When we last spoke with indie agency Zephyr at the start of the year, they had just won three new pieces of business. Now the three sausage-loving partners—Robert Coulter, Warwick Delmonte and Quentin Pfiszter—may be cooking up a few more celebratory bangers after winning Lion’s McKenna bourbon account in a pitch involving Special Group and BCG2.
Who’s it for: Telecom by Saatchi & Saatchi and Prodigy
Why we like it: It’s a fairly earnest, emotional affair, but it’s beautifully shot, well written and it uses a range of scenes and an accurate insight to show why so many different people are so …
It’s been difficult to miss the Yellow Local campaign around Auckland recently, with a host of regularly changing billboards on the streets and an array of regularly changing TVCs on our screens. But when we spoke to Localist’s chief executive Blair Glubb a few weeks ago he said it was taking a very different approach than its main competitor and building the name up in the market by putting its salesforce to work before launching an ad campaign. But now that time has come, with a couple of ads that show what can happen ‘when people share what’s good around here’.
It has all the key ingredients of a holy grail story that would be right at home in the News of the World: secrets, politics, royalty, skullduggery, dubious ethics and alleged bribery. And yet the 168-year-old tabloid renowned for nabbing such stories closed on Sunday after it emerged it had hacked into the phones of murder victims and allegedly also 9/11 victims, royals and politicians. As you can imagine, there’s a whole heap of information, commentary and satire available online about the scandal. And we’ve collected the best of it so you don’t have to.
Hopefully. After one week of playing with it, I’m impressed. The ease of keeping your profile secure from certain people and being able to easily see exactly what information is displayed to who, as well as the addition of “Hang outs” and a few other features is great.
When it comes to controlling the global purse strings, some international stats suggest women make over 80 percent of all the purchasing decisions. Chris Ivers and Julie Stratton, who met at JWT in their 20s and between them have years of experience on both agency and client-side here and overseas, are embracing this burgeoning international trend and have launched new Auckland advertising agency Chalis Group, “the only New Zealand agency specialising in advertising to women”.
When it comes to smartphone usage overseas, the tipping point appears to be approaching rapidly. And while New Zealand is slightly behind in the smartphone uptake stakes, Telecom and Saatchi & Saatchi are hoping to increase the numbers by tapping into the emotional appeal of the devices and promoting their ability to aid all kinds of communication with its latest brand ad, one of the first pieces of work new executive creative director Antonio Navas has his name attached to.
…Publicis Mojo and Waitemata films send Kenneth on a radio-controlled journey for the Auckland City Mission’s winter appeal, DDB NZ create a semi-internet meme with its new Pascall Swirl campaign, Tracta launches campaigns for the New Zealand Credit Union and Hawke’s Bay Rugby Union and Sean Fitzpatrick promotes full credit checking.
Ecostore’s latest campaign has been pushing the ‘I’m not a guinea pig line’ to encourage consumers to opt out of using nasty chemicals often found in other baby, beauty, body and household cleaning products. Now, in what it claims is a marketing first, it’s taking that idea a step further by trying to get consumers’ entire Facebook networks to do the same.
Anyone who’s had the pleasure of working on a custom publication will understand there are certain promotional objectives that usually need to be met and plenty of hoops that need to be jumped through in an effort to please the client. But Super Liquor has taken a rather unique approach to this concept with its latest marketing initiative, a website called Super 10 that has been created in conjunction with Tangible Media and &Some over several months and aims to “save the world from work” with ten weekly nuggets of online interestingness.
Brancott Estate—creators of the original Marlborough sauvignon blanc and the company formerly known as Montana—forked out to sponsor the Rugby World Cup and, as the official wine of the tournament, VIPs from around the world will be imbibing its sweet nectar during the event. But never fear, paupers can still get a taste of the good stuff, with the added excitement of a new vintage housed in a limited edition RWC bottle. We’ve got a couple of triple packs to give away and all you have to do is come up with a rugby-related wine brand (for example, Yellow Cardonnay, Fly Half Gully or Liniment Cliffs).
MediaWorks has been in the news a bit recently, with the unexpected departure of its TV wunderkind Jason Paris and continuing discussion about the sizable debts of its owner Ironbridge. But it’s not all bad: its two-channel strategy appears to be paying off in terms of share, ad revenue is up and general manager of integration Melanie Reece says the “sleeping giant” of branded content and product placement is starting to wake up, as evidenced by the success of New Zealand’s Next Top Model and the inclusion of new sponsors like 2degrees into the show.
… as Dean Howie heads for Hawaii, EMANZ passes the executive baton, Next looks for a new editor, Waxeye launches a new surf-related loyalty scheme, Supply picks up a Dieline award and Belkin makes some changes at the top.
The questions have been asked, the consumers’ votes have been tallied and Nestle’s Kit Kat Chunky ‘3’ campaign by JWT Sydney and Flying Fish’s Joe Lonie has come out on top in the June edition of Colmar Brunton’s Ad Impact Award.
Not getting enough taste from your regular beer? Want more ‘aggravation’ before the sweet, sweet nectar touches your lips? Think drinking out of a glass is for losers? Well then, DB has come to the rescue with its new vortex bottle for Tui blond and the new innovation is being promoted in quintessentially cheeky (teehee) Tui fashion with the return of a scantily-clad yet awfully intelligent brewery girl.
Changes in the marketing department at Sanitarium and a desire to find more cost effective ways of promoting the smaller brands in its stable appear to be behind a decision to give a significant chunk of the New Zealand business to Assignment Group and leave Saatchi & Saatchi with the company’s big brands.
How consumers buy stuff has changed a helluva lot in the past year and, after getting its mitts on 65 percent of the daily deal market in New Zealand, GrabOne has played a big part in that evolution. So, to celebrate its first birthday—and the sale of 91,000 movie tickets, 26,000 cupcakes, 39,000 massages and one million holes of golf—it’s made an ad featuring the consumers and merchants who made it all possible.
One more sleep until the Big Sleep Out, where a group of 74 hardy captains of industry and various social crusaders will sleep rough for one night in Auckland to help raise money and awareness for the LifeWise Trust and help bring homelessness to an end. And they’re on the hunt for donations.
After the drama of the recent ANZ pitch, where Whybin\TBWA\ Melbourne took ownership of the account and ousted Kiwi incumbent DDB, everyone was interested to see what the big creative idea that supposedly won the day was. Now you can judge for yourself, because the bank’s first global ad campaign, which features Aussie actor Simon Baker in character as The Mentalist’s Patrick Jane, has been launched in Australia and Asia, with New Zealand soon to follow.
Vizualise NZ general manager Carl Pavletich (L) and director Rupert Deans
Even an earthquake striking in the middle of a massive international project didn’t slow down Christchurch-based digital agency Vizualise for long. But if it wasn’t for cloud computing, director Rupert Deans says continuing to work on a “major project for a US-based charity” that’s yet to launch would have been impossible.
2degrees came out in March saying it had gained 11 percent of the consumer market since its launch around two years ago. Now it’s gunning for New Zealand’s business customers with new plans, a new TBWA\ TV campaign featuring a dizzying array of Rhys Darbys and a man strapped to a billboard.
Where there is rugby, there is often beer, as anyone who’s visited the clubrooms after a game anywhere in New Zealand could probably well attest. And Lion and Tangible Media’s NZ Rugby World have joined forces to put out a special collector’s edition that takes an in-depth look at the All Blacks’ tremendous achievements over the past 25 years and is sponsored exclusively by Steinlager to coincide with the 25th anniversary of its support of the All Blacks and the launch of its new ‘We Believe’ campaign.
This year might not have seen the biggest awards haul by Kiwis at the Cannes Lions, but rather than wallow, we figure why not celebrate those in the industry that did it best, particularly in the Press Lions category. And so, without further ado, here’s some creative inspiration by way of the Grand Prix and Gold winners.
Greedy old Barnes, Catmur & Friends has followed up its May NAB Newspaper Advertisement of the Month win for Hell Pizza after taking victory in June’s Ad of the Month for their ‘Beer tasters Wanted’ ad for Independent Liquor’s Boundary Road Brewery. And, in a repeat of the May decision, the judges also gave another DDB Coastguard ad ‘Parachute Flare’ an honourable mention as runner up.
Who’s it for: Westpac by .99 and Robber’s Dog
Why we like it: There’s no doubt dressing babies up in funny costumes and using them as props is both cute and hilarious (even when they’re dressed up as dictators, it seems). Westpac has done …
The Australasian Promotional Marketing Association’s Star awards aim to acknowledge and reward outstanding strategic prowess and creativity in the field of experiential and promotional marketing. And the New Zealand branch of Apollo was the only local agency to take anything home at the 2011 edition last week, winning a gold, two silvers and a bronze.
Ahhh, the meat tube. Such flavour, such convenience and, in most cases, such dubious content. Kiwis who dislike mystery meat in their bangers will be pleased to know Freedom Farms, “the only company to only farm pigs the ‘kind’ way”, has just launched a range of pork snarlers made from ‘Happy Pigs’. We’ve got four $10 Freedom Farm vouchers to give away and all you have to do is come up with a name for a new variety of sausage (eg Campylonossi, The Melanie Kransky or Hawk and Sage). Extra points for telling us what your creation would include.
Sometimes the planets align. On the same day the July/August edition of NZ Marketing magazine hits the shelves with a cover story about Charlie’s chief executive and co-founder Stefan Lepionka comes news that Japanese beverage giant Asahi has offered to take the company off his hands for $130 million. You can read all about the deal on the new Idealog website here and, if you want to find out how the business got to where it is now through a combination of savvy ‘gut-feel’ marketing, astute brand-building and good old-fashioned honesty, you can subscribe to NZ Marketing here.
In case you haven’t noticed, it’s Rugby World Cup year. There will be plenty of big battles on the field, but there will also be a few big battles off it, as evidenced by these three recently released rugby-themed campaigns.
The votes are in, the judges have judged and NZ Marketing magazine and the Marketing Association can now announce the finalists of the 2011 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards.