Journalism is dying a slow and painful death. At least, that was the argument put forward by award-winning UK reporter Nick Davies in his 2009 book, Flat Earth News. Well, I disagree entirely.
Whether it’s banks, bacon, lamb, insurance or telcos, there’s no shortage of brands trying to tap into the idea of New Zealandness. And McDonald’s and DDB have just launched a campaign for two particularly Kiwi products that fits snugly into this jingoistic genre by focusing on idiosyncratic domestic habits.
Much like the domestic magazine sector, newspaper readership remained relatively stable in the latest Nielsen reports and the overall trend for circulation continued downwards. And while the online and mobile properties of the two big publishers are continuing to lure Kiwi eyeballs, recent financial results show the digital dimes still aren’t replacing the lost analog dollars.
It’s that time again, a time when publishers weep, gloat or possibly just say ‘meh’ and get on with it as the ABC circulation and Nielsen’s Magazine Comparatives Q2 2010 – Q2 2011 readership results are released. And while the market appears to have stabilised after a fairly rough period, there are some interesting, some might say counter-intuitive trends on display in the yearly comparisons, with some significant disparities between circulation and readership for some titles and publishers.
Perhaps it’s just us, but the year seems to be flying by and between the Rugby World Cup, Christmas and that little ‘ole thing called the general election, the second half will inevitably go faster. And if you’re an advertiser, ThinkTV says it’s you who’d better speed up to get “plum” advertising positioning.
These days advertising seems to encroach on almost everything, public transport especially. But apart from DDB’s Instant Kiwi campaign back in 2010, which saw scenes from the Sistine Chapel installed on the ceilings of buses throughout the city, there hasn’t been much by way of skyward advertising, particularly when it comes to trains. But while the practice may be common in places like the UK, Auckland trains is only just now getting its first dose courtesy of a campaign run by Fly Buys to promote its Star Deals initiative.
It’s tough to make a buck in the music industry these days. But those creative types can sometimes make a pretty penny if they sell their soul and head into advertising. And it seems a few musos have left their instruments behind for scamp pads and sharpies of late, with Dave Gibson joining DraftFCB, the Kids of 88 starting at Barnes, Catmur & Friends and P-Money coming on-board at TBWA\.
The EFFIEs are looming, judging is currently taking place and tickets are now on sale for the effectiveness function featuring guest speaker Gareth Kay, the director of brand strategy and associate Partner of Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, San Francisco, which, in semi-related news, is currently getting a bit of stick for its ‘new’ logo.
Jeremy Irwin has been the main man at the Association of New Zealand Advertisers (ANZA) for the past 15 years. And always having to take the side of advertisers and marketers means he’s fought—and won—plenty of ferocious battles with academics, politicians, special interest groups and other antagonists. He’s stepping back from the public policy coalface to focus on some well-deserved rose sniffing and, one week ahead of TVNZ-NZ Marketing awards night, Irwin was inducted into the TVNZ Marketing Hall of Fame in front of a 350-strong crowd at the Marketing Association’s Brainy Breakfast yesterday. Here’s what he told us about his long and esteemed career in the last issue of NZ Marketing.
It’s taken a while but the penny finally seems to have dropped. Advertising/marketing campaigns work much better if you aim to get good public relations from the get go. Not just for the brand/product but also for the campaign itself.
It used to be that everyone wanted to be like Saatchi & Saatchi. But, after the recent Telecom debacle, one agency has even resorted to taking out print ads out to ensure no-one gets confused.
TVNZ’s head of news and current affairs Anthony Flannery has said in the past that Breakfast’s popularity comes down to a good combination of “light and shade”. And the balance will be tipped in favour of light come September 3 when a new Saturday edition of the show that will be co-presented by Rawdon Christie and Toni Street is launched.
Moa, like many others, has already jumped on the randy bandwagon with its own pro-sex response to the widely rubbished and now-dumped Telecom ‘Abstain from the Game’ campaign. And the other most likely contender, Hell Pizza—with its agency Barnes, Catmur & Friends—has followed suit with this punny wee number.
It had to happen. And, in what many will see as the exact opposite of life, where sexual activity gets you beer, not the other way round, committed courter of controversy Moa has launched an anti-abstinence campaign.
If a sign of a successful campaign is the courting of controversy, then Telecom and partners in crime Saatchi & Saatchi are well placed. But the wealth of opinions that have gushed forth following the unveiling of the ‘Abstain for the All Blacks’ campaign seems to have those involved retreating for shelter. Meanwhile others have offered alternative campaigns of a similar vein.
…as the Herald on Sunday does the APN staff shuffle, Beat Communications brings in new blood by way of former Ogilvy PR lass Jane Finch. Gabrielle Troutback bids farewell to NZ Post, Omnigraphics NZ brings in a non-human hire, Kiwi dairy company The Collective picks up some chunky and prestigious culinary awards in the UK and Fairfax adds another option to the local content offerings.
The masters of the contextual newspaper ad have done it again. The day after the first snow in Auckland for 72 years, Barnes, Catmur & Friends ran this national newspaper ad for Subaru to reassure concerned Aucklanders that, yes, the streets were still passable.
Just eight days to go until this year’s game changers are announced at the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards. All the smart people have already bought—or scavenged—their tickets, but there are still some available. And, if you’re hoping to make the most of the night, which is once again being MCed by Te Radar, TVNZ is here to help.
The smell of cooking show overload has been gently wafting through television screens for some time now. There’s Master Chef UK, My Kitchen Rules, and tonight sees the the debut of TV3’s Under the Grill starring Australian celebrity chef Sean Connolly. Later this month TVNZ is also debuting its Chef On a Mission show with Simon Gault. If you have a particular penchant for the genre, you’d barely be left with enough time to do any cooking of your own were you to watch them all. But if Westfield has anything to do with it, you’ll at least be tempted to leave the house and see Simon Gault in real human form as part of his latest roadshow called A Master Chef at Work, all part of Westfield’s BrandSpace brand partnerships scheme.
Who’s it for: Purex by Colenso BBDO and Partizan UK
Why we like it: We’re suckers for origami. We’re suckers for stop motion. We’re suckers for soft toilet paper. And we’re suckers for ruffle-faced shar-peis. So imagine how excited we were when all …
With a whole stack of newbies that were well-liked by respondents and strong on their branding, it was a tough job picking this month’s Colmar Brunton Ad Impact Award winner. But it seems we enjoy having a bit of laugh at ourselves, because Goodman Fielder’s Kiwi Bacon ad by Buffalo Creative and Curious came out on top with its quirky celebration of our local importation traditions—and, by extension, our local pigs.
It seems not all is well and fair in land of telco advertising. While Vodafone may be busy reviewing its agency partners, the Commerce Commission has been busy reviewing Vodafone over allegations it has been misleading customers with its broadband and mobile phone promotions between 2006 and 2009. Six cases have been brought up against Vodafone and the first of those to reach court has resulted in the telco being fined $402,375 plus court costs late last week after it pleaded guilty to breaching the Fair Trading Act in relation to its Vodafone Live! mobile phone internet service. Vodafone says it will defend the charges for the remaining five cases.
During winter, TV becomes something a BFF for many hibernating New Zealanders. And more of them are snuggling up with Ondemand, with figures released by TVNZ showing the worm has been heading swiftly upwards in the past few months.
If you’re called Paul, Nicola or Marama then congratulations, M&C Saatchi has selected your name for use in its latest campaign for the NZ Fire Service. You might feel justifiably chuffed at your selection, but actually, the randomly selected names are all part of clever personal print campaign created to drive home a serious message about the random nature of fires.
Banking underdog Kiwibank has launched its latest attack on the big players with an interactive experience created by Ogilvy that exhorts users to “leave all your bad banking experiences behind”.
We Can Create, an annual celebration of graphics, fashion, animation, illustration, motion graphics, typography, sound design, live audio-visual art, interactive and experiential marketing, fine art, music, product design and more, is just a couple of weeks away. There will be much stimulation, inspiration and captivation during the two days of seminars from impressive local and international creative types. And there’s also an array of side-events, exhibitions and general festivities in the week leading up to and after the event. StopPress has got two tickets—one VIP and one general admission—to give away and all you have to do is post a weird/entertaining Google search phrase in the comments, for example, how fast is Barack Obama over 40 metres, why is my dog doing that or pretty much anything along these lines.
An advertising agency that decides to advertise is, slightly ironically, about as rare as the proverbial hen’s tooth. Which is strange really, considering adfolk seem to quite like showing off and spend their days coming up with clever ways to promote various businesses. Of course, most claim their work is the best form of advertising. But, to celebrate what would be the 100th birthday of one of its founders, Bill Bernbach, DDB has followed his lead and broken the rules by putting a Kiwi spin on the world’s best ad.
Beware the rumour propelling ways of the Twittersphere. The latest to catch our attention is that APN is getting set to launch its very own free music street press, competing face-on with the recently sold Groove Guide, purchased by Juice TV programme director Grant ‘Grunta’ Hislop back in May. But this looks to be more than just a rumour.
Titan Media Group, a relatively new player in the Australasian outdoor advertising and media market that focuses on small format media panels, has established a New Zealand arm and will launch on September 1 with 300 sites installed into mall car parks at grocery entrances and trolley bays, with installations continuing to approximately 1400 nationwide.
With the help of .99, justONE and the marketing team led by last year’s marketer of the year finalist Dean Cook, Farmers has undergone a fairly remarkable business and brand transformation in the past few years. And now, in an effort to build on the success of the Farmers Beauty Card, which boasts over 700,000 members, it’s just launched the Farmers Club to extend the loyalty and rewards offering storewide.