The internet loves animals. According to CBS, a remarkable, nigh-on unbelievable, 15 percent of internet traffic is cat-related. And dogs probably aren’t far behind. Chuck in a celebrity or two and a well-made video and you’ve got all the ingredients required for modern-day marketing gold, as ASB can now attest after its promotional stunt for the ASB Classic tennis tournament received plenty of love.
The IAB NZ has released its latest ad spend figures and, as would be expected, the amount spent on digital advertising has continued to grow, reaching a record $159 million in the third quarter of 2014, up 22 percent from the amount posted at the same time last year.
In yet more list-based news, Hotwire has released its sixth annual report into what it believes will be the big digital trends for the year ahead, whether that’s dresses that block mobile signals, data doctors or, the big one for 2015, consumers choosing how they consume content.
Fairfax media has bought in to a company where neighbours can chat about where to get the best flat white in their area, offer up spare bags of sheep dung to people nearby (true story), or find out what happens to the old clothes they’ve been putting in the bins by the church all these years. Neighbourly, an online social network for neighbourhoods, has partnered with Fairfax for a 22.5 percent share in its company, with the potential for more investment if the relationship pays off for both parties.
What do you get the 150 year old agency that’s got everything? A new digital agency, of course. After celebrating a big milestone last week, JWT has announced another large piece of news: it has taken a majority stake in Wellington-based Heyday.
We live in increasingly digital times. And the language often used to explain some of those digital developments is downright confusing. Fear not, dear luddites, for String Theory has created a dictionary “to shine a little light into the impenetrable murk of digital terminology for the benefit of the non-expert, the vaguely interested or anyone who just wants to give the flimsy impression they know what they’re talking about”.
Hyundai launches a customer platform that acts as a rewards system, entertainment centre, and Hyundai community hub all in one.
The programmatic bus rolls on, with Magna Global predicting a 31 percent annualised growth rate through to 2017. And with Google’s latest consumer barometer showing Kiwis use an average of 2.7 devices each, a new Kiwi agency called Made Media—a collaboration between sales manager and partner Michael Buhagiar and Latch Digital—believes it’s found a gap in the market for a locally owned and operated demand side platform that brings those two elements together.
While Facebook has largely taken over from postcards as the favoured means of making people jealous of your holiday, you can’t eat a humblebrag. Enter Cookie Time’s Postcard Cookies. Plus: more postcard-related innovation with New Zealand Post’s Ad Card.
A few months back, TVNZ went to great lengths to promote the latest season of The Amazing Race and the fact that Kiwis were competing against the Aussies, with comedian Millen Baird being put to good use as a motivational coach. As part of that, Rush Digital and Ambient Experiential got together to create “a world-first activation”: a live-streamed game of tug of war. And these videos show how it brought the real world and the digital world together.
Visual communications company Getty Images has release a desktop version of its Stream app, which makes it easier for consumers to “to access, curate and share” its vast range of imagery.
Auckland has seen an influx of digital outdoor advertising over the course of the last year, and the nation’s brands are queuing in order to get their messaging on these glowing rectangles. And while APN Outdoor’s billboard on Queen Street certainly isn’t diminutive with a height of 3×9 metres, it is but a tinny when compared to the advertising battleship that is about to be steered into New York City’s Times Square.
Earlier this year, Pedigree and Colenso BBDO tried to monetise slacktivism with Share for Dogs, a campaign that, as the name implies, asked people to watch videos of cute dogs and send them on so that a portion of the profit generated from the pre-roll advertising on each video could be shared with the charity. Now, extending a test campaign it ran last year, .99 and the Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand have also created a way for Kiwis to help by doing, rather than paying.
Compulsive hoarders are often reviled for allowing themselves to be buried under the assortment of junk that they’ve collected over the course of their lives. And while extreme examples of this problem make for fascinating trash TV, in reality the tendency of humans to collect isn’t unique to those who can’t see the floors of their homes. As evidenced by the continued popularity of collectibles—with Z Energy’s Blokhedz a recent example—even ordinary Kiwi families can at times indulge in the pleasure that comes with collecting things they simply don’t need. All Good Bananas is another brand that has recently launched its own version of collectibles campaign, which comes in the shape of stickers that are attached to bananas.
In the kitchens of L’éclair de Génie in Paris, creative brilliance is necessary, but is not by itself enough. Making the world’s best eclairs also requires careful planning, skilled judgement and a deep understanding of the medium. And the same is true of great ads, says Google’s Tony Keusgen.
According to data released by Recorded Music NZ, Kiwi musicians made more money from digital album sales than physical records for the first time in 2013, and, if numbers are anything to go by, this trend is set to continue over the next few years.
Attitude Pictures has been telling the stories of New Zealanders living with disabilities, recovering from injuries and dealing with health problems since 1992 and broadcasting on TVNZ since 2005. It brought those stories into the real world in 2008 with the creation of the Attitude Awards and, around one year ago, it moved online and into the world of live streaming when it launched its website Attitude Live. Producer Dan Buckingham and managing director Denis Harvey share their thoughts on running a successful niche media group, how it intends to make a profit and why corporates should get involved.
After shifting its business from Saatchi & Saatchi to Ogilvy & Mather, Sealord has added another new name to its new agency group—and bolstered its presence in the growing Aussie market—by appointing The White Agency as its trans-Tasman digital agency.
The bar for long-form advertising on YouTube has been raised by the ambitious projects several major brands over the last few years. Guinness, Chipotle, Johnnie Walker and Chanel No 5 have all commissioned the development of creative projects that seemingly conflate the disparate worlds of advertising and entertainment. And recently, when Honda released a series of teasers for its upcoming campaign, it seemed as though the online community would be treated to another online advert posing as a short story. But, what we got was something quite different.
Late last year, Bauer launched its Woman’s Day recommended extension, with food columnist and past MasterChef NZ (RIP) winner Chelsea Winter wheeled out in an attempt to transfer some of her cachet to advertisers. And after launching the womansday.co.nz website last month, it’s taken that idea into the digital realm for the first time, with Unilever’s Persil brand the first beneficiary.
A comedy club in Barcelona is experimenting with a new way of charging patrons. On a per laugh basis.
A great digital user experience has an absolute correlation to a great brand experience, says Springload’s Adam Cansino.
Online video is booming here and around the world. And Fairfax is looking to get a bigger slice of the audience—and the ad revenue—that’s heading that way. So it’s released a campaign based on recent research from Colmar Brunton that promotes its popularity as a video platform and the effectiveness of pre-roll advertising in an era of rampant time-shifting.
TV shows are increasingly trying to keep the audience’s attention after broadcast—and, with much of the population seemingly unable to keep their eyes off their mobile devices for more than ten seconds, often during it. Sponsors associated with shows also want their share of the eyeballs. So, following on from Kiwibank’s attempt to increase audience engagement with its Block Out Live Bingo-style game for The Block NZ, Genesis Energy has added another string to MKR NZ’s bow with an online quiz called Guess the Ingredients.
There’s been an explosion of transport apps in the New Zealand market in the last 18 months, and many in the industry are saying the time for traditional taxi companies to get on board is now, before they find themselves on a long journey into oblivion with the meter running. So how has the taxi market changed? And will technology bring the industry kicking and screaming into the modern world?
The internet is very good at bringing different groups together. Google, Trade Me, Ebay and Amazon have brought buyers and sellers together. Uber has brought drivers and passengers together. Airbnb has brought owners and renters together. And now a New Zealand website called madam.co.nz hopes to bring ladies of the night and those willing to pay for them together.
Hitting the big 4-0 is generally met with mixed emotions, with some celebrating the fact that they’ve made it that far and others feeling a sense of impending dread as their elderly body and mind shows signs of falling apart. Resn’s big 4-0 is all positive, but it’s not age-based, it’s the number of times the Wellington digital agency has won the FWA site of the day award.
Back in 1994, a “punk zine” called Vice was launched in Montreal. 20 years later it has offices in over 30 countries and it has expanded into a global youth-focused media company that runs a range of magazines and websites, a music label, a film-making arm, a TV show, a news outfit and an ad agency. And, because it has been able to attract the tough to reach millennial market, brands are increasingly looking for some of its magic dust. We chat with Melbourne-based director Myki Slonim about Vice Media’s strategy, how brands can get past young people’s sophisticated bullshit detectors and how the company is faring in this part of the world.
After a five month pitch process, DDB and Spark PHD have been named as lead creative and media agencies for Auckland Council, beating out .99 and the incumbent Ogilvy & Mather. But Council has yet to decide which agencies will be handling its digital and arts and culture accounts.
Lady Gaga may not have performed in Rangiora (yet). But she is using some visual marketing software from a company that’s based there. PLUS: how the company is expanding into the US market.