Unlike the UK, where marketers still seem quite partial to launching a massive festive campaign, New Zealand brands tend to keep things slightly more understated. In the UK, Vodafone got the entire country to sing ‘Let it Go’ from the movie Frozen. But the New Zealand outpost has taken a more lovey dovey approach, with a classic telco ad that focuses on the emotional power of the Christmas connection.

Last year, FCB introduced the line ‘No More Beersies’ to the Kiwi vernacular via its ‘Say Yeah, Nah’ campaign for the Health Promotion Agency (HPA), and it became a ubiquitous catchphrase in weekly conversations. Now, just over a year later, the agency has carried the beersies line into a follow-on campaign that borrows from the tropes of beer advertising to reinvent the humble glass of water. In each of the clips, the pouring of a glass of water is accompanied by the stereotypically deep voice of a beer advert narrator, who over 30 tongue-in-cheek seconds draws attention to the crisp goodness of a simple glass of H2O. PLUS: we look at whether the ‘Say Yeah, Nah’ campaign was effective.

FCB New Zealand’s work for the National Depression Initiative has won plenty of industry accolades. And it’s now won one of the rarest: a gold and best international prize at the prestigious IPA Effectiveness Awards in the UK.

After losing the BMW account earlier this year, FCB Media has successfully orchestrated a switcheroo and landed itself behind the driver’s seat of not one but four automotive brands by winning the European Motor Distributors (EMD) media account after a pitching process, which involved two separate media briefs.

Marketing gets a pretty bad rap from the general public for the sophisticated tricks it uses to influence behaviour in the quest for profit. But the Ministry of Health and Health Promotion Agency’s National Depression Initiative campaign by FCB is a prime example of the power of marketing to do good. And the campaign, which covers the period from 2010 to 2013, has just been shortlisted for the coveted IPA Effectiveness Awards, the first time since 1994 that a Kiwi campaign has earned that accolade.

Microsoft Surface New Zealand is jumping aboard the street art wagon, collaborating with FCB and renowned Kiwi street artists BMD to produce a bromance-y video showing the creative possibilities of the Surface Pro 3. The video kicks off a “purely social” campaign to be rolled out over the coming three months.

Noel Leeming has invested roughly $5 million into revamping its offering in a move that will see the company’s 77 stores emblazoned with a new logo and reconfigured to reflect some key changes. To announce the repositioning of the brand in the market, Noel Leeming has released a series of three TVCs that have come as a pleasant addition to a category that is usually inundated with shouty advertising focused on sales and products.

Advertising has a long history of animal anthropomorphism. And as part of its ongoing marketing campaign around the idea of change, FCB has tapped into that heritage by launching a mad ad featuring a singing sheep.

Vodafone has dug into the annals of recent pop culture and emerged with what is often referred to as the worst song ever made, Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’. And rather than keeping the nauseatingly catchy tune restricted to a private boardroom listen between the marketing managers, the telco has decided to unleash a cover of it through a new TVC by FCB.