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.
When it comes to fruitful agency client relationships in New Zealand, Sky and DDB are near the top of the pile and, over the past few years, a steady stream of very entertaining, award-winning and, judging by subscriber numbers and MySky’s complete domination of Tivo, pretty effective work has spewed forth. But for our money, the latest spot by Thick as Thieves for MySky’s ‘TV on your terms’ campaign, which shows 60 things in 60 seconds that husbands all over New Zealand could potentially be doing instead of watching TV, is one of the best yet. Just try not to like it.
I once heard about a wine industry meltdown when New Zealand wine wasn’t on the menu for an Auckland-based Tourism New Zealand schmooze function. And good on the winemakers for kicking up a stink, I say. Yet who would do the same if the branding, media services, website or PR wasn’t run by Kiwis? Overlooking New Zealand talent for ‘experts from out of town’ is a hate-crime against the country and, in front-facing services such as marketing and communications, it’s just bloody stupid.
In this round of Ads@6, Expedia taps into our frugal Australasian sensibilities with its ‘New York on $50’ spot; Westfield and Moccona continue to push their big travel promotions; Countdown continues its TV domination; P&O’s ads somehow make going on a cruise seem like it would be enjoyable; Persil hits the spot with its Small Whites ad; Rexona gets uber fashionable for its ‘fragrance collection’; Burger King puts bourbon in its burgers; TV3 embraces comparative advertising; Hyundai gets bucolic—and patriotic—with its Country Calendar promotion; and if Harvey Norman’s shouting, the ITM 400 Hamilton promos and the Protex ‘wash wash’ jingle are just too much to handle, Maxalt and The Low Down are here to help.
We’re accustomed to seeing marketing fluff from the seemingly never-ending range of new daily deal sites in our inboxes or on our web browsers. But, in what could be seen as evidence that group-buying has gone mainstream in New Zealand, GrabOne is facing up to increased competition and promoting its discounted wares with the help of a couple of new TVCs.
Who’s it for: Sky by DDB and Prodigy
Why we like it: Once more, the latest entertaining instalment of Sky’s ‘Match Fit’ campaign hits the spot. And extra points have been awarded for the bravura performance from Grant Fox.
Who’s it for: ANZ …
As the industry worked itself into a gibbering mass of excitement after it was announced late last week that the ANZ account had shifted to TBWA\, ANZ, DDB and Ogilvy Media were getting ready to launch their ‘Welcome the World’ promotion as part of the bank’s Rugby World Cup sponsorship. And with a big TV blockout on Sunday, a flash mob-esque stunt to welcome commuters in Auckland and Wellington this morning and plenty more media activity planned to ramp up interest in the competition, it’s set to be the bank’s biggest promotion yet—and quite possibly the biggest of the tournament.
Despite the beliefs of slightly extremist doomsayers who claim television is dying and the days of big brand ads and mass awareness marketing are over, most would agree that television commercials are still one of the most effective ways for brands to convey emotion, tell stories and, in most cases, get their messages in front of humans. Since StopPress was sent into the wild in September 2009, we’ve been celebrating that collision of art and commerce in our TVC of the Week section, which, as the name suggests, showcases what we deem to be the best locally-created TV ad(s) of the past seven days. It’s supremely unscientific, of course: it has nothing to do with research, testing or sales figures, it’s simply based on gut feel; on whether an ad is funny, beautiful, engaging, well-made, memorable, creative or occasionally even so bad it’s good. Well, now we’re taking it a step further with the first annual StopPress/ThinkTV TVC of the Year Award. So get in there and vote for the ads that have tickled your fancy in the past year.
Eric Hertz
The last time 2degrees released its customer numbers in February 2010, it had managed to attract 206,000 New Zealanders with a combination of attractive pricing, smart marketing, a much-loved frontman and a giant ‘log-oh’. Just over one year later—and 19 months since it first opened its doors in August 2009—that figure has more than doubled to 580,112.
Sarah Robb O’Hagan, the president of Gatorade North America and global chief marketing officer, sports nutrition, PepsiCo, is one of the country’s most successful marketers and she’s heading back to New Zealand to speak at a half-day forum jointly presented by the CAANZ Marcomms Leadership Group and the Marketing Association on 5 April at the Crowne Plaza in Auckland. So to celebrate we thought we’d send her a few generic questions.
Air New Zealand’s suave yet moderately offensive travelling mascot Rico has already laid down some beats with a couple of Wellingtonian musos. But he’s taken his music career up a few notches recently after recording his debut track ‘Hello Sunshine’ in Los Angeles. And it features a pretty special guest who’s also earned a reputation as something of a ladies man: Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. AKA Tha Doggfather AKA Snoop Dogg.
Trumpet blowing, back-patting and self-congratulation are par for the course in the world of marketing. But it’s always more interesting if there’s a bit of healthy confrontation involved, as this promotional number for TV3 shows.
One of the unintended consequences of a natural disaster like the Christchurch earthquake has been a reaffirmed belief in human decency. There were, of course, the expected low-life opportunists trying to take advantage of the situation, but the vast majority of New Zealanders seem to have dug deep and tried to do what they could to help. While claims of ‘quake washing’ have already surfaced, it’s difficult to criticise members of the marcomms community who have decided to harness their communications skills to launch and run a range of worthy fundraising initiatives. And the Bands4Hope campaign is a good example of this industry cohesion.
Raydar recently benefitted from a global network realignment when it picked up the Pacific Blue account in New Zealand. And lightning has struck twice: it has now been named as the local agency for Mercedes-Benz after the German car brand named BBDO as its global network in January.
Oktobor’s managing director Bruce Everett told Stuff in September last year that the company’s commitment to advertising was still deep, despite the fact it was steadily being transformed into “visual effects, animation and digital creative convergence studio”. Well, the connection to advertising wasn’t that deep, obviously, because Everett has announced that Oktobor won’t be offering TVC and VFX services to the advertising and commercials market on a day-to-day basis anymore and will instead shift resources across to the relatively recently christened but obviously very successful animation arm, Oktobor Animation.
The research business is pretty damn tight at the moment as clients cut back on ‘luxuries’ and agencies increasingly take the work in-house. But that hasn’t stopped Edentify, a specialist online market research agency that was started in Australia 11 years ago, from opening its doors in Auckland.