With a combination of effective, unashamedly jingoistic advertising, a solid product offering and consistently high rates of customer satisfaction, Kiwibank has performed the role of challenger brand brilliantly and given the big boys plenty of grief since it was set up in 2002. Hell, ASB even took aim at it last year in the misguided ‘We’re a Kiwi bank’ campaign and Sam Neill signed on to be the bank’s mascot, so it must be doing something right. Sadhana Raman, Kiwibank’s general manager of brand and marketing communications—and a finalist in last year’s Marketer of the Year awards—goes back in time.

Spark PHDIQ has taken out the third quarter round of the Yahoo!Xtra Digital Strategy Awards for its Unilever Sunsilk Co-creations campaign, which the judges—Yahoo!Xtra’s Laura Maxwell-Hansen, Mohawk Media’s Helen Baxter and guest judge Gavin Pook, Red Bull’s marketing manager—felt succeeded in re-launching the brand through a range of digital channels and firmly established it as an expert in hair care.

Creative Review magazine called David Carson “the most famous graphic designer on the planet” and “art director of the era”; his first book The End of Print, is the top selling graphic design book of all time, selling over 200,000 copies; and he and his work have been featured in over 180 magazine and newspaper articles around the world, including a feature in Newsweek magazine and a front page article in the New York Times. Well, Kiwi design lovers rejoice, for you will be able to bask in his reflected glow when he conducts seminars Auckland and Wellington in February.

Ashburton isn’t a place that’s renowned for its marketing innovations. But, after the launch of Air Banners, it soon might be.

JWT’s desire to become a more potent force in the Kiwi ad landscape just got a big fillip with the announcement that it has won the PlaceMakers account and will take control of the whole shebang, including creative, media, trade, loyalty and retail. 

Creativity can come from anywhere. And the Media Design School obviously recognises that, because it’s calling for wildcard entries to fill two positions on this year’s creative advertising course.

Ahoyhoy StopPressers and happy year of the rabbit to all. Sadly, as you presumably well know, the annual period of glorious, unbridled festive leisure has once again come to an end for most and, as the long, seemingly never-ending year stretches out relentlessly in front of us, we trust you too are also emotional husks, staring blankly at your screens, dreaming of ham wrapped in teatowels, sausages for every meal, lustrous summer beards and not wearing any shoes. We at StopPress heartily endorse the presumably highly unproductive New Zealand way, where there seems to be a general acceptance among the populous that no-one shall work over the holidays (to the point where those who do are frowned upon) and little work shall be done in the first week. But now that your places of employ require you to get busy, you’ll probably be looking for ways to avoid doing real work. And recent studies have shown that there is no better form of procrastination than reading about industry gossip on StopPress (and filling in our survey, which will only be up for one more week, to help us gauge the mood of the marcomms fraternity).