The golf course is calling and Richard Fenner, the co-founder of Spark PHD, has answered, resigning from his role as joint chief executive of The Spark Group, which was established in 2000 and encompasses media agency Spark PHD, Spark PR & Activate and digital specialists, PHDiQ.
The print industry is, to a large extent, patting itself on the back for weathering the storm over the past few years. And there’s some more back-patting ahead, with entries now open for the MPA’s Magazine Awards and a few new categories for the organisers to crow about.
IAB New Zealand’s Bolly Awards are all about showcasing and recognising great online creative and Aveeno, Metservice, Plunket, Orcon and House of Travel all popped a few Bollinger corks after claiming victory (or a ‘special mention’) in 2010. And, to help keep the local creative juices flowing, IABNZ has decided to open its doors to entries created overseas that have featured on New Zealand websites.
PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Interactive Advertising Bureau have released the advertising spend figures for Q4 2010, and they make for pretty damn good e-reading if you’re in the digital biz, with a total of $71.11 million for the quarter, up from $67.93m in Q3 and up 26 percent year-on-year. Total spend was $257 million, up 20 percent from 2009 ($214 million) and up 33 percent on 2008 ($193 million).
APN emerges as the winner in the latest newspaper readership numbers, continuing to defy world trends in daily rags and thumbing its nose at nearest rival Fairfax Media.
Who’s it for: Cadbury by DDB NZ and GoodLife Films
Why we like it: Everyone knows there’s plenty of joy to be found in chocolate, but there’s joy everywhere during a New Zealand summer. And this acoustically-led visual feast is certainly a joy to behold …
Earth Hour is set to take place on 26 March. And, after 2008’s TVC was viewed 1.3 million times on YouTube, it’s launched a new global commercial for the 2011 edition in an effort to increase awareness and get people to take action ‘beyond the hour’.
December and January results for the Radio Bureau’s ORCA winners have meshed into one with Jonathan McMahon & Lisa Fedyszyn from DDB Auckland taking the winning honours for their McDonalds ‘Signs You Love Caramel’ ad. And sticking with fast food ads, Graeme Clarke & Sam Dickson from Colenso BBDO were awarded a close Merit for their Burger King ads ‘The Boss’ and ‘The Wifey’.
Cadbury’s Share the Joy movement has so far included a Make Me Laugh gameshow, a giant snowglobe, clap-activated Christmas lights and a giant sprinkler that stopped in at summer hotspots and cooled Kiwis off. Now it has taken a slightly more traditional turn, with an acoustically-led and beautifully shot montage that aims to show what joy sound likes to Kiwis. And from spokey dokes to bombs off the bridge to laughing kids to leather on willow, there’s certainly a solid collection of summer nostalgia on display.
Back in the 1960s, a clever chap by the name of Tom Robinson created an organic fertiliser, a range of plant and mineral based home products, therapeutics, garden care and pet care and started selling it under the Earthwise name. Up until very recently, however, the Earthwise Home range, which …
The next load of AWARD finalists have been released, with DraftFCB’s print campaign for Man vs Wild finding plenty of favour with the judges, and Colenso BBDO, DDB, Clemenger BBDO and JWT rounding out the Kiwi successes.
In this edition of Ads@6, Raid joins Countdown’s Summer Series; Unitec uses real human students to promote their courses ; Audi shows us how much paper is used to make a luxury car; the IHC ad warms the cockles; the old/new Super 15 ad hits screens again; Telecom switches on the lights for its broadband push; and Godfreys, Harvey Norman, Norman Ross and Noel Leeming continue their long standing shouting match.
Def Leppard sings love bites, Air New Zealand says love bytes with yet another clever and unique viral marketing campaign. Together with Affinity ID and Spoon TV, the folks at Air New Zealand paid a visit to Auckland’s international departures gate last night, recording messages from sky-bound passengers to loved ones they wouldn’t be seeing on Valentine’s Day.
When Tom Robinson was inspired to create a range of natural plant-based products back in the 1960s, hippies might have been the best he could have hoped for by way of customers. His inventive spark began in 1964 when he created an organic fertiliser. His creations quickly expanded to include a range of plant and mineral based home products, therapeutics, garden care and pet care, all born under the name Earthwise Group.
The launch of the iPad and the expected ‘tablet revolution’ has put some wind in the sails of publishers who have been beaten down by the internet. But as everyone goes gaga over the new technology, it’s easy to forget that good old-fashioned paper-based magazines are still putting up a very good fight, with the most obvious trend from Nielsen’s latest readership figures and Audit Bureau of Circulation numbers being that Kiwi consumers are still willing to pay for good-quality specialist magazines.
Five years ago the incidence rate of breast cancer in New Zealand was one in ten. Now it’s one on nine. And, with New Zealand laying claim to one of the highest rates of breast cancer in the world, there is an urgent need to find a cure, something the Breast Cancer Cure Research Trust (BCCRT) hopes to achieve by 2018. But to reach that goal it needs some financial assistance, and Spark PHD, PHDiQ, Spark Activate and Saatchi & Saatchi have decided to take on the annual Round Taupo Relay in an effort to raise funds.
Last year, as part of Adshel’s inaugural Creative Challenge, about 70 Kiwi creatives from 14 agencies gathered together at the Civic Theatre in Auckland to eat pizza, drink booze and, in just 60 minutes, develop a static poster campaign for the 2011 Auckland Fringe. When the final bell was rung, there were beautiful flowery turds, a range of moderately offensive slogans and even a picture of a woman smoking a baby in a pipe. But it was Publicis Mojo’s ‘Leave with more questions than answers’ idea that tickled the judges’ collective fancy. Well, that initial scribble has now blossomed in a fully-fledged visual treat, with the Auckland Fringe Adshel campaign being set free over the weekend.
Following a fairly good showing from the Kiwi agencies in the last batch of AWARD finalists, only Colenso BBDO, DDB, TBWA\, Clemenger BBDO and Tourism New Zealand made the cut in the film and video categories. Behold the finalists.
In these modern times, where wonderous technology lets you communicate with people all around the world and tell e-friends exactly what you had for lunch, the physical presence of other humans is basically becoming an annoyance. But we still need to communicate with our friends and loved ones from time to time, and if you’re going to do it over the internet, you might as well do it in style with Logitech’s range of HD webcams *salesman’s teeth sparkle*.
The first round of finalists for AWARD have been announced, with Special Group, DDB, DraftFCB, Colenso, M&C Saatchi, Clemenger BBDO, AIM Proximity, Flying Fish, The Sweet Shop, Film Construction, YukFoo and Curious Film among those that made the cut in the Direct Marketing, Craft in Film and Craft in Print categories. More category finalists will be announced soon and the awards will be dished out on 25 February.
What goes around comes around. Last week we reported Assignment Group and Hyundai had parted ways. No-one would talk then, so we had a geeze at a few sales and media spend figures and decided to jump to conclusions instead (as did plenty of StopPress commentors). Well, in a strange twist to the tale, it seems the two parties have decided to resume business as normal. Not that we can say for sure, ’cause neither Assignment nor Hyundai is confirming, denying or even exhaling cigar fumes to the media.
It’s Tip Top’s 75th birthday this year (check out some of Kiwi company’s classic ads featured in the last edition of NZ Marketing here). And to celebrate, it’s handing out 50,000 free Jelly Tips in 11 different locations around the country today. So, if you’re in Whangarei, Auckland (Takapuna and Pakuranga), Hamilton, Tauranga, Palmerston North, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill at 3.30pm, you’ll have 75 minutes to get your hands on “the darling of ice creams”.
The All Blacks skills video that was released last year to promote Sky’s Rugby Channel was a big hit. So much so that a few players from the Brumbies even tried to replicate it, with very little success but plenty of comedy value. Well, the skillful, playful All Blacks—and the special effects jiggery pokery of Brandspank—have just released a new summer edition, with some particularly impressive snarler skills being displayed by Corey Jane.
A senior Wellington intellectual property consultant is warning Kiwis and small businesses hoping to take advantage of the commercial opportunities afforded by the Rugby World Cup that, when it comes to protecting the interests of the tournament’s commercial partners, the authorities are likely to be just as vigilant as their FIFA companions were at the Football World Cup in South Africa. But not everyone thinks New Zealand’s business opportunists will have their hands completely tied by the supposedly draconian rugby overlords.
Charlie Sutherland (Chalks) was a good guy; a guy who spent a long time wrestling with his own particular demons. It’s been a while since I’ve seen Charlie, so I want to recall the good old days when he was something of a rock star in a young, emerging Colenso. And those were tough, competitive days.
As everyone knows, fishermen love nothing more than gloating about the monsters of the deep they’ve reeled in and, when they aren’t grossly exaggerating the size of aforementioned monsters, they occasionally even provide evidence of their catch. There are plenty of passionate rod wielders in the marcomms sector so if you’ve caught a few pearlers recently or plan on doing so in the next year, then Fishing Legends, a new competition created by our mates at NZ Fishing World, could bring you a vast array of fish-related riches. And all you have to do is upload photos and videos of your moment of glory to the Fishing Legends website.
As a practitioner of a new form of marketing I am faced with the question we all confront in this industry: can I convince clients that experiential marketing can be measured effectively and deliver meaningful ROI and value for spend?
Primary magazine mock-up
The choppy seas of consumer publishing have been well-documented over the past few years. But one of the print sector’s major growth areas is in the field of customer publishing and Tangible Media has just added another title to its growing corporate flock with the launch of Primary magazine, an all-new agricultural business publication that will be distributed to 15,000 high-value customers of PGG Wrightson.
…as SEEK goes on a job hunt of its own, The Sweet Shop appoints an appropriately named executive producer in Australia, Acumen Republic shores up its newish Aussie office with a big signing, SOAR printing announces a new operations manager and Pride in Print announces its new judging convenor.
Wellington digital agency Resn had to reinforce its mantelpiece after last year’s awards haul. And it has continued down the same track in 2011 with yet more accolades, including two Favourite Website Award Site of the Day awards and two Pixel awards for its work for Puma Africa and the Health Sponsorship Council.