DDB chief executive Justin Mowday on the horde of advertising awards shows out there and whether they’re losing their meaning.
Browsing: Justin Mowday
When it comes to corporations, history shows that consumers tend to forgive accidents—and even stupidity. But willful deception is another kettle of fish. And Volkswagen inventing technology to cheat on its emissions tests is about as willful and deceptive as it gets (if it wasn’t so evil, you could almost applaud their inventiveness). So far, it has had a major impact on Volkswagen’s share price (and other car brands’ share prices), it is getting ready for a recall of 11 million cars, billions of dollars in fines are on the cards and the first of what could be many lawsuits have already been filed. Some believe it could bring Volkswagen to its knees. So can the company recover from this reputational car crash? And what can marketers learn from the saga?
Earlier this year, Speight’s introduced Kiwis to Little Henry, the not-so-little Kiwi bloke who gathered his friends together to build a glorious shed featuring masculine decor, a dartboard and pull-out barbecue. This ad no doubt created envy in the hearts of many loyal Speight’s drinkers and the brand has now responded by launching an online competition that will give ten* lucky Kiwis a similarly legendary shed.
DDB launched an in-house production unit, appropriately called ‘Maker’, about six months ago and says its ability to quickly create digital content for its clients is resulting in increasing demand.
In keeping with an ongoing tradition, a few industry players gave us their take on the year for our annual opinion harvest. Here’s what Justin Mowday, chief executive of DDB NZ, thought about 2014.
William Trubridge didn’t quite manage to break his own free-diving world record on Wednesday morning. But, with the help of a big push from Steinlager and a live broadcast from TVNZ, he did manage to get plenty of New Zealanders watching the attempt on Breakfast.
Campaign Asia-Pacific magazine has named DDB as New Zealand’s creative agency of the year as well as the runner-up digital agency of the year. Also continuing its winning streak was Colenso BBDO, which picked up the gong for New Zealand’s best digital agency. And OMD also left with silverware picking up the award for the best media agency in New Zealand.
The ALS charity got a whole heap of cash by challenging people to tip a bucket of icy water over their heads. And KidsCan is hoping its challenge—getting people to don a Santa suit and do a short run—will too. So, to help bump up the numbers, DDB has laid down the gauntlet and challenged other ad agencies and corporates to get involved in the event.
Speight’s comically masculine southern man campaign idea had a long and very successful run, and its previous agency Shine attempted to bring the idea into the modern era with the ‘Knowing What Matters’ campaign. DDB took over late last year and, in one of its first major campaigns, it’s moved it even further away from ‘Good on ya mate’, with its ad for Speight’s Alchoholic Ginger Beer featuring some major self-deprecation from ex-Shortland St star Karl Burnett and a massive pun.
Changes at Westpac, Vodafone, NZME, OMD, Southern Cross, Y&R, Mai, Farmers, The Sweet Shop, Snakk Media and Porter Novelli.
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.
Plenty of Kiwis have Icebreaker products in their drawers, and, as the brand has gradually expanded outside of New Zealand’s borders, so do an increasing number of foreign folk. And now the pioneering apparel brand has decided to partner with DDB New Zealand to help gets its woolly gear on more of them.
The Red Bull Stratos campaign, which saw madman Felix Baumgartner jump from a capsule approximately 39 kilometres above Earth, was one of the most watched brand-sponsored events in history. And Lion and DDB are attempting to do something similar, with a new campaign for Steinlager Pure that aims to drum up interest in Kiwi free diver William Trubridge and the upcoming effort to break his own world record of 101m.
Around the world, media owners are making changes to their commenting policies, with Google enacting a controversial real name policy on YouTube and Popular Science removing the comments section altogether because it felt ill-informed views “can be bad for science”. StopPress has plenty of great, insightful commentors. But many of them prefer to stick the boot in and push their own pseudonymous agenda, so, in the interests of transparency, the real identities of anonymous commentors can now be revealed with the click of a button.
The sibling rivalry, cruelty and dastardly power (tool) games seen in Stihl and DDB’s advertising first kicked off in 2009 with ‘Bequeathed’ and returned a few years later with ‘Mercy Dash’. And now the brothers are back in another campaign that asks Kiwis a difficult question: in a raging barn fire, would you save your cherished chainsaw or a cute little lamb?
It was a year of light and shade for DDB NZ. In the plus column, it took the no. 1 ranking at Spikes Asia, won more Cannes Lions than ever, was named the Campaign Asia Agency of the Year, won most effective agency at the Effies for the second year in a row, welcomed new clients BMW/Mini, Speights and Telecom (through Dynamo) and made some fairly big changes to the executive structure as Sandy Moore stepped back and Chris Riley stepped in. On the other side of the equation, it was forced to let a few staff go late in the year after losing VW and George Weston Foods to Colenso BBDO and it’s currently seeking a new ECD after Andy Fackrell took up a regional role in Australia. Here’s managing director Justin Mowday stoking a few coals.
It hasn’t been the best of years for DDB. But after parting company with longtime client VW recently, it didn’t have to wait long to find a replacement and it will be starting next year on a good note with a different German car-maker—BMW—on its roster.
David Walden used to say that those working in advertising were paid danger money because you never knew when clients would walk out the door. And, after losing a couple of accounts recently, DDB NZ has felt the burn.
The Warehouse has transformed its offering in recent times, allocating $430 million over five years to refit its stores, improve the customer experience, increase the number of staff on the floor, stock a better range of products and brands and communicate the offer more effectively with the market. That’s led to nine consecutive quarters of profit growth and an increase in sales to $1.55 billion. But while its regular customers were aware of all the improvements, those who had written it off years ago still had some engrained negative perceptions. So, with the help of DDB, it’s faced up to them with The Warehouse Challenge.
One of the world’s most enduring and successful agency-client partnerships has come to an end in this part of the globe, with Volkswagen saying goodbye to DDB after 11 years and, in another slightly surprising decision to follow up from last month’s 2degrees pitch, choosing Colenso BBDO as its agency.
Not long after one seemingly solid agency-client partnership came to an end when 2degrees shifted from TBWA\ to Special, another seemingly solid agency-client partnership is also up in the air, with Volkswagen putting its business up for pitch. Plus: Hyundai’s recent move.
After almost 1,000 votes, the entertaining fish out of water tale that aims to show that Westpac has ways of helping customers into their own house has taken out the StopPress/MediaWorks People’s Choice Award. Micheal Healy, Westpac’s portfolio director — brand and marketing, takes us through the thinking behind it.
Toyota is renowned for creating brave, entertaining and memorable advertising that resonates with New Zealanders. And it continued that trend last year when it introduced the nation to a car-loving cat called Alloroc, the furry star of the ad that took out the 2013 StopPress/MediaWorks TVC of the Year Award.
Rialto is a slightly under the radar New Zealand media success story. And it’s coming up 13 years old. So to celebrate its transition into the teens, it’s been given a thorough going over, with a new look and feel created by Intebrand and a new self-aware print, radio and digital campaign via DDB that aims to attract a broader demographic and position Rialto as ‘The Storyteller’.
Instant Kiwi is all about giving low-level gamblers a short, sharp thrill. And DDB has brought that idea to life in its latest campaign, one of the first executions to feature New Zealand Lotteries’ new over-arching tagline ‘Winning Happens’.
Jon Ramage back in the game, DDB goes digital, Thick as Thieves hauls Oates, Super Liquor man moves up the chain, CAANZ believes the children are our future, and Pack & Co adds another impressive establishment to its portfolio.
After around three years in the role of managing director at DDB, Justin Mowday has moved up the chain and been named as chief executive, with Sandy Moore, who has been with the agency for 23 years—and at the top since 2007—stepping back to a part-time role. And in another big change, Mowday will be working closely with Chris Riley, who is moving from his role as managing director at OMD into the newly created role of chief operating officer.
Spark Group’s silo-breaking, DDB to welcome some senior muscle, Dow Design adds a senior (and musical) creative, Nikki Walker joins Finch, Yukfoo looks overseas, Air New Zealand honoured (again) and Social Media Club gets a jolt.
‘Flatties’, the entertaining home loan-related follow-up to Westpac’s ‘Start Asking’ brand campaign by DDB and Prodigy, managed to beat out its big brother in the Jan/Feb instalment of Campaign Review in NZ Marketing magazine after taking second place. And it’s followed that up by winning the November round of the Colmar Brunton Ad Impact Award.
As the centrepiece of Westpac’s new ‘Start Asking’ campaign shows, New Zealanders can talk about almost everything these days, whether it be politics, religion, war, sex, existential issues and, of course, Rugby World Cup wins. But, as Westpac’s general manager of marketing and customer experience Martine Jager says, we’re still not comfortable talking about money. So can the bank actually change that?