Who’s it for: New World by Colenso BBDO/.99 and Finch
Why we like it: A long overdue brand refresh for New World, which has been battered by the big-spending Countdown in recent years. All three ads from the new campaign are bang on in terms of …
Countdown has been going hammer and tong on the marketing front recently. But New World has come steaming back into view. And its new brand campaign is about as far as you can get from animated shopping baskets and fruit and vegetable musicals.
Droga5 appoints bcg2’s Chris Long, production house 8com opens up in New Zealand, three agencies fly Kiwi flag at Asian Marketing Effectiveness awards, APN announces its new motoring editor, The Sweet Shop welcomes award-winning UK director to the family, Yahoo! adds two to its sales stable and Aegis Media appoints a shopper marketing specialist.
In a world where political correctness often seems to rule, taboos are plentiful. Thankfully, busting them is still an integral part of good comedy. But there’s still potential for embarrassing social mishaps with every attempt at edgy humour. So, to help provide some guidance as to what is and what isn’t appropriate, the NZ International Comedy Festival gathered together an elite team of stand-up comedians, sit-down mathematicians and Colenso BBDO digital folk to try and solve a riddle that has plagued mankind for centuries: when is it too soon to joke about something?
Special Group won a couple of AXIS awards this year for its ‘Most Creative Country on Earth’ awards theme in 2011. And when Colenso BBDO was handed the reins for this year’s awards it ran with the idea of a metal detector and tapped into the rich vein of science-based humour seen in shows like Look Around You. So for those who weren’t there on the night, or for those who were there but were seeing how many breadsticks they could fit in their mouth, here’s the ’70’s-inspired opening sequence.
It might not have done as well as many expected at AXIS last night, but NZTA, Clemenger BBDO and The Sweet Shop’s ‘Legend’ well and truly made up for it by nabbing a very hard to win Yellow Pencil in the earned media section at the D&AD awards, the only New Zealand work to receive the nod this year. Legend also made it In-Book in the Writing for Advertising category.
Bathed in the green hue of ’70s inspired laser body scanners and violated by the sight of Leigh Hart’s velour one piece, 750-ish adfolk ventured down to the Viaduct Events Centre last night to watch Colenso BBDO’s Doggelganger campaign for Pedigree repeat Yellow Chocolate’s performance last year by taking the Grand, Titanium and Interactive AXIS. But, as is usually the case, the awards weren’t without some controversy.
After a tough few months last year, Colenso’s on a bit of roll again, with some big campaigns launching, some good award results and the Tourism Fiji account thought to be in the bag. And ‘Bevan’ from DB Export Dry’s ‘The Wine is over’ print series has added to the joy by taking out the NAB’s Ad of the Month.
They’re renowned as tough awards to win. And that was apparent at the AWARD awards ceremony in Sydney late last week, with Colenso BBDO the only Kiwi agency to pick up a gold for its viral film for Levi’s Rear View Girls, which was one of just 16 golds handed out on the night.
For many outside the ad industry, arguing over who was the first to come up with an idea could be perceived as petty. But when ideas are the lifeblood of this industry and often have a tangible effect on an agency’s reputation—and, if it helps to win awards, momentum—provenance is important. Recently we’ve seen some controversy over the creation of personalised OHBaby! magazines for Huggies. And it looks like we can add another interesting case to the list: Colenso BBDO’s Doggelganger website for Pedigree and Whybin\TBWA Sydney’s Dog-A-Like mobile app for the same client in Australia.
Colenso’s ex head of planning James Hurman sailed away to China recently, and Colenso BBDO has named Andy McLeish, who has been acting head of planning over the past month, as his replacement.
Whenever a slightly controversial/deliberately antagonistic campaign is released, many would argue that the campaign gets a tick when those who are bound to be outraged by it come out and show their outrage. Almost without fail, St Matthew in the City’s ‘progressive’ billboards roil the religious types. And DB Export Dry’s ‘Great Wine Depression’ TV ad, a light-hearted parody of the beginnings of New Zealand wine snobbery that was made by Colenso BBDO and The Sweet Shop, also appeared to have its desired effect when a couple of wine lovers took the wine-bashing to heart. Well, now they’ve got a few new print ads to get up in arms about as well.
DDB New Zealand was among the few to win Gold at this year’s Asia Pacific Advertising Festival (ADFEST 2012) Lotus Awards. The agency won Best in Show in the Promo Lotus category for Steinlager ‘Believe’. And the team also took home a Gold at the Film Lotus awards, one of only eight handed out for Sky TV ’60 things in 60 seconds’ and a Silver Press Lotus for Campaign for Best of Social Engagements for Coastguard New Zealand’s Mayday Appeal.
National Australia Bank’s (NAB’s) ‘break-up’ campaign was so good it ended up as the lead story on the news, and generated countless free publicity before going on to win last year’s Grande Prix at Cannes Lions. With digital technology evolving faster than you can say business model or best practice, it’s now even more important to stay up to date with PR. To this end, CAANZ Marcomms Leadership Group (MLG) is hosting a special event on 21 March: Re-Imagining PR. The brains behind the ‘break-up’ campaign, NAB’s Kevin Ramsdale and Clemenger BBDO’s Tim McColl Jones, will be sharing their creative nous at the forum, but here’s a few morsels of their method to whet your appetite.
In another round of bankland swings-and-roundabouts Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) has appointed Colenso BBDO as its new creative agency, in alignment with with its Australian parent bank. BNZ spends around $10 million on advertising a year, so it’s a good win for Colenso, but Westpac may not be so thrilled… it dumped Saatchi & Saatchi for Colenso BBDO just 18 months ago.
Special Group has managed to get itself a spot alongside BMF and The Monkeys as a finalist for Creative magazine’s coveted Hotshop Awards, while Finch and Curious got the Hotshop nod in the production categories. And in the AWARD nominations, DDB Group picked up the most finalists with seven, followed by Colenso BBDO and The Sweet Shop with six each. In the craft categories, Finch received seven finalist nominations, Thick as Thieves three and Curious Film also received a nod for its poignant Helena’s story, made for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation.
This time last year we were oohing and ah-ing over the mad ball skills of the All Blacks. Which turned out to be the mad skills of the mighty ABs—and the special effects jiggery pokery of Brandspank. So when #aliwilliams tweeted “Haha yeah that copter thing was hilarious. Izzy took it out. BOOM!” along with a news announcement on the All Blacks and BackingBlack’s Facebook and Twitter feeds, followed shortly after by the release of a film showing the All Blacks smashing a “coptercam” out of the sky with a rugby ball, we should have guessed… we’d become victims of yet another ad campaign ‘going viral.’
The Marketing Association celebrated the use of insight-driven marketing and data last week. And CAANZ will soon be celebrating what could be seen as the opposite end of the marcomms spectrum with the creatively-focused Axis Awards. And after 50 judges—and presumably the wonderous Axis Metal Detector—spent three days scanning the very best work in New Zealand this year, regular creative award-hogger Colenso BBDO came out on top with a massive 57 finalist nominations, followed by Special Group with another excellent showing on 21 and DDB Group and Clemenger BBDO on 17.
The ’80s were a wonderous time. Big hair, big lunches, big phones. But back in 1987, wine was in and beer was out, so it was also a time of pain and suffering for many bemulleted, beer-loving Kiwi males. And the latest historical campaign celebrating DB Export Dry’s 25th anniversary aims to bring the brown stuff back into fashion by poking fun at wine.
Your last chance to be touched by a Hurman. New Zealand’s marcomms community is bracing itself for its biggest loss since Uncle Toby bid adieu. But in a kind and generous move before heading east, planning director, talented author, effectiveness evangelist and all round good guy James Hurman is prepared to share some top tips. And let’s face it, the hairy Hurman has been involved in pretty much every piece of great, highly awarded work the Colenso BBDO has done in recent years including Vodafone, Yellow, V, DB Export and Westpac.
Special Group duo Kim Fraser and Sarah Frizzell took the combined Dec/Jan ORCA with their ’91 Days of Summer’ campaign for Streets Ice Cream. They made 91 different ads, turning each day of summer into a national day. “December 4. National Weta Freak Out Day. Nothing says summer like a weta under that thing you just picked up. Is it a giant insect or a tiny brown crayfish? Doesn’t matter, your boyfriend still needs to man up, and grab a glass and a piece of cardboard.”
Colenso BBDO is licking its collective lips after snaffling up DDB’s hot young creative team James Connor and Christie Cooper in the latest round of agency swapsies. Connor, who has been at DDB for five years, and Cooper for nine, took out a bronze Young Guns Award for DDB three years ago for their out of home Fruit Burst campaign, and also worked on campaigns for Cadbury, Sky, Pascalls, and Pink Batts.
Advertising is a very competitive business. Accounts are coveted, staff are constantly being poached and awards are hotly contested. And it seems that competitive streak also applies to extra-curricular activities, as evidenced by events that took place at the Colenso towers this week.
In what will be a big loss for both Colenso BBDO and the New Zealand marcomms community, planning director, talented author, effectiveness evangelist and well-liked bearded brain box James Hurman has accepted the role of planning partner at Ogilvy Shanghai, bringing an end to four very successful years on College Hill.
It hasn’t been a particularly ice block friendly summer in New Zealand. But at least the ice block advertising looks to be of good quality, because, for the second month in a row, ice blocks have run away with Colmar Brunton’s Ad Impact Award after Tip Top’s ‘Tongue Twista’ Popsicle ad was judged the winner of the December round.
Big ups to Colenso’s Nick Worthington (pictured) who was crowned best executive creative director in the world, and James Hurman the second-best planner. Colenso BBDO Auckland was ranked fifth best agency in the world on this year’s Big Won list by Directory. Big Won awards are won by winning the most awards. Worthington can now brag that he’s officially got a Big Won.
He’s released his first book, he’s chaired the Effies and he’s chewed people’s ears off at Christmas parties all around town about the importance of creativity in business. And now Colenso BBDO’s planning director James Hurman has his say on 2011.
Colenso BBDO has had some good (Doggelganger, Impulse Saver, V Paintball and Mountain Dew Skate Pinball) and some bad (having its biggest client depart) in 2011. Managing director Nick Garrett and creative chairman Nick Worthington combine forces to do their end of year opining.
Who’s it for: 2Degrees Mobile by TBWA and Film Construction
Why we like it: Two words, Rhys Darby. He appeals to all demos with the trademark quirky geek style. And we want some “handy auto-writing arms” too.
Who’s it for: Axis Awards 2012, CAANZ …
That is the question asked by Colenso BBDO’s compelling Save Seven campaign for NZ Breast Cancer Foundation.