The effectiveness of advertising on Facebook is being called into question once again following revelations from the BBC that its ‘VirtualBagel’ experiment, an imaginary business that tech reporter Rory Cellan-Jones started in a bid to test it, received 3,000 ‘likes’ within four days, despite the fact that it offered no products or interesting content.
Here at StopPress we often start the week off with a frank discussion about vaginal discharge, so you can imagine our excitement when we saw an ad for Johnson & Johnson’s brand Carefree last night depicting a naked woman talking about the female body and the role of its new acti-fresh product. But, rather than beat about the bush, so to speak, and use the obligatory ‘patronising euphemisms’ often associated with the category, the ad features the word vagina, and it’s thought to be one of the first times it has been used in a New Zealand TV ad.
Following the worldwide unification of TBWA’s digital operations into the Digital Arts Network (DAN), Whybin\TBWA has announced that its digital consultancies Tequila and Shift have officially been melded into DAN\Auckland. And in a coup for the local agency, the Auckland arm was chosen to build DAN’s user experience (UX) lab, the network’s global centre of excellence for digital user experience design.
He was up on stage a few months back collecting a trophy for best production company at the AXIS awards. But George Mackenzie, who spent three years with The Sweet Shop, most recently as managing director for NZ/Asia/MENA, has decided to try his hand elsewhere and will join Robber’s Dog as managing director.
As Rebecca Black so famously sung, “It’s Friday, Friday, Gotta get down on Friday, Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend, weekend, Friday, Friday, Gettin’ down on Friday, Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend.” But today isn’t just any old Friday. It’s the third Friday the 13th of the year. And to celebrate, Pak ‘n’ Save and DraftFCB decided to have a bit more fun and try to scare the bejeesus out of everyone.
When iconic ad man Martin Lindstrom starts preaching ethics and green sensibility, you know the writing is on the wall for business as usual in the marketing world. But it’s not really Lindstrom calling the tune here. He’s just the weatherman pointing out the massively changed consumer climate. In New Zealand, 88 percent of us want to buy more sustainable products and services according to Colmar Brunton’s B3W research 2010 & 2011, with spends increasing even in tough times.
The big news yesterday in the business world was that Vodafone had put in an offer to buy TelstraClear for $840 million in an effort to better compete with Telecom in the corporate and fixed line space. There’s plenty of water to go under the bridge before the deal is approved and, as you’d hope with a merger of this size (and with a restraint of trade clause written into the contract for Telstra), the decision is expected to take a few months. So if it does go ahead, what will that mean for TelstraClear’s existing agency partners?
Saatchi & Saatchi officially welcomed ASB into the building at the start of July, along with around 12 new staff across its account service, digital, production and creative teams. And while there’s no title on his business card, Philip O’Neill—ex Mitchell’s and TBWA\ managing director and self-proclaimed “adman at large”—has joined the agency as the main man on the account.
Independent mobile advertising network InMobi has released its latest New Zealand Mobile Insights Report, showing Apple’s iOS platform has overtaken Android for the first time and a 78 percent increase in tablet impressions on the InMobi network over the past three months.
Colmar Brunton has promoted Jacqueline Ireland to the position of chief executive officer, replacing Harry Papafloratos, who passed away earlier this year. She was previously managing director of Colmar Brunton Auckland.
In an effort to better understand modern consumers and their media consumption habits, and at the same time facilitate a rethink about outoor media among media agencies, Adshel recently conducted an in-depth study combining quantitative data and ethnographic insights. And, according to marketing manager Emma Barnes, the results of the ‘Inside Outdoor Lives’ study “really backed up our beliefs and strengthened our case of the benefits of Adshel”.
Go to any industry function and someone is bound to mention the term ‘bullshit bingo’, a game where attendees nod knowingly at one another when meaningless jargon is uttered. And CAANZ, Barnes, Catmur & Friends and Film Construction’s Steve Saussey have taken that to a new, very entertaining level by producing “an award-winning, persuasive, brand-building, results-getting, call for entries viral video” for the Effies that manages to, as Paul Catmur says, jam as many advertising techniques into one piece of communication as possible with the limited budget they had.
The international ads performed strongly in the June instalment of Colmar Brunton’s Ad Impact award, but it was the branding of the 3M Super Sticky Post It Notes ad that took the title, just beating out the latest Pringles campaign.
Coca-Cola South Pacific, giffgaff and comparethemarket.com from the UK, KidZania from the US and Digital Alchemy from Australia arrive next week to spill the beans to New Zealand marketers on how they’ve harnessed modern direct marketing to take their businesses to another level.
We’re big fans of passive aggressive notes here at StopPress and, as such, we also enjoy www.passiveaggressivenotes.com, which showcases “funny (if not necessarily ‘passive-aggressive’) notes from pissed-off people”. So what a treat it was to spy a tweet from Home NZ magazine today about some strange goings on in the ACP towers.
TVNZ’s new chief executive Kevin Kenrick has had his feet under the desk for a few months now and Jeremy O’Brien took over from MediaWorks-bound Paul Maher as its new head of sales back in May. And now it’s announced five new senior appointments, four of them coming from within, that “herald a new era for the company and recognise the changing needs of consumers and customers in the modern media landscape”.
New Zealanders love it when foreigners stroke our ego, heap praise upon us and seek out our talents. And a fairly surprising example of this phenomenon occurred recently when Critic, the student magazine of the Otago University Student Association and the country’s longest-running student newspaper, completed a project with Newsweek magazine to produce the cover of its latest issue.
For the first time in a long time, Jack Daniel’s has launched a new product: a combination of its whiskey and a “proprietary honey liqueur”. And what better way to get the new Tennessee Honey variety some attention than by inviting Kiwi revelers to rummage around in a bee hive.
In the lead up to the Rugby World Cup, All Blacks sponsor Rexona went for the rather earnest, clenched fist on heart approach with its ‘rituals’ ad. But things are a bit more relaxed after the win, with a recent black and white spot by Aussie agency Naked and Curious showing some of the lads laughing together as friends (and hugging mum). And the same team, with Tammy Davis on directorial duties, have followed that up with something of a French farce showing “never seen before footage from the opposition dressing room after THAT game last year.”
The Media Counsel hit the skids back in February 2010. And in the fifth six-monthly report, liquidators McDonald Vague are in no doubt as to what caused it: “The reason for the company’s failure lies solely with [Glenda Wynyard’s] action of removing funds from the company to fund her own lifestyle”. And as a result, Wynyard’s conduct is currently being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office.
Five of the week’s best spots, from endearing child stars to George Clooney-esque stickmen and everything in between.
Z has finished the massive task of rebranding more than 200 Shell station forecourts, and it’s ramping up the patriotism once again for the next stage in its evolution with a new campaign from Assignment Group and Exposure starring some financially savvy youngsters.
Barnes, Catmur & Friends gives a high five, Donovan and Boyd go solo, Toa Fraser joins the 8com roster, First Rate and Market United become one, Radio Rhema names its new chief executive, Massey stalwart professor Philip Gendall receives a new title, online retail advertising network iNC launches in New Zealand, Datamine hires a new geek, and Sam Neill puts his name to short film comp Tropfest.
With the massive changes currently taking place in the Australian publishing scene at the moment and the steady move of readers from print to digital around the world, the newspaper business is at a crossroads. So what is the rationale behind the Herald’s change to tabloid? Will New Zealand readers soon be paying for online content? And how is APN preparing for the future? We chat with APN’s chief executive Martin Simons.
justONE gets its mitts on some prized goods, bcg2 grabs a coffee in Australia and Mango adds its name to Tourism Fiji’s growing agency roster.
Music and marketing have long been pretty cosy bedfellows. Jingles from many moons ago can often still be recited, bands regularly lend their tunes to ads, and brands are now even creating playlists on Spotify. But V and Colenso BBDO have taken that marriage to a new, hi-tech level with the V Motion Project. And, following on from the launch of the TVC recently, it released the full-length music video on Friday on TVNZ’s U-Live.
Tapping into the rising popularity of QR codes, Waterfront Auckland has a new trick up its sleeve: a new attraction that uses your smartphone to take you on an interactive tour of the city’s best sights.
There has been widespread speculation recently that the weekday version of the New Zealand Herald would be moving to a compact format and APN New Zealand has confirmed that’s the case, with a date set for September 2012. And, as its print product changes, it will also be redesigning its major digital property nzherald.co.nz.
Fonterra has been under the pump in recent times due to the steadily rising price of dairy products. But a complainant recently took aim at some of the language used on its website to promote the goodness of dairy. And not even new ambassador Richie McCaw could stop the Advertising Standards Authority from upholding two of the five complaints.
After a tender process that ended up attracting over 50 submissions, Sydney agency Iris has been chosen to lead Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism’s push to bring Aussie visitors back to the region after the earthquake.