There was jubilation in the Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand ranks when it signed up Dylan Harrison as executive creative director in January. Well, he’s off again, heading back to his old network and his native Australia after taking up the role of ECD at DDB Sydney.
It’s all go in New Zealand’s financial comms realm at the moment, with a bevy of big new campaigns, logo redesigns, repositioning statements and retiring frontmen spewing forth recently. And RaboDirect is the latest addition to that bunch, with a cool new campaign created by its new agency Shine, which took the account off Ogilvy in May.
Like us, you’ll probably feel a little bit dirty for even being interested in this, but Colenso’s Tim Smith, resplendent in a luxurious velvet jacket, and Saatchi & Saatchi’s Gemma Copas, dazzling onlookers with her polka dots, have left the other hideously unattractive finalists in their ridiculously good-looking wake after taking out APN Outdoor’s inaugural Advertising’s Next Top Model competition.
Who’s it for: House of Travel by Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland and Thick as Thieves
Why we like it: In the middle of a filthy New Zealand spring, a bit of global gallivanting seems like a particularly good option. And, with the internet taking plenty of wind out …
Auckland-based artist agency International Rescue is now representing animators in addition to its list of photographers and illustrators. And co-director Rob Finn says the move will not only allow clients to save costs and time by working directly with animators, but it will also offer access to a wider range of animation styles because the work of the 17 existing illustrators can also be animated.
Wammo, Pound & Mash returns this week with a look at the democratisation of creativity as a promotional tool. And some top billboard efforts from DDB for Spartacus.
It’s been a fairly wild and chilly Spring, so what better way to entice bundled up Aucklanders to their nearest McCafe to thaw out over a coffee than with a steaming Adshel bus shelter?
TVNZ raked in a fair few awards at the Qantas Film and Television Awards. And it added to its weekend haul at the Promax/BDA ANZ festivities, an awards show that aims to recognise the broadcasting world’s best promotional work.
A group from New Zealand cloud software developer Genesis Interactive claim to have come up with a “possible world first”, a tool called Comet SEO that aims to simplify the search engine optimisation (SEO) process for Kiwi companies.
He’s been a fixture of the New Zealand advertising landscape for 11 years, but all good things must come to an end and, after TBWA\ lost the ASB account to Droga5 a few months back, the axe was always likely to come down on Ira Goldstein, New Zealand’s best-loved bumbling fictional American banking spy.
New Zealand’s glitterati braved the elements and put on their best ‘take my photo’ smiles, Paul Henry used the c word and the broadcasting industry came together to pat itself on the back for a job well done over the last rather difficult 12 months as the winners of the Qantas Film and Television Awards were announced. And, in the usual stoush between the major networks, TVNZ came out on top.
In-depth readership surveys have shown that over 96 percent of StopPress readers are money-grubbing capitalists who love nothing more than return on investment, fiscal skullduggery, skyrocketing sales and massive profits. So it seemed appropriate to give away five double passes to Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, a movie that marks the return of disgraced former Wall Street corporate raider/finance industry divinity Gordon Gekko. And for wannabe Kiwi corporate raiders with absolutely no shame, we’ve also got five Wall St BlackBerry cases to dish out.
TVNZ and MediaWorks trade recruitment blows; Saatchi’s creates a new role in an effort to ramp up ‘irresistability’; a man who struck fear into the hearts of marketing shysters hangs up his boots; and Omnigraphics, Villa Maria and Supply Design bolster their staff offerings.
Mother always said never to judge a book by its cover. But, as the finalist list for the The Maggies shows, the opposite applies when it comes to magazines.
In a deal estimated to be worth A$150 million, BBDO Worldwide, the advertising network of global marketing beast Omnicom Group, is hoping to increase its shareholding in the Clemenger Group from 46.67 percent to 73.67 percent as part of an increased focus on the Asia-Pacific region.
BOHICA. Here’s your regular injection of marcomms miscellany, which includes quake-related media facts, tales of the hugely popular pop-up Wellington restaurant/experiential marketing ploy in Sydney, Auckland City Council’s new film initiatives, accolades for font gurus, new bubbles, silver foxes, over the shoulder boulder holders, bland pasta spokeswomen, signs and even databases.
It’s been a rocky road at times, but the first year of public cycle scheme Nextbike has been a pretty successful one (as evidenced by the emerging business award it was handed by the Sustainable Business Network last night) and, to celebrate, it is extending its Auckland network to include the North Shore, an area that Nextbike’s marketing and sales manager Glenn Shaw says is not particularly well-endowed with outdoor advertising opportunities.
Damon O'Leary: in front of a wall
Basil Christensen, the art directing half of Ogilvy’s creative team, has decided to retire from advertising (for a while, at least) and move to the South of France, which means his long-time creative partner Damon O’Leary will be on his own as Ogilvy’s executive creative director.
With a pesky global financial crisis, the Rugby World Cup sucking up the corporate cash and the six year relationship with Air New Zealand as naming rights sponsor coming to an end, necessity has dictated a few new, cost-effective marketing tactics in the tenth year of New Zealand Fashion Week (NZFW).
With the launch of the #NewTwitter, it seems apt to speak about what the changes might mean for the social space in terms of PR.
It’s a long way from the Sundance Film Festival, but, hey, a man’s gotta eat, so big directorial gun Toa Fraser has decided to take on his first ever advertising project, a series of new commercials for Freeview and TBWA\TEQUILA.
Interbrand has released the 11th annual 100 Best Global Brands rankings and, out of the corporate turbulence seen over the past 12 months, it’s the high profile technology brands that have performed best.
Mike Walsh is what’s known as a ‘futurist’. Somewhat disappointingly, he doesn’t wear a silver boiler suit, he doesn’t employ the services of a rocket pack and he doesn’t know if the Mayans are right about the world ending in 2012. But, by focusing on nascent consumer trends in certain regions that have the potential to become mainstream everywhere else, he does know a thing or two about how the rise of the machines is completely changing the marketing game.Â
After we posted this story about the companies and organisations that were deemed to have the best reputations in the eyes of Kiwis, we had a few requests for details about the Corporate Reputation breakfast seminar. Originally, this event was aimed at the 20 companies featured in the study, so they could find out about their rankings and those of their competitors, but there was enough interest from outside this exclusive club to open it up further. So Core Communications and AMR Interactive have extended an invitation to anyone interested in hearing about the New Zealand study, the international index and global best practice for reputation management from AMR’s reputation expert Oliver Freedman.
The faces have been put forward, the votes have been cast and the six hottest humans in the marcomms biz have been chosen for APNO’s inaugural Friends in High Places Advertising’s Next Top Model.
As Air New Zealand’s young, slightly more controversial upstart brand, grabaseat has always been given a bit more marketing rope than its parent. It’s certainly come up with some slightly unusual promotions in its time and it openly claims to do things in a way “that sometimes offends, sometimes makes you laugh, sometimes makes you cry and sometimes is just plain dumb”. But whatever grabaseat does, there’s always someone out there who will tell them how to do things better, apparently. So instead of fighting against the haters, it has decided to harness the creative power of the masses with the grabaseat billboard website.
I came across this discussion on Mumbrella about what PR agencies need to do to win awards at Cannes and why “adland is the home of awards-obsessed backslapping knob-jockeys”. And I thought it was quite interesting because I’m sad and have no life.
If, as Bill Bernbach exclaimed, profit sets you free, then the folks at DDB are presumably relishing their freedom this week after holding on to two massive beasts, Cadbury and The Warehouse.
DraftFCB snatched the National Bank account off Clemenger BBDO in October last year and since then, industry chinstrokers have been eagerly awaiting the fruits of the new relationship. Well, the new, zany, big budget, weirdly patriotic TVC epic has finally hit the shelves and it’s an interesting—and entertaining—evolution to a banking brand that’s long been seen as a fairly serious one.
In this instalment of ads@6, Eco Strand gets a little bit ‘matrixy’, DraftFCB’s campaign to stop family violence strikes a chord, Axxis steel framing could be ramping up its presence after being given a fillip by the quake, State and Tower go head to head and a host of retailers yell loudly about their various specials.