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.
The Webby Awards aim to honour general internet awesomeness, and fighting it out for gongs with big global beasts like Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest are local hopes Shift for Tourism New Zealand, Resn for Toyota’s Camry Effect, Xero and DDB/Rapp Tribal for McDonald’s. And they need your votes.
Who’s it for: Fiveight/Turtle Beach by Droga5 and Goodoil Sydney
Why we like it: Tricking viewers, journos and even actors in an effort to drum up some interest in a new campaign is a pretty risky strategy. It can also be very rewarding if it works …
Last year, Droga5 launched an online trailer for a campaign created for Fiveight, the local distributor of Turtle Beach, a manufacturer of high-end headsets and gaming gear. The clip showed an avid—and fairly cocky—Kiwi gamer who had agreed to head to Iraq to see what a real warzone was like and a fair bit of controversy erupted after its launch, which meant most didn’t get a chance to see it reach its denouement. But the full version is out there—although now under the Fiveight name—and there’s an interesting twist to the tale of the Kiwi gamer known as StatiC.
There’s been no shortage of action in bankland recently, with agency shifts galore and fairly sizeable profits being announced by the big boys that could potentially lead to some fairly enthralling market-share battles this year. And one of the big ones is set to be between ASB and ANZ.
There were a few raised eyebrows in the industry when Corey Chalmers and Guy Roberts followed the ASB business from TBWA\ to Droga5. Now, after 18 months with the agency, the pair have upped sticks again to fill the role of creative directors at Saatchi & Saatchi NZ, while Droga5 has named Anomaly London’s executive creative director Nathan Cooper as a replacement.
In the last instalment of When Someone Goes Somewhere Else for 2011, Nikki McKelvie shifts from Ogilvy to DDB, Saatchi & Saatchi’s Simon Wedde heads up the road to Ogilvy, Droga5 names Jason Clapperton as its planning director and Designworks adds four more to the coterie.
Gamers usually like to escape reality. But, as part of a YouTube campaign for Turtle Beach, a company that designs, manufactures and markets high quality audio peripherals for video game consoles and personal computers, Droga5 NZ has reversed that scenario and taken a 24 year-old Kiwi gamer named StatiC (real name Phil) on a journey through a real warzone, Iraq.
Droga5 has signed with one of New Zealand’s leading gaming businesses Fiveight. The New Zealand-owned and operated company represents SEGA, Turtle Beach, Ubisoft and Warner Bros. There were no incumbents, as the company was only formed last year.
Last time we talked about AA it was related to a fairly dodgy looking RWC campaign launched by one of its subsidiaries AA Bookabach. But it’s better news this time, with chief executive Peter Blackwell announcing the formal appointment of Droga5 as its agency after working with it on various projects over the past 12 months.
Tourism New Zealand put out a call for entries for a new agency in early September and, while TNZ’s Justin Watson made a commitment not to disclose the pitch list as “some of them might have conflicts”, it’s thought to have been whittled down to four: Clemenger Group, Droga5, Publicis Mojo and TBWA\.
Who’s it for: ASB by Droga5 and The Sweet Shop
Why we like it: It’s a good way to explain why ASB is better than its competitors. It’s got some added gravitas with the voice talent of Dame Judi Dench. And it’s a nice …
As the old phrase says, you go into a bank looking for your girlfriend and end up leaving with her mother. And while a likable bank may seem like the quintessential oxymoron, ASB is typically near the top of the customer satisfaction charts in comparison to the other big competitors. Now, following on from the first and fairly controversial incarnation of the big Creating Futures rebrand, it has taken a step in a slightly different direction with the launch its new ‘Experience ASB’ campaign over the weekend.
… as Federation adds both staff and clients, Designworks appoints an experienced business campaigner to the new role of client strategist, Magnum hits double figures, Eleven adds two new accounts, Mike O’Sullivan to pass judgement in London and video and social/casual gaming network VENA adds an Asia Pacific COO.
Despite continuing media fragmentation and the rise of digital, TV remains the undoubted glamourpuss of advertising. And the boffins on the Film jury at Cannes, an awards ceremony widely regarded as the gold standard for the creative industries, chose what they deemed to be the best TV ads in the world recently. So here they are, in all their glory.
Sadly, after the annual week of Gallic hedonism and chinstrokery, it’s back to old clothes and porridge for the global advertising community because the Cannes Lions finished up on Sunday with the awarding of the Film, Film Craft, Creative Effectiveness and Titanium and Integrated Lions Awards. Here’s a round-up of all the winners from these and the special awards.
Fancy becoming a copywriter or art director? Australia’s AWARD School is setting up shop in Auckland to help budding creatives do just that. Described as “the fast track way into the communications industry”, the 16 week course is a hub for ideas, creative thinking and processes involved in coming up with great ideas.
Not everything about ASB and Droga5’s ‘Creating Futures’ campaign found favour. But the posters/press ads created by three up and coming Kiwi designers were very well-received. And the judges of the NAB Newspaper Ad of the Month have continued that trend, choosing Lauren Marriot’s effort as the winner of the November round.
Three good’uns share the gold this week.
Who’s it for: Sky TV by DDB and Prodigy Films
Why we like it: Despite the fact that Rugby World Cup games will be shown on a number of free to air channels after last year’s broadcasting palaver …
Not surprisingly, there’s been no shortage of opinions on Droga5’s massive new ASB campaign/rebrand, which went live over the weekend. And we’re giving you even more chances to judge, with the first two TVCs ‘Chance’ and ‘Mint Sauce’, a few press ads/posters that were created by three upcoming Kiwi artists and some online executions.
With a collection of interesting characters and adversaries, some fairly intriguing back-stories and plenty of moolah at stake, the move of ASB from its agency of over ten years TBWA\ to Droga5 in June was one of the year’s most captivating stories. Not surprisingly, there’s been plenty of interest around the traps as to what Andrew Stone, Mike O’Sullivan, Jose Alomajan and the team would come up with—and whether the Droga5 mythology was all it was cracked up to be. Well, with a massive refresh of the bank’s brand and a new positioning statement around ‘creating futures’, you can now judge for yourself. But if the responses of the bank’s 5000 staff to the new brand and the confidence the main protagonists have in it are anything to go by, turns out it just might be.
He’s been a fixture of the New Zealand advertising landscape for 11 years, but all good things must come to an end and, after TBWA\ lost the ASB account to Droga5 a few months back, the axe was always likely to come down on Ira Goldstein, New Zealand’s best-loved bumbling fictional American banking spy.
If you believe the company mantra, TBWA\ is all about ‘disruption’. And there’s been plenty of that in Mayoral Drive lately (although not of the creative kind it likes), after ASB decided to end its 12 year relationship and shack up with Droga5 last week.
ASB has scratched its 12 year itch, after long-time incumbent TBWA\ was ousted by new (but old) boys on the block, Droga5.
It’s been almost six months since Saatchi & Saatchi’s then chief executive Andrew Stone and executive creative director Mike O’Sullivan packed their bags and wandered out the doors. Not surprisingly, the rumours about their future plans were plentiful, but the major one, that the pair would be getting into bed with Droga5, has now come to fruition.