TBWA\ has been cranking out the work for ANZ since ‘The Announcement’ of the new—and, if you believe the ads, improved—bank. And, with plenty at stake, it’s no surprise that no expense has been spared and the doctor has been well and truly gone for. And now it has moved into the final phase of the campaign to show what products and services it can now offer its customers.
The trusty Huntaway took the departure of the National Bank brand in his stride, and last night saw the launch of the first brand campaign for the new ANZ since the big announcement was made a few weeks back, with a Kiwi-specific cameo from Aussie actor Simon Baker back in character as The Mentalist’s Patrick Jane. And while we’re impressed with his use of two tea bags, a classic trick used by tea-nerds who like a stronger brew without the ‘nyertch’ factor of tannins, we fear our fictional friend may be stretching the truth a little.
The fusing of two financial entities that between them have nearly half of the population on their books is a massive—and massively complicated—task, both logistically in terms of back-end systems and emotionally in terms of assuaging customers’ fears through communications. It’s been in the planning for a while, of course, and in response to yesterday’s official announcement that ANZ would be phasing out the National Bank over the next two years, Whybin\TBWA is about to launch a big integrated campaign that “heralds the start of a new era for ANZ and reassures customers they will be getting the best of both worlds”.
TBWA’s ‘The Mission Continues’ for 2degrees took the annual Colmar Brunton Ad Impact award, and it’s continued its winning streak by claiming victory in the August round for its 100% Middle-earth campaign for Tourism New Zealand.
The ‘Cannes of the South’ kicked off over the weekend and the first blast of shortlists from Spikes Asia has been announced, with Colenso BBDO and DDB Group on top in terms of Kiwi agencies.
New Zealand is a nation built on exports, and historically they’ve come from the primary sector. All going to plan, the country will be exporting more of its IP in the future and that’s what Eleven PR, which was established in New Zealand, launched in Australia less than two years ago and won the PR agency of the year award at last week’s Mumbrella Awards, is planning to do.
Another bumper edition of TVCs of the Week, with Tourism New Zealand, Unitec, AUT, Lotto, Telecom and Pak ‘n’ Save making it on to the (extended) dais.
Tourism New Zealand has just launched its 100% Middle-earth campaign in an effort to bask in the reflected glow of The Hobbit trilogy. Here’s what general manager of marketing and communications Justin Watson had to say about it.
The 100% Pure New Zealand campaign is now in its 13th year, is held up as a master-class in tourism marketing and has helped turn New Zealand into one of the strongest country brands in the world. And Tourism New Zealand is aiming to replicate the international influx of visitors following The Lord of the Rings trilogy with the release of a new global campaign by the Sydney and Auckland offices of Whybin\TBWA and Curious Film that “invokes the magic of Middle-earth”.
As the bean counters might say, if advertising doesn’t improve the bottom line, it’s really just art. And expensive art at that. And the agencies that improved their clients’ businesses the most this year have been announced, with perennial Effie performers Colenso BBDO and DraftFCB on top with 22 and 16 finalists respectively, followed by the bolter Barnes, Catmur & Friends on ten and DDB on nine.
Following the worldwide unification of TBWA’s digital operations into the Digital Arts Network (DAN), Whybin\TBWA has announced that its digital consultancies Tequila and Shift have officially been melded into DAN\Auckland. And in a coup for the local agency, the Auckland arm was chosen to build DAN’s user experience (UX) lab, the network’s global centre of excellence for digital user experience design.
As Lion says goodbye to one of its prize marketers, Frith Morrissey joins TBWA\, Will Seal shifts from PR to media and JWT’s Rod Prosser heads for France.
Kelly Bennett, the founder and managing partner of Eleven PR New Zealand, has been tapped on the shoulder and will lead the expansion of brand activation, experiential and PR services for the TBWA\ network throughout Asia Pacific.
JWT’s Angus Hennah comes home, Rachel Ellerm kicks off her new female-centric strategic consultancy Frock, Pluk continues to grow, Orcon puts its weight behind CanTeen, The PR Shop pulls a deuce, and 2degrees and TBWA\ put their Ad Impact gloves on.
First Mercury and TBWA\ talked the Good Energy talk in February with the launch of a big TVC featuring Tiki Taane and his version of ‘Over the Rainbow’. And it’s backed that feelgood brand sentiment up in meat space as well, with all proceeds from downloads of the song going to Starship Foundation and a ‘good samaritan’ social experiment on the side of the road that showed how helpful Kiwis are. Now it’s taking the karma bank concept to the city streets with the Good Energy Taxi, where rides are paid for by good deeds rather than cash.
One of the best e-things we saw last year was If Historical Events had Facebook Statuses. And TBWA\ has taken a leaf out a similar book and embraced social media for St Matthew in the City’s ‘traditional’ Easter billboard.
In this exciting installment of who goes where; Carly Flynn hits her Target, a Barrell role for Samsung, Plankton floats across the Tasman, Carat dangled to Sewpershad, a US import for MediaCom, Simpson’s lovin’ it at Macca’s, JML Communications expands its girth, Adshel adds Atkinson, Touchpoint’s independent new chair, and Urlich is ‘worth it’ for L’Oréal NZ.
There’s been no shortage of action in bankland recently, with agency shifts galore and fairly sizeable profits being announced by the big boys that could potentially lead to some fairly enthralling market-share battles this year. And one of the big ones is set to be between ASB and ANZ.
Naked announced the appointment of Guy Cousins as its managing partner last week. And as he comes in the front door, highly regarded strategist and planner Simon Bird has snuck out the back for a role as the head of planning within Whybin\TBWA.
It was not without a sigh and a grunt that agencies with relaxation on their minds received a notice from the Treasury on December 15 asking for interested parties to put their hands up if they wanted to work on the ‘extension of the mixed ownership model’ account. They obviously don’t know Christmas is a time of reflection for the marcomms industry. But it seems the biggest live pitch at the moment (aside from the decision on Vodafone, which is still thought to be in the hands of the global bods), is now down to the shortlist stage.
Christmas is a time to celebrate enduring traditions. Trees, mistletoe, binge eating, rampant consumerism. But in adland one of the most enduring traditions is seeing what progressive Auckland church St Matthew in the City puts on its billboard to celebrate the festive season and waiting for the angry response to ensue. Last year it was M&C Saatchi showing Mary and Joseph’s post-coital awkwardness and this year it’s the follow up from TBWA\: a billboard showing a shocked Mary looking at the results of her pregnancy test.
Who’s it for: 2Degrees Mobile by TBWA and Film Construction
Why we like it: Two words, Rhys Darby. He appeals to all demos with the trademark quirky geek style. And we want some “handy auto-writing arms” too.
Who’s it for: Axis Awards 2012, CAANZ …
It was a big year of rugby for adidas and TBWA\ was behind much of the work done to leverage its sponsorship of the All Blacks. ‘All In’ and Stand in Black were solid campaigns, but for many they were overshadowed by the PR shitstorm that ensued after the jersey price debacle. And as the global sports giant shifts its focus away from rugby and towards other sports, so the focus also shifts away from the New Zealand branch and towards the two agencies it uses in Australia.
The orange guy has been trying to get apathetic Kiwis to enrol to vote for a while now, as has comedian Guy Williams on TV3.co.nz’s homepage. And now controversial Auckland church St Matthew in the City and TBWA\ have invoked the spirit of Kate Sheppard to try and get the modern folk to embrace the joys of democracy next weekend with a billboard that says: ‘Vote: there was a time when you couldn’t’. It’s almost the opposite of St Matthew of the Ridge’s billboard for Car Fe.
Who’s it for: Mitre 10 Mega and Plunket by DraftFCB and Flying Fish
Why we like it: We’re suckers for time-lapse, especially when it’s used to promote a campaign helping to raise money for Plunket. A good idea, well-made and a nice original track from …
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.
Tourism New Zealand put out a call for entries for a new agency in early September and, while TNZ’s Justin Watson made a commitment not to disclose the pitch list as “some of them might have conflicts”, it’s thought to have been whittled down to four: Clemenger Group, Droga5, Publicis Mojo and TBWA\.
Rugby’s pretty close to being a religion in New Zealand. And the outwardly progressive, typically controversial St Matthew in the City and its agency TBWA\ have referenced that with its latest billboard, which uses the ‘Turin Shroud’ style of iconography and endorses David Kirk as a Kiwi deity due to his team’s heroic efforts in 1987.
It was a 21 gun salute for Kiwi agencies at Spikes Asia, and Colenso BBDO was the sharpest shooter, taking the Digital Grand Prix for its Pedigree adoption drive, two golds, a silver and two bronzes.