Last year, the comedic septuple of funnymen that make up the Alternative Commentary Collective were almost stopped in their tracks by a drinks trolley fiasco that saw their media accreditation pulled. But this didn’t stop the group from adding a bit of colour to the dire commentary that usually accompanies cricket matches. To the delight of fans who aligned with supported causes like #JeSuisACC and #SavetheACC, the collective continued to share their banter, risque remarks and heavy drinking from outside the stadium and later also went cross-discipline and started reporting on rugby. However, after the end of the Rugby World Cup, the ACC disbanded and the various members have since occupied themselves with an assortment of solo careers. Fortunately, NZME’s general manager of experiential Mike Lane has been working hard to convince the band to get back together.
Browsing: ACC
Safekids Aotearoa, in partnership with ACC and the Starship Foundation, has released a new campaign via bcg2 and Mediacom, with the aim of preventing Kiwi children from being hit by cars on driveways through methods as simple as having a key ring with a safety message and your child’s picture on it.
Over the last month, much of the attention attributed to iHeartRadio has rather unsurprisingly been centred on the motley crew of beer-drinking funnymen who comprise the Alternative Commentary Collective. When news emerged of the now well-recognised caravan being banned from the stadium, it was almost disappointing to discover that something as innocuous as a Gatorade promotion venturing into a prohibited space caused the expulsion of the crew. And while this has done little to stop the ACC from adding a little flavour to cricket commentary, it did highlight the important commercial role that iHeartRadio is starting to play for NZME. So, StopPress recently chatted to iHeartRadio head Carolyn Luey to find out how the platform generates revenue for NZME. PLUS: iHeartRadio partners with 2degrees to bring Charli XCX to Auckland for a single show.
The Alternative Commentary Collective has been one of the country’s recent media highlights. The witty, oft-politically incorrect or downright offensive banter, the purposeful mangling of names (RIP Mrs Mangel), the dubious factoids, the humorous nicknames and, occasionally, the cricket commentary, have attracted thousands to NZME’s iHeartRadio platform, as well as a number of commercial partners. But after the ICC got a bee in its bonnet over Leigh Hart’s appearance on Gatorade’s bottle/inflatable penis during a drinks break at McLean Park in Napier on Sunday, the team has had their accreditation revoked, leading to howls of protest from fans—and probably a bit of sucking up from NZME—to ensure the caravan of cricket can continue doing the work of God for the rest of the tournament.
In order to ameliorate cricket’s image as the boring cousin of other sports and make it more accessible to a younger generation, the creative agency True has collaborated with OMD, New Zealand Cricket, ANZ, iHeart Radio, Radio Sport and several Kiwi celebrities to give the sport a new voice through an initiative called the Alternative Commentary Collective (ACC). Updated with cricket and rugby viewership numbers from Nielsen.
ACC does a swag of things to prevent falls in the home, there’s even a national strategy for it. Now it’s added a game, Safe House, created by Auckland company InGame, to the kitbag it uses to educate people about the issue.
If you just so happen to be sitting on a chair on top of your Persian rug with a power chord nearby, clearly you like living dangerously. Or maybe you just don’t know that your chair is in fact a four-legged assassin conspiring with the other objects in and around your house to cause your demise. So, in an effort to draw attention to the unsuspecting objects that are often implicit in home-related injury, DraftFCB launched ‘Fight the 5’, its campaign for ACC’s Home Safety Action Week.
ACC has appointed DraftFCB for its advertising, marketing and design services. The incumbents were Clemenger and AIM Proximity.
A partnership between Y&R and Ocean Design has been appointed by ACC. The pair tendered jointly for brand, advertising and direct elements in the recent ACC Marketing Communications RFP process, after successfully implementing a number of campaigns together in recent years, from both the public and private sectors.