Doing its bit to represent the Wellington creative scene at the Best Awards, digital agency Resn picked up a Purple Pin in Interactive Design for its American-based virtual racing car application called Sponsafier 4. Vincent Heeringa had a chat with Rick Campbell and Steve Le Marquand, who tell us the secret to winning international work is wrack up the air miles and knock on the doors of the clients you’re after. Read more »
DesignCrowd launched on the New Zealand market a few weeks back and while not everyone might be a fan of crowdsourced design, the company certainly plans to stick around. Its presence in the Kiwi market and beyond has been given a booster by way of a $3 million investment from Australian VC firm Starfish Ventures. DesignCrowd chief executive Alec Lynch said the money would be used to enhance the company’s service in Australia, New Zealand and beyond. And after a chat on the phone, he was also quick to defend crowdsourcing, describing it as an “opportunity, not a threat” to existing design agencies. Read more »
Westpac hasn’t been doing too shabby as of late. Last week it announced the New Zealand business has once again outperformed its Australian parent with a 41 percent boost in earnings. And perhaps proving that profitability doesn’t have to come at the expense of sustainability, Westpac also cleaned up at last night’s 2011 NZI National Sustainable Business Network. Westpac was named Sustainable Business of the Year and also took home the People’s Choice and the Trailblazer Large and Corporate Business awards. Read more »
Not convinced about the sustainability argument when it comes to the purchasing behaviour of consumers? Think again. The latest Colmar Brunton ‘Better Business Better World’ survey results reveal that sustainability influenced the purchasing decisions of 88 percent of respondents. That bodes well for purchasing potential, but on the flip side the survey also found that 72 percent couldn’t think of any brand leaders in sustainability. And if ever there was concern that the term ‘sustainability’ is still perhaps ambiguous in definition to some people, the survey found 20 percent of respondents didn’t know what it meant. Read more »
The online domain has created a whole new portal when it comes to the dissemination of ideas and creativity. Crowdsourcing is one of the trends to ride on the back of web-induced capabilities, but in the design domain, it has proved controversial. With companies using it as a way to source, among other things, new logos, some designers complain that it undermines the expertise of qualified designers and design companies. But, like it or hate it, it looks set to stay and in New Zealand, it’s just received a boost with DesignCrowd launching a New Zealand crowdsourcing site, DesignCrowd.co.nz. Read more »
When it comes to the latest fundraising initiative for Christchurch, it’s a case of both what you know and who you know. Pixels for Christchurch launched last week at the Yoobee flagship store in Auckland’s Britomart. With the helping hand of brand development agency FlyCreative and Shortland Street star Kiel McNaughton, among others, artist Shane Hansen’s artwork ‘Arohanui Otautahi’ was broken down into 100,000 pixels that were made available for public purchase. The ultimate goal is to raise $100,000 for Christchurch and so far over 18,000 pixels have been sold. Read more »
Over 700 designy folk attended the DINZ Best Awards event on Friday night at the swanky new Auckland Viaduct Events Centre. And with a record 812 entries, the highest in the 23 year history of the event, a multitude of Gold, Silver and Bronze pins were handed out, with five winners—Avanti, Wellington Airport, Fisher & Paykel’s Social Kitchen by Alt Group, Sarah Maxey and typographer Kris Sowersby, and Resn for Toyota’s Sponsafier—picking up a coveted Purple Pin.
If the results of the 2011 Pentawards are anything to go by, Kiwis seem to have it wrapped when it comes to creating effective and innovative packaging design in the designer food side of things. Read more »
MoMA as a name might work well for New York’s Museum of Modern Art, but apply the same acronym theory to Auckland Art Gallery (AAG) and Alt Group’s Dean Poole reckons it would sound more like something “the cat would bring up”. No, according to Poole, having the consistent theme of ‘ART’ running through the redeveloped gallery’s new branding is much more effective. Read more »
Every year the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes Review (DJSI World) provides a global analysis of corporate sustainability leadership across 57 sectors, capturing the top 10 percent of the biggest 2500 companies worldwide. Following this year’s assessment, 41 companies will be added to the list while 23 will be deleted. Of note when it comes to the top ranked is PepsiCo, Samsung Electronics and BMW, which is the only company in the automotive industry to be listed in this family of indexes every year since it was established in 1999. Read more »
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Who’s it for: Meridian by Assignment Group and Perendale
Why we like it: Wells works very well as a quirky Meridian mascot and manages to spread its renewable gospel in a non-preachy, sensible and entertaining way. Plus, it shows off some of the best bits of New Zealand and there’s a pretty good story behind the ad too.
Who’s it for: NZ Book Council by Colenso BBDO and Octane Digital
Why we like it: Much like the previous powerful effort for NZ Book Council, Going West, the time-consuming paper artistry on display for the follow up well and truly captures the attention and shows how books can shape lives.
Who’s it for: Shapes Roadies by Y&R Auckland and Finch
Why we like it: Many New Zealanders didn’t take too kindly to the glut of manvertising that was foisted upon us last year. But, judging by the response to the absurd and very entertaining campaign for Roadies, they seem to like manchildvertising. Some bravura performances in the backseat on display here.
The two winners of the Doritos Crash the Superbowl competition (both creators got a million dollar bonus, apparently).
Surely the best ad ever made for a tattoo parlour (and check out how life imitates art at the end).
All this year’s Superbowl ads in two minutes.
Ghost Steve Jobs will come back to haunt you, Action Electronics.
It’s not particularly Woopy, but this is a cool idea for a modern business. Art goes digital—and social.
How cereal boxes have changed over time, Mad Men posters greatly improved, The Herald on Sunday tows the cow, sheep are inheriting Middle Earth, Hipster Hitler, Rickrolling in a report on a field trip, all you need to be an evil overlord, and this is definitely not a set-up for a movie.
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