Vodafone’s been on a bit of a horror run with bureaucratic entities recently. It’s already been pinged twice for misleading advertising and there are four more court dates with ComCom for separate offences on the horizon. And now it’s been pulled up by the ASA for an ad made by .99 that featured the always dodgy fork and toaster combo.
Steinlager’s impressive ‘We Believe’ campaign to celebrate 25 years sponsoring the All Blacks has so far managed to evade the legal clutches of the IRB/IMG gatekeepers, despite stepping on Heineken’s toes and stealing a big chunk of its RWC thunder. But it hasn’t managed to evade the legal clutches of the ASA, which has smacked Lion on the hand for a print ad that featured a picture of the white can with the line ’30 names we can believe in’. The ad featured in the papers the day after the All Blacks squad had been named and was deemed by a majority of the complaints board to contravene the restrictions around heroes of the young. But does this ruling show the letter of the law is being taken too far?
As Jon Bon Jovi knows, going out in a blaze of glory is always the best way. And Arch West, the man who founded Doritos, is doing just that for his funeral, as a full-page—and slightly macabre—print ad that featured in the Herald attests.
As the old phrase says, you go into a bank looking for your girlfriend and end up leaving with her mother. And while a likable bank may seem like the quintessential oxymoron, ASB is typically near the top of the customer satisfaction charts in comparison to the other big competitors. Now, following on from the first and fairly controversial incarnation of the big Creating Futures rebrand, it has taken a step in a slightly different direction with the launch its new ‘Experience ASB’ campaign over the weekend.
Big ups to NZ Book Month and its agency Rapport Advertising and Marketing for taking out four awards at the prestigious 2011 Promo Awards in Chicago. It was the only New Zealand ad agency to be honoured, alongside other winners such as P&G, Coca-Cola and Kelloggs.
Like many New Zealanders gagging for a long-awaited Rugby World Cup victory, the news that Dan Carter was out of the tournament with a groin injury that obviously came about because it was poisoned by the South Africans ripped our knickers and left a gaping void in our now husk-like hearts. As a very valuable marketing property, many of the brands he endorses, such as Jockey (maybe he should’ve been kicking commando, a la Andre Agassi?), Daikin and Philips, will also be devastated. Before the injury, seeing him on TV or half-nude on a massive billboard was a reminder that our hero was here to vanquish the enemies. Now they only serve to remind us of what we have lost and could forever be linked to pain and suffering. So, for the nation’s good, we propose taking the Stalinest approach and changing history by modifying all marketing campaigns featuring our man Dan. To start the ball rolling—and in honour of the tweet that said “serves him right for being a heatpump”—here’s what we think his ideal replacement would look like in the role. Interestingly, Piri doesn’t look quite as creepy.
In news that’s sure to warm Don Brash’s libertarian cockles, it turns out we’re leading the rugby world when it comes to smokin the ‘erb, as this wee infographics.co.nz ditty shows. If the IRB gives out a $10,000 fine to Samoan player Alesana Tuilagi for wearing a branded mouthguard, one can only imagine how much it’ll cost the All Blacks when Graham Henry makes a bong out of the Webb Ellis trophy on October 23 for a celebratory toke with the team.
…as Clems hires an experienced digi-boffin, Designworks adds another senior string to its management bow and Reach Media and Positively Wellington Tourism both announce new business development managers.
In another pump of patriotism McD’s has released a third ad saluting the unconventional spirit of Kiwis, and celebrating our innate ability to tinker with things in an effort to make them better.
All Good Bananas won the Sustainability prize at the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards recently. And, according to its entry, it managed to gain four percent market share and sell its Fairtrade bananas at a premium. But not everyone is singing its sustainable praises, as evidenced by an email we received from Steve Barton, the New Zealand representative for Dole Asia, that questioned the assertions made by its smaller competitor.
We searched over hill and over dale for the perfect deputy editor on NZ Marketing and StopPress.co.nz. And it was a highly sought after position. But in the end ex-Campbell Live bod Catherine Winks beat out the guy with experience in the adult entertainment industry and the guy who started off his interview by saying he hated advertising.
In an apparent first for New Zealand, Prime Minister John Key will be hosting a one-hour radio show this Friday, 30th September from 2pm on RadioLIVE, and he’ll be chatting with a few special guests, including Sir Richard Branson and our other Dear Leader Richie McCaw.
MoMA as a name might work well for New York’s Museum of Modern Art, but apply the same acronym theory to Auckland Art Gallery (AAG) and Alt Group’s Dean Poole reckons it would sound more like something “the cat would bring up”. No, according to Poole, having the consistent theme of ‘ART’ running through the redeveloped gallery’s new branding is much more effective.
Young & Shand, a digital agency that flicked the switch at the end of 2009—and at the height of the recession—has gone from three staff to nine in the past year, has recently added Jasons Travel Media, Lucky Rentals and Goodman Fielder brands Puhoi Valley and Kiwi Bacon, and now has a total of 45 clients on its books. But, not content with mere digital domination, it’s now moving into bricks and mortar by attempting to create a creative hub in an office it has secured in Auckland’s Britomart.
In a possible world first, an entire community has joined together to sponsor a national sports team in its quest for Olympic glory. The Hawke’s Bay have partnered with New Zealand’s national hockey teams – the Black Sticks men’s and women’s teams – to give them the support they need to take on the world’s best next year in London.
Image Centre Group has this week started a review of its publishing business and, as a result of a more streamlined management structure, Martin Bell, Tangible Media’s chief executive, co-founder of HB Media and deputy chair of the MPA board, has resigned.
GE Capital, the mothership for brands such as GE Money, Gem Visa, Custom Fleet, Equipment Finance, Pacific Premium Funding and Distribution Finance, has appointed Y&R as its creative agency for New Zealand after a comprehensive pitch.
Whether it be at the urinal, in the elevator, at the pharmacy, at the adult concept store or even when someone is shown on the big screen for too long, ‘uncomfortable time’ is an enduring comedic device. And Sky, DDB and Flying Fish have embraced this concept wholeheartedly with a new, entertainingly awkward ad that celebrates the fact its customers don’t need to do anything when the digital switchover arrives next year—and, at the same time, parodies the prevalence of ‘non-threatening brand spokespeople’ on our TV screens.
DB went to great lengths to launch its Monteith’s Single Source ultra-premium lager last year. And now an ad for the brand has hit Kiwi TV screens for the first time in five years, with a new agency in tow and a new branded reality show soon to air on TV ONE.
Leading daily deal site GrabOne has launched its first Faceboook app ‘Gimme5’ and it’s proving hugely popular. As well as being a highly addictive game to play, there’s the chance to win prizes like iPads and a trip to Los Angeles.
Who’s it for: Toyota Hilux by Saatchi & Saatchi and Thick as Thieves.
Why we like it: Advertising is, by nature, hyperbolic. But this rather surreal spot for the new Hilux takes that hyperbole to another, absurd but entertaining level. It already appears to have split the commentators …
Rugby’s pretty close to being a religion in New Zealand. And the outwardly progressive, typically controversial St Matthew in the City and its agency TBWA\ have referenced that with its latest billboard, which uses the ‘Turin Shroud’ style of iconography and endorses David Kirk as a Kiwi deity due to his team’s heroic efforts in 1987.
Using the company vehicle for a dash of marketing is a long-practised commercial tradition. Usually it’s all fairly standard fare that blends into the rest of the melee. But this punny wee number spotted on the back of a van in Auckland got our attention. As did this personalised plate, but for another reason altogether. As a perplexed passenger said: “What does a bathroom truck have to do with a uterus?”
There are currently thousands of tourists gallivanting around New Zealand, and many of them are freedom camping. Mostly, that’s a positive thing. But in some cases it leads to the inevitable negative stories about disrespectful visitors leaving a trail of filth behind them. Over the past 18 months, a team of mobile gurus has been trying to remedy this by plugging the information gap that currently exists with a free location-based app called Campermate that offers information about nearby rubbish bins, campgrounds, toilets and other amenities. And two of them are trying to get visitors to download it by heading on the ‘2-egg roadtrip’ and bribing them with free food.
When a kitchen appliance brand launches an advertising campaign with the title ‘Rambo’s Undies’ starring Mikey Havoc and Hayley Holt you know you won’t be getting a standard appliance ad with the obligatory mud-stained children’s clothing. And that’s exactly what Kiwi owned appliance brand Parmco wanted when they signed off on the Parmco Challenge.
…as Les Mills International announces two key staff changes, Ogilvy signs up Ellison, the NBR announces a new admedia reporter, two new in the nzherald.co.nz crew and D&AD chooses its chiefs.
It’s been a difficult few months for Colenso, with Vodafone pulling the pin and moving up the road to .99 before a full pitch kicks off. But the good news is starting to filter back in: executive creative director Nick Worthington has just returned from Spikes Asia with an impressive haul of medals and it has also won the Les Mills International account.
When compiling a list of classic Kiwi TVCs, there are bound to be a few Toyota Hilux ads in there. With the likes of Bugger and the Scotty and Crumpy series, it’s a product with a rich advertising heritage, so a new campaign is always cause for a bit of excitement, both for Toyota fans and for many in the marcomms sector. And Saatchi & Saatchi has gone to great, rather surreal and comical lengths with the ‘Tougher than you can Imagine’ campaign to launch the 2012 model.
Mediaweb announced today it is “repositioning” two of its titles in an attempt to strengthen its position in the sector.
The company acquired several food industry magazines when it purchased TPL Media’s titles earlier this year.
Mediaweb publisher Toni Myers says two titles, FBT (Food & Beverage Today) and Catering Plus, are not sufficiently different from Hospitality Magazine to continue as they are.
Two staff who both worked on FBT and Catering Plus have left the company as a result of the changes.
As many law-abiding citizens know, prisons are a necessary evil. Recently our finance minister said prisons were a “moral and fiscal failure” at “$250,000 a bed, $90,000 a year to run”. The money spent by New Zealand on incarceration dwarfs what has been spent on the Rugby World …