Browsing: Damon Stapleton

News
First Jesse, now Dylan: Lotto tells its philanthropic story through the medium of junior football
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Lotto New Zealand has a long history of selling more tickets by focusing on the joy of the big win. But, more recently, it’s also tried to sell more tickets by focusing on giving, promoting the fact that those tickets help fund various community projects around the country. Last time it was Jesse Mulligan telling some of those stories. Now it’s turned to a young, fictional football player called Dylan who sees his life change with a single kick of the ball.

News
How are infomercials still a thing?
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Mention the NutriBullet, the Transforma ladder or Thin Lizzy in conversation, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a Kiwi who isn’t aware of at least one of these products. Such is the enduring power of the infomercials, which continue to grace our free-to-air screens during off-peak viewing times, that these brands have essentially been embedded into the Kiwi psyche through brute force. At a time when buzzphrases such as ‘transmedia storytelling’, ‘digital disruption’ and ‘omnichannel marketing’ are habitually thrown around conversation, the infomercial is made to seem anachronistic, a living fossil of a bygone era on the verge of extinction. But this isn’t the case at all… Look at Nielsen’s ad spend figures from 2015 and you’ll notice the presence of Brand Developers in sixth position, behind the big-spending retail giants Progressive, The Warehouse, Harvey Norman and Foodstuffs.

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.

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
CAANZ announces category changes, as Axis call for entries kicks off
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2015 will mark the 35th anniversary of the Axis Awards, and to commemorate this milestone CAANZ will be showcasing some of the work that has been awarded over the course of that period. But, as has always been the case, this year’s edition will be about awarding the best work produced over the course of the last year. And to do that as effectively as possible, CAANZ has introduced a few changes to the awards categories for this year’s event.

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
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
Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney’s virtual meritocracy
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Keen to get your foot in the door at Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney? As any young creative knows, one of the biggest challenges is cracking that door open. But aspiring creatives can now go inside the Sydney branch after it claimed to be the first agency in the world to team up with Google to create Saatchi Street View.

Movings & Shakings
Movings/Shakings: March 23
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In this exciting installment of who goes where; Carly Flynn hits her Target, a Barrell role for Samsung, Plankton floats across the Tasman, Carat dangled to Sewpershad, a US import for MediaCom, Simpson’s lovin’ it at Macca’s, JML Communications expands its girth, Adshel adds Atkinson, Touchpoint’s independent new chair, and Urlich is ‘worth it’ for L’Oréal NZ.