Frucor, with the help of its long-time agency Colenso BBDO, maintained its consistency in 2011, with V continuing its run as one of the country’s most innovative brands and Mountain Dew Skate Pinball taking experiential marketing to a whole new level of massiveness. Marketing director Scott Wright spills the beans.

Mediacom won a few big awards last year, including B&T’s overall agency of the year title and the Media Agency Network of the Year award for the third consecutive year at the M&M International Awards. In New Zealand it was behind KFC’s Double Down launch as well as the placement of media for the Z launch, and to top it all off, it also took the Revlon account off DraftFCB. Managing director Nigel Douglas pours his heart out. 

2011 was a fairly challenging year for MediaWorks, with management restructures, debt problems and tax bills. But there were plenty of positives too, with the new dual-channel approach that saw TV3 trying to snatch away some of TVNZ’s wrinklier viewers and FOUR becoming a mainstream entertainment channel seemingly starting to pay dividends. Amanda Wilson, head of marketing at TV3 and FOUR, lets her opinions on 2011 be known.

It was something of an annus mirabilis for the outdoor sector last year, with a revenue increase of 36 percent in Q3 over the same period in 2010 that was largely attributable to the additional activity around the RWC. There was also some intense jockeying for position in the market with APN and iSite each adding to their arsenal and purchasing Oggi and OTW respectively. APNO’s general manager and chair of OMANZ Phil Clemas shares the love. 

Fraser Gardyne graduated from design school in 1976, was a director at Designworks for ten years, has worked closely with a massive range of Kiwi businesses and, as a result of his committed service to clients and the industry, was awarded the coveted Black Pin at last year’s Best Design Awards. Here’s some of the goods, bads and uglies of 2011 as seen through his eyes. 

Moa has gained a reputation as the trickster god of the Kiwi beer fraternity with its cheeky, often controversial and, some might say, 42 Below-esque approach to marketing. Last year it gave the French the finger and became a slightly unexpected sponsor of the New Zealand Olympic team. And now it’s put the cat amongst the pigeons by kicking off a rather heated debate about what it calls ‘craftwashing’. Moa’s marketing manager Sunil Unka looks back on 2011. 

The lustrous holiday beard has now been sacrificed to the gods of work, the festive affliction known to many health professionals as the ham shakes are slowly subsiding and, despite falling into a deep post-holiday depression after returning to the coalface, we’re ready for another year of destroying lies and spreading truth. So, if you’re currently staring forlornly into space at your desk like we are, here’s to another year of excitement, joy and success/tedium, drudgery and failure. We realise the nation’s brain capacity is currently sitting at about 30 percent, so what better way to ease into 2012 than with the best product demonstration we’ve seen all year, a long-winded description about the homosexual nature of rugby, a very good, self-referential long-copy ad and a paranormal contender for Dorito’s Crash the Superbowl competition. And while we’re at it, check out the remix of Barbie Girl, which aims to kick off ‘Chopular Culture’ and inspire more lamb consumption for the upcoming Australia Day celebrations. 

Huzzah! The Great New Zealand Slow-down is upon us once again, which means this is the last StopPress newsletter of the year. And what a year it’s been. There was plenty of RWC excitement/enthralling RWC brinkmanship, an array of gripping PR disasters, a host of amazing award-winning campaigns, many terrible, non-award-winning campaigns, some good old fashioned stoushes, a fair bit of interest/controversy over some very large pitches, unrelenting consumer and media evolution and, as per usual, no shortage of ship-jumping and big recruitment announcements. And we–and you news-hungry marcomms beasts—wouldn’t want it any other way. StopPress has continued to grow steadily since it was launched in 2009 and we’ve added a few new strings to our bow this year (progress never sleeps, of course, so we’ve got a few more irons in the fire for 2012). Thanks to the team, our readers, our sponsors, our contributors, our advertisers and, yes, even our anonymous commentators. We couldn’t do it without you (well, we could, but it would be pretty average). We’ll be back on deck with our first newsletter on January 17 and inbetween sausages we’ll try and put up a few nuggets on the website. So, until next year, may your turduckens be moist this Christmas.

It’s been a massive year for Simon Coley, one of the main men behind both Powershop, which was judged the fastest growing company in New Zealand this year when it was awarded top prize at the Deloitte Fast 50, and All Good Organics, which won the sustainability gong at the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards. Here’s his pick of the 2011 bunch.