Click here to view the embedded video.

We wrote about the return of Steinlager’s white can to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its All Blacks sponsorship last week. And the TVC, which was created by DDB and Robber’s Dog, went live last night. If there was an award at Cannes for best use of mullets and denim waistcoats, this would undoubtedly be in line to win. But with such emphasis placed on the All Blacks’ performance at the tournament over the years—and their much-discussed inability to win the title again after the inaugural victory in 1987—it will be interesting to see how worldwide partner Heineken and the Rugby World Cup gatekeepers will respond. As always, interested to know what the StopPressers think.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Heineken, now in its fourth round of RWC sponsorship, has also launched its international TVC. The 60 second ‘This is the Game’ commercial was filmed at Eden Park and other venues across Auckland late last year by Heineken’s agency Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam, which recently won the Cannes Film Grand Prix for Nike’s ‘Write the Future’ and another gold for Heineken’s ‘The Entrance’. The production company was Revolver (Sydney) and Cherokee (Auckland).

While it’s a pretty solid, entertaining and poetic effort and “demonstrates the shared values between the Rugby World Cup 2011 and Heineken”, it certainly doesn’t have the same ‘slap you in the face with an awesome palm’ that Nike’s star-studded football effort had.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And while we’re on the topic of rugby, the Aussies have just launched a patriotic blast  through Ogilvy Sydney called One Australia to psych themselves up for the tournament and, despite the inclusion of a fair number of rugby cliches, it’s a bit of a spine-tingler.

Flooring Xtra started out in New Zealand in July 2008, when 18 stores jumped ship from the Carpet Court franchise and in just nine months it had achieved its positioning goal of becoming what it claims is the number one flooring retailer in the country. The company prides itself on its local roots: local co-operatives with local knowledge for local customers. And in less than three years, it has established 55 owner-operated stores nationwide.

In what chairman Henry Van Dyk calls a calculated risk, Flooring Xtra is crossing the ditch next year to expand into the Australian market after the group’s achievements in New Zealand sparked interest in the fragmented Australian carpet retailing sector.

“The Australian industry is very different from New Zealand, with buying and factoring groups often with weak branding and a lack of consistency in presentation,” he says. “Our success is built around providing customers with a full service flooring option, whilst retaining a focus on the local communities within which we operate and the wider environment.”

Flooring Xtra has secured a licencing agreement with Australia’s Consolidated Flooring Pty Ltd, which owns Independent Carpet Retailers, an outfit with more than 125 unbranded stores in Australia. A number of these are expected to take on the Flooring Xtra brand.

“The agreement will entitle them to use of our brand, intellectual property and retail systems,” says Van Dyk. “Both companies will operate independently but we expect operational and range synergies to be developed over time. While the New Zealand group operates as a co‐operative, Consolidated Flooring will have a licence agreement with its owner-operated stores.”

Van Dyk says “access to Australia [has been] a lot quicker than expected”. He anticipates there will eventually be in excess of 160 Flooring Xtra stores across Australasia and, in a similar fashion to its performance in New Zealand, he believes the brand will lead the market within 30 months of launch.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

While we’re on the topic of ridiculing, check out this one and look for the woman in the canoe who isn’t actually paddling.

Click here to view the embedded video.

StopPress can only suggest enlisting Flight of the Conchords to pen Queensland’s next catchy ditty.

Still, maybe the seemingly unending cheese of Australia’s ad campaigns doesn’t really matter, because, according to the recently released Future Brand scores for 2010, Australia and New Zealand are ranked second and third respectively in terms of the country’s brand worth, both moving up one place from last year, while Canada climbed to top spot from second in 2009.

The US fell three places to fourth and rounding out the top 10 were Switzerland, Japan, France, Finland, the United Kingdom and Sweden.

At the other end, the three worst performing country brands were  Zimbabwe (‘A world of wonders‘), Iran (which recently welcomed back its tourism marketing department) and Pakistan (‘It’s Beautiful, It’s Pakistan‘).

There are a few things we simply can’t abide here at StopPress: intolerance for other nations, the Dutch and using the power of song to express your emotions. So, you can imagine our horror when we laid eyes and ears on the new TVC for Australia’s new tourism push, ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’.

It seems like the kind of musical epic Baz Lurhmann might have made (speaking of which, here’s a weird, non-musical TVC he created for Tourism Australia earlier). But it was actually directed by Michael Gracey and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s a big, brash, cringey number that was based on the suggestions offered up by the hoi polloi as part of an online competition.

It’s all meant to be a big bit of epic fun; an attempt to show the good-natured lust for life that characterises the ‘Americans of the South’, but with scenes including white pianos on a beach, opera singers in vineyards and some good old fashioned Aussie tourism brochure cliches, it’s hard to know whether it’s been made with any sense of irony. There’s certainly not quite enough to satisfy your typically sarcastic, cynical New Zealander, anyway (unlike this one). Added to that, it’s completely unrealistic (like most tourism campaigns) as we couldn’t see flies on any of the actors.

The online and print phase of the DDB campaign was launched in March and the TVC, which will run around the world (starting in the UK) as part of an integrated campaign, points viewers in the direction of the Tourism Australia website, which already has 30,000 quintessentially, and mostly crowd-sourced, Aussie experiences listed so far.

And for other ads this ad is like, it’s hard to go past this one for the Discovery Channel.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The big change in the DDB-created campaign is the move away from the unsuccessful TV-centric “big bang approach” of the ‘Where the Bloody Hell Are You’ campaign. Instead, the first stage is based on some slow-burning patriotic crowd-sourcing, with Aussies being implored to upload pics of their favourite spots/experiences and tell everyone (in 25 words) why there’s nothing like, for example, driving the scenic route and looking at gum trees and brown lakes.

All these comments and images will then become the basis of the international TV, print and online campaign to follow, and the tips will be used to create an interactive, searchable map that Tourism Australia hopes will be something of an ‘insider’s guide’ (check out the tourism video here).

With research showing around 80 percent of Australians thought they could help promote the tourism industry themselves, Andrew McEvoy, managing director of Tourism Australia, hopes the campaign will tap into that advocacy.

“Australians telling each other and the world what is amazing about our country is something this campaign will capture,” he told B&T. “We’ll actually create the ultimate insiders guide to Australia, told by Australians and told to the world. That’s the insight. I think it’s a campaign that needs to build over time. One thing I will say is that we have chopped and changed too much in our tourism marketing history. I believe this is a campaign for the next decade plus. It is a campaign line that can grow.”

Tourism New Zealand wouldn’t comment on the Aussie campaign, nor would its agency Assignment. But we all know 100% Pure New Zealand is still the campaign to beat (check out the Kiwi hijacking of the Aussie campaign here and here) and, as such, we think we could offer some help to our Australian friends. So, add your effort to the comment wall, whether it be a completely new slogan or an example of something there isn’t anything like in Australia, and the best slogans will receive three bottles each of the fancy new Toi Toi celebration wines.

The Marlborough vineyard has added a sparkling sauvignon blanc and a sparkling rose to its arsenal of delectable beverages. And for weaklings who can’t get through a whole bottle of the fizzy goodness, you’ll be pleased to know they both feature a re-sealable ‘Zork’ cork.

Find out about (and order) the new Toi Toi wines here.

Television commercials will run in Sydney and Brisbane for the next two weeks and new Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler hopes the campaign, which features the same ad as last year, will inspire Aussie skiers and snowboarders to get in early, make their bookings and ensure another lucrative winter season for the tourism industry (here’s hoping Kevin Rudd dishes out another stimulus package this year).
“Last year was the first year Tourism New Zealand and the industry went into market with an early ski campaign and we had a strong ski season, with the industry here reporting an influx of Australians on the slopes,” he says.
Australia is the largest single international market for skiers and snowboarders into New Zealand, with approximately 70,000 Australians venturing to the snow last year. Australian holiday arrivals over the winter season of June, July and August 2009 were up 28 percent on the same three months of 2008. And it was the first time New Zealand went into Australia early, with ads featuring in February.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The $5 million, which is part of the $20 million that was allocated to tourism marketing in November, will be matched by regional tourism organisations (RTO) and private sector funding, creating a $10 million marketing fund that will be particularly focused on Australia (check out some of the entertaining questions tourism operators might have to contend with when they arrive). The RTOs and Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) will work together in order to maximise marketing impact.

“New Zealand is a collection of beautiful but diverse regions, each with its own unique attractions. This is an opportunity for those regions to use their distinctive selling points to attract Australian visitors while ensuring it is coordinated with TNZ’s 100% Pure New Zealand campaign. It is also a valuable opportunity to market experiences, seasons and occasions that are unique to a region,” Key says.

And here’s where the cold, hard cash will go:

• Auckland ($1,000,000)
• Hamilton/Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Dunedin ($250,000)
• Destination Rotorua Tourism Marketing ($600,000)
• Central Park (Rotorua, Taupo, Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay, Ruapehu, Coromandel) ($442,000)
• Wellington, Wairarapa, Taranaki and Marlborough ($1,000,000)
• Canterbury ($775,000)
• Queenstown and Lake Wanaka ($463,000)
• Ski Tourism ($370,000)
• RTO Campaign Tracking research($100,000)

Despite claims that the information was confirmed by Carat’s Australian office, a Carat spokesperson in Australia told StopPress that was not the case.

“The changes are a result of cutting back in some areas. It’s a realignment of the business. It’s not all negative.”

The spokesperson would not comment on any management changes or on how the Auckland office would be affected.

An official statement will be made shortly.

Why can’t we be more like the Australians — respectful, nice?

November issue

September issue

Glen Hunwick’s one of those Kiwis who’s been in Melbourne for years but we’ll still claim him as our own. He actually resides in the picturesque town of Torquay, gateway to the Great Ocean Rd on the surf coast. His animation company, Glen Art Productions, specialises in clay and stop-motion animation for the advertising industry and he’s enjoying wonderful success across the ditch.

About half of his clients are Aussie and the rest are Chinese, Korean, Singapore and Malaysian but he’s done plenty of work seen in NZ as well, including Cadbury ‘Wouldn’t it be nice’, CottonSofts and early V and Shell campaigns. His website has heaps of examples.

Hunwick is the director and animator behind our current TVC of the Week for the Singapore Health Promotion Board. It comes from an ongoing campaign all featuring gorgeous animal characters. Hunwick says, “The subject matter of mental health is challenging but this campaign has huge entertainment value so it cuts through beautifully.

“Each ad is animated in both English and Mandarin for the Singapore market. The budgets are very tight and deadline even more so (shot in just over a week) but that’s normal these days and we’ll always accommodate good fun ideas!”

Hunwick also created spots with ensemble casts in a cafe and in an aquarium.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The TVCs are also supported with a substantial print, outdoor and radio campaign using the same visuals.

Do animated ads always work, Glen? “Good question – do live-action ads always work? Animation will respond to a good idea as successfully as any other medium. Clay and stop-motion animation is always guaranteed cut-through with the audience for its tactileness and real qualities/textures etc. It will be in further demand with upcoming blockbuster films like Coraline (Laika Studios), The Fantastic Mr Fox (FOX Studios), Pinnochio (Henson’s) and Pirates (Aardman) amongst others.”

Are you one of our finest Export Figures or do you know someone who is? Do tell us about it.