When Todd McLeay shifted from NZ Lotteries to the role of chief operating officer at APN NZ, one of the first things he did was go and talk with a bunch of ad agencies and media buyers to see what their feelings were about newspapers. The general consensus was that there was a lot of sparkle about digital but there wasn’t too much love for print, mainly because “no-one was making a good case for it”. And so the campaign to launch the compact version of the NZ Herald and redesign the website was born, and with the big launch day on Monday, the piece de resistance, a TVC by DraftFCB that shows the important role the paper has played in New Zealand’s history, goes live tonight.
Browsing: DraftFCB
Plenty of newness to choose from last week, but a solitary place for Vodafone this week.
Another bumper edition of TVCs of the Week, with Tourism New Zealand, Unitec, AUT, Lotto, Telecom and Pak ‘n’ Save making it on to the (extended) dais.
With the country’s two biggest telcos each releasing big new brand campaigns at the same time, we thought we’d compare and contrast some of the follow up work. So, dear StopPress friends, who do you think is winning the communications battle at this early stage?
Shine’s Julian Andrews goes free range, APN announces its new Herald line-up, DDB welcomes back a prodigal duo, Admission admits many, TradeMe seeks out Vivaki, DraftFCB activates a rising star, Komli launches its mobile ad network, Ngage gets its FIX and Steve Price spruiks Panasonic’s smart TVs.
As the bean counters might say, if advertising doesn’t improve the bottom line, it’s really just art. And expensive art at that. And the agencies that improved their clients’ businesses the most this year have been announced, with perennial Effie performers Colenso BBDO and DraftFCB on top with 22 and 16 finalists respectively, followed by the bolter Barnes, Catmur & Friends on ten and DDB on nine.
Last week we welcomed Telecom’s new mascots Tommy and Boris, which took the telco steaming back into its heartland territory of New Zealandness and connectivity. Vodafone has long played the exotic foreigner role and, for obvious reasons, hasn’t really played—or needed to play—the patriotic card. But that’s all changed now, because it’s gone the whole Kiwi hog for its big new brand campaign, which features the tagline ‘Do Your Thing Better’ and celebrates the fact that New Zealand is a nation of doers.
3D animation, self-walking shoes and a wordy cause round out this week’s offering.
Yahoo! New Zealand’s inaugural Digital Stars Awards have been on the hunt for the country’s best emerging digital media talent and, after scrutinising 18 savvy entries, the list has been narrowed down and the five finalists revealed, representing a decent cross-section of Kiwi agencies.
Vodafone may be seeking to acquire a new branch of business with Telstra Clear, but DraftFCB’s latest TVCs for the Telco revisits BestMate, an old product favourite that, although popular, hasn’t received much promotional love as of late.
It’s all about staying up late, comical advice, scare mongering and warmth spreading this week.
As Rebecca Black so famously sung, “It’s Friday, Friday, Gotta get down on Friday, Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend, weekend, Friday, Friday, Gettin’ down on Friday, Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend.” But today isn’t just any old Friday. It’s the third Friday the 13th of the year. And to celebrate, Pak ‘n’ Save and DraftFCB decided to have a bit more fun and try to scare the bejeesus out of everyone.
The big news yesterday in the business world was that Vodafone had put in an offer to buy TelstraClear for $840 million in an effort to better compete with Telecom in the corporate and fixed line space. There’s plenty of water to go under the bridge before the deal is approved and, as you’d hope with a merger of this size (and with a restraint of trade clause written into the contract for Telstra), the decision is expected to take a few months. So if it does go ahead, what will that mean for TelstraClear’s existing agency partners?
Colenso BBDO and .99’s ‘Every Day a New World’ brand campaign for New World was very well received, and even inspired a piece in Mumbrella asking why New Zealand’s advertising was so much better than Australia’s. And .99 has kept up the good work, with its rich media homepage takeover winning the IABNZ Creative Award for June.
One of the smart things about Pak ‘n’ Save’s proposition is that it isn’t really based on price, it’s based on value. And that was proven recently when it was judged to be the best value brand in the country. Its entertaining corporate spokesstick Stickman has been beating that particular drum in his inimitable animated style for a few years now and DraftFCB’s self-reflexive, whimsical campaign is one of our favourites here at StopPress (not everyone likes him though). And the two latest spots reaffirm that.
The creative gang have had their fun at AXIS and Cannes, so the focus now shifts to effectiveness awards. And, in addition to the local call for entries for the 2012 Effies going live, Effie Worldwide have announced the results of its second ever effectiveness index, with Colenso BBDO, DraftFCB and DDB ranked in the top 20 most effective agencies in the world.
Earlier this week we pointed out a billboard for the new True Blood series on Prime. And the folks at DraftFCB and Phantom have sent us even more billboard fodder confirming the adult-orientated humour of the campaign. Sally Willis, Prime’s account director at DraftFCB, says the aim was to shake any teenage preconceptions people held about the show, differentiating it instead as a “raunchy, intense and gritty raw drama”. And as these latest examples from the campaign show, there’s more raunchy humour than you could stab a stake at.
After officially winning the Vodafone account at the end of February, DraftFCB has sent some of its first work into the wild, with one simple retail ad for “the nakedest ever broadband deal” and another slightly more out-there idea—quite literally—for the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S III.
In front of an almost capacity Langham conference centre young MC Oliver Driver had to shout to get attention. That’s becasue the 800-odd media and agency flunkies were riotessly celebrating their efforts last night at the CAANZ Media Awards.
And the big winner? Well it was linked to the halting of interest and inflation rates last year, it forced the electricity industry to drop its pants and it has already won a host of the country’s big awards. And DraftFCB continued its golden run by following up from the last two year’s efforts and taking the Best in Show title for its work on Electricity Authority’s What’s My Number? campaign.
Who’s it for: Rexona by Naked and Curious.
Why we like it: Depending on your viewpoint, the last Rexona spot that aired around the Rugby World Cup was either overwrought and overly earnest or powerful and beautifully shot. The follow up is fairly earnest as well …
As the biggest lender to the rural sector, the National Bank knows more about how our agrarian warriors tick than most. And while this ad is an oldie that was made by DraftFCB and Robber’s Dog around the same time as the National Bank ‘For the Places you’ll Go’ campaign (we obviously we don’t watch enough Country Calendar and hadn’t seen it before), we reckon it’s a goodie.
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.
Billy McQueen goes back to the brush, ZenithOptimedia launches its new global positioning, Duncan Garner heads to RadioLive, Crossmark gets its teeth into Cadbury, two new toys for Toybox, Phantom welcomes ‘Queen of the Flyers’, Pluk closes in on 50,000 users and Ideas Shop makes it a double.
The rumour’s been doing the rounds for a good while, but it seems Fairfax is soon to take a leaf out of TVNZ’s book by decreasing its agency commission from 20 to ten percent.
Who’s it for: HRV by Y&R Auckland and Curious Film
Why we like it: Comparing the quality of New Zealand with the poor quality of New Zealand’s housing stock is smart idea and offers a nice combination of pride and shame. Beautifully shot, a great song and …
DIY has become a fixture of recent Mitre 10 campaigns and it will again take centre stage in what the country’s largest home improvement retailer is calling a “market-first” integrated campaign by DraftFCB called Easy As that incorporates TVCs, a website, in-store programmes, print, mobile and a YouTube channel.
DraftFCB’s What’s My Number? campaign for the Electricity Authority won big at the RSVP and Nexus Awards recently and it’s added to what could be a big haul this year by taking out the 2011 Yahoo! New Zealand Digital Strategy Award in Auckland last night.
.99’s visual interpretation of getting consumers glued to products on Lasoo in NZ Marketing magazine found favour with StopPress voters, taking a 24 percent share of the 895 votes to win the March/April round of The Glossies.
The judges have done the hard yards sorting the wheat from the media chaff and the finalists of the CAANZ Media Awards have now been announced, with OMD and SparkPHD leading the pack on 20 nods each.
2degrees announces its new chief marketing officer, ACP names a new editor for Australian Women’s Weekly, Ellen Read shacks up with Fairfax, DraftFCB welcomes a new creative pair, Quickflix chooses its local weapon and the IAB re-launches its awards.