Kathmandu has released a new ad promoting its summer wares in the stunning location of Indonesia’s Mt Rinjani, where members of the Kathmandu Summit Club endured a five-day mission ascending the volcano for the shoot.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand launched a swanky, interactive website built by FCB to show off New Zealand’s new bank notes. But, it’s more than just a website, it’s also the centre of a wider campaign around the roll out of our new paper (or rather, plastic) which spans over several other mediums.
It seems like there’s an unending wave of innovative products coming out of the New Zealand tech sector at the moment. We’re making software and hardware for use in everything from nanotechnology to aerospace to kitchens to shops. And we’re not keeping it to ourselves. But, according to the latest Market Measures survey, New Zealand’s technology exporters are well behind their US competitors in using digital marketing techniques to sell themselves and their products.
Following on John Oliver’s founding of Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption, Adam&EveDDB has now also launched its own religious organisation, dedicated entirely to worshipping the advertising of the agency.
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?
Over the years, the Valspar brand of paint products has expanded into countries throughout the world, and New Zealand was recently added to this list. And to announce its arrival in the local market, the paint company has commissioned FCB to produce a campaign capable of cutting through to consumers who already have many other choices in this category.
Lewis Road Creamery’s Peter Cullinane says the premium dairy brand he founded in 2011 has re-energised the white milk sector and now has over 50 percent of the organic milk market in New Zealand. Now Goodman Fielder has taken the cow by the teats and released its own range of three premium organic milks under the Puhoi Valley brand. But Cullinane has come out swinging, saying it is “pathetic plagiarism” and shows a “staggering lack of imagination”.
Fairfax has teamed up with Sky Sport, linking its Fan Pass offering to the Stuff news site allowing rugby fans to live stream the World Cup games for a fee. Fairfax’s national sports editor Aaron Lawton shares his insights on the partnership.
Social media is being used in all kinds of creative ways to market these days. One of the latest initiatives is by Tourism New Zealand and travel group Helloworld which has created the world’s first social media relay, through Instagram, in celebration of United Nations World Tourism Day.
Guess what’s projected to be the fastest-growing business in the US? Apps? The ‘sharing’ economy? The internet of things? Big data? It’s actually … (imagine you hadn’t read the headline or seen the accompanying images) marijuana. So how far away is it in New Zealand? And what opportunities might there be for savvy entrepreneurs and marketers? Henry Oliver gets the rub of the green.
With digital revenue still not measuring up to print losses and ad blockers becoming more common in the top-right corners of browsers, media owners increasingly have to reassess how they go about sustaining their online businesses. And over the last few weeks, Tangible Media and Bauer, two of the nation’s biggest magazine publishers, illustrated there’s no concrete rule applicable to doing this, with the pair taking divergent paths as they set out create commercially sustainable online properties.
At the moment, it is near impossible to escape the rugby madness that has hypnotised the nation. Many of our beloved products from the supermarket have turned black, one of which being Anchor’s milk bottles, which turned the shade in support of the All Blacks. Dow Design provided us some insights on what makes good product design, and what sells.
TV3’s Grand Designs New Zealand is set to kick off early next month and today MediaWorks released the second phase of its marketing campaign for the show, which lives up to the Grand Design ethos of creative design including some clever eyeball trickery through interactive adshels. PLUS: partner ANZ’s campaign around the show.
Brands are increasingly looking to produce online content that viewers find entertaining enough to share. And as part of its sponsorship deal with the Winter Games, Audi set out to do something a little different by inviting a collection of 20 lucky Kiwis to attend a pop-up bistro event high up in the Pisa Range hosted by celebrity chef Simon Gault.
There’s been plenty of talk about the haka in recent days, as there always is when the All Blacks head to Europe. And there’s been plenty of brand activity involving virtual reality recently too, with everyone from Kellogg’s to Contiki getting in on the action. Now AIG, the major jersey-hogging sponsors of the All Blacks, have combined both of those things for the Haka 360˚ Experience.
Over the past few years YouTube celebrities and content creators have become a great platform for advertisers to market through. The target market already actively seeks out the material, so all they need to do is weave a bit of marketing magic into the content and see themselves put in front of a million pairs of eyes. Here’s New Zealand’s top 10 subscribed-to accounts making waves over the interwebs.
The Alternative Commentary Collective aka the ACC who made a name for themselves after commentating on the ICC Cricket World Cup earlier this year have struck back, this time to report on the Rugby World Cup 2015 and have teamed up with Jockey as part of its ‘Lucky Jockeys’ campaign to find an eighth member of the collective to join the current crew in London.
As has increasingly become clear, content marketing is an effective, progressive and less intrusive way of reaching an audience. The modern audience has less time for shouty or obvious tactics. We’ve grown smarter, wiser and more distracted with a myriad of content options to consume, particularly the millennial audience, which is spending less and less time in front of the television. While perhaps a few years ago it would have been hard to see it coming, banks have gotten very good at employing content marketing tactics, particularly when targeting a younger audience. We thought we’d take a look at a few examples from the main players.
The ISP market has been buzzing lately with acquisitions, threats of legal action and an explosion of streaming services. Taryn Hamilton, M2 Group’s general manager of consumer for Slingshot, Orcon and Flip, sits down for a chat and lives up to his reputation of being a straight talker.
Back in 2013, Tauranga-based Trustpower launched its ‘Better Together’ campaign, which positioned the company as a multi-utility service provider offering power, gas, phone and broadband. In April 2014, it ventured back into the Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton markets after an absence of ten years. And then in March this year it launched its ‘$49 Unlimited Data Broadband’ campaign, which shows two quirky characters—Captain Energy and Broadband Girl—connecting at a nerd convention. Now, following what marketing communications manager Carolyn Schofield says was public demand, the pair have returned and they’re taking their relationship to the next level through karaoke.
According to Wikipedia, “at least some of the workers who built the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs received paid sick leave as well as state-supported health care”. And ever since 1500 BC, employees who understandably love the idea of getting paid while doing absolutely no work have been claiming they’re ill and taking days off. Now Destination Queenstown is incentivising that behaviour and has enlisted the help of Australian comedian Dan Ilic to teach his countryfolk how to squeeze in a sneaky spring ski trip.
While there’s plenty of excitement about the possibilities of immersive virtual reality headsets like Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR at the moment, sometimes the simplest innovations are the best and Google Cardboard, which combines mobile phones and the act of folding to create inexpensive virtual reality goggles, is definitely in that category. Google has made its design open source and while Kellogg’s and shopper marketing and digital activation agency Geometry Global NZ have taken inspiration from this technology and, in what it says is a first for the New Zealand grocery market, turned a box of Nutri-Grain into a virtual reality experience.
Real estate is, typically, all about the money. How much it costs, how much the prices have risen, how ridiculous those prices now are (in Auckland, at least). And there’s been plenty of money around for the real estate companies during a period of high growth. But Bayleys believes “that the true value is in the people and the relationships forged” and it’s trying to illustrate that with its new brand campaign.
The corporate world has long looked to professional athletes and coaches for guidance on how to perform better, how to create a positive culture and, if they’re being honest, how to grind their opposition into the dust. And ASB has looked to the All Blacks—or, more specifically, the team behind the All Blacks—to provide some pearls of wisdom for Kiwi businesses.
For those of you who spot an alien-like, mirrored box structure that has planted itself in Auckland’s Britomart preccinct, do not fear. It isn’t a UFO, a force field, or time machine (although that would be pretty cool), it’s The Heineken Light Club.
After a rejection from main competitor McDonald’s to join forces and create the McWhopper for Peace Day, Burger King, with Y&R, graciously released another open letter this morning, with a further proposition for collaboration on the day. This time to Denny’s, Wayback Burgers, Krystal, Giraffas and again, McDonald’s.
Social media might seem as easy as publishing a varied assortment of brand-related material onto a profile. But, after a chatting with a few Kiwi brands doing it well, Joshua Riddiford discovered that it’s harder than it looks.
It’s never been easier for marketers to learn about their audience. All they need to do is go to social media, look at what they’re posting and what’s trending among their target age demographic. Brands have begun travelling to their audience to market to them too, launching social media campaigns, joining Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, whatever it may be. But something else we’ve noticed recently is brands going to their audience and essentially asking for advice, crowd-sourcing ideas for products like websites, food, even ads. Here are a few examples from here and abroad.
Co-branding is fairly common practice in marketing and it pretty much always involves complementary brands, rather than direct competitors. But the Burger King global and Y&R NZ are taking the idea of co-opetition much further and challenging McDonald’s to celebrate Peace Day by asking it to join forces and create the McWhopper.
Auckland’s been the City of Sails and the Big Little City. Aucklanders have been JAFAs and (long before that) Rangitoto Yanks. But none of these holdovers from the good ol’ days of the share market boom, the America’s Cup or the John Banks mayoralties work for the diverse ‘super city’ of 1.5 million people that Auckland is becoming. And after a comprehensive review of Auckland’s economic development strategy, Auckland Council’s economic growth agency Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED) is undertaking Global Auckland, a rebranding project chaired by NZME’s chief executive Jane Hastings.