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News
Righting the wrongs of our graph gaffe
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Due to a short lapse in brain-functionality late last year as we dreamed of festive leisure, we made a bit of a whoopsie in the Jan/Feb edition of NZ Marketing by mistakenly running a graph that had featured in the previous issue. The graph was meant to show Nielsen’s TAM statistics about the huge number of New Zealanders who watched RWC games but, because of our error, it obviously made no sense at all and caused a fair bit of confusion. We apologise to all those who were befuddled by it. Here’s the correct graph, with the original story from Nielsen’s Caroline Atford.

News
DraftFCB takes main Air New Zealand prize, but Saatchi & Saatchi also gets in on the act
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In what will be a big blow to incumbent agency .99, Air New Zealand has chosen DrafFCB to be its lead agency after a competitive pitch, starting in March. But there is still some mystery surrounding the set-up of the account because Saatchi & Saatchi, which a few industry big mouths had thought was looking good to take the win, has also been included on the airline’s agency roster.  

News
More Grabbies pay via mobile
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Fourteen months after launching its mobile application, GrabOne’s mobile sales are at an all time high. Twelve percent of all GrabOne purchases over the Christmas period were via the GrabOne mobile application, up from 5.45 percent in November 2011 and 1.5 percent over Christmas 2010.

News
Click, type, win Wellington Sevens tickets
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Every year, tickets to one of the best events on New Zealand’s sporting calendar, the Wellington Sevens, sell out in minutes. The 2012 edition, which now has Hertz as naming rights sponsor, has already sold out, but never fear, because our cauliflower-eared friends at NZ Rugby World have got a couple of tickets to give away. All you need to do is send a message from your brain to your fingers, click here and fill in a few details. Then, if you win, you just have to come up with an amazing costume idea like this.

News
The taste of science: Sonny Bill signs up as Coca-Cola mascot, spruiks new energy drink
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Just before the RWC began, Sonny Bill Williams’ management kicked up a bit of a stink when the NZRU decreed that he wasn’t allowed to sign a sponsorship deal with a drinks company considered to be a rival to official All Blacks sponsor Coca-Cola. It turned out he should have been thankful for the denial, because the interested suitor, South Pacific Beverages, used actor Ben Barrington to front one of the biggest turkeys of the year for its Pure Energy brand and Coca-Cola then decided to sign up the man mountain themselves (for an undisclosed sum, of course) as an official ambassador to help launch its new fizzy 300ml Powerade Fuel+, which aims to snatch a share of the energy drink market.

News
Changing channels in tellyland
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Good news: World TV is launching a new English-language Freeview channel. Bad news: The plug has already been pulled on TVNZ 6. TVNZ 7 will be gone by June, replaced with a shopping channel run by Ogilvy. And Stratos TV closed down with nary a whimper on 23 December 2012, leaving the writing on the wall for Triangle.

Opinion
Again, behold the most creative country in the world
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Last year the token Kiwi at Special Group did the campaign for our Axis Awards, revealing to us that we’d won “the most Cannes Lions per capita of any country in the world in 2010 – one Lion per 155,989 people. Sweden was second with one Lion per 202,173 residents. The ‘we invented advertising’ UK? A sorry 4th with one Lion per 849,886 people. The creative powerhouse of the USA? 8th buddy, 8th! with just one Lion per 2,287,003 people. Yesiree.” So, as another of the tiny handful of New Zealanders working in New Zealand advertising, I felt a sense of duty to follow in Tony Bradbourne’s footsteps when Patrick Collister, editor of Directory magazine and The Big Won Creative Rankings, sent me his 2011 data.

News
Outside on the up: impressive 2011 revenue figures put smiles on outdoor dials
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The RWC certainly got the outdoor sector’s tills ringing loudly, with a 36 percent increase clocked in Q3 when compared to the same time in 2010. And while the full year totals aren’t quite that massive, the Outdoor Media Association of New Zealand (OMANZ) announced a strong finish to 2011, with gross media revenue increasing by 16 percent over 2010 to $72.4 million, the equivalent of a $10.1 million boost. 

News
The secret lives of students
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Who’s it for: Unitec by Special Group and Film Construction

Why we like it: The final set of 60-second ads in this year-long reality-advertising series showed just how much students can change if they put their mind to it. It was a risky …

News
Brancott Estate strikes while the iron’s hot, launches brand refresh
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Early in 2010, Pernod Ricard’s Montana wines were given a bit of a design refresh, with Dow Design embracing the Marlborough mountains for the brand’s global push. It then rebranded the products sold overseas to Brancott Estate, apparently because of confusion that the wine was from the state of Montana and Marlborough was deemed to be too close to cigarette brand Marlboro. And now, after a big year of RWC sponsorship and above-the-line activity (including this TVC as part of the ‘Stay Curious’ campaign), it’s just had another label spruce up, with new packaging launched across the entire Brancott Estate range.

News
Colenso’s pea-related trickery keeps ice blocks safe from harm
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Tip Top launched its new range of Ice Bar Co. ice blocks last year and, slightly unusually, aimed them directly at the grown-ups. Typically, ice blocks were something for the kids to get all over their faces, and their popularity with this demographic meant such treats were always in jeopardy if the stash happened to be discovered in the freezer. But thankfully, Colenso BBDO has come up with an ingenious product that aims to keep the goods safe from the greedy little thieving parasites (or from curious flatmates): a frozen pea packet camouflage system that uses the threat of vegetables and phrases like ‘now extra bland’ and ‘eight fewer flavours than ever before’ to put mischievous kids off the scent. Get yours for free here. 

News
Ecostore’s personalised mag covers win hearts, minds and inaugural Glossies Award
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The November/December round of voting for The Glossies has come to an end and the creative campaign concocted by ecostore, Special Group, Naked and Salt Interactive that ran in ACP’s Little Treasures and allowed parents to turn their children into cover stars has claimed first place with 22 percent of the 574 votes received, beating out Alt Group’s Fisher & Paykel ad in Cuisine (18 percent) and Tourism Queensland’s multi-page execution (EBOOK_LTQG_2011_LR) in Let’s Travel Golf edition (15 percent).

Opinion
The Year in Review: Paul Gardiner
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While the mass-market weeklies continued to struggle last year, ACP popped a few corks when Woman’s Day finally edged out Woman’s Weekly in both circulation and readership after a very long wait. Elsewhere in 2011, special interest magazines largely seemed to hold firm despite the gloomy economy—and the predictions of death from the digitally-focused doomsayers. Sales manager Paul Gardiner goes to town on 2011. 

News
Final chapters of Unitec’s reality-soap go to air
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The final episodes of Unitec’s reality-doco campaign show just how much three students can change in one year. The last installments in Unitec Institute of Technology’s ad campaign which has been following three real life students for the past 12 months go to air nationwide from tonight.

Opinion
The Year in Review: Friday O’Flaherty and Andy Mitchell
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2011 was another good year for the indies, which are often playing in the same sandpit as the big boys and occasionally stealing their spades and buckets. And, with a range of experienced big agency campaigners now plying their trade outside the walls of the multinationals, this trend looks set to continue. Running With Scissors’ two main brains Friday O’Flaherty and Andy Mitchell get their freak on. 

Opinion
The Year in Review: Nick Vile
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2011 was a big year for Adshel, with the departure of Australian-based chief executive Steve McCarthy and marketing director Elvira Lodewick, the reinstitution of the much-loved Adshel Rally after a six-year hiatus and the added buoyancy—and, in many cases, frustration—brought to the outdoor sector by the RWC. So, take it away national sales director Nick Vile. 

Opinion
The Year in Review: Scott Wright
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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.

Opinion
The Year in Review: James Moore
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With the big shoots few and far between these days, it’s pretty tough out there in production land at present. But there’s still no denying the power of the visual medium to get a message across and, whether it be Mammoth Dips, Whittaker’s ‘Swear by the Slab’, or Sky’s ‘Do Nothing’, Flying Fish managed to churn out plenty of stellar work last year. Executive producer James Moore pipes up on 2011. 

Opinion
The Year in Review: Nigel Douglas
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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. 

Opinion
The Year in Review: Annemarie Duff
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With public broadcasting increasingly seen as a ‘nice to have’ by the National government, it’s all about the money for TVNZ these days. The $14-ish million TiVo mistake was obviously on the wrong side of that ledger, but the national broadcaster also had some big wins in 2011 and, judging by the extravagance of the 2012 new season launch, confidence is high for more success—both for ratings and ad spend—this year. General manager of marketing Annemarie Duff offers her two cents. 

News
Ad campaign targets drug-affected drivers
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A new road safety campaign uses hidden camera footage to reveal the unscripted responses of ordinary New Zealanders finding out they are being driven around by someone high on drugs. The ads, produced by Clemenger, are the start of a multi-channel campaign aimed at reducing the harm caused by drugged drivers.

Opinion
The Year in Review: Amanda Wilson
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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.

Movings & Shakings
Movings/Shakings: January 16
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New year, new (and even some pre-Christmas) news in this bumper edition of Movings/Shakings, as Saatchi & Saatchi kicks off its Creative Collective with two hires, DDB adds a six pack to the creative coterie, tributes flow for Wellington’s Mike Boekholt, Adshel announces its new marketing director, Michelle Boag farewells Ogilvy, Courtney Lambert exchanges Fairfax for Xero, Kath Hurley swaps the MPA for the MA, NZ Lotteries chooses its new chief, Holly Dean takes a break from The Sweet Shop, and Cliff Joiner switches allegiance. 

News
Colenso crowned best direct agency with the best ECD in the world
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Big ups to Colenso’s Nick Worthington (pictured) who was crowned best executive creative director in the world, and James Hurman the second-best planner. Colenso BBDO Auckland was ranked fifth best agency in the world on this year’s Big Won list by Directory. Big Won awards are won by winning the most awards.  Worthington can now brag that he’s officially got a Big Won.

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