Taxi Impact went live a few months back and, at the time, its director Tim Dove promised to create the country’s first professional—and fully national—taxi media network. And if its first major client is any guide, it’s off to a pretty good start, with 2degrees employing the services of its taxis and taxi vans in Auckland and Wellington to spread the message about its mobile broadband offerings.
Minutes were taken, bad coffee was consumed, plaques were handed out and thanks were given at the Marketing Association’s AGM a couple of days ago. And the end result was a few new yet well-known humans taking up positions on the various boards and networks of ‘your’ association.
Colenso is at the top of its creative game at the moment and it’s certainly walking the talk when it comes to devising big ideas that get brands talked about by consumers. And while Yellow Pages is wrestling with a few rather large financial demons at present, the pair’s impressive award-winning run continued last night at Vector Arena, when Yellow Chocolate was awarded the Grand Axis, the Titanium gold Axis and the Integrated gold Axis at the 2011 CAANZ Axis awards.
The retail industry has been crying into its cornflakes for the past few years as the perfect storm of recession, the rise of e-commerce and, more recently, massive natural disasters, has battered the sector. But according to brand consultancy Interbrand, which has just released its inaugural Best Retail Brands report, there are “true and measurable signs of optimism” in what is likely to be a fragile recovery.
…as overachieving Kiwi expat Mark D’Arcy hops on the Facebook bandwagon; DraftFCB’s Matt Scott sits down as chair of the Direct Marketing Network; Tony Clewett is named as New Zealand’s Caples ambassador; Pacific Micromarketing announces a new business development consultant; and EYE Shop announces its new Aussie/NZ overlord.
The John Caples awards were dished out in New York this week to honour the world’s best direct and interactive marketing and there was plenty of New Zealand work deemed good enough to make it onto the dais. But it was DraftFCB that got the most applause, ending up as the best performing Australasian agency with eight awards, while Colenso and AIM Proximity picked up eight awards between them.
Despite a stellar year for the Clemenger Group gang, both in terms of awards won and cash banked, there have been a few mutterings around the traps of late about axes falling at Colenso and AIM Proximity. And while the seemingly OTT figure of 20 departures has been bandied about, Colenso’s managing director Nick Garrett says that’s certainly not the case and says it’s just slight reshuffling of the pack to respond to the current demands of clients.
Fresh from winning the big Auckland promotional pitch for the Rugby World Cup, Ogilvy is crowing again, after it picked up the expanded portfolio of Pharmacybrands following a competitive pitch between incumbents Ogilvy and JWT.
MediaWorks will be dishing out a new honour to a member of the media fraternity at this year’s CAANZ Media Awards in memory of long-time staffer Sandy Smith. So get your nominations in for the inaugural Inspiring Individuals Award.
MasterCard Worldwide has appointed Acumen Republic as its New Zealand communications agency after a competitive pitch and it will manage MasterCard’s corporate, consumer and government relations, as well as marketing communications activity for its sponsorship of Rugby World Cup 2011 and the All Blacks.
Who’s it for: Sky by DDB and Thick as Thieves
Why we like it: Sky and DDB are making themselves pretty comfortable in the TVC of the Week La-Z-Boy of late, with a very consistent display of top notch work. And just as TVNZ announced a $15 …
The Outdoor Media Association of New Zealand (OMANZ) has been on a mission to raise its profile and kick back into gear after a period of inactivity, some might even say irrelevancy. A big part of that process was establishing industry cohesion, rebranding (with the help of DraftFCB) and creating a new educational website (with the help of ICE Interactive). And the “one stop shop to advertisers and agencies for all things out-of-home industry related” has just gone live.
ANZ launched its big Rugby World Cup promotion with much pomp and ceremony last week. But it’s obviously not too late to get involved, because Microsoft New Zealand announced today that it has signed up as an official sponsor of the tournament.
According to the rumour mill’s grapevine, Ogilvy has won a three-way pitch for the Rugby World Cup campaign briefed by the Auckland Council’s economic development and tourism body, ATEED, beating out Saatchi & Saatchi and Colenso .99.
New Zealand’s territorial waters are 15 times larger than our land mass, but just 0.3 percent of that area is fully protected in marine reserves, compared to around 20 percent of our land with equivalent status. And as part of a campaign to change this unbalanced attitude and eventually get 30 percent of our waters signed up as marine reserves, the WWF and its agency partner Ocean Design have enlisted some of the country’s leading creative minds to share their views on what New Zealand’s seas mean to them. And it’s asking Kiwis to do the same.
After five years operating successfully in the Kiwi market, TBWA\’s consumer PR and experiential agency Eleven PR is opening its doors in Sydney, with Rob Lowe, former senior account director at One Green Bean in Sydney, enlisted to lead the charge.
Westpac and Colenso have been working on the Impulse Saver iPhone app for a while now and after successfully battling through the numerous technical and security issues, launched it around the same time as the earthquake with a few full page ads in the Sunday papers. Not surprisingly, the campaign was temporarily put on ice, but the cutesy banking gimmick/impressive technological innovation that, as the name implies, allows users to add some dosh to their savings account at the push a button, has gone live once again.
“Unconventional, artistic, quirky, humorous and youthful” New Zealand streetwear brand Federation has been named the winner of the inaugural James & Wells: Fashion Communication Design Award, beating out the other two finalists Cybelle and Moochi for top honours.
Air New Zealand is making a habit of creating memorable inflight safety briefings. First it was the tasteful nudes, then came a cast of All Blacks, followed by a rather puerile puppet. And .99’s latest 80s inspired effort, which features Richard Simmons, Paul Henry, Phil Keoghan, Temepara George and, as expected, a little cameo from Rob Fyfe, has continued that trend and looks set to add a few million more views to the seven million the airline’s previous safety videos have already garnered on YouTube.
…as .99 snaffles an experienced Aussie campaigner as operations manager; APN Outdoor adds two more to the roster; Independent Liquor bolsters its marketing team with a new Boundary Road Brewery marketing manager; Adhub aims for digital world domination with three newbies; and The Pond adds its most experienced member yet to the freelance database.
After the earthquake New Zealanders everywhere quickly reached into their pockets, but many wished they could do something more practical to help. Well, small Tauranga-based advertising agency Flame had a stroke of inspiration after realising it had valuable assets lying around in the form of old billboards skins that would otherwise go unused, so a few quick calls to clients and billboard operators like iSite and Oggi and Flame’s Zak Lassey says it managed to round up a few hundred skins that were easily utilised as tarps for roofing, long drop covers, tents, or wherever else they were needed in Christchurch. And, as they’re still needed, he thinks other, larger agencies, clients and media owners should follow its lead.
In the wake of the Christchurch quake and the intense international media coverage that followed, many businesses—and plenty of individuals—have been trying to let the world know that New Zealand is still able to be toured and explored. As you’d expect, Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) has been leading that charge and has launched a campaign called New Zealand is Open, which saw ads run in Australian and United Kingdom national Sunday papers last weekend.
Inboxes are groaning under the weight of the emails sent out by daily deal sites at the moment. And successful Australian group buying site Cudo and MediaWorks will soon be adding a few more. But while new collaborative buying sites seem to be a dime a dozen at the moment, the newest boy on the increasingly crowded block claims to have a big point of difference: the deals will be promoted regularly on television by a real live human.
The creative hoedown/showdown known as the Axis awards are just around the corner and to celebrate its new sponsorship of the radio category, The Radio Bureau has launched a campaign to get punters to vote for the best New Zealand radio ad of the past decade. And what a glorious collection of advertising creativity it is.
New Zealanders seem to have something of a love/hate attitude when it comes to marketing and advertising. Some despise it because it tricks people into buying things they don’t need, makes the nation fatter/drunker/more dangerous and is an industry supposedly filled with wankers. But others seem to be able to look past all that and simply enjoy biting into the fruits of the industry’s labour. Whatever the reason, there’s no doubt Kiwis are interested in it, as evidenced by the fact that the Fair Go Ad Awards is regularly among the country’s top rating shows. And CAANZ and TVNZ are hoping to tap into this interest and showcase the creative, innovative side of the business by filming the Axis award show and screening it on Ondemand.
At 8.30pm this Saturday lights will be going out—or so it’s hoped—to help draw attention to climate change. And as this fantastic new ad shows, those who ignore Earth Hour do so at their peril.
TVNZ’s half-year numbers have been released and while the national broadcaster is understandably chuffed with a 136 percent increase in operating earnings for the six months to December, there are also a couple of fairly big wounds to lick after a $14.8 million TiVo misfire and an 18 percent drop in taxpayer equity.
Two weeks out from the final entry deadline for the Magazine Awards, the Magazine Publishers Association has announced the pool of judges for this year’s edition. And my what an impressive line up of boffins, gurus and media trail-blazers it is.
…as the ASA announces its new chair; TBWA\ shuffles the management and says goodbye to its general manager; Affinity ID nails a hat-trick; Kate Alexander takes over from dad at Studio Alexander; Christina Force sells her stake in the “first dedicated photographers agency in New Zealand”; Envy Studios add two to the staff roster; and DNA welcomes a large man from Northampton.
After a competitive pitch, the Royal New Zealand Ballet has appointed Special Group as its design and communications agency.