Kiwi animal behaviourist Mark Vette, the man behind Sony and FCB’s ‘Octographer’ campaign has risen to new heights. Having already taught dogs how to drive, he figured it was high time he graced them with a captain’s hat and taught them how to fly.
To launch the new Mini Hatch in New Zealand, Goodbye Pork Pie got an upgrade courtesy of DDB and director Matt Murphy. And in Australia, it tried to impress the cool, creative kids by creating a unique Mini-inspired interactive dancefloor.
Goodbye Pork Pie is to Mini in New Zealand as The Italian Job is to Mini in Europe. So, to drum up some interest in the new Mini Hatch in this part of the world, Mini, DDB and director Matt Murphy—the son of the original film’s director Geoff Murphy—set out on a mission to remake a classic scene from the movie. And the final clip premiered this week.
To launch its new Hatch, Mini New Zealand recently embarked on a mission to bring a slice of Kiwi cinema history back to life. And after asking Kiwis to show their true Blondini colours, participate in a few challenges and compete to win a place in the passenger seat during the reshooting of Goodbye Pork Pie’s classic chase scene around Lake Hawea, it’s now moved on to the second phase of the campaign and released some behind-the-scenes footage of the shoot.
Clearly drug testing is not a priority at Berlin ad agency Storz & Escherich, because the company produced this ad for pre-owned Minis.
Premium cars have long associated themselves with fashion brands. And BMW has become much more fashionable in New Zealand in recent years, with Kathyrn Wilson named as an ambassador and NZ Fashion Week added to its sponsorship portfolio last year, which saw a fleet of X1s getting a wrapping. BMW-owned Mini has been on that track for a while, having been officially linked with local fashion house Stolen Girlfriends Club for three years. And to celebrate both the launch of the new Mini Paceman and the label’s new range, the “muscular coupe” has become a model itself after being wrapped in the Death Moth print.
As director and filmmaker Tony Kaye said to the gathered marcomms folk yesterday afternoon during his mad but wise speech, “you’ve just got to keep making shit”. And of all the shit that was made in the past year and a bit in this country, DraftFCB’s Driving Dogs for Mini and SPCA was chosen as the best.
For the past few years, Unitec, Special Group and Naked—which has recently closed and been reborn as Open—have tried to bring a bit more chutzpah to the education sector and change the impression of the institution in potential students’ minds, first with the ‘Change Starts Here’ docu-ads and then with the trade-focused follow-up, ‘We Make the People who Make it’. And in a slightly surprising victory, the campaign managed to beat out the big boys for the best in show prize at last night’s Media Awards at the Langham.
DraftFCB and Mini are on a bit of a roll at the moment, with SPCA’s Driving Dogs winning pretty much everything in sight (it has been shortlisted four times at the prestigious Festival of Media, second only behind ASOS’ best night ever with five). And the pair are victorious once more, with the ‘Ducks’ ad taking out News Works’ newspaper ad of the month for March and the Mini newspaper NIM campaign getting a special mention.
DraftFCB has already won a fair swag of awards for its Driving Dogs campaign, and the accolades keep flowing, with the most recent addition being the Q4 Yahoo Digital Strategy Award.
DraftFCB is top of the dog show, with its Driving Dogs campaign for Mini and the SPCA taking home the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Online Creative Award for February.
Off the cuff comment by Top Gear presenter fuels speculation that the show is coming to New Zealand to film our talented dogs, however the agency behind the campaign says it’s pure speculation.
When it comes to Kiwi viral sensations, we may have a new champion, because DraftFCB, Mini and the SPCA’s campaign that put homeless mutts behind the wheel of a modified Mini has been picked up by most of the world’s major media outlets, been the most shared video on BBC three days running, with 225,000 shares to Facebook and 7,900 to Twitter, and ranks as the biggest news event on Campbell Live in its seven-and-a-half year history.
We’ve seen some pretty creative ideas used to increase pet adoptions and gather donations in New Zealand in recent years, with Colenso’s Doggelganger and Donation Glasses standing out in that regard. And now DraftFCB and Mini have joined the furry fray with a so crazy it just might work campaign for the SPCA that will see Porter, a 10 month old Beardie Cross from SPCA Auckland, attempt to drive a car live on TV.
.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.
There were 730 media folk in their gladrags, a couple of unfortunate but highly comical stage mishaps, some well-received self-deprecating humour from Martin Devlin, some cheeky on-stage planking hijinks and a large sumo wrestler dishing out gongs—quite literally—at the CAANZ Media Awards last night at the Langham in Auckland. And it was DraftFCB Media and OMD that left with the biggest smiles.
Mini’s advertising has been consistently good in recent years, both here and overseas, and it’s undoubtedly one of the automotive industry’s most innovative brands. In New Zealand, DraftFCB’s creative and media strategy during the Soho campaign was top notch and the experiment to get rid of car yards and see if people would buy new cars online was a particularly brave retail strategy (although the MINI Garage on Ponsonby Road does look suspiciously like a car yard). Well, now it’s got another hit on its hands with the Carmonica.
Naked Communications is a force to be reckoned with overseas, but it’s only been on the local scene since late 2009. In that short time, it’s certainly had a big impact, taking a fair swag of strategy and channel planning work off some of its larger competitors and winning a couple of media award golds for its work with Diet Coke. Matt O’Sullivan, who left his posting at Carat to set up the Auckland office with Simon Bird, is one man who’s never short of opinions. So here are a few on 2010.
DraftFCB has followed up a rip snorter in 2009 with another rip snorter this year. It’s picked up a swag of new business, it’s at the top of its social messaging game, it’s the consummate all-rounder, it won the big one at the CAANZ Media Awards, it was unlucky to lose out to cat food for Best in Show at the Effies and, perhaps most importantly, it’s still unbeaten in the Balls of Steel table tennis tournament after taking down Colenso in the second round last night. James Mok, executive creative director, gets his opinion on.
New Zealand Post sponsors and runs a huge number of industry events, awards and competitions. And, with Localist moving into the directories space recently, a range of new tech-related developments like Send-a-Card and some flash new data toys on offer, it’s been busily going about its future-proofing business this year. So, pull up a chair and see what Fiona Woolley, manager, market engagement at Targeted Communications, had to say about 2010.
Those NAB ad of the month judges are obviously pretty tough nuts to crack, because Jeneal Rohrback from Marsden Inch, Sue Worthington from Indiego and Jon Coles from .99 decided not to select a winner for the October round. But in true NCEA fashion, they did give DraftFCB’s ‘Night test drive’ ad for Mini a Highly Commended acknowledgement.
More than 2300 votes were cast and the team from Interbrand New Zealand has been crowned the winner of the ‘I wrapped it my way’ Mini design competition for its ‘Mend a Broken Heart’ entry.
The cut off for the NZ 2010 Best Design Awards, which celebrates the cream of New Zealand’s graphic, interactive media, product and spatial design crop, is looming ominously, so if you’ve got work from the past year to show off, get it in before 14 July. And alongside the awards, event sponsors The Pond, GEON, MINI, BJ Ball and ProDesign have launched a competition to try and get people excited about design.
Who it’s for: Mini (and its new Limited Edition Soho 11) by DraftFCB and Digipost.
Why we like it: The overall campaign for the very limited edition Mini Soho looks fairly impressive (here’s another ad for the Soho 8 that’s set to run on C42 …
The eyes of car salesmen the world over might be nervously focused on New Zealand this week, as Mini pilots a radical new retail strategy.