Special Group took over Lion’s suite of Diageo products after it won a competitive pitch in June last year. But a decision to use more global creative for its Smirnoff brand means the local boys have been cut out the action for the time being.
Put yourself in the shoes of a rugby hater for a moment. Almost everywhere you turn you are bombarded by earnest, emotional ads from sponsors of the All Blacks or the Rugby World Cup talking about long-awaited victory, national pride, unwavering support and inner belief, while the ‘cluster ruck’ of domestic broadcasters (Sky, Rugby Channel, TV3, TV One and Maori TV) screening, repeating and analysing the Big Rugby Event (BRE) means it will probably be quite difficult to escape the tournament when it kicks off. No doubt, there is plenty of excitement in the air, but MediaWorks and Special Group have decided to zig while everyone else is zagging with a cheeky, entertaining new campaign for FOUR that references the overkill and positions the channel as ‘The Home of Not Rugby’.
When we last spoke with indie agency Zephyr at the start of the year, they had just won three new pieces of business. Now the three sausage-loving partners—Robert Coulter, Warwick Delmonte and Quentin Pfiszter—may be cooking up a few more celebratory bangers after winning Lion’s McKenna bourbon account in a pitch involving Special Group and BCG2.
Ecostore’s latest campaign has been pushing the ‘I’m not a guinea pig line’ to encourage consumers to opt out of using nasty chemicals often found in other baby, beauty, body and household cleaning products. Now, in what it claims is a marketing first, it’s taking that idea a step further by trying to get consumers’ entire Facebook networks to do the same.
Sadly, it’s something of a rarity to see examples of creativity in the world of print, especially when compared to the raft of nifty online gimmicks spewing forth. But ecostore, Special Group, Naked, Salt Interactive and ACP appear to be onto a winner with what they believe is a first: a mass-personalisation campaign that allows parents to make their child into a cover star on Little Treasures magazine.
How do you make your booze brand stand out a little more? Creating a reality-type series that leverages the smart ideas generated by creatives is one way, and ratings for the Smirnoff Night Project, which made its debut just under two week’s ago, point to it being an effective concept (read all about the campaign, spearheaded by Special Group,here).
Back in November, Smirnoff and Special Group launched a campaign to get people to come up with kerrrazzeee ideas for events, with the winning concepts brought to life and the highs and lows of the lead-up and execution filmed for an unscripted reality show that would screen on FOUR. Well, that show kicks off tonight at 10.30 and Special Group creative director Tony Bradbourne is pretty damn excited about it.
Finalists for the One Show have been announced and 24 Kiwi entries made the cut, up from nine last year. Colenso leads the Kiwi pack with seven contenders and more recognition for both Yellow Chocolate and TVNZ’s The Pacific campaign; DDB is just one back on six, with the good old reliable Sky Arts Channel work again finding plenty of favour; and Alt Group got three shortlistings in the design category. Clemenger BBDO and DraftFCB got two, while JWT, Special Group, Saatchi & Saatchi, AIM Proximity Wellington and TBWA\ all got one each. There were no finalists in the College section.
Over 10,000 entries were submitted from around the world and the nominees for The Webby’s, AKA the Oscars for nerds, were announced this week. And Special Group’s ‘Living Office’ web banner, New Zealand-based Drugs.com and Supply’s ‘Scam Machine’ for Netsafe are the only local contenders up for an award, while Resn, DraftFCB, Alt Group, Oh Baby, Fairfax and APN all received the next best thing, official honoree status.
In 1993 Malcolm Rands, together with his wife Melanie, launched a small mail-order business supplying green every day household products, all with the aim of creating a healthier, more sustainable world. 19 years on and the ecostore brand has come a pretty long way from its roots in the Rands’ basement of their eco-village property in Northland. But with a range that spanned over 100 products as of last year, and with complacency a known enemy of innovation, ecostore has undergone a massive formulation and design makeover, the results of which were revealed at an event at the company’s home base in Auckland last night.
In the Direct Response section, Colenso took gold for Yellow Chocolate and a silver for ‘A Rubbish Idea’, while Special Group also took gold for ‘Orcon Business Banner’. And in the Direct Campaign, Colenso came home with both awards, a gold for Yellow Chocolate and a bronze for TVNZ’s ‘Real Stories’ to promote its show The Pacific. In the Direct Mail category, ‘A Rubbish Idea’ and ‘Real Stories’ both took silver, as did DDB’s Catalogue & Tee Shirt Folding Machine for AS Colour.
Colenso BBDO took all three awards handed out in the Integrated category, with gold for ‘Yellow Chocolate’ and a bronze apiece for Frucor’s ‘V Ladders’ and TVNZ’s ‘Real Stories’ to promote its show The Pacific. It also cleaned up in the Titanium category, with ‘A Rubbish Idea’ taking bronze and ‘Yellow Chocolate’ turning gold once again. Special Group took the only Interactive Axis, winning gold for the ‘Orcon Business Banner’.
Special Group, Salt Interactive and Orcon took the humble web banner to places the web banner has never been before in New Zealand and took gold in Online Advertising for their efforts with Orcon. And, by adding Twitter and Facebook functions, it became a rare beast: a banner that was actually shared among friends, showing that interactive utility shows its stripes when impressive content is created to suit the medium. Special Group also won bronze in the branded content for the Volvo ‘Blindfold’ campaign.
Special Group and Salt Interactive’s ‘Orcon Business Banner’ was a hit with the StopPress punters when it launched and it also tickled the fancy of the judges of the Digital Craft section. Oktobor, which recently announced it would be moving out of the advertising sandpit to concentrate on its new cash cow animation, also picked up gold in Digital Craft for Shihad’s ‘Sleepeater’, which was a fitting way for a production house that has performed very well at Axis over the years to say farewell.
Colenso is at the top of its creative game at the moment and it’s certainly walking the talk when it comes to devising big ideas that get brands talked about by consumers. And while Yellow Pages is wrestling with a few rather large financial demons at present, the pair’s impressive award-winning run continued last night at Vector Arena, when Yellow Chocolate was awarded the Grand Axis, the Titanium gold Axis and the Integrated gold Axis at the 2011 CAANZ Axis awards.
New Zealanders seem to have something of a love/hate attitude when it comes to marketing and advertising. Some despise it because it tricks people into buying things they don’t need, makes the nation fatter/drunker/more dangerous and is an industry supposedly filled with wankers. But others seem to be able to look past all that and simply enjoy biting into the fruits of the industry’s labour. Whatever the reason, there’s no doubt Kiwis are interested in it, as evidenced by the fact that the Fair Go Ad Awards is regularly among the country’s top rating shows. And CAANZ and TVNZ are hoping to tap into this interest and showcase the creative, innovative side of the business by filming the Axis award show and screening it on Ondemand.
After a competitive pitch, the Royal New Zealand Ballet has appointed Special Group as its design and communications agency.
The Fairfax Admedia Agency of the Year awards were dished out at 1885 in Britomart this week. And while there were the usual mutterings about the decisions—and some other mutterings about changes to the judging criteria—DDB New Zealand came away with the biggest haul after being handed three of the top awards, including Agency of the Year, CEO of the Year for Sandy Moore and Rookie Suit of the Year for Zoe Macfarlane’s work on McDonald’s.
Pitching for any account is a competitive affair but when you’re pitching for a lucrative account that features five big-name, top-end car brands, you better be firing out the big guns. And that’s just what four agencies are currently doing as they muscle it out to win the …
It has been said that AWARD golds are rarer than both hen’s teeth and fish lips and that was proven once again on Friday night, when just six were handed out and some Cannes Gold winners left with only bronzes. But in news that’s sure to further warm the cockles of New Zealand’s ad scene, half of them went to Kiwi agencies.
The radio, design, digital, creative innovation and integrated finalists for AWARD have been announced, with Clemenger BBDO, Colenso, DDB, Saatchi & Saatchi, TBWA\, Publicis Mojo, Rapp/Tribal, AIM Proximity and Special Group all making the cut. But coming out on top for the Kiwis in terms of overall finalist nods are DraftFCB, DDB NZ and Special Group. The awards will be handed out on Friday.
The first round of finalists for AWARD have been announced, with Special Group, DDB, DraftFCB, Colenso, M&C Saatchi, Clemenger BBDO, AIM Proximity, Flying Fish, The Sweet Shop, Film Construction, YukFoo and Curious Film among those that made the cut in the Direct Marketing, Craft in Film and Craft in Print categories. More category finalists will be announced soon and the awards will be dished out on 25 February.
To celebrate the launch of MediaWorks’ new channel FOUR this weekend, Special Group decided to create a massive inflatable duck and, after filming it for a channel ident, berthed it in the Auckland viaduct for passersby to marvel at (puntastic kudos to Tim Newman for coining the phrase ViaDuck). Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s oversized aquatic birds have been deployed in cities in Europe, Asia and South America, so no-one ever claimed it was an original idea. But not only has the giant yellow duck been done overseas, it’s also been done in New Zealand—and not too long ago either.
New Zealand has a nigh-on unhealthy obsession with oversized novelty items. Carrots, L&P bottles, trout, salmon, sheep, kiwifruit… the list goes on. So what better way to celebrate the arrival of MediaWorks’ new mainstream entertainment channel FOUR this weekend than to set a 12 metre high, 14 metre wide inflatable duck loose on Auckland harbour.
Who’s it for: Unitec by Special Group and Film Construction
Why we like it: Filming three students at the start of the school year to promote an academic institution is a particularly brave move, but taking the reality TV approach appeals to the …
Education is all about aspiration; about the promise of knowledge eventually leading to a better lot for the students and their loved ones. And Special Group’s new ‘Change Starts Here’ brand campaign for the Unitec Institute of Technology aims to tap into that—although in a way not seen before in New Zealand.
Vicky Te Puni
FOUR, TVWorks’ great mainstream entertainment hope for 2011, launches in February and, with a 15 percent boost in ad revenue since the changes were rung to C4 last year, chief executive Jason Paris is pretty excited about what the year might hold for the network. Much to the relief of those who pleaded with MediaWorks to enlist the services of an agency instead of doing its creative inhouse, Special Group got the nod last year and proceeded to get stuck into the promotional work for the launch. And this is what the talented gang have come up with (yes, that is the real number for the BSA).
If you thought ad agencies were only in it for the accolades, then the Directory Big Won may lend a little bit of credence to that, because it’s an award show that gives out awards to agencies that have won the most awards. How post-modern. Anyway, after the numbers were crunched, DDB New Zealand and Colenso BBDO were the only two agencies from the Asia Pacific region to make the top 20 list for 2010, ranked as the 18th and 20th most successful creative agencies in the world respectively, the first time either agency has made the list.
Colenso BBDO has had another stellar year, with a swag of awards—both for creativity and effectiveness— and a growing international reputation. Planning director James Hurman, who passionately believes that creatively focused leadership and creative advertising leads to business success, has played a big part in that. And here’s his take on 2010.
Just as the media love a good end of year list, trade mags love to rank performance with a good end of year awards ceremony. And so far it’s Colenso BBDO, Special Group, DDB, AIM Proximity, SparkPHD and The Sweet Shop that are leading the Kiwi charge.