Stories about TVNZ published on StopPress – Aotearoa/New Zealand’s daily news site for the advertising and marketing industry.
Perhaps it’s just us, but the year seems to be flying by and between the Rugby World Cup, Christmas and that little ‘ole thing called the general election, the second half will inevitably go faster. And if you’re an advertiser, ThinkTV says it’s you who’d better speed up to get “plum” advertising positioning.
Jeremy Irwin has been the main man at the Association of New Zealand Advertisers (ANZA) for the past 15 years. And always having to take the side of advertisers and marketers means he’s fought—and won—plenty of ferocious battles with academics, politicians, special interest groups and other antagonists. He’s stepping back from the public policy coalface to focus on some well-deserved rose sniffing and, one week ahead of TVNZ-NZ Marketing awards night, Irwin was inducted into the TVNZ Marketing Hall of Fame in front of a 350-strong crowd at the Marketing Association’s Brainy Breakfast yesterday. Here’s what he told us about his long and esteemed career in the last issue of NZ Marketing.
TVNZ’s head of news and current affairs Anthony Flannery has said in the past that Breakfast’s popularity comes down to a good combination of “light and shade”. And the balance will be tipped in favour of light come September 3 when a new Saturday edition of the show that will be co-presented by Rawdon Christie and Toni Street is launched.
Just eight days to go until this year’s game changers are announced at the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards. All the smart people have already bought—or scavenged—their tickets, but there are still some available. And, if you’re hoping to make the most of the night, which is once again being MCed by Te Radar, TVNZ is here to help.
During winter, TV becomes something a BFF for many hibernating New Zealanders. And more of them are snuggling up with Ondemand, with figures released by TVNZ showing the worm has been heading swiftly upwards in the past few months.
3 News has already had a swipe at TVNZ’s poor coverage of the Christchurch and Japanese earthquakes with some comparative advertising earlier this year. And it’s keeping the pressure on the national broadcaster with a new campaign to promote the variety of news offerings available throughout the day.
It’s fair to say that South Pacific Pictures has been on a bit of a roll lately. Its success in developing likeable and sometimes dodgy characters (typically of Shortland Street origin) continues, this time with new TV ONE show Nothing Trivial. According to TVNZ, Wednesday night’s debut episode set a new millennium record for a New Zealand drama debut on television, with an average 516,300 viewers watching the first episode.
… (except from vending machines) as Karl Fleet departs Colenso to sit on a throne in the Campaign Palace, Interbrand welcomes a new senior designer, Andrew Spear takes up the rod at NZ Fishing World, PPR shacks up with big comms behemoth Burson-Masteller, Frucor drinks in a new chief executive, Keiran Frost moves up the Orange chain and TVNZ renews its free-to-air deal with Warner Bros.
The votes are in, the judges have judged and NZ Marketing magazine and the Marketing Association can now announce the finalists of the 2011 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards.
We left the best until last, but Kiwi agencies picked up three Lions on the last night at Cannes, with Colenso taking home five of the six local Lions won in this year’s festival of creativity.
The entry deadline has now passed, a new record has been set for most entries and an impressive collection of game changers have been secured to decide who will take their place amongst the marketing greats at the 2011 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards.
The nominations were up considerably in comparison to 2010, but the medal hauls were similar this year, with local agencies taking one gold, four silvers and three bronzes at the Clio Awards and two bronzes at the One Show. And in other awards news, Traffic Group won a gold, silver and bronze at the Summit Creative Award competition and AUT Adschool grads take home the Aussie edition of the Cannes Young Print Lions.
Entries for the 2011 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards close this Friday 20 May. But never fear, if procrastination, popularity or poor time management are hampering your entry efforts, extensions to Friday 27 May are available.
Given the slightly difficult period youth-oriented media seems to be going through at the moment, with MTV packing up the local office, a few well-established magazines folding and MediaWorks deciding to grey up its demographics on TV3 and FOUR, there were questions about whether the decision to launch a youth-focused commercial channel called U to replace TVNZ6 was wise. Well, the first cumulative Nielsen numbers are in and TVNZ are stoked with the results, with 1,392,400 viewers—or 34 percent of Kiwis—tuning in to the new channel at some point in the four weeks ending Saturday May 14.
It’s a funny old world. While tens of thousands of New Zealanders got overly excited about KFC’s Double Down late last week (if you want a real heart stopper of a meal, check this one out), over half a million Kiwis also tuned in to see two amateur cooks creating the exact opposite of that for the final of MasterChef. We’ve already talked about how much of a commercial juggernaut the show is for TVNZ and its owners, both because of its heavy commercial slant during the show and the ad dollars able to be raked in during the breaks, and with improved ratings numbers on the first season, that looks set to continue
It’s been a week filled with movings and shakings, including the fine folks at Tangible Media who have relocated offices to the mighty Mt Albert. But the movings and shakings are widespread. MSN has taken on three new hires while TVNZ’s publicity team makes way for motherhood and an appetite for travel. And although its Australian offices are already open, communications Agency The Church has only recently found its Australian general manger. There’s a new chief at the helm of mobile software and services experts, Run The Red, and Lightfarm Studios gets a touch of G-force with its new marketing and client manager.
TVNZ and MediaWorks are always competitive, as the rather confrontational comparative promo TV3 ran after the Japanese earthquake showed very clearly. But this was taken to a new level on Sunday when TVNZ sent out a press release saying 60 Minutes had “lost almost half its audience since March and almost 300,000 viewers per week since February”. Embarrassingly, the figures TVNZ used were wrong and, understandably, MediaWorks is none too pleased.
When it rains it pours. After a brief dry spell on the new ad front, numerous newbies have recently been set free. So, for your viewing—and possibly even critiquing—pleasure, a selection of the freshest TV cuts, including Mitsubishi’s new brand ad by Clemenger BBDO, Meridian and Assignment Group’s polar expedition, TVNZ’s new patriotic promo for its news and current affairs offering, State Insurance and Colenso’s fireproof box promo, Sealord and Saatchi & Saatchi’s wonderous condiment contraptions, DraftFCB’s latest work for Genesis Energy and Gregg’s and Lumino and Wag the Dog’s extended, nationwide tonsil hockey tour.
Starburst!® Time is running out to ensure eternal glory at this year’s TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards. But wait there’s more!™ Avoid a lifetime of bitter regret and get your work in front of the judges by Friday 20 May. Entry forms and a full list of all categories are available for ten easy payments of www.nzmarketingawards.co.nz.
6,346 votes later, the results have been tallied and the awards dished out in the second round of Freeview awards, which honour almost anything and everything, from decoders and retailers, to satellite receivers and television shows.
The goals have been achieved and the speculation was correct: public broadcasting is largely deemed a ‘nice to have’ by the current Government. And, having already turned TVNZ6 into a commercial youth station, TVNZ7 is next on the chopping block after it missed out on the next round of funding.
… as Air New Zealand brings one of our boys back into the fold; Acumen Republic appoints a new head honcho; TVNZ says goodbye to Good Morning—and up to 12 fulltime staff; Thick as Thieves enlists a new award-winning director; Air Asia hits the runway running and announces a national marketing manager; another All Black endorses something; AJ Park gets a taste for internal promotions; and two films made by the Media Design School strike Hawaii gold.
The New Zealand marketing industry has long been adept at celebrating marketing greats who have made a difference and pushed the envelope that little bit further. It’s no different in 2011. Today, NZ Marketing magazine in partnership with the Marketing Association (MA) has opened the call for entries for the 2011 edition of the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards.
The latest TV viewership figures for March are out and, amid the many regularly overused adjectives (primarily staggering, dramatic, massive and all-important), both warring parties are, as per usual, claiming victories, with TVNZ’s news audience increasing substantially and MediaWorks trumpeting a big rise in more lucrative eyeballs since the launch of FOUR. And while there’s always a bit of press release-based argy bargy when these numbers are set loose, it’s pistols at dawn when it comes to the morning news figures.
The Axis Awards are now available to view on TVNZ Ondemand in glorious technicolour, so fill you boots with an edited package of the creative hoedown that includes red carpet highlights, as well as numerous interviews with gold winners, industry luminaries and the esteemed international judges explaining why they awarded certain campaigns. And, not to let an chance go by, TVNZ has also explained some of the creative opportunities the medium allows, with an explanation of Ad on Pause and the joys of the ‘Companion Banner’ chucked in for good measure.
The brief from TVNZ to the young advertising whippersnappers was to get more viewers to tune into ONE’s flagship 6pm bulletin. And Jono Fox and Jack Delmonte of Adschool took the win with their smart integrated campaign ‘Make Sense of it at Six’. The other finalists were Jen Waldron and Ben Polkinghorne of AdSchool and Adam Martin of AUT University’s Creative Advertising School.
Disappointingly, there were no golds dished out in these categories, but Colenso’s ‘Real Stories’ for TVNZ’s The Pacific took silver in the Outdoor Campaign section, as did DraftFCB for Prime’s ‘Eating Out’ (this campaign also won a bronze in the Transit Advertising—Single category). DDB and Sky’s rather nifty ‘Through Someone Else’s Eyes’ for the Travel Channel won bronze in the Outdoor Campaign section and also took a bronze for the Billboard—Special Build.
Colenso BBDO swept this category, receiving both of the awards that were handed out. Having received a silver at the AWARD awards for its ‘Dog Fight’ campaign for TVNZ’s mini-series The Pacific, it went one better this time round and picked up a gold. As well as staging a fighter plane spectacle in Auckland’s Mission bay, the campaign also featured a mural on Auckland’s Symonds Street adorned with hundreds of copies of authentic letters sent by marines, along with photos. Colenso’s other win was a bronze for its ‘A Rubbish Idea’ campaign for Heart of the City and Auckland City Council. ‘Flowerbeds’ were created on rubbish hotspots to discourage dumping and Auckland businesses given an education kit, including some of the floral rubbish bags.
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’.