Dwarves the world over are dusting off their greens as St Patrick’s Day fast approaches. March 17 sees many things turn a touch green, and most people find enough Irish in them to justify celebrating with 13 million pints or so of Guinness. This year Jameson Irish Whiskey is adding to the party atmosphere by releasing a limited edition bottle of its finest. Designed by Paul Daly, we have one to give away, which you could win by impressing us with your finest hyperbole about the whiskey’s bouquet, nose, body and fruity yet subtle notes.

NZ Book Month is back with the same plan it’s had for the last seven years: to promote books, reading and literacy amongst all Kiwis, young and old. To do this the organisers are repeating last year’s Books Change Lives campaign, and distributing more than four million $5 vouchers, aimed at putting a book in the hands of every single New Zealander. This simple idea got extraordinary results last year, when New Zealand was the only country in the developed world where book sales rose rather than fell.

Creative types in adland who drink too much V will be overjoyed to learn that registrations are now open for the tenth V48HOURS Furious Filmmaking competition. And, in what could be seen as rather serendipitous timing, the event’s founder and self-confessed filmhead Ant Timpson was this week chosen as the Creative Entrepreneur of 2012 by the Arts Regional Trust.

As the magazine sector’s revenue from sales keeps shrinking, publishers are increasingly looking to make up the shortfall by moving their brands into meat-space (and greasing up the paymasters with creative advertising solutions). And, following on from ACP’s successful 30 Days of Fashion and Beauty last year, it has just launched the next iteration of the scheme with 30 Days of Health and Wellbeing, “a cross-platform editorial and advertising initiative designed to promote health awareness and physical and emotional wellbeing”.

Visit Ruapehu launched its first-ever TVC campaign last weekend. It’s aiming to drive interest in the region’s two new cycle trails, which form part of the Government’s national cycleway network, Prime Minister John Key’s baby from the 2009 Job Summit.

A galaxy of marcomms stars—as well as a few comets and plenty of space dust—graced the Langham last Friday night to see DraftFCB clean up at the RSVP Awards and, ah, no-one clean up at Nexus. So, for your viewing pleasure, here are some pictures of people hugging their colleagues, posing awkwardly on stage as they get photographed and shaking Oliver Driver’s hand. 

Six of the best Kiwi marcomms brains have been chosen to choose the world’s best campaigns at the 2012 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, with SparkPHD’s chief executive Louise Bond on the Media jury, M&C Saatchi’s executive creative director Dave King on the Direct jury, Y&R executive creative director Josh Moore on the Cyber jury, DraftFCB’s creative director Tony Clewett on the Radio jury, Mango Communications’ managing director Claudia Macdonald on the PR jury and Colenso BBDO’s creative chairman Nick Worthington the jury president of the Promo & Activation jury.  

The Super Bowl may be the most expensive and viewed commercial break, but these ads from Hyundai and filmmaker Wes Anderson, that aired during the Academy Awards ceremony, are in another class altogether. Cleverly targeting film buffs, the ads spoof popular movies and Knight Rider, as well as Anderson’s own inimitable style. The director brings his quirky aesthetic, seen in films such as The Royal Tenenbaums and Fantastic Mr. Fox, to both commercials along with his whimsical style and retro set design. 

January was largely dominated by car ads with Jeep, Kia, Toyota, Volkswagen, Peugeot, Mazda, Holden, Nissan, Skoda and Ford all sharing screen time. There were the inevitable ‘Back to school’, Waitangi Day, and Valentine’s Day offerings.. no real surprises there… although artist Dick Frizzell popping up as an ambassador for the 2012 New Zealand Olympic Team, now that’s a surprise. 

Working Style is experiencing a lot of success with its savvy new advertising campaign ‘They’re Wearing Our Gear Here’. Its latest print ad came third in the January/February round of prestigious Glossies, beating some of the country’s top agencies. You would expect a campaign like this to come from a top creative advertising, but Working Style is bucking the trend with this one. Warning: the following material could make agencies very, very afraid.

In a slightly unusual move, Motorcorp Distributors Limited has appointed Big Communications as its agency partner on the Land Rover and Jaguar brands while allowing it to maintain its existing relationship with Škoda. The other two Motorcorp brands, Renault and Volvo, will remain with Publicis Mojo, which was awarded the business in March last year, and media planning and buying for all four brands will stay with ZenithOptimedia.

As the focus continues to shift to online products like YellowToolbox, the print bell continues to toll at Yellow Pages, which has announced it will lay off around 20 percent—or 125—of its staff, primarily from the sales department. 

Global integrated PR and communications agency Hotwire has rebranded its New Zealand operation Creo to bring it under the family name.

UK-based Aegis Media, “the world’s fastest growing marketing communications group”, bought Mitchell Communication Group in June last year for AU$363 million. And Carat and Mitchell have now officially been brought together in New Zealand, with around 70 staff from a variety of businesses now beavering away in a new Parnell office. 

Mercury Energy is celebrating New Zealand’s “good energy” in its latest TVC. Tiki Taane has that in spades, and has happily lent his talent to the ad, which was made by TBWA\Tequila, with the Always On My Mind singer recording a new version of Over the Rainbow and donating all proceeds from the sale of it to Starship Hospital. What a good country!

One of the great ironies of the advertising industry is the fact that advertising agencies, despite dispensing plenty of advice to their clients about the need to continue spending up large (especially during a recession), rarely advertise themselves. But DraftFCB has been the exception to that rule in New Zealand in recent years and it caught our attention with a campaign that showed off some of its remarkable powers of persuasion in Air New Zealand’s Koru lounges.

TV3 has matched rival TVNZ’s talent show announcement with an ace card of its own. The much anticipated local version of hit renovation show ‘The Block’ is one step closer, with the ‘fab four’ sponsors announced. Bunnings, Kiwibank, Mazda and Wild Bean Café are the inaugural ‘foundation partners’ of this long awaited local series, and the call has gone out for contestants. Three million Aussies watched the final live show, of the most watched series in Australia, where it consistently out-rates Masterchef.