McDonald’s seems to be a little obsessed with sauce at the moment. Following on from the spot featuring a man dancing underneath a downpour of McRib sauce, McDonald’s is now trumpeting the potential of Big Mac sauce to make everything better.
Browsing: Advertising
AUT University has after ten years ended its partnership with Consortium and will from now on work with a number of agencies on a project basis. The institution has appointed Shine to develop its mid-year marketing campaign, but the director of marketing Shelly Gane says that this is not to be understood as the appointment of the agency beyond this project. PLUS: Unitec reviews its creative account.
David Beckham and James Corden have created a hilarious juxtaposition in an underwear ad parody on the Late Late Show.
A record 32 golds were handed out at the AWARD Awards last night. And of the Kiwi agencies, DDB, Clemenger BBDO and Colenso BBDO had most cause to celebrate. PLUS: local talent acknowledged at the Young Guns.
Sometimes unfortunate or unforseen circumstances arise, which means that brands, for better or for worse, need to change their names. We thought we’d look at a few examples closer to home and further afield.
Z Energy has confirmed to StopPress that its creative account is currently undergoing a review process, which includes a pitch involving several parties.
The last year has seen subscription video on demand (SVOD) become a major talking point, with various players vying to become the Netflix of New Zealand. However, claiming this title will now be difficult now following the recent announcement that the actual Netflix plans to launch in both Australia and New Zealand in March next year. PLUS: we look at Neon’s lineup.
Every day, around two million Kiwis log onto Facebook to scroll down their newsfeeds to see what is happening in their lives. And according to Stephen Scheeler, the company’s head of New Zealand, these aren’t sporadic single visits because the average user peruses the site around 15 times in a single day. “For those two million Kiwis on Facebook, about 12 percent of their media consumption is Facebook,” says Scheeler. “Remember, eight years ago it was zero. So this has been a massive shift.” The rapid migration of audiences into the digital realm is by no means surprising, but such statistics are increasingly serving as strong impetus for brands to shift their commercial messaging to where the eyes are. So we take a look at how brands are collaborating with the social media juggernaut to spread their commercial messages.
After a competitive pitch, Meridian Energy is thought to have given its business to Barnes, Catmur & Friends, bringing an end to a four-ish year relationship with Assignment.
Last night, at a sold out event hosted at the Langham, FCB was crowned New Zealand’s most effective agency at the 2014 Effie Awards. And it wasn’t even a close race. With its tally of 94 points, FCB was convincingly ahead of Saatchi & Saatchi in second place on 54 points and Colenso BBDO/Proximity New Zealand in third on 52 points.
Slingshot’s decision to open the door to give Kiwis access to geo-locked sites such as Netflix has come under scrutiny for potentially contravening international copyright laws, but this hasn’t dissuaded consumers from visiting the site. According to the Herald, the number of Slingshot customers accessing movie websites like Netflix has quadrupled since the internet company unblocked them several weeks ago. But with the growing popularity of the SVOD site, there comes the possibility of some serious brain warping. As indicated by three clips from the new US-based Netflix campaign, we could essentially be setting ourselves up for a future of awkward (but somehow endearing) proposals, bizarre visits to the doctor and anti-climactic airport reunions.
The creative team behind The Edge TV were in the MediaWorks offices until the wee hours of Friday morning, putting together the final pieces for the Edge TV, a project that was first announced in April. PLUS: the network stoush continues.
In 2013, the ASA received 792 complaints levelled at 598 advertisements that Kiwis found offensive, misleading or irresponsible. 313 of these complaints were found to have no grounds to proceed while 285 were were referred to the Complaints Board. In total 60 percent of the ads that reached the Complaints Board were either settled or upheld. Here’s a rundown of the 10 ads that angered the highest number of Kiwis last year.
Following on from last year’s elaborate faux real estate campaign for Agent Anna’s first season, TVNZ’s in-house agency Blacksand has again tapped into the fake reality theme for the promotion of the dramedy’s second season. Shot in an actual rental home, the stunt features Robyn Malcolm in character as klutzy Anna Kingston showing real visitors—and potential tenants—around a home, which has been set up with a variety of booby traps that result in some awkward interactions.
As one of the FIFA World Cup sponsors, McDonald’s has released several new menu items themed to specific countries participating in the global spectacle. In addition to this Australasian campaign, the fast-food chain has also launched a Kiwi-based competition that will give one lucky future star the opportunity to attend the World Cup in Brazil. But while such initiatives are getting kids to drop the Xbox controllers and head outside, some commenters still question whether fast-food chains should advertise in ways that appeal to children.
Colenso BBDO, Finch Productions, Heart of the City, ATEED and Level Two Music NZ have conspired in an attempt to sell Auckland with a new spot that combines sweeping cityscapes, an emotive score and the gravelly voice of an unseen narrator.
For the second year in a row the Church of Scientology has slipped an ad into the Super Bowl, and this year’s offering is impressively high on claims and equally low on explanations.
Late last year, StopPress covered the efforts of a team of Kiwi creatives who entered the Doritos “Crash the Superbowl’ competition, which invited ad makers the world over to vie for a chance to have their original ad appear during the Superbowl. Although the Kiwis didn’t make the final cut, the five shortlisted entries are definitely worth a watch.
Sky launched Sky Go, the long-awaited update to its online and catch-up service iSky, in October last year. And, after a fair bit of social media activity to promote the new website and mobile apps, it’s now launched a print and TV campaign via DDB that shows how easy—and potentially perilous—it is for subscribers to ‘Watch On’.
The voices that were sent to the Moon as part of Dr Who’s 50th anniversary celebrations have made a safe return to planet Earth and can now be heard at the Moonbouncer website.
Humanitarian aid organisation World Vision has enlisted the services of Sugar & Partners after the agency won a creative pitch.
The New Zealand Herald has just hit its 150th birthday milestone. So what better time to look back on happier, simpler and more profitable times for the newspaper. StopPress takes a look at some vintage Herald ads.
Ogilvy and Mather’s compares hazardous substances to weaponry in its new campaign for the EPA. The provacative campaign has been placed in industrial areas in the hope it will catch the attention of those who use dangerous products every day.
The study of behavioural psychology isn’t a staple on the marketing education agenda. But, given the way emotions can affect consumers’ logical decision-making skills, Ben Cochrane thinks it should be.
Television is still the top earner in ad land raking in $614 million and accounting for 28.4 percent of all advertising in 2012, according to the Advertising Standards Authority’s annual industry turnover statistics.
In a world of mergers, acquisitions and acronyms, knowing your DDBs from your TBWA\s and Y&Rs can be tough going. And so, it seems, is knowing how to say them. Thankfully, some anonymous cunning linguists have come to the rescue with this slightly ridiculous agency pronunciation guide.
We included a link to a brilliant Irish charity initiative that saw “ad creatives, designers, animators, directors, illustrators and more dress up their favourite worst feedback from clients, transforming quotes that would normally give you a twitch, into a diverse collection of posters” last week. But the depictions of the sometimes fraught agency-client relationship—some of which have presumably used a bit of poetic licence—seem to be universal and we thought they deserved a bit more of a showing, so here’s a few of our favourites.
The tinsel is going up around the nation’s shops, the Cliff Richard carol CD is being dusted off and the festive retail shouting is already underway. But rather than add to the commercial cacophony, Running with Scissors and The Good Taste Company have tried to create something of a reprieve with a campaign for its new Double-Ups range.
We’ve had an oversupply of kids and animals in advertising this year. But, in the follow-up to the launch of Westpac and DDB’s Start Asking campaign, the oldies have taken centre stage in an entertaining fish out of water tale that aims to show the bank has ways of helping customers into their own house.
It’s that time of year again, when fresh faced young’uns with dreams of creative greatness prostrate themselves in front of adland’s judgemental powerbrokers and show off the year’s handiwork. So get thee to the end of year show for the AUT Ad Creativity course on Friday 9 November at the Film Construction building in Minnie St if you want to see it.