Browsing: Australia

News
Meet Graham
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Towards Zero has created ‘Graham’, an interactive lifelike sculpture, in a bid to reduce road deaths and injuries.

News
Special Group’s Michael Redwood: Sydney office ‘definitely on track’ to be bigger than Auckland office by end of 2016
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Special Group chief executive Michael Redwood says business on the other side of the ditch is growing so quickly that he anticipates the Sydney office will employ more staff than the Auckland branch by the end of 2016. And this rapid growth, which has seen the Sydney office grow to 30 staff within 18 months, was recently recognised by Sydney-based Adnews magazine, which declared Special Group the Emerging Agency of the Year.

News
The power of collaboration
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Ads for universities have always been a bit cringey, but the Universtiy of Melbourne has helped break the cycle with a creative spot about ‘What happens when minds collide’.

News
BuzzFeed’s Andy Wiedlin on being employee number 38 and setting up shop in Australia
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As recently as the 1990s it would’ve been difficult to imagine a catalogue of oddly numbered lists turning into one of new media’s biggest success stories. But now, as we find ourselves neck deep in the zeros and ones of the digital age, the question ‘Have you seen that BuzzFeed list on …?’ has become a phrase as familiar—and commonly used—as ‘Google it’ or ‘there’s an app for that’. Andy Wiedlin, BuzzFeed’s chief revenue officer, is someone who has first-hand experience of BuzzFeed’s journey from being a quirky idea to a pop culture phenomenon.

News
The duality of Snakk Media: snakes and ladders at the mobile start-up
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Snakk Media’s preliminary financial results released last week showed a 92 percent year-on-year increase, shifting up from $3.6 million recorded between March 2012 and March 2013 to $7 million in the most recent results. Add to this the fact that the company has just announced plans to open a Singapore office in addition to those in Australia and New Zealand, and it seems that Snakk Media’s new chief executive Mark Ryan has a lot to smile about less than a year into his job. But a recent drop in the company’s share price and the fact that it continues to operate at a loss means the company’s evolution has had its fair share of ups and downs.

News
Would Tony tweet that?
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Tony Abbott’s been in the news for a string of gaffes, now his rivals are imagining tweets that would make him really unpopular. Nothing’s new in the murky world of political campaigning, except perhaps catchy music.

News
Same power, different latitude: Powershop takes on Australia
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Powershop has managed to find a solid niche in New Zealand’s energy market as a cheeky challenger brand that gives its more than 50,000 customers additional information about their energy usage, lets them buy power online and shows them plenty of love. And now the Meridian-owned business is taking that model to Australia.

News
2degrees indulges in some subtle Aussie baiting
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To promote the fact that 2degrees customers on a Carryover Plan can call and text their Aussie mates at no extra cost, the cheeky telco has released an ad via TBWA that details the similarities between the two countries. But it still manages to stoke the trans-Tasman coals with a Troy McClure-esque disclaimer at the end.

News
Lassoo looks to the lucky country with new trans-Tasman clients
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It’s not unusual to see marcomms work for the New Zealand market that’s been done by our dear Australian friends. But Auckland independent Lassoo Media and PR has been reversing that trend recently after being enlisted to carry out trans-Tasman work for clients like Cavalier Bremworth, Trilogy and, most recently, The Comfort Group, which owns Sleepyhead and Sleepmaker, amongst other brands.

News
Flooring Xtra set to hit the Aussie ground running
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“A local shop for local people” may come from the excruciating comic genius of The League of Gentlemen, but it’s a mission statement that has worked wonders for Flooring Xtra. And now, following a rapid rise up the Kiwi carpeting ranks, it’s set to become a local company for Aussie people.

Opinion
NZ up to third in country brands survey; Queensland ridiculed for excessive music-related cheese
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It must be written into our neighbouring country’s constitution that all television commercials promoting the region must include some kind of extremely cheesy musical element. The all singing, all dancing ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’ epic by DDB was touch and go, but it’s Queensland, the same province that brought the world the amazing, multi-award-winning ‘Best Job in the World’ campaign, that really deserves to be taken to task, because it is responsible for two of the biggest toe curlers in recent memory. 

News
New Aussie tourism TVC waltzes, sings Matilda
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There are a few things we simply can’t abide here at StopPress: intolerance for other nations, the Dutch and using the power of song to express your emotions. So, you can imagine our horror when we laid eyes and ears on the new TVC for Australia’s new tourism push, ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’.

News
Aussie mag sweet on Cadbury
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The Kiwi Marketing magazine was so nasty to those good people at Cadbury. And what’s with that messy eating style?

Why can’t we be more like the Australians — respectful, nice?

November issue

September issue

News
Kiwi animator makes magic in land of Oz
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Come in, take a pew, welcome to Export Figures, the first in a series of profiles of talented NZers living overseas and making a crust in the marcomms biz.

Glen Hunwick’s one of those Kiwis who’s been in Melbourne for years but we’ll still claim him as …

News
Flurry of dust storm ads cloud market
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Nothing like a meteorological phenomenon to pep up your copywriting talents. Stuck in their offices, surrounded by flying red dirt, some agency creatives quickly came up with these print and online ads to make their brands most topical in the face of impending suffocation.

News
Vegemite’s cheesy name
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With nearly 50,000 names submitted, including the inventive Wow Chow, Ruddymite and 2ritemite, Kraft Australia has named its new Vegemite spread, wait for it … iSnack2.0. WTF? The winning name came from 27-year-old Dean Robbins, a web designer (no kidding).

Responding to a demand for a spread that did …

News
Fairfax faction wins boss’ fulsome scalp
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Big hair, bigger scalp

The bitterly divided Fairfax board has generated another casualty: the chairman.

Ron Walker was expected to stand for reelection at the forthcoming AGM. But in response to internal disputes which culminated in stinging public criticism from the John B Fairfax faction, Walker yesterday told the Sydney …

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