Special Group

Last year’s rather risky ‘Change Starts Here’ docu-ad campaign for Unitec Institute of Technology aimed to address some long-standing misconceptions about the institution among parents and potential students and led to a significant increase in enrolments. And now it is hoping to, ahem, build on that by celebrating the achievements of graduates of its Faculty of Technology and Built Environment with its new campaign, ‘We make the people who make it’.

Just as restaurants often find it difficult to operate successfully as bars, it’s tough for ad agencies to succeed as design shops—and vice versa. That’s partially because there seems to be an element of patch protection at play on both sides of the fence, perhaps as evidenced by some of the comments in the article about Designworks’ foray into advertising with the University of Canterbury’s latest campaign. But, as one of the few agencies that’s won both Best Awards for the likes of the ecostore rebrand and Four’s big yellow duck as well as a whole host of prestigious creative awards, Special Group seems to be doing a pretty good job of striking a balance. And its latest effort is the creation of a new brand identity for Omaha Organic Blueberries (OOB).

MediaWorks and Special Group put a bit of effort into promoting the Sunday showing of The Simpsons’ 500th episode. And it worked, with nearly a quarter of a million viewers aged 5+ tuning in to the show, the most viewers since the channel was launched in February last year.

TSB has a stellar record when it comes to customer service and customer satisfaction, and it is, as its advertising says, New Zealand’s most recommended bank. And its latest innovation aims to enhance the banking experience even further with an impressive—and significant—new mobile banking app called {my}bank that was more than one year in the planning, comes complete with Bump technology and employed the branding and design services of Special Group. 

The IAB recently dropped the Bolly from its awards and renamed them the IABNZ Creative Awards in an effort to bring them in line with other international IAB competitions. And the first winner of the newly modified awards is Special Group, with the Mash-up banner for Four. 

Special Group won the NZ Tax Refunds account following a competitive pitch late last year. And it’s relaunched the brand with a campaign that celebrates the joy of an unexpected windfall and aims to differentiate it from the crowd of “me too” brands that now clutter the category.

You may have noticed a few pictures of Special Group’s flash new Drake St offices gracing the homepage of StopPress last week when it was helping to edit the site as part of our Hog the Blog Axis prize. And the 16th fastest growing company in New Zealand/Creative hotshop nominee has recently added a few humans to help fill those flash offices up, with Hilary Cootes being promoted to the role of general manager, Nigel Sutton and Rahat Chaudry joining as head of production and strategic planner respectively, and Claire Beatson returning from maternity leave. 

Sir John Hegarty is one of the world’s most famous advertising creatives and was knighted in 2007 for his services to advertising. He’s founding partner and worldwide creative director of BBH, an agency he set up in 1982 with fellow ex-TBWA staffers John Bartle and Nigel Bogle. The network now spans London, New York, Singapore, Shanghai, Mumbai and Sao Paulo and is famous for pushing the boundaries creatively and transforming its clients’ businesses as a result (Levis and Lynx are two great examples). Hegarty’s values have never wavered, he is as driven now as he ever was and BBH’s work is consistently entertaining, irreverent and insightful. We sent him a few questions and, as always, he was happy to give us a bit of his time and share his views.  

As sponsors of the Wellington International Sevens, Nikon set out to build brand awareness amongst the thousands of fans that turn out for New Zealand’s biggest annual party. With a bit of help from BRR Ltd, it created an integrated campaign that stood out in the stadium and saw its fan base rocket up a whopping 850 percent.

Last year, Special Group launched a campaign for America’s Next Top Model that featured a naked lady pulling the old hand-over-the-side-boob-on-the-back-of-the-ute trick. It also launched a campaign for Top Chef Just Desserts featuring the words Backstabbing Slut on a cake. Both campaigns were complained about to the ASA, and the complaint about the offensive cake was upheld. And it’s taken a similarly attention-grabbing approach with new poster campaigns for Four’s America’s Next Top Model All Stars and Family Guy.