The rise of social media has given humans an opportunity to communicate directly with brands. That seems to have led to more gimme gimme gimme than positive endorsement, but Toyota has decided the risk is worth it and is soliciting questions from New Zealanders and attempting to answer them in an entertaining fashion as part of its Armchair Test Drive campaign.
Toyota is one of the country’s most trusted brands and has been a regular on the Reader’s Digest list (despite a couple of high-profile international recalls in recent years). This is a big part of the reason it’s still top of the pops when it comes to overall sales. And it’s playing on that trust—and on the fear people have of being ripped off by automotive cowboys—in a new campaign via Saatchi & Saatchi for its Genuine Parts business that sees Dai Henwood taking a leaf out of the Eddie Murphy/Martin Lawrence acting book and playing three different characters.
Toyota has teamed up with Marc Ellis’s small creative agency Media Blanco to launch an online showcase of the musical talent of buskers worldwide via a campaign called ‘Feeling the Street’. Hosted on a specially dedicated website, the campaign asks visitors to vote for their favourite buskers, with the overall winners becoming part of super group that will perform in New Zealand later this year.
Ford has been giving Toyota a bit of grief in its advertising after sales of its Ranger topped those of the Hilux last year. And now it’s taking a swipe at a bunch of other car brands—and the ponces who drive them—with an ad for its new Territory SUV.
Last year, Toyota used its sponsorship deal with One Weather in a creative way by getting the pie-loving protagonist from its Hilux advertising to reprise his role, introduce the daily report and somehow tie it in to the vehicle. Now, following Ford’s Ranger sales victory in the ute category last year, the first time in 32 years the Hilux hasn’t been atop the podium, it’s created its own hirsute weatherman to rub it in.
2014 was a good one for the New Zealand automotive industry, with Motor Industry Association figures showing over 126,000 new vehicles registered. This beat the 30-year record of 123,247 units sold in 1984 and it was ahead of the 113,294 sold in 2013. And it was a particularly good year for Ford, which took New Zealand’s top selling ute title off the Toyota Hilux after a 32 year run.
After five successful seasons, TVNZ has decided to pull the plug on MasterChef NZ to focus on other multi-night formats, including new drama Filthy Rich and new DIY porn Our First Home. And while TVNZ basks in the soapy ratings sunlight of Home & Away and Shortland St, MediaWorks is looking to follow suit and is asking for submissions for its own multi-night soap.
Typically, Toyota focuses on the toughness of its Hilux ute, something clearly demonstrated by Top Gear’s unsuccessful attempt to kill one. Australia has also embraced that strategy with its Unbreakable positioning, but now it’s decided to focus on the toughness of the men who choose to drive one. PLUS: Toyota’s tie-up with Modern Family.
Comparative advertising is fairly rare, perhaps because brands don’t want to be perceived as being negative or due to the potential for legal action from competitors. And comparative advertising that references an ad from a competitor is rarer still. But VW and Colenso BBDO have done just that in a cheeky print execution that aims to spell out the reasons why the Amarok is a better option than the Hilux.
Holden, Toyota, Lotto NZ and Anchor bask in the warm glow of victory this week.
One Weather’s introductory ident has been given a makeover—and it comes with an impressive combination of sideburns and a monobrow so seamless that omnichannel marketing campaigns would applaud it. Rather than simply running into the weather report with the usual “proudly brought to you” phrase, Saatchi & Saatchi have instead opted for a quirkier activation of its sponsorship deal with TVNZ by having the pie-loving protagonist from the elaborate 2011 Hilux ad introduce the daily weather report. PLUS: we also look at some other funny weather-related clips.
Fieldays is coming and, over the next 33 days, New Zealand will once again be bombarded with advertising aimed at this nation’s agrarian warriors, many of whom have a fair bit of cash stashed in their gumboots. And Ford has shot into first place with a tribute to what televisual experts all agree is the best programme ever made, A Dog’s Show.
Mistubishi has just launched New Zealand’s first plug-in hybrid SUV. But, rather than trying to explain the complex technology in the new Outlander, Clemenger BBDO and Curious have kept it simple. Plus: lots more brmm-brmms and a new automotive sponsorship.
Starring Toyota, TVNZ, Andy Lark, Andy Williams, Jennifer Duval-Smith and Nicholas O’Flaherty, Pandora, Beryl, Harald van Heerde, Bauer, Belowtheline, Kea and More FM.
Toyota is renowned for creating brave, entertaining and memorable advertising that resonates with New Zealanders. And it continued that trend last year when it introduced the nation to a car-loving cat called Alloroc, the furry star of the ad that took out the 2013 StopPress/MediaWorks TVC of the Year Award.
Car salesmen get a pretty bad rap. All shiny shoes, sparkling teeth and snake oil. And Rav4 owners aren’t typically regarded as being too outrageous. But they’ve been painted in a new light in the new Toyota campaign by Saatchi & Saatchi and Thick as Thieves that aims to celebrate the inherently adventurous spirit in all Kiwis with a good, old-fashioned Goodbye Pork Pie-style road trip.
This industry isn’t renowned for its institutional memory and, when looking for candidates for the Back Then section in NZ Marketing, it’s a surprisingly common occurrence to hear back from agencies and brands who aren’t able to find any of their early advertising work. Online repositories are certainly helping to remedy that situation, and a good example of that is the nostalgia section on the new website of Wellington creative consultancy Doublefish, which is worth a gander for anyone with a passing interest in the craft of advertising—or local popular culture.
In 2007, almost two in five New Zealanders who planned to buy a new car in the next four years said they would ‘definitely would not consider’ any Hyundai model. But, showing how perceptions can be changed quickly with quality products and solid marketing to back them up, the latest automotive brand rejecter results from Roy Morgan Research show this proportion has now halved, and effectively increased Hyundai’s available market by 25 percent.
It’s been a watershed year for APN NZ, with the Herald’s shift to tabloid and the resulting campaign by DraftFCB, a new nzherald.co.nz, the launch of The Listener’s digital subscriptions and restructures of the IT, editorial and marketing departments. Chief operating officer Todd McLeay, the man who swapped the comparatively easy job of selling Lotto tickets for positioning a newspaper for the rather uncertain future, looks back on an eventful 2012.
New Zealand’s Got Talent launched with plenty of fanfare and massive ratings back in September, and, with Marlborough teenager Clara van Wel announced as the winner last night, it finished on a high note as well, cementing its place as the most watched show of 2012 and the biggest show of the past ten years.
After three years at Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand, Mark Cochrane has accepted an intercompany transfer and promotion to become the chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi Thailand, with Colenso BBDO’s Marcelle Baker brought on board to take over as group account director on Toyota and DB Breweries.
When Orcon launched its new cat-centric campaign recently, we mentioned the fact that Wired had delved into what it called the online cat-industrial complex, ad agency John St had spoofed the feline fascination brilliantly with the world’s first cat advertising agency, and a recent cat video film festival in the US drew 10,000 people (it was won by Henri 2: paw de deux). So it’s fair to say the cat is a powerful force in these digital times. And Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi have enlisted the services of a self-harming feline called Alloroc (geddit?) who’ll stop at nothing to get into the new 2013 Corolla as part of the ‘Feels Good Inside’ campaign.
Bolt-related bragging, Jack Bauer’s secret shame, certainly not your typical Toyota ad, the language of sport, Volvo goes slacklining, VW’s Shark Week tie-in, sick poultry-based beats, classy serenading and the wonder of water wigs.
Toyota has been busy this year. It’s launched a host of cars, including the Prius, Prius c, Prius V, Camry, Aurion, Lexus GS, Lexus RX and new Corolla Wagon. And the 86 has also taken to the streets, but not before receiving some attention from the Fun Police, a campaign developed by AIM Proximity Wellington to launch its sportscar.
Toyota’s luxury brand Lexus has a tough battle on its hands in the prestige class, facing as it does the European goliaths of Audi, BMW and Mercedes. But it’s aiming to reinvigorate the Japanese brand’s challenger spirit with the launch of a classy new campaign out of Saatchi & Saatchi called ‘Kokoro Wo Komete’ or ‘Soul Meets Machine.’
The Webby Awards aim to honour general internet awesomeness, and fighting it out for gongs with big global beasts like Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest are local hopes Shift for Tourism New Zealand, Resn for Toyota’s Camry Effect, Xero and DDB/Rapp Tribal for McDonald’s. And they need your votes.
Bathed in the green hue of ’70s inspired laser body scanners and violated by the sight of Leigh Hart’s velour one piece, 750-ish adfolk ventured down to the Viaduct Events Centre last night to watch Colenso BBDO’s Doggelganger campaign for Pedigree repeat Yellow Chocolate’s performance last year by taking the Grand, Titanium and Interactive AXIS. But, as is usually the case, the awards weren’t without some controversy.
In February, TVNZ and NZ on Air announced they would be adding to the cacophony of reality talent competitions on TV with a multi-million dollar production of New Zealand’s Got Talent. NZ On Air committed $1.6 million in funding and TVNZ went hunting for commercial partners to add to its own $1.6 million contribution. And the first major sponsor has been announced, with Toyota signing up as a key commercial partner.
The digital boffins/idiot savants at Resn in Wellington work for one of the rare few Kiwi companies that can claim to be based in New Zealand and do work for big brands all around the world. But now, after what they say was a formal approach from the EU to “help bail them out of their fiscal conundrum”, Resn has decided to go global and set up its first satellite office in Amsterdam.
Who’s it for: PlaceMakers by JWT NZ and Exposure
Why we like it: Like a nature documentary—but with tradesmen as the focus. A classy reality advertising campaign that shows the nuances of the building site very well, portrays the builders as craftsmen who like …