Stories about Special Group published on StopPress – Aotearoa/New Zealand’s daily news site for the advertising and marketing industry.
They say: “We are a modern, independent communications company working across advertising, PR, design and digital. With a track record of producing highly effective strategic and creative campaigns. Named ‘New Zealand Effie Agency of the Year’ 2023 & 2025 and Campaign ‘Global Creative Agency of the Year’ 2021, 2023 & 2024 – more than any other agency in the world. We create ideas that drive fame, earn attention and deliver real business results for ambitious brands.”
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New Zealand creatives shone at this year’s APAC Effies with Colenso BBDO/Proximity leading the awards charge, picking up some gold metal alongside Barnes, Catmur & Friends Dentsu and Y&R.
Special Group chief executive Michael Redwood says business on the other side of the ditch is growing so quickly that he anticipates the Sydney office will employ more staff than the Auckland branch by the end of 2016. And this rapid growth, which has seen the Sydney office grow to 30 staff within 18 months, was recently recognised by Sydney-based Adnews magazine, which declared Special Group the Emerging Agency of the Year.
AA Insurance, which has been with Special Group for around three and a half years, has put the creative business up for pitch, with the incumbent, DDB and one other agency thought to be among the contenders.
2degrees is testing the general knowledge of Kiwis through its summer campaign, which requires smartphone users to answer a series of trivia questions in a bid to win perks.
Paspaley Pearls and Special group have teamed up for yet another artistic collaboration following their original short story and multimedia campaign last year. This year they’ve created ‘Behind the Lens’, a 10-minute fictitious short film, directed by a Cannes Festival-winning director and starring British actress Clara Paget.
As Paul Catmur wrote last year, the marketing bit often seems to be forgotten in the world of digital marketing. But here are a few that combined the two and were deemed worthy of a place in the interactive marketing category at the Best Awards.
2degrees has managed to secure around 1.3 million mobile customers since it launched in 2009. But if it wanted to play with the grown-up telcos, it knew it needed to become full-service. That became a reality after purchasing Snap internet earlier this year. And after discovering that Kiwis find the various plans and jargon a bit confusing, it’s aiming to remove the complexity by offering just two plans, something it’s focusing on in its launch campaign.
For four years, the Red Bull Trolley Grand Prix has drawn the crowds and the competitors to the Auckland Domain with its heady brew of speed, creativity, dubious engineering and, ideally, low-level injury resulting from spectacular crashes. The gravity-fuelled competition is back for its fifth run on November 22 and Red Bull and Special Group have created a clever ‘interactive’ call for entries campaign to get more teams interested in competing (and, presumably, more sadists interested in watching them).
We’ve had Vegemite and Cadbury, and L&P and Whittaker’s. And now we’ve got Red Bull and the Vodafone Warriors, with the pair coming together to produce a specially-designed Red Bull can.
TSB has released a new commercial via Special Group promoting its Connect Plus everyday account which uses an adorable miniature gardener to pull on viewers’ heartstrings.
It started with one desk, three partners and no clients in late 2007. Now, as Ben Fahy discovers, Special Group has 30 clients in New Zealand, an Australian office that’s running hot and a desire to take its mix of magic, logic and decency to the world.
Fresh from being appointed as Holden’s lead agency after an extended pitch process, Special Group has also clinked glasses with one of the country’s fastest growing and most innovative wine companies Yealands. And the new pairing have their sights set squarely on pushing the brand in international markets.
After separating from its long-time agency Ogilvy, Holden decided to choose its new creative partner in a novel way by giving the two top contenders FCB and Special Group their own real world tests. And it’s Special Group that has come out victorious.
Special Group has been appointed the new creative agency for the Vodafone Warriors, following a creative pitch that involved four agencies.
Smirnoff’s #PurePotential campaign via Special Group was pretty slick, with some good lookin’ billboards and a clever Instagram Bar that saw ‘mixologist’ Dickie Cullimore creating bespoke beverages based on pictures of punters’ fridges. The Lion-distributed vodka brand claims to see the potential in everything around us, “from sidewalks as dance floors, paint cans as drum kits and now a concrete truck as a drinks mixer”, which it wheeled out to a few festivals over summer.
When Smirnoff launched its #PurePotential campaign, promising that the company could see potential for a yummy cocktail in any ingredient, I thought the idea was romantic but unrealistic. It’s proven me wrong.
What’s in your fridge at the moment? According to Smirnoff’s new campaign, ‘Pure Potential’, it can see the potential in any ingredient to make a great drink.
Disappearing cars, perfect mascots, not-so scientific research and dad dancing entertain in this week’s edition.
Shredded money, a superhero of the environmental persuasion and netball-mad retailers get top marks this week.
Special Group has announced its presence in the Australian market by collaborating with award-winning author Anna Funder, Warm Bodies actress Teresa Palmer and fashion photographer Derek Henderson in a campaign for luxury pearl brand Paspaley. At the centre of the campaign is a bespoke short story, called ‘Everything Precious’, written by Funder, which will be released to Paspaley subscribers daily in seven serialised instalments via email between 1 and 8 October. So is this a case of a writer selling out for commercial gain?
Industry happenings at Special Group, Colenso BBDO, Ipsos and Toybox.
Red Bull has appointed Vizeum to its media account, making the Dentsu Aegis-owned agency responsible for the Austrian-owned company’s media strategy, and planning and buying duties across New Zealand.
Red Bull is a brand renowned for its pioneering approach to content marketing, but companies cannot live on content marketing alone and even Red Bull needs to pay to put its ads on telly occasionally. And it’s done just that with its latest global ad, which is running in New Zealand and features three Kiwi athletes—motocross champ Levi Sherwood, kayaker Ben Brown and mountain biker Brook Macdonald. PLUS: Red Bull’s new music programme Sound Select and the launch of redbulletin.com.
Time has been a fairly popular theme for Kiwi brands in recent months, with Hyundai running its Family Time Project and ANZ just releasing a couple of ads detailing how time really is money. TSB has also joined that club, with a new campaign via Special Group that aims to turn potential customers on to its business by promoting its ‘putting customers first’ philosophy.
New Zealand lingerie brand Rose & Thorne is on a mission to get its products on more New Zealand bodies—and, in time, more international bodies. And it has appointed Special Group to help define its brand and grow the business.
In an effort to consolidate its agency partners—and in a show of support for Kiwi-owned businesses—New Zealand Trade & Enterprise has appointed Special Group as its lead design and communications agency following a competitive pitch late last year.
