“Winning a Canon” will be the new goal for the nation’s journalists and publishers after news the electronics giant has taken over from Qantas as naming rights sponsor of New Zealand’s premier media awards.
Those cheeky creative Wellington chappies have been in stellar promotional form this year. And in a fitting farewell to 2010, Positively Wellington Tourism’s digital marketing team and Clemenger BBDO have launched their latest trick, a digital advent calendar.
Tangible Media announced that it would be making some changes to Good magazine back in October. Well, the makeover is now complete, with a fresh editorial direction from new editor Sarah Heeringa and a snazzy redesign by art director Sally Fullam. And, freegans rejoice, for the reluanch edition of the mag that goes on sale on Monday 6 December also comes with a free copy of very handy Good Shopping Handbook.
There’s nothing better than making fun of twee town slogans (aside perhaps from coming up with your own). And a contest run by grabaseat and BillieTees called ‘Love Your Town’ has unearthed a few crowd-sourced beauts, with Cecilia of the West Coast and her ‘She’ll be Whitebait’ effort chosen as the worthy winner.
I got three main insights from this week’s Marketing Forum, an annual assembly of New Zealand’s top marketers. Hats off to the Marketing Association which once again pulled in 100-plus of our most senior marketers to compare notes, share war stories and drink modestly. Well mostly.
The scramble for free television advertising space is on after TVNZ announced applications are open for its CSR programme, which gives a handsome $50k worth of filler time every month for two years to four national charities or NGOs.
You might know them as the directors of the uber-summery, very New Zealandy commercials for Tip Top and the Interislander. But before Louis Sutherland and Mark Albiston sold their souls to the Sweet Shop and got into directing ads, they made a couple of short films. And their last effort, the Six Dollar Fifty Man, has made the Academy Awards long-list.
With less than a month until Christmas the festive retail market could best be described as challenging. The latest consumer confidence survey by ANZ – Roy Morgan suggests most consumers remain cautious about their spending plans this festive season. And, despite personal tax cuts, 38 percent of those surveyed in November said they were worse off financially than a year ago. So now, more than ever, it is essential that our advertising and marketing is effective.
Greedy old DraftFCB has won another one, this time getting the nod for the Orcon business and taking over from Special Group.
… as Publicis Mojo welcomes a replacement executive creative director, Mango Communications says hello to two ‘Mango-worthy’ candidates, DNA design reels in a big one, NZ Magazines loses another editor and TV3 chooses its new European correspondent.
In yet another example of using consumers to come up with the marketing material, Apex Car Rentals has opened the door for the public to suggest the direction of the next instalment of its recent “hugely popular” television commercial, which was made by Christchurch ad agency Strategy and directed by Gregor Nicholas of Flying Fish.
Nothing says Christmas like a magazine subscription (especially if it’s a subscription to Christmas Monthly). And Tangible Media is offering you, the people, a deal. Not only will you be remembered all year for your thoughtfulness and generosity, you’ll also get 40 percent off the retail cover price when you subscribe to one (or perhaps a few) of the many Tangible titles before Saturday 4 December. And as if that deal wasn’t sweet enough, it’s been sweetened even further by Monteith’s, which will be dishing out one dozen of its new premium drop Single Source to ten lucky subscribers.
The hype was real: there was indeed a genuine news item from yesterday’s Marketing Forum, the annual knees up for senior marketers held by the Marketing Association. And the news is the Hyperfactory Handley Future Marketing Scholarship.
Hark! The finalists for the 2010 RSVP & Nexus Awards have been announced, with DraftFCB, justONE, Rapp Tribal, AIM Proximity, Affinity ID, Colenso BBDO, Federation and Tango Communications leading the charge. So read on and marvel at their response-driven brilliance.
Who’s it for: Mammoth Supply Co by Shine and Robber’s Dog
Why we like it: How could you not like an ad that’s got that old cowboy dude from the Big Lebowski doing the voice over (apparently he never does ads)? Or an …
While iPhones and the like have burst onto the mobile scene, there hasn’t been an associated explosion of app designers to create the apps that make the smartphone world turn. This shortage is particularly noticeable in New Zealand and finding designers has proved a real struggle for Brett Hancock, founder of digital design company Born Digital. In fact, pickings are so slim that when the company recently put an ad on Seek for a full-time iPhone app developer, only one lonesome response was received over an entire month.
“A local shop for local people” may come from the excruciating comic genius of The League of Gentlemen, but it’s a mission statement that has worked wonders for Flooring Xtra. And now, following a rapid rise up the Kiwi carpeting ranks, it’s set to become a local company for Aussie people.
It’s all well and good attracting eyeballs to your website. But do you know what will help the wallets of those visitors creak open while they’re there? Well, according to new research by Experian, nearly two thirds of Australian marketers have never heard of or don’t understand conversion optimisation, the process of refining a website to help increase the conversion rate of sales, leads or subscribers, with almost half of those surveyed spending 40 percent or more of their budget driving traffic to their website.
Despite some strong rumourmongery that claimed ex Clemenger BBDO Wellington managing director Peter Biggs was set to return to a role in New Zealand after five years spent successfully running the show at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, the man himself has quashed those rumours and says he’s staying put.
‘Tis the season to embarrass yourself at the workplace Christmas party. ‘Tis also the season to think about presents for your loved—or, if Secret Santa’s on offer, unloved—ones. And while it’s tempting to get everyone you know a life size cardboard of yourself, charities are making their annual call for us to resist our childish, consumerist urges and instead be more grown up in our approach to giving.
nzherald.co.nz has been given a bit of a spruce up, with a revamped homepage, an improved navigation menu and easier access to opinion pieces, forums, editor’s picks and other content. And, slightly ironically, the e-sprucing was announced just after the old version was awarded a silver medal for best newspaper website at the Asian Digital Media awards.
This week on the telly, Rhys plays with his baubles; find out who wins in a fight between the Warehouse family and Countdown Colemans; look at all the pills, potions and lotions on offer for hayfever season; Farmers, Briscoes, Harvey Norman and pretty much every other retailer get into the festive spirit; the return of James Blunt leads to hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders being sick in their own mouths; and, having already launched online, ASB’s new ads finally reach the TV screens, which, if you believe the front page story on the Sunday Star Times yesterday, led to “a flurry of complaints” to the ASA about the IVF assistance ad (in media land, it seems seven complaints constitutes a flurry).
Absolut has released its latest limited edition seasonal bottle design and it’s packed some extra stylish bling this summer with Absolut Glimmer, a retro crystal-patterned bottle that “harks back to an era dominated by classic cocktail culture”. We’ve got two of the sparkly numbers to give away. But you must be 18 or over to enter and you must enjoy Absolut responsibly. So tell us the most responsible way to enjoy it and to the most responsible will go the liquid spoils.
New Zealand’s printed news media seems to be increasingly heading in the tabloid direction. But long before today’s front page spreads of car crashes, boogers in burgers and bi-sexual television presenters that the people so crave, there was the The Truth, a paper that was—and, under its current guise of the Truth Weekender, still is—something of a guilty pleasure in New Zealand. A new book by former staffer Redmer Yska called Truth: The Rise and Fall of the People’s Paper charts its rather intriguing course (check out an extract here) and we’ve got three copies of this gripping media yarn to give away. So come up with your best tabloid style headline about the upcoming royal wedding and you might just be able to fob the book off as a Christmas present once you’ve finished reading it.
It was fun while it lasted, but it seems Orcon and Special Group have split up.
Westpac’s annual Westie Pac campaign has been pimped out like a matte black 1979 Holden Kingswood thanks to a handful of student marketers who attacked the bank’s student campaign like a Bull Terrier on a Sunnyvale Postie’s gastrocnemius. And now, five creative pairings have been chosen by New Zealand Post as finalists in its Student Marketer of the Year Award.
… as Pead PR has a growth spurt, award-winning ad photographer Rory Carter signs with International Rescue, Loyalty New Zealand welcomes an old face back to the office, McCann Worldgroup New Zealand snaps up a talented creative couple, Twenty nabs a creative director and Omnilab Media goes for the digital jugular.
It’s raining quality commercial messages as Fly Buys gets cartoony with Air New Zealand, the National Bank finds its groove, Bazaar breads channels OMC, Fairfax goes outdoor for its new ‘Find out More’ campaign, Kiwi director Dylan Pharazyn blocks it all out for Tiger Beer and feast your eyes on two of the most powerful ads of the year.
After a government tender, M&C Saatchi has taken the honours as the new ad agency for New Zealand Trade & Enterprise (NZTE), taking over from Clemenger BBDO.
Fairfax Media has announced it will be making some sizable changes to its organisational structure in an effort to adapt and prosper in a world where convergent, digital and multi-platform media rules the day. But the New Zealand media operations, it seems, won’t really be affected.