Close your eyes for a moment and think about insolvency. What do you see? Financial despair and suffering? Complicated court proceedings? Defamatory anonymous comments on websites? Aggrieved creditors chasing dodgy shysters through the woods with pitchforks and flaming sticks? Or frolicking dolphins, leaping about playfully in the ocean?
The Independent newspaper is on its death bed and, as of 1 July, will cease to exist. But the newspaper’s owner, Fairfax Media, seems surprisingly upbeat about its passing.
This week on Ads@6, dogs will once again be seen going whacko for Smackos; Harraways Oats and the mysterious case of the stilted delivery; Tower insurance mows the lawn and displays moobs; ’tis the season for Damp Rid; a new Mercedes-Benz campaign; Skechers promotes its new shoes for lazy people; and Bluebird, like many other chip manufacturers from foreign lands, is obviously too lazy to come up with its own varieties, so it’s left the decisions in the hands of the chip eaters with the nifty ‘Do us a Flavour’ campaign.
Here’s a few visual treats to ease you back into the short working week, honour the birth of our Dear Queen and also prepare you for the start of the FIFA World Cup this weekend: to promote its coverage of the football fest ESPN’s agency Wieden & Kennedy, New York, commissioned a group of Capetown artists by the name of Am I Collective to paint 32 fairly outstanding murals of each of the countries participating in the tournament.
Ever since TV3’s Sunrise and ASB Business bit the dust back in April, the Mediaworks press releases about news and current affairs viewer numbers seem to have dried up. Not surprisingly, NZI Business and Breakfast have reaped the benefits after the departure of its main competition, but there’s also been some significant ratings increases for Te Karere and Q+A over the last year and ONE news has also held firm.
In news that you probably already knew, online intelligence outfit Experian Hitwise has released figures that show Google is the dominant search engine in New Zealand. But, with its recent moves to increase the focus on national search domain identity, the local arm. Google.co.nz, is on the up and is now receiving over 86 per cent of all New Zealand searches.
There have been lots of conversations recently about privacy, specifically in social media. Mark Zuckerberg, founder and head-honcho at Facebook, got very sweaty when discussing the topic recently. So if Mark Zuckerberg, one of the pioneers of the share everything world we live in, is getting sweaty about ongoing privacy concerns, then perhaps we should all be worrying.
The newspapers were the real winners of the May edition of the Newspaper Advertising Bureau’s (NAB) Ad of the Month competition after Air New Zealand’s chief executive Rob Fyfe, with the help of its agency .99, decided to take his grievances with the Listener public by producing a video and running a few full page print ads. And it just kept getting better for the papers when the Listener decided to follow suit, continuing the stoush with a few full-pagers of its own.
As it nears the end of its first season, the signs are auspicious for The Ad Show: it’s taken the channel’s top spot for download numbers, the studio audience members are “hanging from the rafters”, a few extra episodes have been commissioned and there are high hopes that the hand that feeds will commission a second season.
Phase two of the Ministry of Health’s highly successful National Depression Initiative (NDI) has just kicked off and John Kirwan, much-loved former All Black, Japanese national rugby coach and straight talking past depression sufferer has returned as the frontman after his star turn in the first installment. But this time he’s starring in a new, more instructive and much more interactive, role.
Who it’s for: New Zealand Lotteries/Instant Kiwi by DDB NZ, Good Oil and Images and Sound
Why we like it: Exploding old people, mediocre dancing, a moonwalking cameo from Mexi-Doug, the funny dolphin noise, huge amounts of unbridled joy and the promotion of gambling makes for …
Colenso BBDO and AIM Proximity took home New Zealand’s only Yellow Pencil in the branding category for the Yellow Treehouse campaign at last night’s D&AD awards in London. And it’s in fairly elite company: it was one of only 42 Yellow Pencils and five Black Pencils handed out by the judges.
Last week on Wammo, Pound and Mash we looked at the early years of Kiwi advertising. This time we look at the rest.
The New Zealand Marketing Association has announced the launch of the Certificate of Marketing, a 16-week course “for professionals by professionals” that covers the full scope of marketing. And while such courses are common overseas, this is the first time a formal professional qualification that recognises and enhances the skills marketers have developed during their careers has been on offer in New Zealand.
The good ship Special Group continues to cut a swathe through adland and its most recent appointment has given it the drinks trolley: after a competitive pitch, the Kingsland-based AXIS hoggers have been appointed, effective immediately, to handle Lion Nathan’s suite of Diageo brands, which includes Smirnoff, Baileys, Guinness and Johnny Walker.
This newsy concoction is light and frothy on the nose, with undercurrents of naivete, overcurrents of aniseed, cassis and forest floor and aftercurrents of squash changing room. Can be served either brucewarm or lukewarm.
It seems the XT mobile wounds are starting to heal: Paul Reynolds, Telecom’s chief executive (and, more recently, its main punching bag) has fronted up on camera, admitted a few mistakes and asked Kiwi consumers to give the telco another shot. And the new campaign marks the resumption of full XT Mobile marketing activities after a fairly long period of apologising and wound-licking.
Mobile marketing company Run The Red, KHF Media and TVNZ are popping a few corks today after the interactive online drama Reservoir Hill it developed was awarded New Zealand’s first ever International Digital Emmy in Cannes, France.
In this installment of Michael Carney’s Marketing Week: As TV watching habits change, audience measurement is changing with it. Is social buzz leading to more ka-ching? Nielsen says ‘meh, not really’. Online video is hot. And B2BTV hopes to tap into it for the New Zealand market. Can our internet infrastructure actually handle the iPad? Whitcoulls launches an e-reader. But, without cellular connectivity, will it be able to compete? Data-driven coupons show their worth. Survey your way to a fitter, healthier marketing you, and expand your mind by getting a spot in the third Social Media Marketing Course.
The New Zealand Transport Agency was handed the Supreme Award at the 36th Annual Public Relations Institute of New Zealand (PRINZ) Awards, with Janette Wise and the NZTA team taking home top honours for their communications around the Tauranga Harbour Link, a campaign that spanned three years and relied on the public to champion its success.
. . . fewer employees: Saatchi & Saatchi has well and truly entered its next phase with the announcement of some hefty restructuring. But trying to move the agency in a more unified direction has led to a few more high-profile casualties in the upper echelons.
An enticing potpourri of recent appointments for your people-watching/judging/slating pleasure.
Award hogging Aussie Rebecca Carrasco has been named as creative director at Publicis Mojo, Auckland, replacing Steve McKenzie.
The traditional car campaign in New Zealand tends to be focused on new models or retail prices. But Running with Scissors has taken a different approach with its new Mercedes-Benz brand campaign by showcasing the German carmaker’s impressive – and, in many cases, relatively unknown – legacy of invention.
With limited resources at their disposal, small businesses rarely have the opportunity to invest time into their marketing planning, despite the fact that marketing is an integral element of their businesses. And, with a nation made up of many small to medium enterprises (SMEs), opportunities for guidance, advice and dedicated time to spend on marketing planning is usually quite rare. So, to try and relieve some of this pressure, the Marketing Association has just launched the SME Marketing Assistance Programme.
Who’s it for: BNZ by Sugar, Exile Films and Franklin Road.
Why we like it: Portraying banks as good, honest business/community/family builders is a pretty tough sell at present given the financial sector’s greed and recklessness played a large part …
Today sees the launch of New Zealand’s first 100 percent local content channel, TVNZ Heartland, which features a mix of old classics and new gems and will be shown on the Sky platform. And, according to TVNZ’s head of digital Eric Kearley, we can expect to see more of these types of channels on the pay-TV platform in the future.
Here’s one for the quite funny but presumably completely unintentional stuff-ups category. As you can see, the image is intended to promote the sale of supporter gear for the FIFA World Cup at Stirling Sports. But the logo they’ve chosen to use on their homepage had been modified slightly, most notably with the addition of a large gun. Ah yes, it’s the kind of woopsie the internet was invented for.
A couple of weeks back it was all backslaps and bumpats at Saatchi & Saatchi after it won the Sanitarium account. But this week it’s back to what seems to have become a relatively normal state of flux for the agency after a couple more high-profile additions and subtractions.
The 36 Australasian judges have spoken. And what they’ve said relates to the Magazine Publishers Association (MPA) Magazine Awards and, particularly, the finalists.