Browsing: creativity

Features
A great merge beckons: the closing gap between technology and us
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This week, PHD worldwide strategy and planning director Mark Holden spoke about impending conflation of tech and humanity. He argues that we are already well along this path but says things will become really interesting over the next two decades. What follows is a short excerpt from Merge, a book co-written by Holden and number of other contributors across the PHD network.

Opinion
The premature death of persuasion
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With the advent of automated buying, there’s a growing consensus that marketing communications need to be short and snappy. But after walking in on four young creatives huddled around a laptop, DDB chief creative officer Damon Stapleton learnt that longer form storytelling is far from dead.

News
How do you solve a problem like New Zealand? Mike Hutcheson examines the blessing/curse of Kiwi creativity
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When former Saatchi & Saatchi boss and ICG executive director Mike Hutcheson decided to do a master’s thesis on New Zealand creativity, he didn’t want to produce an unreadable 60,000-word treatise. Instead he used interviews with four senior New Zealand business leaders – former Saatchi colleague Kevin Roberts, Les Mills International chief executive Phillip Mills, Hobbiton director and ex-Tourism NZ head George Hickton, and Innovation Council chief executive Louise Webster – to put together a 30-minute video examining the paradox that New Zealanders come up with great ideas and largely fail to commercialise them. But the attitude that creates the problem may also be part of its solution, he says.

Opinion
Lance Walker on the weight of measurement, the importance of exploration and why marketers need to assert their place at the executive table
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Newly appointed chair of the Marketing Association Lance Walker recently spoke at the Marketing Association Network of Executive Marketers events in both Auckland and Wellington, and shared his views on the evolving role of marketers in the modern industry. In a thought piece shared with StopPress he talks about why the current trend of marketers placing emphasis on numbers isn’t necessarily conducive to creative and effective marketing.

Opinion
The great comfort of bad Super Bowl ads
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Damon Stapleton reckons just 15 percent of the 100 or so Super Bowl ads could be classified as any good. And, given the pressure on agencies and clients to produce great work, that’s not such a good hit rate. But he believes the idea that being weird is a far greater sin than being average is one of the major reasons.

News
Should Auckland have a creative director?
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Yesterday, at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the Committee for Auckland announced some of the key findings that have been compiled in its latest report called ‘Auckland as a Creative City’. The principle theme delivered during the breakfast event was that “Auckland needs an over-arching strategy to unlock the potential of its creative sectors and grow the economy to make the city more globally competitive.”

Opinion
The romance and unhappiness of advertising
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Damon Stapleton notes that unhappiness levels in the industry seem higher than usual, and he thinks this might have something to do with the lack of courage among agencies these days. So where did that courage go, and how can it be brought back?

News
The best work in the world according to the Clio Awards
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Although no Kiwi agencies picked up a Grand Clio at the 55th edition of the prestigious American Awards show, the list of nine winners in the various categories provide a concise summary of another fantastic year of creativity from across the world. Of all the agencies to pick up one of the big gongs, only Harvey Nichols’ ‘Sorry I Spent’ and British Airways’ ‘The Magic of Flying’ won across more than one category. And There were also several winners that carried their Cannes success across the Atlantic, with Chipotle’s ‘The Scarecrow’ and Volvo’s ‘Live Test Series’ collecting the major gong at the Clios.

News
Here’s to the idea catchers
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As Damon Stapleton wrote recently, the idea is the gift, the award is the wrapping paper. His employer, DDB Group, shares this philosophy and, in a rather earnest video that showcases some of the best ads ever made, it gives ‘the idea catchers’ a pat on the back and attempts to prove Bernbach’s quote about creativity being the most powerful force in business correct.

News
Creativity stars in Getty compilation
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Stock imagery is sometimes criticised for presenting little more than over-used clichés, which offer little in the way of original brand representation. So, in an effort to illustrate that this criticism doesn’t apply to its offering, Getty Images has just released a new video montage that showcases the broad range of imagery across its catalogues.

News
In praise of age
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The ad industry often seems like a young man’s game. But there’s no substitute for experience, as renowned copywriter Paul Burke wrote recently. And, if you’re wondering when you’ll come up with that brilliant product innovation, that revolutionary campaign idea or perhaps that long-awaited solution to the world’s energy needs, turns out you might have to wait a while.

Opinion
‘Good to great to good’: the 2013 Cases for Creativity
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This new year we’ve again gathered together a family of campaigns that represent something of a high water mark of achievement in our industry. To be judged Gold at Cannes and then Gold at the Effies is evidence of an advertising idea that is beyond reproach, both in terms of the commercial or behavioural impact it creates for its client and the way it moves our industry forward through sheer imagination and innovation. And in 2013, 12 campaigns achieved this remarkable distinction.

News
Learning from the Lions: Cannes chair Terry Savage on emerging trends, the ascent of creativity and how to win gongs
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The Cannes Lions has become the world’s pre-eminent advertising awards ceremony. And its chairman Terry Savage was in Auckland this week where he presented at Colenso BBDO as part of its Love This Speaker series and announced the return of the Young Lions in association with Val Morgan. Here’s what he had to say about purpose, creativity, data and competition.

Opinion
The magic of collision
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Michael Goldthorpe went along to TVNZ’s new season launch at the Viaduct Events Centre. And he got inspired about the potential for New Zealand to become a branded content powerhouse.

News
Horse’s Mouth: Nick Garrett on the new Axis awards
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As chair of the Axis awards committee, Colenso BBDO’s managing director Nick Garrett oversaw a few changes to this year’s festivities that aimed to make the event more collegial, more credible and more celebratory. So how did that work out for him? Have the changes helped change the perception of the awards among the wider business community? And what about those Driving Dogs?