickflix and Pink Batts take this week’s medals.
The Ad Impact Awards are often closely fought and the July round proved no exception, with both Steinlager Pure and V performing above the norms as impactful TV ads. But Taika Waititi’s comedic effort in DDB’s Steinlager Pure ‘When things are this good’ ad was too strong, pipping Colenso BBDO’s V Motion Project.
Word-of-mouth agency Soup launches in New Zealand (and, appropriately enough, starts with a campaign for cat broth), Steve Tindall sleeps with the enemy, two for Tangible as Primary shacks up with PGG Wrightson, Clemenger Group opens up the Young Talent Programme for 2013, greener pastures for Fenella Humphreys, Jessica Mathias joins Pead and Hayden Hare joins Flava.
M&C Saatchi’s chief executive Darryn Melrose has resigned from the agency to pursue opportunities outside of the advertising industry and he will be replaced by his old AIM Proximity buddies Tony Burt and Dave King, who will be joint chief executive officers.