The forum will take place on 21 March 2012, 1:30pm – 5:30pm, at the Rendezvous Grand Hotel, Auckland and Paul Head, CAANZ chief executive, says the high-calibre case studies being presented will help prove the value that creative ideas can bring to commercial results by connecting brands to consumers in increasingly relevant ways.

“The forum will offer a rare opportunity for the New Zealand marcomms community, from both client organisations and agencies, to hear from the front-line of international campaigns about the effectiveness of ideas-led PR,” he says.

Kevin Ramsdale, NAB’s general manager brand and Tim McColl Jones of Clemenger BBDO, will discuss the thinking behind the internationally renowned ‘Break Up’ campaign for National Australia Bank.

Matt Bruhn, marketing director of Diageo, will speak about Bundaberg’s dedication to the community as the idea behind the Watermark campaign, which sought to build people’s spirits following the widespread devastation of the Queensland floods, as well as its success from a brand and commercial point of view.

Lastly, bringing an agency perspective to the discussion, Lynne Anne Davis of Fleishman Hillard Asia Pacific, will share her experiences of using integrated strategies to make a business impact, a concept which has guided numerous award-winning campaigns and led to the agency being recognised as 2011 ‘Asia Pacific Agency of the Year’.

“Clients’ needs are more complex as they face unprecedented pressure to manage their reputations and bottom lines in a new world of social influence. As the communications function becomes increasingly strategic, especially at major global firms, the need for interdisciplinary consulting is growing,” she says.

Idealog editor Hazel Philips will MC the forum, which will also offer audience members the opportunity to put questions to the speakers in a panel session chaired by Vincent Heeringa, publisher at Tangible Media. And, of course, there will be some post-forum drinks.

Tickets are $250 for CAANZ members and $290 for non-members. More information and registration details are available at www.caanz.co.nz/re-imaginingpr.

Speaker bios:

Kevin Ramsdale, National Australia Bank’s Group General Manager Brand

Kevin Ramsdale joined NAB in 2010 after five years at Bupa Australia Health and 15 years with Ford Motor Company. Initially General Manager of Marketing & Research for NAB’s Personal Banking business, Kevin took on the brand role for the broader NAB enterprise in 2011 and played a lead role in the strategy development and execution of the much-discussed Break Up campaign.

Tim McColl Jones, Executive Director at Clemenger BBDO, Melbourne

Tim McColl Jones is one of Australia’s leading independent brand communications practitioners with a unique blend of global, regional and domestic experience across a range of industry sectors.

Tim joined Clemenger BBDO/Melbourne as Board Director and Business Director for NAB in December 2010 contributing to the development of Break Up, which has become a hugely successful business and marketing milestone.

Matt Bruhn, Marketing Director at Diageo Australia

A classically trained marketer with over 10 years’ experience at Imperial Tobacco, Kellogg’s and Diageo, Matt currently manages the Diageo Australia marketing team which he says is “blessed with brands such as Bundaberg Rum, Smirnoff Vodka and Johnnie Walker Scotch Whisky”.

Matt is dedicated to creating work that reflects the legacy of the brands he works on, and to impacting the community in a positive way. He is passionate about marketing brands and products in a responsible and sustainable manner.

Lynne Anne Davis, Regional President and Senior Partner at Fleishman-Hillard Asia Pacific

Based in Hong Kong, Lynne Anne oversees Fleishman Hillard’s Asia Pacific operations. During her time in the role, the business has expanded exponentially, and achieved numerous awards.

The focus of this year’s conference is the future of media and marketing, and speakers like keynote Joi Ito, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, Warner Music Group’s director of marketing operations Eric Morse and local bods like Debra Hall, Paul Maher and Paul Thomson, will share insights into where consumers are moving, the exponential pace at which this is happening, and how this phenomenon is transforming the media space and those that operate within it or supply to it.

“This will be New Zealand’s biggest marketing event of the year – we have secured an impressive line-up of both local and international marketing and media experts and the agenda for the day has been designed to be interactive, so come prepared to participate,” says Sue McCarty, chief executive of the Marketing Association.

Morse, the latest addition to the line-up, is an award-winning digital innovator and has led content for RealNetworks and Smirnoff Ice, created data-driven product and branding strategy for Singer Sewing Co., and mapped out merchandising and branding programs for Coca-Cola. In 2002, he founded Trampoline House magazine, an early online “culture-discovery” destination.

He specialises in integrating multiple channels into cohesive messaging and engagement campaigns. Calling upon his work with global superstars and multinational brands, he will discuss his unique vision of where we’re going as an industry, and present a practical approach to turning top line ideas into bottom line results.

For more information and to buy tickets go to www.marketing2011.org.nz.

The Media Design School’s one and two-day weekend ‘boot camps’ kick off on June 11 and will cover essentials such as Adobe Flash Fundamentals and CSS/HTML for building portfolio sites, Flash for basic animation, Photoshop intro and intermediate, InDesign and Illustrator for CS5 and one-day Concept Art and Drawing workshops for those with a penchant for sophisticated doodling.

The two-day courses are $590 a pop, or you can get a set of three for $1200, and the one-day workshops are $250. For more information and a full list of courses, visit www.mediadesignschool.com/courses/short-courses or email admissions@mediadesignschool.com.

As for the New Zealand Post Integrated Communications’ direct marketing workshops, Goldring will be sharing his creative work and anecdotes next Thursday 2 June at the Media Centre, 2 Watt Street, Parnell and Chandler will be taking the floor the following month on Thursday 7 July.

Aimed at agencies and marketing departments, the free workshops are designed to provide a comprehensive working knowledge of the intricacies of direct mail, from direct mail processes, to data and consumer insights and innovation, as well as a guide to working with New Zealand Post.

“Hosting these workshops offers a good platform for us to showcase the best creative work that is coming through as well as helping to nurture and support the up and coming talent in the industry,” says Jackie Shaw, *deep breath* client solutions manager for agencies and integrated media at New Zealand Post Targeted Communications.

The places always fill up fast so get in quick. And for more information contact Shaw on 09 367 9680 or email jackie.shaw@nzpost.co.nz.

If you want a partner to come along and marvel at all the awards you pick up, discounted double tickets are on offer for $314 + GST. Single tickets are $165 + GST. And a table of ten is going for $1500 + GST.

The MPA has negotiated special room rates at the Pullman this year so you can continue to celebrate after the band has gone home. And it can even match you up with “compatible table mates” by request. Be still our beating heart.

Send all enquiries and ticket requests to mpa@mpa.org.nz.

All enquiries to mpa@mpa.org.nz – we can match you up with ‘compatible table mates’ by request

But don’t take it from us. Thanks to CAANZ Digital Leadership Group, world-leading authority on gamification, Gabe zicherman, is heading to New Zealand where he will discuss how game mechanics and funware can transform marketing, product development and operational processes.

Date: Friday 20 May 2011

Time: 11:00am to 12:30pm

Tickets: $75+GST CAANZ Members, $100+GST Non-members

Venue: Media Design School, Level 16, 92 Albert Street, Auckland.

More about Gabe Zicherman

Gabe Zichermann is the Chair of the Gamification Summit, an author, public speaker and entrepreneur.

His upcoming book, “Gamification by Design” (O’Reilly, 2011) looks at the technical and architectural considerations for designers in this burgeoning field.

His book “Game-Based Marketing” (Wiley, 2010) achieved critical and industry acclaim for its detailed look at innovators who blend the power of games with brand strategy.

A resident of NYC, Gabe is a board member of StartOut.org, advisor to a number of startups and Facilitator for the Founder Institute in Manhattan.

For more information about Gabe and gamification, visit the Gamification Blog at http://gamification.co.

1) The best ideas I’ve had are: Also the riskiest!
2) The best ideas others have had are: Beauty in simplicity.
3) If I had more budget I would: Put more into brand experiences.
4) The toughest challenge for 2011 is: The economic impact of the global tragedies that have taken place.
5) My dream assignment is: One that connects my two homes of the United States and New Zealand.
6) The most exciting aspect of marketing today is: How quickly consumers evolve.
7) If I was willfully unemployed I would: Finish writing my book, and pick up and drop off my kids every day.
8) My favorite campaign is: GATORADE HAS EVOLVED!

Robb O’Hagan will be providing the keynote address for ‘The New Rules of Brand Engagement—Driving Awareness and Sales through PR and Experiential Marketing” (the NZMA and the MLG recently carried out some research to find out how important these areas now were in the domestic marketing mix and predicted a rise in spend).

She will be using the Gatorade business turnaround as a case study and she’ll be covering the following:

• Setting the context—what Gatorade is, how its marketing approach used to work, and how the brand found itself in need of a transformation to move into the future.
• How Gatorade reinvented itself from a Sports Drink with a “one way dialogue” approach to consumer engagement to a sports performance innovation company where their “knowledge” as a brand has created many experiential platforms for consumers that have led to deep engagement and business results.
• Case Study #1: Replay—bringing every day consumers into the world of the Pro Athlete
• Case Study #2: Everything to Prove—content programme developed with the NFL to bring young athlete consumers the real, behind the scenes story of aspiring NFL rookies making it to the big leagues.
• How they measure return on investment: Overview of MissionControl—Gatorade’s “world first” digital command center for monitoring consumer engagement and evolving its programmes in real time to connect more effectively with its core target
• Where to from here? Why they are so committed to experiential marketing for the future.

In addition to O’Hagan’s keynote, Helen Graney, managing director, Jack Morton Australia, Sydney, will talk about ‘Measurement and Achieving Effectiveness (ROI) for Clients’; Steve Kane, creative director – experiential, DDB NZ, will speak about ‘Bringing Brands to Life with Experiential Marketing’; Steve Bayliss, marketing consultant and former general manager of marketing of Air New Zealand, will talk about ‘Bringing Theatre to Business – the Future of Experiential Marketing; and James Hurman – Planning Director, Colenso BBDO will speak about ‘How to Successfully Integrate a Campaign’.

Register for your tickets here.

The full day conference programme, which is run part of the massive NZ Retail Show, will be held at Auckland’s ASB Showgrounds on Wednesday 6 April 2011.

Martin Butler

The international speakers are UK-based Martin Butler, who interviewed 100 of the world’s top retail chief executives and has published the results in his book, The Art of Being Chosen, and Jack Smith, who revolutionised the sporting goods sector in the US with his retail concept – The Sports Authority.

Jack Smith

Butler will be sharing some of his highly inspirational stories with attendees, including some great insights into the personality traits of these chief executives and how this has driven them to succeed. And Smith will talk about paving the way for a whole new era of retail store by taking on the big box mentality of ‘stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap’ and offering an extensive product selection as well as great service.

These two keynotes are complemented by a number of highly influential speakers from New Zealand, such as John Hartmann from Mitre 10, Annah Stretton from The Stretton Group and Tim Edwards from Noel Leeming.

Caroline Dewe from Alphero, who has recently returned from working with huge global retail brands such as Marks and Spencer, will also be speaking and will reveal how retailers can effectively use mobile technology in the current environment.

It’s a goldmine of retailing information. To find out more and to register click here.

Created to assist marketers in all industries, the workshops provide a comprehensive working knowledge of the intricacies of direct mail, such as database management, new customer acquisition and direct mail operational advice. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, however, so there’s also a guide to working with New Zealand Post and how their new technologies are “revolutionising the direct mail industry”.

Jackie Shaw, client solutions manager for agencies and integrated media at New Zealand Post Targeted Communications, says the workshops are a ‘must-attend’ for marketers looking to up-skill, as “they offer an informative platform to support business acquisition in a more targeted and cost-effective manner and learning how to retain and grow customers with the help of new-to-market tools,” she says.

“We’re really excited about kicking off this year’s workshop series with a solid line-up of industry respected creatives. We’ll be announcing more details as the year progresses about other speakers we have secured so stay tuned.”

For more information on the New Zealand Post Direct Marketing Workshops, please contact Jackie Shaw on 09 367 9680 or email Jackie.shaw@nzpost.co.nz.

And while you’re at it, check out the invite, which features a fair swag of self-deprecation and a good-natured swipe at the relentless fluidity in agencyland’s creative ranks.  

I, Pad, take you, upgrade.

After a hugely successful launch back in July 2010 and more than 25,000 downloads to date, the NZ Herald iPad App has been upgraded “with new functionality and faster access to the latest news”.

“The three-month launch partnership we had with Mercedes and our other advertisers, Air New Zealand, Vodafone and Yellow, enabled us to release the App as a free download,” says Spencer Bailey, general manager and publisher. “This new version of the App can still be downloaded free of charge but we’ve made some changes to ad placements, including removing the 30 second pre-roll video, which means readers can dive straight into the news.”

APN Online will be sticking with a limit of four brands, sold on a monthly tenancy for now, and it is offering category exclusivity.

The upgraded App gives readers access to the latest news from the Herald and now also allows readers to share articles via Facebook, Twitter and email. At present, the NZ Herald’s iPad app is sitting at number 14 on the most downloaded free app chart, with Stuff’s recently released iPad app at number ten.

Easy Tiger

Tiger Beer has taken its penchant for creative collaboration online and, not too long after launching its old website (which was made by new Interbrand creative director Lorenz Perry), it has launched its new website. And it goes by the name of Hey Tiger!

Hey Tiger! is a hub that delivers “socially intelligent, genuine and refreshingly unexpected content direct to your brain hole” and, of course, a place to find all the artists and events Tiger Beer is associated with.

Running with Scissors were on ‘actualisation’ duties and, in keeping with the website’s ethos, it was a collaboration involving artist/designer/Tiger Translate contributor Jon Chapman Smith of Fuman, digital producer Shane Eriwata of Creative Organism and a handful of other contributors, including an array of words from Hot Grits singer and actor Barnie Duncan.

“Tiger Beer is a brand that encourages freedom of expression and has a great deal of respect for genuine artists,“ says Running with Scissors’ Eddy Helm. “We wanted to create a site that reflected Tiger’s passion for art and music, and allowed the real talent to shine. That’s why we selected creative practitioners to make the site happen.”

Mike Stribrny, brand manager for Tiger Beer says it is a very progressive brand and he has been impressed by Running with Scissors understanding of the brand and its strategic lead in the project.

“Tiger Beer has the confidence to let artists adapt and interpret it on our behalf. Not many brands can do that,” he says.

The site has been launched to promote the Tiger Translate event, which will be held this year at the Wellington Opera House on Friday 26 November. The event will be produced once again by RJX and the inaugural issue of the bi-monthly Hey Tiger! e-magazine, which has been introduced by Barnie Duncan, with contributions from musician Chris Cox and illustrator James Stewart, is dedicated to Tiger Translate. New content will come in on a regular basis, keeping the site fresh, current and relevant.

Through the Hey Tiger! site, there is also the opportunity for creative types to apply for support of their gig, opening, performance or exhibition.

“There are plenty of talented people out there who are so focused on their art that they leave the search for sponsors until the last minute,”, says Stribrny. “Supporting creativity is what Tiger’s all about, so we’ve set aside a little beer to help as many emerging artists as we can to get their events off the ground.”

By the balls

Advertising folk hard at work

A brief conversation at the Effies between DraftFCB’s head of planning David Thomason and Daniel Barnes from Barnes Catmur led to the gauntlet being laid down for the first ‘Balls of Steel’ inter-agency Table Tennis challenge. And a riotous evening in the DraftFCB Thunderdome on 29 October ensued.

Despite many close games, DraftFCB were the clear victors on the day, winning four out of the five matches.

“The trophy is up for grabs for any agency that can put together four doubles teams,” says Thomason.

Barnes Catmur has already vowed to seek revenge, a dish that is apparently best served deep and to the backhand side.

Something’s in the making

Take a few design industry veterans and add a splash of creative variety and what do you get? ‘MAKE SOMETHING’—a creative, genre-defying mash-up, which seeks to creep beyond regular commercial boundaries.

Founded by graphic designer Bevan Tonks and joined by five other leading New Zealand graphic designers, MAKE SOMETHING participants have been thrown a challenge: given absolute free reign, who would you choose to work with from the creative industries and what would the results of that mash-up be?

The collaborations blend a mix of New Zealand creative talents across architecture, product design, fashion, music and visual effects. This is the first exhibition in what Tonks hopes will become an annual event, within Auckland and further afield.

The 2010 collaborative partnerships are:

• Brogen Averill (Designer) and Jamie McLennan (Product Designer, ex Tom Dixon, UK)

• Xanthe Harrison (Designer) and Anja Harrison (Assistant Runway Designer, House of Balenciaga, Paris)

• Tana Mitchell (Designer) and Julia Deans (Singer/Songwriter, ex Fur Patrol, NZ)

• Dean Poole (Designer) and Mechanical Turk (Amazon-based crowd sourcing initiative)

• Bevan Tonks (Designer) and Davor Popadich (Architect, Patterson Associates)

• Leonie Whyte (Designer) and Angela Jackson (Visual Effects Producer, NZ)

When: 26 – 28 November

Where: Achilles House, Cnr Custom Street East and Commerce Street, Auckland.

Time: 10am-4.00pm daily

You shouldn’t have

Air New Zealand is teaming up with children’s charity Make-A-Wish New Zealand to give people a chance to make up for life’s little mistakes (overlooking a friend’s birthday, causing a fender bender, sneaking that last piece of chocolate, creating an innuendo-loving mascot etc etc) and help a great cause that works to grant the cherished wishes of children with life threatening medical conditions.

So whatever it is that makes you think “I wish I hadn’t”, you can now balance the ledger by sharing your un-wish at www.iwishihadnt.co.nz and donate to Make-A-Wish at the same time.

You can also check out the moments that others would rather forget, including some classics from high profile New Zealanders such as:

• “I wish I hadn’t given those drums to Max!”
  Mils Muliaina – All Black
• “I wish l hadn’t delivered those letters myself”
  Hon Chris Carter MP, Te Atatu – former Labour Cabinet Minister
• “I wish I hadn’t taken so long to realise my parents were so cool”
  Sara Tetro – New Zealand’s Next Top Model judge
• “I wish I hadn’t put all those interesting names on my blog”
  Cameron Slater – WhaleOil Blog
• “I wish I hadn’t given him my phone number”
  April Ieremia – TV sports presenter and former Silver Fern
• “I wish I hadn’t run the lawn mower without any oil”
  Bevan Docherty – Olympic Triathlete

You can also text your name and wish to 3181 to make an automatic $3 donation. And limited edition “I wish I hadn’t …” t-shirts are also available for purchase from the website.

Does collaboration between creative agencies work?

Twitter debate #markchat is back again at 12.30pm today and the topic is: ‘Brothers in marketing: does collaboration between creative agencies work?’ Here’s what the instigator, Bullet PR’s Alex Erasmus has to say:

“First things first, it would be wise to list what I deem to be ‘creative agencies’. The following fields are what I am principally referring to: PR; advertising; marketing; design; web development. So, in the broad modern world there are lots of creative entities ready and willing to promote a brand. But can marketing agencies really work collaboratively with design agencies and can media agencies work in blissful unison with advertising agencies? And what happens when a PR agency has to work alongside a web agency to deliver a project? From experience, this is sometimes a very rewarding process as you get input from people with different skill sets. That said, it can also be a frustrating process when the other party doesn’t understand, or doesn’t want to understand, how your contribution fits in. In some cases, large media entities have absorbed every facet of the communications spectrum into a one-size-fits-all offering. But does this provide a better solution for clients? In some respects it does, as there is one place where the creative buck stops. There is also, typically, one main point of contact on the agency side. On the other hand, having one entity handle the whole process can be very costly and there can be the same creative frictions within a company as there can be between companies.

In a country like ours, there is perhaps more collaboration between agencies than in many other nations. The key reason being that it limits overheads to not have to hire an internal web development consultant, for example. It makes sense to have friends in overlapping fields who you work with regularly as it can deliver great results. You also get the chance to work with a wider range of clients, which is beneficial for all involved. What we want to debate is whether you should get the marketing agency to do the marketing, the advertising agency to do the advertising, the PR agency to do the PR and so on. Is this even possible in the homogenised media landscape we occupy?

If you’ve got opinions on the matter (and on what the best model/structure is), bring them to #markchat on Twitter at 12.30pm.

Totally Wired

Down to the Wire, the digital project created by HeyDay that told the story of New Zealand’s Internet, reached its 21st anniversary milestone when it published the content for the year 2009 a few weeks back. And it is now calling on its fans to write the current 2010 year chapter.

Each day for 21 days, starting in 1989 with the nation’s connection to the internet, Down to the Wire published annual content and built a chronological account of the internet’s impact on Kiwi lives. And using video, editorial, statistics and a wealth of contributions from site visitors, it has grown into a rich and entertaining resource for all New Zealanders.

To keep those contributions coming and to grow the resource, Down to the Wire wants people to tell the story of 2010 themselves. They are also being asked to recommend internet personalities of the year who should be filmed for the chapter. Previous years’ personalities, more than 50 in all, have included Geoff Ross, Richard MacManus, Helen Baxter and Alastair Thompson.

“The contributions we’ve received from visitors for each year have been fascinating and insightful and have added tremendous depth to our coverage,” says project lead Thomas Scovell. “We’ve said that Down to the Wire is New Zealand’s resource and now we’re out to prove it again. We want 2010 to be told entirely by New Zealand’s netizens. And that really means almost everyone these days.”

When in roam

For all you holiday wanderers, Telecom has announced new data pricing for XT customers heading to Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom that gives customers 100 megabytes (MB) of mobile data for $100. The press release also helpfully points out it is the equivalent of $1/MB.

Customers will be charged $8.00/MB for the first 12.5MB and a remaining 87.5MB worth of data for the rest of their billing month will be free.

The new pricing is available to all XT customers, both prepaid and postpaid and will be applied automatically to their bill without them having to do anything to activate it before they leave New Zealand.

“This means our customers get the equivalent of $800 (in Australia) and $1000 (in the US and UK) worth of data for only $100,” says Telecom’s head of mobile roaming, Niki Chave. “This will not only make it more affordable to use data while roaming but also give our customers more clarity around the cost of data use before they travel … When travelling overseas the majority of our customers, more than 88 percent, roam to Australia, the US and the UK, so we have started by introducing new pricing to the most popular travel destinations first, with more to follow later.

100MB is equivalent to approximately 1000 text based emails or 2000 m.facebook pages. Any usage over the 100MB total will be charged at an overage rate of $8.00 per MB.

“We think 100MB is a good amount of data for our customers to not feel too restricted when using mobile data abroad and we are excited to give them more freedom to be able to stay in touch while travelling,” Chave says.

Digital deadline

Digital strategists have until this Friday to enter Yahoo!Xtra’s third round of Digital Strategy Awards. So if you want to be recognised for the role digital strategy plays in the success of on-line campaigns, get them in by close of play, Friday 12 November.

Entrants need to submit an entry in 800 words or less summarising the overall campaign, the challenge, the solution, and the results at the Yahoo!Xtra website.

The four quarterly winners will be eligible for the overall Y!X DSA Annual prize of $10,000 of media on Y!X plus free entry into the CAANZ Media Awards Best Use of Digital category. The first annual winner will be announced in March 2011.

Paid in pizza

And finally, whoever said design was undervalued obviously hasn’t seen this dream job, which offers occasional free pizza as compensation.