Carefree has taken a page out of the Vagina Monologues with a new campaign that aims to subvert the shame women feel about their menstrual cycles by encouraging an online dialogue about periods.
Changes at Seven Sharp, OMD loses an experienced campaigner to MBM, Bruce Matchett leaves his Singaporean post, another Fairfax shift and the NBR announces its new front page tenant.
At the 20th instalment of the annual Campaign Asia Pacific Awards, Barnes, Catmur & Friends stole the show by becoming the first Kiwi agency to win the Australia/New Zealand Independent Agency of the Year category. PLUS: media agencies also get acknowledged for their contribution to the industry.
Fonterra is putting its media account up for pitch in New Zealand, with incumbent OMD and MediaCom thought to be battling it out for the spoils.
To promote the 26th edition of Shark Week, Discovery Channel’s longest running stunt, Sky TV sent five omionous shark fins to infiltrate the MetService website. The campaign, which was conceptualised by OMD, has been described as “a nicely executed creative idea that isn’t obtrusive and gets across the message in a simple yet clever way.”
The company credit cards are out in force this week for Spikes Asia and most of the shortlists have been announced, with, unsurprisingly, many of the campaigns that featured at Cannes also featuring in Singapore.
A new Positively Wellington Tourism campaign aims to sweep away perceptions of a blustery city where the chances of an enjoyable visit depend on the weather. The domestic marketing push shows off people and places: craft beer tasting at Garage Project; cheese buying at local food institution Moore Wilson’s; fish and chips with the family at Oriental Bay; brunch at Maranui Cafe and more.
Four well-known New Zealanders—Judy Bailey, Colin Mathura-Jeffree, Jon Bridges and Michael Van de Elzen—are packing their bags and indulging their passions in Australia as part of Tourism Australia’s new content marketing campaign with APN.
Clemenger businesses on the move in Welly, Bauer looks inside and finds a new advertising director, The Radio Network lures a big radio fish back home, Fairfax hands Lions Festivals baton to Val Morgan, Mark Reekie heads for the islands and Spotify announces new ANZ head of sales.
Day two was a good one from a New Zealand perspective. And Day 3 wasn’t too bad either, with one silver, a few bronzes and plenty of shortlistings.
OMD’s strategy director Jacquie Pierson has signed up as partner and shareholder in new media start-up Open alongside founder and ex-Naked Communications partner Matt O’Sullivan. And she’s certainly not mincing her words about the state of the local industry and the big media agencies that inhabit it.
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.
Changes ahoy at VodaClear, Anthony Gardiner to go it alone, new hires for iSite, Ooh!, Shout, PR Shop and PPR, APN flicks off its southern titles, Madant starts a new experiential division and NZ PC World gets a new editor.
In the first instalment of a new series where senior members of OMD’s trading team put forth their opinions on some of the issues facing the media industry, associate trading director David Turner looks at how local broadcasters are adapting to changing consumer behaviour and why a single trading currency is inevitable.
We at StopPress are strong believers in the power of confectioneries as a marketing tool and it seems Fly Buys agrees with us. The loyalty rewards company has installed a giant vending machine in the Britomart Transportation Centre providing Auckland commuters with 60,000 Jaffas.
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.
Asahi is looking to the future with its latest billboard, but Mitsubishi has been dwelling on the past with its Mirage campaign and NZ Woman’s Weekly subscribers were transported back in time in this week’s issue with a magazine cover from 1985 and an old Mirage ad on the back.
After a record 290 entries across 21 categories, 99 finalists have made it through to the final rounds of judging for the Media Awards. And the usual suspects are on top, with OMD on 36 finalists (11 from its Wellington office), Spark PHD on 20 and DraftFCB Media on 16.
The inaugural Glossies Magazine Advertising Awards kicked off last night to smoke, meat and unfurling banners. Ecostore, Special Group and Naked Communications take top prize.
I may be the only person to ever come out of the Sub-Continent to think cricket is boring, but even I’m more likely to head to a game if my mates tagged along. This is the idea at the heart of Fuse’s recent campaign for New Zealand Cricket.
The winner of the annual Glossie Award—and of the $10,000 travel prize from OMD—will be announced at an event next week. But we wanted to know if our dear, opinionated readers felt the same way as our dear, opinionated judges about the country’s best magazine ad. So select your favourite ad (the list is made up of all the winners across the competition plus a few wildcard entries we felt deserved to be in the hunt for the major prize) and then click on the vote button down below.
The confluence of data and creativity—and figuring out how to combine the ‘math and magic’ to best effect—seems destined to be one of the marketing world’s biggest challenges in coming years. And Anthony Gardiner has checked both of those boxes with a website called www.25mostplayed.com that, by combining Facebook data and iTunes data, offers a look at what’s tickling the musical fancy of different demographics.
Anthony Gardiner doesn’t believe this industry should be seen as us and them. We are all consumers. So why is the notion of “putting the consumer at the heart” of advertising still so foreign and novel to so many?
Creative ideas increasingly need to be media ideas—and specifically social media ideas. And OMD recognised this earlier this year by hiring social strategist, self-proclaimed ‘askhole’, opinionated mofo, treasure hunt lover and enthusiastic supporter of the Herne Bay Local Anthony Gardiner. So get these opinions down ‘ya gullet.
Fresh from winning more Caples metal than any other agency in the world over the weekend, Colenso BBDO followed that up by winning Campaign Asia Pacific’s New Zealand creative agency of the year award ahead of DDB Group and DraftFCB, with creative chairman Nick Worthington named as the Australasian region’s best creative director. DDB Group also backed up a good year on the awards front, with Rapp/Tribal winning digital agency of the year ahead of Colenso BBDO and TBWA\DAN, while Spark PHD was rewarded for an impressive year with the media agency of the year title, ahead of Naked and OMD.
The air was thick with the smell of creativity at the Hopetoun Alpha on 8 November for Adshel’s Creative Challenge (turns out creativity smells a little bit like a combination of cigarette smoke, ironic t-shirts, Sal’s Pizza and desperation), and after 60 minutes of furious jotting and pressurised thinking to come up with a campaign that would raise awareness—and funds—for Surf Life Saving New Zealand next winter, it was Colenso BBDO’s team that took the top prize.
Cameron Slater takes on The Truth, OMDepartures and arrivals, digital developments at Colenso, McComms, Orange Group’s mission gets underway, a good Choice, Komli buzzes out, and another Bright Spark.
Wendy Rayner’s new reign, Michael Laws drops the mic, DDB makes a deposit, changes at Woman’s Weekly, no comment from Fairfax, Top Gear New Zealand heads across the ditch, Charlie’s finds a new chief, Ideas Shop adds a new general manager, Alt Group pleases ze Germans, Mi9 moves them up the chain, Simon Barnett heads back to TV, Dominic Bowden takes on X Factor, Datamine adds an ‘Owl’ and Bright Sparks beefs up in the south.
Given Genesis Energy is the biggest spender in the electricity sector, clocking in with a very specific $4,408,317 in the year to July according to Nielsen’s AIS data, the news it was up for pitch whipped up a bit of excitement in agency land. From what we’ve heard, pretty much every non-conflicted man and his dog was in the room at the RFP stage, which could either be seen as an indication Genesis was testing the whole market to find the best partner or it didn’t know what kind of agency it actually wanted. But reliable sources have informed us the shortlist has now been decided on, with .99, Y&R, M&C Saatchi and DraftFCB thought to be getting set to fight it out for creative duties and Spark and Naked thought to be in the running for media.
We have seen marketing messages evolve from “Hey! This is what I want you to think about my product” through to the modern day nirvana of having citizen marketers doing our advertising for us. The shift has been from the brand as the story teller to having stories told about the brand. And who better to tell these stories than the fabled mass influencer?