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.
As part of its big brand launch, New World staff, with the help of .99, recently breathed some life into vegetables (literally, to the tune of ‘Slice of Heaven’). And they’ve followed that up by breathing some life into the humble shopping basket, with its cutesy animated mascots, the Cleverbaskets, assuming their position as the new faces of the supermarket’s retail marketing.
In news that’s sure to rip the grundies of the Media Design School students who recently showed off their portfolios to a range of creative big wigs at the 2010 end of year show (three creative pairs were snapped up beforehand), next year’s Adschool students will not only be honing their skills, they’ll also be competing for a new $5000 cash scholarship sponsored by specialist communications recruitment company Marsden Inch.
Once again, the digital folk are cackling with glee after online advertising expenditure figures for the third quarter of 2010 from the Interactive Advertising Bureau of New Zealand (IABNZ) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) showed that a total of $67.93m went through the gates, up $4.83m on the last quarter and up nearly 18 percent year on year.
… as David Innes hangs up his headphones, Charlotte Findlay shacks up with Telecom, Q Group New Zealand opens the doors to a raft of newbies, Paul Wright aims for US domination with Harcourts and Southern Hospitality goes trans-Tasman.
The local ad fraternity, the global cognoscenti and plenty of actual New Zealanders were all smitten with Orcon and Special Group’s ‘Orcon + Iggy’ campaign. But, as cliche-loving rugby players always say, you’re only as good as your last match. And despite the fact the trophies have flowed fairly freely for the pairing in 2010, the Orcon business is currently up for pitch.
Saatchi & Saatchi has been appointed as the new creative agency for New Zealand rural insurance company FMG, beating out three other agencies in a competitive pitch, and taking over from ‘the heartland agency’ Tracta, previously known as Adplus.
It’s a “web-based digital asset delivery system” used by some of the world’s top agencies and publishers. And now, with the help of Dubsat, which specialises in managing and delivering digital content for the advertising and entertainment industries, Adsend has arrived in Australasia.
Who’s it for: NZTA/NZ Police by Clemenger BBDO and @radical.media
Why we like it: The human male is a very prideful creature and generally comes equipped with the misguided belief that it is remarkably skilled in all areas. With young men responsible for the vast …
The Yellow Treehouse and Tourism New Zealand’s Giant Rugby Ball campaigns have been identified by the CAANZ Marcomms Leadership Group as two of ten examples from around the world that best show the value of PR and experiential marketing as part of the marcomms arsenal.
The Ad Show’s main aim was to demystify the realm of marketing and advertising for the benefit of the New Zealand public and equip them with a few tools to fully understand the tactics they were regularly being exposed to. It was something of a fringe benefit that the show also seemed to find favour with the industry. But, with speculation about a possible merger of TVNZ’s two digital channels 6 and 7 and uncertainty about continued government funding, it’s still unclear whether there will be a second season of the show, despite what appeared to be a successful first run.
It brings a new meaning to the phrase ‘manning up’. And “staying in mantrol” is the new message to try and stop young male drivers from killing themselves and others on New Zealand roads.
While it’s all well and good to marvel at the tactics employed for the latest product launch or to have a bit of laff at the latest big budget summer beer ad—of which there have been many recently—there is, of course, a much less glamorous, more harmful side to alcohol in New Zealand that, understandably, is often overlooked by those in the marcomms industry whose job it is to sell more of it. There are already a host of marketing restrictions imposed on the largely self-regulated alcohol industry and while the New Zealand Drug Foundation believes the government is heading in the right direction with the alcohol reform bill, it contests that a number of the most important recommendations from the Law Commission report (there were 153 in total) have been ignored—particularly pricing, as this blunt but effective anti-alcohol marketing video called the ‘Budget Guide to Drinking Yourself to Death’ shows.
To celebrate the arrival of barbecue season (and to reference the recent increase in explicitly man-focused advertising) we thought it appropriate to compile a post filled to the brim with meat-related news, including the announcement of New Zealand’s Next Top Sausage, accolades for Silver Fern Farms and New Zealand’s penchant for gourmet burgers.
There’s only one word spoken in the Fire Service’s new TVC. But that doesn’t mean there’s a shortage of communication.
Two New Zealand soldiers are trapped behind enemy lines in western France during World War I. They find a crying baby in a ditch, lying under its dead parents. What happens when one man wants to save it and the other doesn’t? Not only is this based on a startling true story, but the CG animated short film version, Poppy, has won two top awards at the SIGGRAPH 2010 Computer Animation Festivals.
This week on Ads@6, a cool car ad from Lexus; another mascot family hits the screens, this time for The Warehouse; Rhys Darby dangles worms for the 2degrees Xmas push; BP is back (with a robo-dog); Jetstar greys up; and who can resist the Magic of Mantovani?
… as Yellow wins some more awards, the wheels on the Instant Kiwi scratchie bus go round and round, Fresh PR slips into something more comfortable, the University of Auckland School of Business reaches a big milestone with its 40,000th Short Course attendant, TVNZ ups its streaming, TV3 spruces up its website, the crowd goes wild for Microsoft Kinect and Sealegs is endorsed by scientists.
McDonald’s New Zealand has made a key marketing appointment. And it’s a familiar face: ex-Air New Zealander Jules Lloyd, who recently left the airline after an eight year stint.