The One Club, one of America’s most prestigious awards programmes, has chosen its finalists. Herewith the locals gunning for a pencil in the three separate competitions, with Colenso BBDO on top once again with seven nods.
Car salesmen get a pretty bad rap. All shiny shoes, sparkling teeth and snake oil. And Rav4 owners aren’t typically regarded as being too outrageous. But they’ve been painted in a new light in the new Toyota campaign by Saatchi & Saatchi and Thick as Thieves that aims to celebrate the inherently adventurous spirit in all Kiwis with a good, old-fashioned Goodbye Pork Pie-style road trip.
Hello there Toyota’s vehicular version of The Hangover, Mercury Energy’s new toy and GE Money’s one-word campaign.
A collection of bureaucrats, educators and ad folk gathered together in an old building on the corner of Halsey and Packenham Streets in the Wynyard Quarter this afternoon to eat chicken sandwiches and hear about a new partnership between the Media Design School and Saatchi & Saatchi that will see the creation of a new Graduate School focused on digital innovation—and hopefully add some fuel to the ICT fire in Auckland’s innovation precinct.
A sand artist, a rural recreationist, some see-through beasts and a wild man walk into a bar…
The Electoral Commission’s new campaign aims to spread the word among Maori about the choice available to them in the Maori Electoral Option, a legislated event that runs approximately every five years. And to do it, Saatchi & Saatchi enlisted the services of “performance painter” and sand artist Marcus Winter and embarked on what it calls a true collaboration.
In John Drinnan’s media column last Friday, one of his topics was the rumoured move of Saatchi & Saatchi and the Media Design School’s offices to the Wynyard Quarter’s innovation precinct. That’s not happening and a correction was printed, but it is yet to appear online.
Sanitarium and Saatchi & Saatchi made the best of a bad yeast-based situation by creating the Don’t Freak Out campaign and focusing on the brand’s ‘flawsomeness’. And, not surprisingly, it’s also making the most of Marmite’s long-awaited comeback, with a Facebook countdown, a bit of a PR offensive and another rousing speech from the father of the nation, Graham Henry, congratulating Kiwis on getting through these dark days.
Bravery is a two-way street, says Saatchi & Saatchi’s Philip O’Neill.
It hasn’t been a particularly good day for the banks. Westpac seems to have unintentionally offended a few Greeks with its latest ad and a massive class action suit over “the unlawful overcharging of Kiwis for many many years” was also announced. But that hasn’t stopped ASB from continuing on its empowering, successful path with the first product-specific ad after the launch of its Succeed On campaign.
There’s been plenty of mystery and a fair bit of pope bashing since Papa Ratzi announced he was chucking in the mitre. And, never one to miss out on an opportunity for a laff, Tui has got in on the act too, with a new billboard via Saatchi & Saatchi.
Cupcakes all round for ASB’s beardy new mascot and Mitre 10’s romantic instructional video.
ASB has a good pedigree when it comes to using likeable characters in its marketing. And, after seven months of planning with its agency Saatchi & Saatchi, it’s hoping it has created another one after foisting the bearded, booming Brian Blessed on the nation to help get New Zealanders to celebrate success, no matter how small that success might be.
Aside from a classy print ad, and some classic Spring home loan activity, ASB largely kept its powder dry during the Great Bank Wars of 2012. But now it’s ready to play and, with the help of Saatchi & Saatchi and Brian Blessed, an able but much hairier replacement for its last foreign thespian, Dame Judy Dench, it’s launched its new ‘Succeed On’ campaign, which aims to get us humble Kiwi folk to indulge in a bit more healthy self-congratulation.
Radio Hauraki is in the midst of an existential crisis. And, after rather forthrightly saying it had been pretty shit for the past few years and that it had to kill that station to save it, The Radio Network brand has come out of rehab with a new line-up (Martin Devlin and Laura McGoldrick, Angelina Boyd, Greg Prebble, Matt Heath and The General and Mikey Havoc) and a new campaign at the hands of Saatchi & Saatchi. And, as part of its ‘intervention’, legendary turntablist and Beastie Boys DJ, Mix Master Mike is venturing to New Zealand to celebrate the official relaunch.
With a newish chief executive, a switch to Saatchi & Saatchi without a pitch, a rejigged marketing team, record profits, a new HQ being built, a couple of awards, a few more impressive innovations like Facebook payments and a classy if comparatively subdued response to the National Bank’s departure (something big might be brewing, however), ASB had a fairly eventful year. Executive general manager marketing and online Roger Beaumont shares the love.
2011 wasn’t a particularly memorable year for Saatchi & Saatchi, with the pink fist debacle casting a major pall. But the new executive and creative team has shaken things up and, after winning ASB without a pitch earlier this year and releasing some of the best work of 2012, the confidence—and the quality—appears to have returned. Creative directors Corey Chalmers and Gus Roberts speak up.
It’s been a rough ride, and with the whiff of restructure in the air, there will undoubtedly be a bit more roughness to come. But Telecom has steadied the ship in 2012 and, with Jason Paris at the helm and a resurgent Saatchi & Saatchi helping to create one of the best campaigns of the year, it is starting to get back on the goodfoot from a brand and storytelling point of view. Head of brand and insights Charlotte Findlay takes the stage.
Instant Kiwi’s instore luck pushing and ASB’s retro vibes take the biscuit this week.
Saatchi & Saatchi snaffles a digi-boffin, a word from our X Factor sponsors, the Media Design School kids are alright, Adshel brings in a chief organiser, DB stalwart steps down, Gopher adds one to the burrow and Murray Lindsay swaps stations.
At this time of year, many university students are looking forward to heading back to the family ranch, regularly opening the fridge to marvel at all the food inside and, possibly, attempting to dry out after a torrid year of mind expansion/erosion. They—and their secondary school friends who are about to embark on the next phase of education—probably aren’t thinking too much about banking. But ASB and Saatchi & Saatchi are dangling a few carrots with a new 50’s-inspired online video campaign to promote its tertiary accounts.
Running With Scissors’ new campaign for The People’s Wine caught our attention a few weeks back and it’s also found favour with the judges of the October round of the newspaper ad of the month awards, who said “there’s a story here … more of a personal interesting take on a wine ad”, “Kiwi, unpretentious and great to see longer copy” and “beautifully crafted and great use of a newspaper magazine.”
Last year’s impressive Step Up campaign by Saatchi & Saatchi for the RNZAF offered users the chance to experience four live simulated challenges that tested their skills against some of the everyday situations they’d encounter if they took up a career in the Air Force. This year’s version, ‘Virtual Missions’, follows a similar path and it’s been deemed good enough to win the IABNZ Online Creative Award for November 2012.
As one famous Brit hits our screens, another famous Brit departs, because Dame Judi Dench’s time is up as the voice of ASB. And while Saatchi & Saatchi has already presided over an online campaign, a cool Spotify app and some nice print work for Big Yellow, it’s just released its first TV push with a spring home loan campaign offering borrowers some cash, Samsung Galaxy tablets and a taste of ‘fully furnished’ domestic bliss.
After three years at Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand, Mark Cochrane has accepted an intercompany transfer and promotion to become the chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi Thailand, with Colenso BBDO’s Marcelle Baker brought on board to take over as group account director on Toyota and DB Breweries.
A triple whammy for Saatchi & Saatchi this week, with Big Ben and the Auckland Philharmonia getting in behind.
When Orcon launched its new cat-centric campaign recently, we mentioned the fact that Wired had delved into what it called the online cat-industrial complex, ad agency John St had spoofed the feline fascination brilliantly with the world’s first cat advertising agency, and a recent cat video film festival in the US drew 10,000 people (it was won by Henri 2: paw de deux). So it’s fair to say the cat is a powerful force in these digital times. And Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi have enlisted the services of a self-harming feline called Alloroc (geddit?) who’ll stop at nothing to get into the new 2013 Corolla as part of the ‘Feels Good Inside’ campaign.
It wasn’t too long ago Saatchi & Saatchi was showcasing the joys of life in the Air Force in an effort to drum up new recruits. And now it’s taken to the water, with a new Navy campaign that “uncovers the extraordinary life of adventure, belonging and purpose that comes with being a sailor” and features a stirring rendition of the national anthem by New Zealand’s oldest living Navy veteran, 96 year-old Vince ‘Cyclone’ McGlone.
Telecom’s great escape and Gib’s Kiwi connections take the honours this week.
We pointed them out a few weeks back when the Herald shrunk, and DraftFCB’s entertaining contextual ads—‘Magnifying Glass, Pirate and Shrink Ray’—for Pak ‘n’ Save to celebrate the paper’s new format have also impressed the judges of the September round of the Newspaper Ad of the Month awards.