2011 was another good year for the indies, which are often playing in the same sandpit as the big boys and occasionally stealing their spades and buckets. And, with a range of experienced big agency campaigners now plying their trade outside the walls of the multinationals, this trend looks set to continue. Running With Scissors’ two main brains Friday O’Flaherty and Andy Mitchell get their freak on.
Browsing: RWC
2011 was a big year for Adshel, with the departure of Australian-based chief executive Steve McCarthy and marketing director Elvira Lodewick, the reinstitution of the much-loved Adshel Rally after a six-year hiatus and the added buoyancy—and, in many cases, frustration—brought to the outdoor sector by the RWC. So, take it away national sales director Nick Vile.
Frucor, with the help of its long-time agency Colenso BBDO, maintained its consistency in 2011, with V continuing its run as one of the country’s most innovative brands and Mountain Dew Skate Pinball taking experiential marketing to a whole new level of massiveness. Marketing director Scott Wright spills the beans.
Fraser Gardyne graduated from design school in 1976, was a director at Designworks for ten years, has worked closely with a massive range of Kiwi businesses and, as a result of his committed service to clients and the industry, was awarded the coveted Black Pin at last year’s Best Design Awards. Here’s some of the goods, bads and uglies of 2011 as seen through his eyes.
There’s been a lot of chatter about the benefits of sponsorship and the threat of ambush marketing over the past few months. Some believed the All Blacks were a more valuable property to be associated with, others believed the Rugby World Cup was worth the sizable investment. So we were interested to see this Nielsen data showing which brands the hoi polloi perceived as sponsors of the event in June and then again in October.
The dust has largely settled after the glorious Rugby World Cup shindig. But Heineken has kept up the momentum of the 46 percent increase in total sales it recorded in September/October when compared to the year prior after being awarded the Ad Impact Award for October for its new ad ‘The Entrance’, which was launched Super Bowl style at half-time during the final.
The party may be over. But, as expected, there are plenty of sponsors trying to bask in the reflected glow of the All Blacks Rugby World Cup victory, including Adidas with its new ‘all ours, again’ spot.
Not surprisingly, the All Blacks’ celebrations with Old Bill in the changing rooms was the most popular photo gallery of the tournament on nzherald.co.nz. But, given the marketing battle royale that has played out between Steinlager and Heineken, we couldn’t help but notice one photo in particular. If you look closely you’ll see some members of the team—and the Dear Leader who never misses out—drinking the team sponsor’s product (good to see Andrew ‘The Seal Killer’ Hore rocking a white can) in the supposedly ‘clean’ stadium. But, blow me down, Piri Weepu is supping from a bottle of Heineken. Someone call the IRB. A fine must be dished out.
Years of pain, suffering and putting up with calls from antagonists who try to dull the throbbing hurt by saying ‘it’s only a game’ might—and should—all be forgotten on Sunday night. And, from a marketing point of view, what a ride the RWC has been. There have been enthralling PR disasters with the likes of MasterCard, Adidas, Telecom and the IRB; there have been PR masterstrokes, like getting the whole NZ-based Tongan community behind their team; there have been great campaigns and stunts that sit somewhere between sneaky and savvy from the likes of Steinlager, NZ Pure, Vogel’s and KFC; there have been more than three million Tweets about the tournament and the teams involved in it; and, despite many doubters, Martin Snedden and his gang of RWC 2011 optimists managed to reach their massive ticket sales target and, with 87 percent of tickets sold, showed that marketing and fulfilment don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Hopefully that ride comes to an appropriate conclusion in Auckland, which, as one cad said, has looked like an artist’s impression for the past six weeks. And hopefully Richie McCaw gets to lead the ticker tape parade down Queen St in Telecom’s pink fist car, perhaps with the injured Captain Underpants riding shotgun.
Dr Obvious has diagnosed the RWC as being a pretty hot social media topic (recently released stats show there have been more than 1,931,215 tweets about the #RWC2011 over the past five weeks when you include all teams, hashtags and @rugbyworldcup). And, as this infographic shows, the All Blacks are winning the conversation wars ahead of Sunday’s trans-Tasman semi-final stoush.
In news that’s sure to warm Don Brash’s libertarian cockles, it turns out we’re leading the rugby world when it comes to smokin the ‘erb, as this wee infographics.co.nz ditty shows. If the IRB gives out a $10,000 fine to Samoan player Alesana Tuilagi for wearing a branded mouthguard, one can only imagine how much it’ll cost the All Blacks when Graham Henry makes a bong out of the Webb Ellis trophy on October 23 for a celebratory toke with the team.
Paymark figures show the country is already reaping the benefits of extra Rugby World Cup spending, with a surge in transactions even before the opening ceremony.
From psychic Kiwis to psychic cows to the TAB’s prediction chicken, New Zealand rugby augurs are looking for signs to give them confidence the All Blacks will break their 24 year Rubber Wool Cup drought. But, like GNS vs Ken Ring, we base our predictions on hard data rather than snake oil, as can be seen very clearly with the first of our weekly, alternative Rugby World Cup infographic predictions that generally have absolutely nothing to do with rugby and were created by infographics.co.nz. This week, if the RWC is to be won ‘up front’, here are the likely contenders based on average penis size, although it should be noted it may be something of a hollow victory for France as the data wasn’t available for Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Namibia.
Brad Novak via Cleverbastards.co.nz
With the nation currently in the grip of a violent strain of rugby fever (symptoms include very low workplace productivity, constant gridlock in Auckland, increasing popularity for psychic animals, ads between the haka, Google doodles and a penchant for infographics), it’s fairly difficult to think about anything else today.
New Zealand is getting set to put on a bloody good show for our RWC visitors in the coming months. And there’s plenty on the menu to keep them all entertained, from the REAL NZ Festival to the Taste of New Zealand to trade and innovation shows and a whole heap inbetween. But some guests require a bit more impressing and the local events and activation scene is buzzing as official sponsors and plenty of other businesses hoping to use the tournament as a chance to butter up guests and potential clients look to roll out the branded red carpet.
The smell of sponsorship campaigns gone wrong is wafting around the country at the moment and, with just over two weeks left until RWC kick off, there are probably a few nervous sponsors hoping they don’t get flamed like Adidas and Telecom. But there’s little chance of that happening with Landrover, KPMG or recently announced official watch sponsor TAG Heur, which have all got in on the act.
After a fair bit bureaucratic faffing, the clean zones for the Rugby World Cup 2011 have been announced, so agencies and advertisers now know where they can and can’t put their marketing during the tournament. And in some cases, the restrictions are quite extensive.
The promotional onslaught from Rugby World Cup sponsors hoping to make good on their significant investment into the tournament has begun in earnest, with the dangling carrot of Cup tickets already being used to lure the punters. Heineken is already offering finals tickets with its on-pack promotion and it’s dishing out a few more in the Heineken Trivia Series.
ANZ launched its big Rugby World Cup promotion with much pomp and ceremony last week. But it’s obviously not too late to get involved, because Microsoft New Zealand announced today that it has signed up as an official sponsor of the tournament.
A senior Wellington intellectual property consultant is warning Kiwis and small businesses hoping to take advantage of the commercial opportunities afforded by the Rugby World Cup that, when it comes to protecting the interests of the tournament’s commercial partners, the authorities are likely to be just as vigilant as their FIFA companions were at the Football World Cup in South Africa. But not everyone thinks New Zealand’s business opportunists will have their hands completely tied by the supposedly draconian rugby overlords.
The Rugby World Cup is only a few months away and most New Zealanders, including our mincing strutter of a prime minister, are starting to get a little hot under the collar. But, unlike the seemingly excessive television broadcasting deal, where most of the games will be available to view on three different channels, there will be just one official radio station. So for all those poor sods who can’t get themselves in front of a screen, the Radio Network’s Radio Sport will be the place to hear all 48 games after it was named as the official radio broadcaster of Rugby World Cup 2011.
Get your read on with a host of entrancing tales about new RWC sponsorships, BIG moves, renaissance buses, the power of cinema, Pauline Hanton, photography, cool new campaigns, the Effies, online pre-research shopping tools, MINI art, sustainable business accolades, rock paper, the branding success of the Smokefree Rockquest and so much more.
Social media is still the hottest of marketing topics at the moment (although there are signs a backlash may have begun and Facebook growth in the US seems to have stagnated), and the early-birds were out in force this morning to catch some of the social media worms being dished out at the Marketing Association’s Jericho Brainy Breakfast.
ANZ will be the fourth worldwide partner for the Rugby World Cup 2011 (RWC 2011), placing it alongside fellow top tier sponsors Emirates, MasterCard and Heineken and making it the official bank of the Rugby World Cup.
The first phase of the Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2011’s big international marketing effort will be launched in Auckland today and everyone involved is remaining extremely, disappointingly but impressively tight-lipped about the whole thing.