Browsing: Countdown

News
Countdown’s Dreamworks Heroes campaign brings some welcome good news
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In a change of tack from giving out free cutlery, knives and glassware, the embattled Countdown followed New World’s Little Shop suit recently and hawked DreamWorks Heroes 3D collectible character cards and albums. And kids and adults alike have loved it, with general manager of marketing Bridget Lamont saying the campaign saw millions of cards in the hands of Kiwi parents and kids, and more than 100,000 albums sold out across the country.

News
What a difference a letter makes
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We had a bit of fun last week detailing some typos we’d come across recently. But this one from New Zealand Farmers Weekly that was sent in to us by an eagle-eyed reader takes the cake.

News
Countdown kills off The Colemans, focuses on impromptu filming
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For the past few years, a major pillar of Countdown’s advertising strategy has consisted of lathering up the nation with the soap that was The Colemans. It may not have been lauded by the industry, but it seemed to do the job on the public, and the many executions by Chris Dudman of Robber’s Dog earned regular spots in Colmar Brunton’s top ten ads list. But now the Progressive chain has said goodbye to the fictional family and embraced reality TV.

News
Survey shows Telecom’s turtle-based marketing hitting the spot
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Judging by the opinions we’ve heard from industry chinstrokers about Telecom and Saatchi & Saatchi’s new Tommy & Boris campaign, you’re either in the ‘awwwwww, turtles and a cute kid’ camp, or the ‘pfffff, turtles and a cute kid?’ camp. But who cares what they think, because the hoi polloi are quite taken with the new duo and it was voted the country’s favourite advertisement in August in an online Colmar Brunton poll of 1000 Kiwis.

News
Give free stuff and they will come: Countdown seeks to lure shoppers with glassy offering
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While New World is busy trying to win shoppers’ hearts with nostalgia, and Pak ‘n Save with stickmen, Countdown is once again tugging at the most powerful of consumer heartstrings, free stuff. Off the back of its popular knives promotion, which saw more than 700,000 free Thomas Knives snapped up by customers, the supermarket has launched its Royal Worcester glasses promotion, and it’s confident this one will be just as successful as its predecessor.

News
MasterChef juggernaut keeps on rollin’ as controversial season three ups the eyeballs—UPDATED
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Over 2.6 million New Zealanders tuned in to watch series three of MasterChef New Zealand, with an average 590,000 Kiwis aged five-plus watching every week making for a nine percent increase on season two and a 14 percent increase on season one. And the producers have had to clear up some confusion when a bit of social media Chinese whispering took hold after some unmentioned goings on in the final came to viewers’ attention.

Opinion
Home brand is where the supermarkets’ hearts are
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With the recent opening of New World and Countdown Metro in Auckland’s CBD, it seems New Zealand supermarkets are following in the footsteps of their overseas counterparts. While I can’t hide my excitement in having convenience re-enter my life, I do wonder if this may be the start of a slippery slope. Once the supermarket giant shows its face, it’s only a matter of time before the own brand phenomenon takes hold, a development that could mean the bounty of boutique food producers that currently grace our shelves may be squeezed out.

News
Countdown lets your fingers do the shopping with new mobile app
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Smartphone penetration is now thought to be around 30 percent in New Zealand, and that number is increasing rapidly. So Countdown has jumped on the mobile bandwagon and upped the ante in terms of customer experience by launching what it’s calling a New Zealand-first iPhone app that features a digital shopping list and barcode scanning technology, as well as the ability to check prices, find recipe ingredients, collect loyalty points and shop online.

Opinion
The Year in Review: Simon Coley
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It’s been a massive year for Simon Coley, one of the main men behind both Powershop, which was judged the fastest growing company in New Zealand this year when it was awarded top prize at the Deloitte Fast 50, and All Good Organics, which won the sustainability gong at the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards. Here’s his pick of the 2011 bunch.

Opinion
The Year in Review: Toby Talbot
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He’s about to head back to the homeland for a plum posting with RKCR/Y&R in London after five successful years as DDB’s executive creative director. So, since he’s breaking up with us, we figured the least Toby Talbot could do is fill in our end of year questionnaire. 

Opinion
The Year in Review: Wendy Rayner
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Through a series of huge product relaunches and lotteries innovations, as well as great campaigns for Lotto, Instant Kiwi and Big Wednesday, NZ Lotteries has increased its sales by more than $250 million in recent years, an increase bigger than the total chocolate confectionary category in New Zealand. And head of marketing Wendy Rayner has played an integral role in that rise. As a result, she won the prestigious TVNZ-NZ Marketing Marketer of the Year award this year. Here’s what caught her attention in 2011.  

News
Supermarket ad complaint upheld
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The price wars between the supermarket behemoths Progressive Enterprises and Foodstuffs is heating up, with Foodstuffs winning the latest legal skirmish. A decision by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled Progressive Enterprises guilty of presenting an artificial advantage and breaching ethics guidelines.

Opinion
The Year in Review: Claudia Macdonald
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There were a host of enthralling PR disasters this year. And, perhaps as a result of all the humans wandering the streets during the Rubber Wool Cup, there was also a noticeable increase in the number of brands using experiential marketing in their campaigns. So who better to spill the beans on 2011 than Claudia Macdonald, managing director of PR, events and experiential agency Mango and a founding member of the CAANZ Marcomms Leadership Group. 

News
Fairfax Media Supreme and Morton Estates Retail Awards: Progressive Enterprises
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In the extremely competitive grocery game, market share is king. And a minor change equates to millions of dollars in gained or lost revenue. Progressive Enterprises, which operates 158 Countdown, Foodtown and Woolworths supermarkets around the country, had been losing share to its main rival Foodstuffs since 2007. So something had to be done. And to do it, it had to take some big risks and break an age old grocery paradigm. 

News
One good turn deserves another—and many good turns deserve water
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The marcomms community has already offered plenty of assistance to those affected by the earthquake in Christchurch, and NZ Marketing’s social media columnist Simon Young is hoping there might be some more corporate generosity left over to help out with Servolution, a project involving a whole bunch of churches and community groups doing a range of good deeds such as painting out graffiti, picking up rubbish, checking for smoke alarms, providing school makeovers and cleaning parks and reserves from 14-20 April.

News
Interbrand retail report sees glimmers of hope as Woolies tops Asia Pacific league
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The retail industry has been crying into its cornflakes for the past few years as the perfect storm of recession, the rise of e-commerce and, more recently, massive natural disasters, has battered the sector. But according to brand consultancy Interbrand, which has just released its inaugural Best Retail Brands report, there are “true and measurable signs of optimism” in what is likely to be a fragile recovery. 

News
Ads@6: 27 January-3 February 2011
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Last week saw little change from the usual suspects. However it must be summer because the Ellerslie Flower Show is on, Kings Plant Barn are having a sale and Water Safety NZ remind us how important learning to swim is, but not on a full stomach of Streets Splice. And …

News
Ads@6: 12 January—26 January 2011
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Very little of anything seems to get done in New Zealand in January and that rule also tends to apply in the world of advertising, so, aside from Kiwibank’s new ‘we make it easy to change banks’ push and Hyundai’s launch of the i45, it’s fairly slim pickings on the new campaigns front this month, with all the usual DIY, retail and grocery suspects (particularly Countdown on ONE) dominating New Zealand’s holiday screens.

Opinion
The year in review: Nick Garrett
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Yeah, yeah, we know it’s 2011, but due to moderately popular demand (and also due to the fact that we’re running at about 34 percent brain functionality at present and good old reliable Q+A’s are a good way for everyone to ease back in), we’ve decided to post a few more year in reviews from esteemed industry opinionistos/opinionistas that we didn’t have space/time to run last year. First up, Nick Garrett, the man who took the reins from Colenso BBDO’s outgoing managing director Brent Smart and, after winning a host of big awards, snaffling some big new business and doing a fine impersonation of Mini Me at the Colenso Christmas party in his first year, can’t have too much to complain about. Here’s what tickled his fancy last year.

Opinion
The year in review: Courtney Lambert
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In the just released January/February edition of NZ Marketing magazine, we looked back on the year’s biggest events/campaigns/achievements/flops/stoushes and compiled an obligatory—and extremely definitive—end of year list. But we figured it would pay to ask a few more industry high-rollers for their thoughts on the year in marketing. We’ll be posting their responses to our questionnaire over the next week. But to get the ball rolling, watch the opinions fly as Courtney Lambert offers her take on 2010’s goods, bads and uglies.

News
Ads@6: 16-22 November
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This week on the telly, Rhys plays with his baubles; find out who wins in a fight between the Warehouse family and Countdown Colemans; look at all the pills, potions and lotions on offer for hayfever season; Farmers, Briscoes, Harvey Norman and pretty much every other retailer get into the festive spirit; the return of James Blunt leads to hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders being sick in their own mouths; and, having already launched online, ASB’s new ads finally reach the TV screens, which, if you believe the front page story on the Sunday Star Times yesterday, led to “a flurry of complaints” to the ASA about the IVF assistance ad (in media land, it seems seven complaints constitutes a flurry).

News
Ads@6: 2 November—8 November
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Hey, look, Masport celebrates in 100th, too much Countdown family, facial topiary embraced for Movember, Wanganui attempts to lure domestic tourists, Unilever continues to make almost every product on the face of the Earth, New Zealand’s taxi companies unite under a blue bubble and kudos directed to the Sovereign ads that play before TV One’s sports news.

News
From the couch to the shelf: shopper marketing sector heats up as Hypermedia kicks off with a big’un
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You know you’ve done something right (or wrong) if you get a concerned call from Bill Ralston after posting a story. And that’s what happened when we found out Pauline Hanton had resigned from her sales director position at Adshel to take up a role with a retail/instore media outfit supposedly linked to Ogilvy. Turns out the rumours were true and now Hanton, along with Paul Kenny and Suzi Hood in sales, have officially set their new, fully integrated in-store media channel and shopper marketing specialist Hypermedia into the wild, with Countdown as the flagship client.

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