It may be a relatively unsexy side of the digital marketing world. But there’s no doubt email is powerful (read this if you don’t believe it). And the Jericho Email Marketing Metrics Report for 2010, which crunched tens of millions of permission-based commercial emails in New Zealand, has shown that email drives massive readership and clicks—especially on Mondays.
Some companies just seem to have unending revenue streams. And as Trade Me stretches its tentacles into the services area and starts competing with Yellow and Google (for the full round-up, scroll down to near the bottom of this story), it’s also finding a bit of a niche as an online display advertising team for other websites, the latest of which is metservice.com.
While all the talk in DDB land is about the big merge between Rapp and Tribal DDB, Mango Communications continues to blaze a rather successful trail and has managed to get hold of a wee beauty: the public relations account for Icebreaker in the New Zealand market.
New Zealand loves comparing its performance with other nations. And typically we always do well on a per capita basis. But the YoungGuns Top 10 rankings of the most Awarded Countries of the past decade shows that we’re flat out better than almost all of our foreign rivals when it comes to the quality of our creative advertising whippersnappers (turns out the old folk aren’t too bad either).
You might have noticed that digital is not an ‘other’ anymore. And while a number of the larger agencies have been operating separate digital factions for some time, many of them now appear to be moving digital back to the centre of the agency offering. TBWA\ recently brought Ross Howard in as creative director of Tequila to sit beside executive creative director Andy Blood, Saatchi & Saatchi closed its digital outfit SaatchiDGS this year, and DDB is the latest to head in this digi-direction after merging its direct arm Rapp and its digital arm Tribal DDB, into one, Popeye-esque arm they’re calling Rapp/Tribal.
The New Zealand Marketing Association has launched two flashy new advisory services, PR and Word of Mouth, bringing the total number of resources aimed at developing specialist areas of marketing to 18.
In this collection of searing Michael Carney-created insights from Marketing Week: New Zealand media by the numbers Jericho crunches the email numbers and tells us when we should send them Too much discounting? Trade Me takes on Yellow (and Google) Social media and the jobseeker New revenue ideas for the small screen
Westpac has gracefully declined to provide Saatchi & Saatchi with its advertising business and in a competitive pitch the account for the creative work has gone to Colenso.
Who’s it for: The Women’s Refuge 2010 appeal by Saatchi & Saatchi Wellington.
Why we like it: Powerful, tense and beautifully made. And the treading on eggshells metaphor (as well as that chilling hand on the armchair shot) really gets across how psychologically damaging it can be …
DraftFCB recently announced a raft of new hires, and it might have to add a few more names to the list after Stella Travel Services, the international company behind the United Travel and Harvey World Travel brands, and Sony Electronics signed up with DraftFCB Media.
Special Group’s print ad for ecostore ended up sparking off a rather heated discussion about the exciting realm of PH levels in washing powder when we wrote a story about the whole malarkey a few weeks back. And the swift response obviously tickled the fancies of the Newspaper Advertising Bureau’s Newspaper Ad of the Month judges, because it’s been awarded the gong for the July round.
For your viewing and critiquing pleasure, the kind folk at Adshel have assembled all the entries from last week’s Creative Challenge. And, with teams given just one hour to come up with a static poster campaign for next year’s Auckland Fringe, the collection of ideas certainly makes for an interesting study of the creative process.
The TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards, to be held on August 26 at Auckland’s Langham Hotel, is promisng to shock guests with an announcement similar in magnitude to the devaluation of the currency in 1984, the resignation of Prime Minister David Lange in 1989 and the arrival of Doritos in 2010.
PR is the new marketing and customer service is the new marketing and Paul The Octopus is the new marketing and purple is the new black (thanks to Justin Bieber). Fads, they come and go, but back when I was a young ‘un, we talked about something called the 4Ps.
Lemonade Design has won a competitive pitch to overhaul the Eden Park brand and rebuild its website, with both projects due for completion before the new stand is opened in the next few months. But there appears to be bit of confusion in the Eden Park ranks as to whether or not the cat should have been let out of the bag so early.
Performance-based remuneration or payment by results (PBR) is an increasing component of many agency remuneration deals. But in most cases, agencies and clients will tell you it doesn’t actually work.
The judges had their opportunity to judge harshly at Adshel’s Creative Challenge a few nights ago and, while it was a pretty tight race, they eventually decided that the thought behind Publicis Mojo’s campaign was the best (read all about the one hour-long pressure cooker creative escapade here). But what would the stupid judges know? See if you agree with their decisions and impose your own judgements on these, the top three entries.
This week on Ads@6, Sunsweet ‘Amazins’ go high on the crapometer; Mt Ruapehu forks out for serious prime time; the Campbells stock spots tickle a fancy or two; Toyota and Saatchi continue the current trend for paper-based ads; Wattie’s tries to sell chicken in a can by making cans into chickens; and two of the best campaigns on TV at the moment, Kiwi Bank and 2degrees, keep delivering the goods.
Come with us now as we tap into the unending desire for flagrant industry-related people watching.
Lürzer’s Archive is considered to be one of the most prominent and influential voices in the world of advertising and design. And with four issues of the bi-annual 200 Best Ad Photographers worldwide and three issues of 200 Best Illustrators worldwide under its belt, it’s now added the 200 Best Packaging Design worldwide 2010/2011 to the list. And we’ve got some Lürzer’s goodies to give away.
Matt Shirtcliffe from recently born agency Shirtcliffe & Co and Darryl Wong and Kenton Osmond from RAPP, will be the guest speakers for the New Zealand Post Targeted Communications’ hugely popular and completely free direct marketing workshops. So get in quick if you want to hear their numerous pearls of wisdom.
Bloomsberry calls itself the inventor of the world’s most fashionable chocolate. And the Kiwi-founded, London-based company is living up to that reputation: its trendy, chocolatey wares are now being stocked in selected outlets of one of the UK’s most fashionable High St clothing chains, Top Shop.
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 only one idea could take home the $125,000 prize on offer at Adshel’s inaugural Creative Challenge last night and, in the end, it was Publicis Mojo’s campaign ‘Leave with more questions than answers’ for the Auckland Fringe festival that was chosen as the best.
It was an offer too good to refuse and after just six months in operation, indie agency Josh & Jamie have made their first creative signing: the entire Assignment Group staff roster. Or, slightly more accurately, J&J founders Josh Lancaster and Jamie Hitchcock will soon be nestling into the nurturing bosom of Assignment Group.
The tagline for the 2010 Women’s Refuge appeal almost says it all: ‘Living in fear isn’t living’. But Saatchi & Saatchi Wellington have managed to say a bit more about the scourge of domestic violence in New Zealand with their creative work. And by raising awareness of what it’s like to live in psychologically or physically abusive homes, it hopes more funds can be raised to help the women and children leading fear-filled lives.
Online video has been an integral part of marketing campaigns for years, and a video going gangbusters on YouTube and other video sites is like the Holy Grail of marketing. Support, content, timing and knowing your audience are all elements that have to be included in the mix. But what’s often glossed over is the above-the-line support that is typically needed to get the ball rolling.
Obviously the Adfest judges aren’t offended by the sight of horses in the throes of passion quite as much as some members of the New Zealand public, because, slightly ironically, DDB NZ took home one of the top awards, the Grande 360 Lotus, at the Asia Pacific advertising festival for a Moro campaign that celebrated the joy of coming fourth.
Small, very New Zealandy and not very old agency Josh&Jamie is steadily becoming not so small, continuing its solid run of victories after taking Fairfax Media’s online news-site Stuff.co.nz off incumbent Big Communications in a competitive pitch.
Air New Zealand’s daily deals website grabaseat.co.nz has appointed Trade Me’s advertising sales team to manage its existing advertising placement programme from 1 August, making it the second external website along with interest.co.nz to have its advertising exclusively sold by the Trade Me team.
Candida, Kinetic 121 and New Zealand Post Targeted Communications have sounded the horn for entries into this year’s Art of the Envelope awards. And while the creative postal interpretations will be sure to arouse all who lay eyes upon them, the bcg² campaign that shows some well-known marketing characters bringing the sexy back to the humble envelope is possibly even more stimulating.