The Death Star has landed a couple of big fish, won some big awards, launched some big ideas and welcomed—and farewelled—some big creative boffins this year. DDB’s managing director Justin Mowday dives into the choppy waters of 2011.
Proudly Kiwi-owned indie agency Federation kicked off in 2008 and it pumped out a lot of work this year, with good campaigns for the likes of Warehouse Stationery, Cavalier Bremworth, Fisher & Paykel Finance and The Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind. DDB NZ’s ex-managing director Sharon Henderson opines on 2011.
There were a host of enthralling PR disasters this year. And, perhaps as a result of all the humans wandering the streets during the Rubber Wool Cup, there was also a noticeable increase in the number of brands using experiential marketing in their campaigns. So who better to spill the beans on 2011 than Claudia Macdonald, managing director of PR, events and experiential agency Mango and a founding member of the CAANZ Marcomms Leadership Group.
With shareholders voting overwhelmingly in favour of splitting Telecom in two at the annual general meeting recently, the fall out from the “Abstain for the Game” campaign and the appointment of new marketing boss Jason Paris, change is most definitely in the wind for Telecom at the moment. And it’s thought the first phase of that change is cranking into gear.
Craig Herbison returns from Australia to take up the chief marketing officer role at BNZ, Paul Henry gets shoulder-tapped by Lachlan Murdoch, Adshel welcomes Simon Paul as a senior account director, Tania Burgess takes on the night shift at The Breeze, and Anne O’Brien is handed the artistic reins for the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival.
…as Telecom farewells a marketing doyenne, MediaWorks lures Richard Fenner away from the golf course, Terabyte Interactive opens a Sydney office and QGroup announces a couple of new digital hires.
In a world gone social, influence is critical. And Telecom is bolstering its earned media credentials with the launch of Smart Network, a new online hub that showcases the work of a bunch of creative Kiwis.
We all know what happened with Telecom’s last attempt to leverage its sponsorship of the All Blacks. But its Backing Black roadshow has kept on trucking, the HQ was launched at the Viaduct a few weeks back and now TOUCH/CAST has launched a new online campaign in the lead-up to the semi-final that puts users at the centre of the All Blacks.
He’s been on gardening leave since his surprise resignation from the role of chief executive at MediaWorks TV in June. And now it’s been announced that Jason Paris will take over the role of chief marketing officer at Telecom, replacing the outgoing Keiren Cooney, who took a big media battering over the Abstain for the Game campaign and is set to take up the role of chief communications officer with the National Broadband Network company in Australia.
Designing furniture, creating photography books and making documentaries about the world’s worst football teams. Not the most obvious definition of a communications agency but for Engin Celikbas, a former DDB international and now partner of Amsterdam start-up agency Kesselskramer, it’s all about tapping into the wide depth of talent within the company and experimenting. Celikbas recently made an appearance at We Can Create and in this video interview, he tells us why he admires Steinlager and Droga 5, shares his thoughts on Telecom’s failed All Blacks campaign, and explains how the agency managed to position the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel as the world’s worst hotel that has been “proudly disappointing travellers for forty years”. The hotel has never been so full.
…as David MacGregor goes solo, Dave Shoemack gets a plum posting in Holland, Telecom’s punching bag departs, Fujikistan goes international, Andrew Mehrtens gets Gallic for TV3, The Press wins plaudits at PANPA, Mango activates an expert, CAANZ adds to its stable, Orangebox cuts cake, Kordia shacks up with PPR, and The Economist names a new sponsorship and marketing guru.
It’s taken a while but the penny finally seems to have dropped. Advertising/marketing campaigns work much better if you aim to get good public relations from the get go. Not just for the brand/product but also for the campaign itself.
It used to be that everyone wanted to be like Saatchi & Saatchi. But, after the recent Telecom debacle, one agency has even resorted to taking out print ads out to ensure no-one gets confused.
Moa, like many others, has already jumped on the randy bandwagon with its own pro-sex response to the widely rubbished and now-dumped Telecom ‘Abstain from the Game’ campaign. And the other most likely contender, Hell Pizza—with its agency Barnes, Catmur & Friends—has followed suit with this punny wee number.
If a sign of a successful campaign is the courting of controversy, then Telecom and partners in crime Saatchi & Saatchi are well placed. But the wealth of opinions that have gushed forth following the unveiling of the ‘Abstain for the All Blacks’ campaign seems to have those involved retreating for shelter. Meanwhile others have offered alternative campaigns of a similar vein.
With a whole stack of newbies that were well-liked by respondents and strong on their branding, it was a tough job picking this month’s Colmar Brunton Ad Impact Award winner. But it seems we enjoy having a bit of laugh at ourselves, because Goodman Fielder’s Kiwi Bacon ad by Buffalo Creative and Curious came out on top with its quirky celebration of our local importation traditions—and, by extension, our local pigs.
Telecom and the MED released a document on Tuesday about its plan to ‘demerge’ and split into two separate entities—the network division Chorus and the retail arm at this stage colloquially known as the ‘New Telecom’—as part of the conditions imposed by the government after its successful bid to build the Ultra Fast Broadband network. And the split, which still requires shareholder and bondholder approval, has led to a fresh round of speculation that it could be a catalyst for changes to its agency roster and might spell the end of Kevin Roberts’ position on the Telecom board.
2011 Corporate Reputation Index
Reputation is everything, someone may have once said. And Air New Zealand has the best one, according to the second annual New Zealand Corporate Reputation Index.
Who’s it for: Telecom by Saatchi & Saatchi and Prodigy
Why we like it: It’s a fairly earnest, emotional affair, but it’s beautifully shot, well written and it uses a range of scenes and an accurate insight to show why so many different people are so …
When it comes to smartphone usage overseas, the tipping point appears to be approaching rapidly. And while New Zealand is slightly behind in the smartphone uptake stakes, Telecom and Saatchi & Saatchi are hoping to increase the numbers by tapping into the emotional appeal of the devices and promoting their ability to aid all kinds of communication with its latest brand ad, one of the first pieces of work new executive creative director Antonio Navas has his name attached to.
Things have been going pretty well for Yahoo!Xtra as of late. Just last month the joint venture between Yahoo!7 and Telecom New Zealand announced a net profit of $1.88m for 2010, an increase of 37 percent on the 2009 results. But Telecom has decided to part with its 49 percent share of Yahoo!Xtra, announcing it has sold it to Yahoo!7. That means Yahoo!7, a 50/50 joint venture between Australia’s Seven Media and US company Yahoo, will now own 100 percent of Yahoo!Xtra.
The Soundtrack category honours original music or arrangement as well as exisiting music, and Speights ‘Man Like Natural’ campaign, with its ‘we can grow beards if we want to’ hook, earned The Sweet Shop a silver. Liquidstudios was the only other winner, picking up a bronze in the category for its sonic touch on the ‘Telecom Brand 2010’ campaign.
With the release of a very popular iPad app, some impressive print readership numbers, an excellent performance at the Qantas Media Awards and a good battle with Stuff for New Zealand’s online eyeball honours, APN shouldn’t be complaining too much over the Christmas break. Here’s what floated the boat of Donna O’Keeffe, advertising director at nzherald.co.nz
Instant Kiwi’s ‘Believe it or Not’ and Lotto’s ‘Lucky Dog’ (which is close to reaching the 500,000 views mark on YouTube) were two of the year’s favourite campaigns. And the Scratchy Bus was pretty damn cool too. Thanks DDB and Wendy Rayner, NZ Lotteries’ head of marketing.
In the just released January/February edition of NZ Marketing magazine, we looked back on the year’s biggest events/campaigns/achievements/flops/stoushes and compiled an obligatory—and extremely definitive—end of year list. But we figured it would pay to ask a few more industry high-rollers for their thoughts on the year in marketing. We’ll be posting their responses to our questionnaire over the next week. But to get the ball rolling, watch the opinions fly as Courtney Lambert offers her take on 2010’s goods, bads and uglies.
I got three main insights from this week’s Marketing Forum, an annual assembly of New Zealand’s top marketers. Hats off to the Marketing Association which once again pulled in 100-plus of our most senior marketers to compare notes, share war stories and drink modestly. Well mostly.
… as David Innes hangs up his headphones, Charlotte Findlay shacks up with Telecom, Q Group New Zealand opens the doors to a raft of newbies, Paul Wright aims for US domination with Harcourts and Southern Hospitality goes trans-Tasman.
Let this raging torrent of information wash over you and be cleansed by tales of NZ Herald iPad upgrades, new Tiger beer websites, Air New Zealand’s new charity promotion, DraftFCB’s tremendous victory, creative bangers getting mashed in Make Something, Down to the Wire looking for your e-memories, Telecom’s new roaming offer, #Markchat delving into a debate about agency collaboration, DSA awards deadlines and someone slapping design in the face.
There’s always plenty of discussion in the ad industry as to where the line between plagiarism and creative inspiration is drawn. TV3 has felt the cool accusatory breeze a couple of times this year with some of its promotional work. And, after Colenso discovered two of its Vodafone commercials …
Much like watching an All Black return from injury, the marcomms sector always keeps a very close eye on the communications work of companies that have recently suffered some kind of PR crisis. Certainly, when Telecom’s Paul Reynolds came out in his waders in Glenorchy after the XT debacle with an apologetic number asking New Zealand for forgiveness, opinions on whether or not this was appropriate spewed forth. Since then there have been plenty of ads promoting specific deals and products (sadly, the on-air proposal didn’t really work out either), but Telecom and Saatchi & Saatchi now appear to have resumed normal branding transmission with the release of a beautiful new TVC (by Prodigy films), print campaign and positioning statement ‘From here we can do anything’.