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.

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.

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.

It was a mixed bag for DDB New Zealand last week. The team were forced to drown their sorrows late last week after the agency realignment everyone was talking about saw it say goodbye to the big ANZ account. But, on the plus side, it dominated the Fairfax Admedia agency of the year awards and it’s continued its run of hot form with another good awards haul, this time at Adfest in Thailand.

The last adidas campaign featuring a galaxy of stars was largely deemed to be an expensive, cringe-worthy flop. But the German apparel behemoth is aiming to make amends for that misfire with a massive new global campaign called ‘adidas all in’. And while it doesn’t quite reach the giddy heights of Nike’s ‘Write the Future’, it comes pretty damn close.

The numbers have been crunched by the Advertising Standards Authority and an overall advertising revenue increase of $92 million for 2010 is welcome news for an industry that has grown accustomed to big declines over the past few years.

The Axis Awards are just around the corner. And Andy Fackrell of 180 Amsterdam (quite possibly the most successful ex-pat Kiwi creative), Bryan Rowles of 72 and Sunny in Los Angeles and Dejan Rasic of Colman Rasic in Sydney are the three international boffins doing the judging. All three will show their work and wax lyrical at the Axis Creative Function on Wednesday 30 March (tickets are on sale at www.caanz.co.nz), but in an effort to limit the awkward silence that almost always eventuates after Kiwi crowds are asked if they have any questions, we want you to add yours to the comment wall. The best ones will be read out on the night by MC Oliver Driver, leaving you to focus on your drinking.

Mini’s advertising has been consistently good in recent years, both here and overseas, and it’s undoubtedly one of the automotive industry’s most innovative brands. In New Zealand, DraftFCB’s creative and media strategy during the Soho campaign was top notch and the experiment to get rid of car yards and see if people would buy new cars online was a particularly brave retail strategy (although the MINI Garage on Ponsonby Road does look suspiciously like a car yard). Well, now it’s got another hit on its hands with the Carmonica.

It’s been seven years since we started Customer Experiences and two things became very clear to me back in 2003: one was that businesses struggled to find a competitive advantage in a market that was fast becoming “a world of sameness”, and two, the future success of a business was going to be very much tied to the quality and consistency of its customer experience.

There’s already been a steady stream of cash donations to the various Christchurch Quake appeals and plenty of initiatives from the business community to raise funds. Now Loyalty New Zealand, the company behind Fly Buys, has come up with another way to help those affected by the disaster by allowing its 2.5 million card holders to donate their points in one hundred point lots to the Red Cross or the SPCA Canterbury. So get in there and donate your points here.

While murmurings of a possible merger with the National Bank remain shrouded in secrecy, what is certain is that ANZ’s super-regional strategy, and more specifically the associated brand roll-out that comes with it, is doing something right after Asia-Pacific brand delivery company Diadem won an award for best brand implementation for its ANZ project as part of the seventh annual REBRAND 100 Global Awards.

Lionel Richie is performing in Auckland this week. And in completely unrelated but presumably more important news, one of Healthy Life Media’s main protagonists has sold her shares in the hugely successful company; Waitemata Films has added two more to its flock; and EYE has found its global marketing head honcho.

Last year, TBWA’s executive creative director Andy Blood predicted the future of the industry and, in something of a mission statement for the agency following the loss of ASB, said it was all about bringing the creative ideas of the advertising world closer to the utility now offered by digital technology. Well, that’s what TBWA\Tequila has done with a cool new interactive video catalogue for adidas’ Super Rugby merchandise.

TradeMe has already launched a daily deals site. But as mouths continue to water about the potential of the world’s latest business trend, it’s about to launch another one called Treat Me, a stand-alone group-buying site focused on services, events and experiences rather than low-margin goods sent out through the post.

'One laptop, one scotch and one phone'

The building that once housed Strategy design and advertising in Christchurch has been obliterated. But, as managing director Geoff Cranko writes, the staff are all well, they’ve found a new studio, they’ve got plenty of whisky on hand and, with the help of modern technology, they’re muddling through and are still able to do great work.

The first episode of the new season of Country Calendar screened on ONE on Saturday night and it was interesting for a few reasons: 1) it’s the 45th year of the show. 2) Hyundai is the show’s new sponsor, bringing to an end a long relationship with the National Bank. And 3) it seems to add some weight to swirling speculation that the National Bank could be gearing up for a much-discussed merger with the big, blue ANZ mothership.

Regular advertising transmission was interrupted following the Christchurch quake as both major networks wisely opted for commercial-free broadcasts during their coverage of the disaster. With its public broadcasting commitments, TVNZ pretty much had to and has promised to make good on the lost air time, but as a privately-owned company saddled with debt, the decision to go ad-free (at an estimated cost of $1 million a day) was presumably a slightly more bitter pill to swallow for MediaWorks. Of note after the ad breaks came back on during the 6pm broadcasts, Countdown Summer Series now has a new cohort in the form of last year’s Masterchef; 2degrees introduces us to Brian and Bruce; ANZ gets the piano out and dials up the patriotism for its RWC spot; AA dresses up for the occasion; Skyline garages gets the tick of approval with its new animated gem; Bonds embraces buttocks for its new lo-rider undies; Moccona launches its new promotion; and Carina Coffee dishes up a spicy, rather cheesy home shopping meatball.