Browsing: Advertising

News
AA Insurance fixes up, looks sharp
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Insurance is usually a very low involvement category; a grudge purchase if ever there was one (although it’s become a very high-involvement category for some in Christchurch, and not in a good way). As a result, the service it offers is often taken for granted until it’s needed. So, perhaps rather bravely given the current feelings towards the industry, AA Insurance has decided it’s time to promote the positives of its business with a big multi-media campaign by its new agency Special Group that spans TV, digital, DR, outdoor and radio.

News
Special Group dips its toes back in self-promotional waters
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We’re fans of ad agencies that back up what they do for their clients by advertising and we think they should do it more often (*cough, StopPress media kit, cough*). DraftFCB leads the pack in that regard and has created a great brand that it can hang its hat on. There’s a pretty big gap back to second, but Special Group has been known to talk itself up from time to time. And to celebrate its packaging pin at the Best Awards for OOB ice cream and drum home its belief that design and advertising need to kiss and make-up, it placed this ad in last week’s Herald.

News
Toyota and Saatchi introduce smitten, self-harming kitten in new Corolla campaign
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When Orcon launched its new cat-centric campaign recently, we mentioned the fact that Wired had delved into what it called the online cat-industrial complex, ad agency John St had spoofed the feline fascination brilliantly with the world’s first cat advertising agency, and a recent cat video film festival in the US drew 10,000 people (it was won by Henri 2: paw de deux). So it’s fair to say the cat is a powerful force in these digital times. And Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi have enlisted the services of a self-harming feline called Alloroc (geddit?) who’ll stop at nothing to get into the new 2013 Corolla as part of the ‘Feels Good Inside’ campaign.

News
DraftFCB combats home assassins for ACC Home Safety Action Week
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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.

News
Battle of the metaphors: Vodafone gives Telecom a wink
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There were a few raised eyebrows when Telecom chose a turtle to play the role of brand mascot in the new Tommy and Boris campaign. And Vodafone has taken the opportunity to subtly poke fun at its major competitor with a cheeky wee number starring its spokesboy James Rolleston and a greyhound called metaphor.

News
M&C Saatchi puts another coat of paint on NZ Police recruitment campaign
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M&C Saatchi caused a bit of a stir last year when it used stencil art in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland to tell some extraordinary police stories. That work, created by Otis Frizzell, received some international media attention (and, in Auckland, some attention from taggers). And the latest phase of the campaign builds on that idea, with TVC, radio, online, and ambient/out of home activity that aims to challenge prevailing perceptions of what it takes to become a cop.

News
It’s a kind of magic: Rinnai and .99 master the dark arts
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Back in the day, those with the ability to control fire were likely to be run out of town—or put in the old ‘let’s see if they’ll drown’ chair—for “being conversant in the dark arts”. But, as a new campaign for Rinnai by .99 shows, these days it’s something to put in your brochure.

Movings & Shakings
Refined Sugar: O’Leary joins ‘recalibrated’ indie
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As is often the case in the advertising biz, losing big clients usually means losing staff. And after Sugar decided not to go back for a BNZ booty call, managing director Jeremy Johnston says it has said goodbye to approximately four full-time equivalents over the past few months. But now that the “recalibration” is complete, he says the newly restructured business is on the upward trajectory, as evidenced by the arrival of ex-Ogilvy executive creative director Damon O’Leary, who has joined as creative partner.

News
On the road again: MasterCard’s entertaining All Blacks space invader
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There weren’t too many particularly memorable promotional efforts from the wide range of Rugby World Cup sponsors last year. But a few stood out, and one of them was MasterCard’s Priceless Moments series by McCann Sydney and Prodigy. Now the agency has followed that up with a pretty funny spot promoting a competition that’s offering one lucky—and, judging by the ad, potentially very annoying—rugby fan a trip to Europe to watch the All Blacks play Italy, Scotland, Wales and England.

News
What’s black and sticky?
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One of the smart things about Pak ‘n’ Save’s proposition is that it isn’t really based on price, it’s based on value. And that was proven recently when it was judged to be the best value brand in the country. Its entertaining corporate spokesstick Stickman has been beating that particular drum in his inimitable animated style for a few years now and DraftFCB’s self-reflexive, whimsical campaign is one of our favourites here at StopPress (not everyone likes him though). And the two latest spots reaffirm that.

News
Special Group and Colenso round out Kiwi Cannes celebrations
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New Zealand finished off its Cannes run with a few more nods over the weekend, with Special Group and Colenso BBDO adding two gongs each to bring the total local haul for the Festival of Creativity to 21, an improvement on last year’s paltry six lions but still not quite back up to the record 25 lions in 2010.

News
ASA gives Kiwibank and Ogilvy a slap for ‘irresponsible’ ad—UPDATED
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When Ogilvy launched Kiwibank’s tenth birthday ad a few months back, we said: “Wait for the moaners to see the kid jumping off the rock”. And whaddya know, the haters hated, the moaners moaned, and, in its latest round of decisions, a complaint was partially upheld, with a majority of the ASA complaints board finding the ad had “not been prepared with the due sense of responsibility to consumers and to society”.

News
Don’t be an idiot, have a Glossie. Colenso BBDO takes out May Glossies win with DB Export Dry ad
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As you wind down and get set for your two days off ahead of the next week, spare a thought for Colenso BBDO’s copywriter Simon Vicars. The poor bloke was sitting in an airport lounge when we called him, getting ready to wing his way to Fiji for a week’s “work”. Then we had to break the news Colenso BBDO had won the May round of The Glossies with 34 percent of the votes for its ‘Idiot’ print ad in NZ Rugby World. ‘Idiot’, part of DB Export Dry’s ‘The Wine is Over’ campaign, put itself a fare distance ahead of its closest rivals. Bettle’s Langham ad, featured in New Idea, placed second with 22 percent of votes while BCG2’s effort for Audi in Metro earned it third place with a 16 percent share of votes.

News
Lexus and Saatchi & Saatchi merge man and machine in Kokoro Wo Komete campaign
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Toyota’s luxury brand Lexus has a tough battle on its hands in the prestige class, facing as it does the European goliaths of Audi, BMW and Mercedes. But it’s aiming to reinvigorate the Japanese brand’s challenger spirit with the launch of a classy new campaign out of Saatchi & Saatchi called ‘Kokoro Wo Komete’ or ‘Soul Meets Machine.’

Opinion
Insource or outsource: the secret sauce of resource
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Once you get past the Dr Seuss headline, there’s a serious question here. It’s also a hot topic right now. When big business is scouring every budget line to trim a little fat, many of them ask, “Can I save money with an in-house studio?” I reckon the answer is “maybe.” Having worked in big agencies, smaller ones, digital shops and in-house, here’s why I think the answer is “horses for courses.”

News
Westpac, MYOB and Clems give Kiwi business luddites a boost onto the digital jungle gym
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According to the latest MYOB Business Monitor, 80 percent of Kiwis use the internet to research products and services, so it’s slightly surprising—especially for many in this sector who are battling with the seemingly unrelenting march of technology on the world of marketing and communications—that only 32 percent of New Zealand businesses have a company website. But Westpac and MYOB are aiming to change that with an initiative called getonline.co.nz, and it’s likely to be one of the last major campaigns created for the bank by the Clemenger Group before it heads across to DDB.

News
Overland keeps it classy for new winter campaign
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According to Overland’s website, attention to detail and good design is paramount, whether it it be the styling of its ranges or the stores customers visit. And, judging by its latest winter campaign, which was shot by Tony Drayton, features the song ‘Pretty Thing’ by Dylan Dray and has been showing on TV3 and Four for the past few weeks, the same goes for its advertising. 

News
DDB mans the fort with triple treat
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DDB may have a bit less work on with Wattie’s, but it’s getting geared up for the arrival of Westpac in about three months, and it’s announced a few of the anticipated hires, with three experienced campaigners joining the team: art director Toby Morris, planning director Rupert Price and group account director Cath Bosson. 

News
Paper trail: Brother and Raydar get into gear for Rally push
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We wrote about Brother’s plans to promote its naming rights sponsorship of the brrmm brrmms a few weeks back. And the multi-channel campaign went live this week, led by a cool new TVC created by Raydar and SPG/Kaleidoscope that’s about as far away as you could get from the Japanese company’s previous TV efforts and links its technology with rally driving by bringing a print out of a car to life.

News
McCann Worldgroup retreats to Oz
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Four years after McCann Worldgroup New Zealand re-opened its Auckland office, it has more or less pulled the blinds and locked the door. As a result of the consolidation, its clients will now be serviced from the much larger Australian operation.

News
Stop, Donna time: NZTA moves from mates to mums with Legend follow-up
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Shared responsibility is an increasingly important part of the road safety programme, as evidenced most recently with the hugely successful Ghost Chips campaign, which, for the first time, specifically targeted young Maori and used humour to equip them with the tools required to speak up when one of their mates was too drunk to drive. And NZTA, Clemenger BBDO and The Sweet Shop have followed up that pop cultural phenomenon with a new campaign that tries to convince family members to do the same.

Opinion
Special Group’s Semi-Permanent manifesto
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Special Group is the first New Zealand ad agency ever to be asked to talk at the Semi-Permanent creativity conference, which packed out the Aotea Centre in Auckland for a few days recently and featured headline acts like New York artist Ron English, UK digital agency Hi-Res, San Francisco-based Industrial Light & Magic and Wallpapermagazine. The local lads opened proceedings in front of around 2000 people with a talk centred around the eight things they do to make their work more effective that showcased the diverse range of work they have produced over their four years of existence—including the Best Award-winning packaging work for ecostore and the 2011 AXIS-award winning AXIS opening film. So here’s a summary of their presentation.

News
NZ trio in the running as APMA stars
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A handful of Kiwi agencies have made it into the finals of the APMA Star Awards, celebrating the year’s finest promotional and experiential marketing across Australasia.

Apollo Marketing NZ, Loyalty NZ and Below the Line (the only indie Kiwi agency) are among the 31 finalists shortlisted from a pool …

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