Grant Hyland, general manager of Valued Interactive Media (VIM) since 2010, has resigned to take up the position as managing director of VENA NZ.

“I have poured my heart and soul into the launch and running of Valued Interactive Media in New Zealand. It’s been an amazing experience that has taught me countless lessons and has challenged me at every turn. However, everything must come to an end and in this instance it is time for me to move on from VIM.

“Video, entertainment, social media and gaming present a truly exciting area for the continued growth of the online advertising industry and VENA are at the forefront of this throughout Asia.”

Fuse News

The little start-up that could. In three short years Omnicom’s youngest agency Fuse has evolved from a two-man band to a ten-strong agency as the doors swung open on 9 January 2012, with growth forecast to continue.

Stephanie Lowe has taken on the newly established role of account director in the Fuse Activation department, bringing to the position five years’ experience in the communications industry. Stephanie returned to New Zealand in September 2011 following two years spent working in consumer PR, communications and FMCG B2B relations in Canada and London. Prior to this, Stephanie worked as an account manager across media relations and event management at Auckland’s Goode PR.

Rhian Bedford fills the highly anticipated position of account manager in the Fuse Social Media team. Having spent the past four years working as an online communications assistant, e-commerce specialist and marketing coordinator at Noel Leeming, Ezibuy and Pumpkin Patch respectively, Rhian is well and truly up for the role.

The final new arrival for the moment is Tamsin Savage, who has taken up the graduate hot-seat as account co-ordinator reporting directly into the Fuse Activation department, whilst also supporting the greater Fuse team.

Further to the new arrivals, internally Anjana Mani has been promoted to business director overseeing the day-to-day operation of Fuse whilst also maintaining a finger on the PR team pulse, and Ashleigh Adair has been promoted to account director running the social media team.

“I’m absolutely delighted to be able to promote Anjana and Ashleigh within the business.  We are a young agency with a strong, yet fresh team. These two practitioners have shown a continued dedication and outstanding commitment to this business and their own professional development which is testament to our culture of fostering and developing our talent,” says Fuse general manager Jeremy Leonard.

Inside Job: New Zealand Geographic seized by production team

As of January 9th, New Zealand Geographic will be owned and operated by editor James Frankham and art director Marc Backwell, trading as Kowhai Media Ltd—New Zealand’s newest independent publishing company. The pair bring with them plenty of experience in media production, publishing, customer publishing and decades’ of involvement in online and social media. Both have had a long involvement with the title; Frankham being largely responsible for the turn-around in fortunes for the magazine since taking up the editorship in early 2008, and Backwell leading a change of direction in design from his first involvement mid-2009.

James Frankham and Marc Backwell

Together they have already shifted New Zealand Geographic from a magazine with a 20-year tradition into a brand with a rich story and loyal following across a number of media platforms. Today New Zealand Geographic is the country’s most prestigious photographic journal, the convener of an immensely popular annual photography competition, publisher of high-quality hardback books, active in the social media sphere and most recently responsible for a brave new foray into education.

This 2012 New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year competition will include a four-month long exhibition in Auckland Museum’s large Special Exhibition Gallery, representative of the brand’s new relevance and direction in an otherwise crowded marketplace.

“A key focus in the last four years has been to enlarge the activity of the brand from the publication of the magazine to a wider relationship with the market,” says one of the new owners, James Frankham. “This takes in a greater diversity of readers and connects with them in many more ways over many more mediums.”

New Zealand Geographic has 267,000 readers, according to Nielsen. While annual magazine sales in the general interest category have been in moderate decline, New Zealand Geographic has been growing in circulation, and readership has rocketed representing better and better value for advertisers.

“There is a noticeable swing back to understanding the machinations of the world that exert such pressure on our civil liberties, climate and wallets,” says Frankham. “And in response, magazines that offer something substantial, something that transmits a country’s cultural inheritance or explains the wider social or environmental context are proving increasingly popular.”

Large growth in Traffic leads to relocation

New Zealand’s leading business-to-business growth specialist, Traffic, kicked off the New Year with a growth spurt and an office move. Due to expansion they’ve relocated to a larger space with better facilities at 287-289 Parnell Road. Joining the creative quarter, they bring with them associated companies Refresh Renovations, a design and build specialist renovation provider, and New Zealand Renovate magazine, the country’s first and only magazine dedicated to home renovations.

“2011 was a difficult year for most businesses,” says Chris Caiger, one of a triumvirate of directors at Traffic.

“But we managed to create outstanding business growth not only for ourselves, but also – and most importantly – for our clients.”

Viva la VivaKi

The VivaKi Search & Digital Hub has kicked the year off with three new hires. James Julian from Draft FCB and Samuel Soo from Carat join the Hub as senior campaign managers; working on New Zealand search and performance digital business as well as running the search accounts for Australia’s leading digital agency; Amnesia Razorfish.

Murtaza Fidahusen also joins us from Clicky.com running search accounts including Sony and Blackberry for Starcom Sydney.

The hub has also taken two graduates from the CAANZ media internship scheme and in mid-March will be expanding the VivaKi Digital intern programme to five, expanding the team to over 20 digital media specialists running Trans-Tasman campaigns in Paid Search, SEO, AOD (Ad Exchange), Facebook and other performance digital media.

Alex Radford, director of the VivaKi Digital hub says “with these hires we cement ourselves as a world class digital engine room for some of the most digital savvy agencies in the region, as well as a continued commitment to grow and nurture local talent”.

Botica Butler Raudon PR joins Oriella stable

Oriella PR Network has added two new agency partners – Botica Butler Raudon Public Relations in Auckland, and Buman Media in Moscow, Russia – to its global agency alliance. The new additions extend Oriella’s reach for companies wanting to interact with audiences in Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific. Both agencies are independently-owned firms with senior counselors, known for their strength in business and technology communications.

“In today’s fast-paced, always-on world, communications are truly global,” said Giles Fraser, co-founder of both Oriella and Brands2Life. “Oriella is now in its fifth year and by welcoming Botica and Buman Media into the network we’re continuing to bring together the world’s best independent PR agencies.”

“We were initially impressed with the global industry leadership demonstrated by Oriella in publishing its annual digital journalism study,” said Allan Botica, chairman of Botica Butler Raudon.

“Looking further we quickly identified other areas of common interest. And joining the Oriella network made good sense to our clients: New Zealand is a small country with an export-lead economy, so innovative companies have to gain access to international markets in order to grow. Oriella allows us to put our clients in touch with agile, like-minded PR companies in key markets.”

Oriella is a tightly knit alliance of 15 agencies in 20 countries around the world. The network was co-founded in 2006 by Horn Group and Brands2Life — the top independent agencies in the US and the UK respectively – to address the hole in the market for effective global public relations.

Multi-national PR agencies are stifled by inertia, while most boutique alliances operate simply as a referral network. Oriella is the antidote — with global senior strategy teams, imaginative regional execution and results, and centralized global account management. The network is also well known for its annual Oriella Digital Journalism Study, a global survey of more than 500 journalists now going into its fourth year.

Oriella agencies specialize in integrated PR, social media and creative content. The network represents global brands and startups in business and consumer technology sectors across The Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific.

Tangerine Tango is the new black

News just in, this year’s ‘new black’ is, drum roll please… Tangerine Tango. “Sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, who decides such things. “Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”

“We were impressed with M&C Saatchi’s approach, creativity and strategy. We’re all about innovation, challenging the market, and M&C really showed they understood where we are coming from, and how to help drive our business forward.”

M&C Saatchi chief executive Darryn Melrose says, “We’ve admired the Orcon brand for a number of years now, so when we were asked to work on it we leapt at the chance.

“It’s rare you come across an organisation that gets innovation and keeps a focus on customer satisfaction, as well as having such a strong brand. We feel certain there is huge opportunity to help grow Orcon’s business.”

Incumbent agency DraftFCB, which launched a great campaign for Genius and took over from Special Group, resigned the account in October, reportedly to pitch for Vodafone.

M&C Saatchi will kick off its partnership with Orcon with a new campaign, scheduled to launch in the New Year.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Who’s it for: Volkswagen by DDB and Robber’s Dog

Why we like it: As Volkswagen seeks to deliver its first ever ute into the New Zealand market, and with Toyota the dominant player in the market, DDB and Robber’s Dog had to come up with something a little different to capture the attention of the rugged Kiwi bloke. This commercial successfully blends concepts of physics with that rural male stereotype.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The new TVC first aired on Sunday 30 January and Tony Clewett, creative director at DraftFCB, says it references New Zealand’s neighbourhood psyche. Genesis Energy, he says, is also aiming to be a good, responsible corporate neighbour by being conscious of its actions and looking out for others. So what better way to inspire neighbourliness than with some talented and resourceful native birds (check out the behind the scenes video to find out how you get a Pukeko to paint a crossing, switch on a light switch and pull a cord).

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Obviously working with animals brings its own set of challenges, but at least they don’t answer back,” Clewett says. “A lot of people think the birds are done with CGI but they are real pukekos and they actually do all the tricks. Warm fuzzy smiles all round when they get it right.”

Dean Carroll, general manager retail for Genesis Energy, says being neighbourly is a core brand focus and, as such, it has started a few neighbourly-focused initiatives to show their commitment to the idea, including Schoolgen, Brownie Points and the Genesis Oncology Trust. The Schoolgen project aims to teach children about solar energy in a fun way, by helping schools install solar panels at no cost so they can generate a portion of their energy from the sun, and Brownie Points works to give customers points for the things they do, not just what they spend.

*Warning, cheesy corporate quote ahead* “Like any good neighbour, we understand that through respect and working together we can make tomorrow a better place,” he says.

DraftFCB and Pacific Blue’s ‘Happy Flying’ campaign, which features some of the airline’s cabin crew and pilots frolicking in the aisles and singing an aviation-themed remix of the world’s most sickening tune, the Macarena, has been voted Best TV Commercial at the Low Cost Airlines World Asia Pacific 2010 conference in Singapore.

Low cost airlines from around the Asia Pacific region were eligible to enter the awards, known as the Budgie$, and Terrapin’s Lynette Han, the organiser of the event, says they’re designed to recognise the leaders, innovators, creative talents and pioneers in the Asia Pacific Low Cost Airlines industry.

“We were looking for an ad that delivered the airline’s message in an innovative and creative way. It had to be eye-catching and with a memorable jingle,” Ms Han says.

More than 350 conference delegates watched the nominated commercials and voted for their favourite, with commercials from Air Asia, IndiGo Airlines, Jetstar Asia and Tiger Airways also making the finals.

James Mok, executive creative director at DraftFCB, says he wanted to capture the upbeat and personable character of the Pacific Blue team, so real cabin crew and pilots were used.

“It was a lot of fun making this ad. Pacific Blue crew are very passionate about the airline they work for . . . We wanted to be able to capture that spontaneity, as well as change the way people perceive flying by opening the door for a more enjoyable experience.”

Apparently, the rather polarising ad also found favour with the New Zealand public, with the TVC voted second most popular in a monthly survey in the November 2009 issue of AdMedia. The survey obviously neglected to speak with those whose instant response to it was a little bit of vomit in the back of the mouth. And it seems no points were deducted for foisting a series of flashmobs, the scourge of late 90s marketing, upon an unsuspecting public either (does two constitute a mob?).

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s not DraftFCB’s actual address (surely the 2008 agency of the year’s letter box would be of much finer quality and without cobwebs), but it’s still moderately entertaining, just like this rather incongruous photo of a nice playground in front of a nuclear power plant. Or a really old person at a nightclub. Or joggers who keep running when they’re waiting at the lights. Or this.

Commenting on DDB’s cleverly hand-scripted long copy for the Arts Channel, the judges said: “It shows a great understanding of the target audience. A nice intelligent read”.

And as for DraftFCB: “Good use of the medium and an inspiring way to use the paper – an oasis of art in the newspaper!,” said the judges.

December and January’s judges were James Mok – DraftFCB (who abstained from the January vote due to conflict of interest), Lachlan McPherson – Publicis Mojo and Sarah Walter – The Pond.

December and January’s winning creative teams receive $250 cash with the ads sponsored by the NAB in the 2011 Axis Awards. The ads will also appear in the ‘What’s New’ section of AdMedia and are now Finalists in the 2010 $10,000 Newspaper Ad of Year competition judged later this year. Any ad that has run in any newspaper around the country is eligible to enter the competition. Email ideas@nabs.co.nz for competition details.

To view all the finalists in the current Newspaper Ad of the Year series visit the NAB website.

Feast your festive peepers on the StopPress Christmas goodie bag, which is filled to the brim with an array of newsy delights.

Seth’s Appeal

Looking for the perfect Christmas gift for that special marketing someone this year? You are! Well look no further than the Seth Godin action figure.

Imagine having your own personal marketing guru you can go to for advice and guidance. You could pay millions of dollars for consultants, but why not just get the Marketing Guru Action Figure? Marketing genius and famous blogger Seth Godin serves as the model for this 5.375″ plastic action figure with his trademark mismatched socks and business casual clothes. Each figure comes with a free gift and the Little Book of Marketing Secrets. It’s rumored that if you want an insight into what your customers want and how they’d like to be communicated with, you can rub Seth’s bald head and all will be made clear.

But wait! There’s more! There’s even an interview with the man behind the doll. And for an additional stocking stuffer to really give those tribal marketing purists a festive ‘nergasm’, download his co-created book for free. If only the Don Draper doll was on sale, you could create a beautiful marcomms nativity scene. You can top the largesse off by sending a 42 Below relief cocktail via text so that your poor, recession-weary friends and family in New Zealand or London can drown their sorrows.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Santa Claus gets busy

The folks at the Hoverlion creative collective have put their thinking caps on and come up with a weird and wonderful festive movie/video card featuring Christmas’ creative director Bryan Claus, dutiful, hard-working elf underlings, candles and, of course, the King of the Beasts.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Rascals versus raptors

Rascals (they of the controversial Mad Men-esque spoofery seen at DraftFCB and this novelty Chrissy gift) flipped the bird to the mainstream and the recession in 2009 and set up shop in Auckland as an indie agency. And one of its first projects was a viral PR campaign for New Zealand independent music label Dirty Records to launch rap artist PNC’s single Bazooka and his new album.

The Rascals decided to stage the theft of PNC’s famed raptor mascot, a bright red dinosaur suit that features in many of the music videos and on album covers, and shoot a music video following the suit’s unsanctioned exploits through New Zealand.

The Dirty PR campaign generated radio and blog buzz, with press release pleas issued for the return of the suit. An auction for the raptor was also staged on TradeMe (although it was pulled because selling stolen goods is illegal).

The raptor, seen in the music clip touring the country “doing crazy shit” is eventually returned to PNC’s house, complete with a video journal of its escapades that was filmed on a range of disparate appliances, including the P2-HD, a headcam, harbour bridge security cameras, mobile phones and three or four random handicams. And the end result was polished and coloured by the folks at DigiPost.

Mobile market plumps up

Looking for some light holiday reading this Christmas? Then check out the 659-slide behemoth (or perhaps the 92-slide condensed version might be more your cup of tea) that is the Morgan Stanley analysis of the mobile Internet market. It’s predicting extremely large, almost morbidly obese, things for the platform, with the key snippets being:

Material wealth creation/destruction should surpass earlier computing cycles. The mobile Internet cycle, the 5th cycle in 50 years, is just starting. Winners in each cycle often create more market capitalization than in the last. New winners emerge, some incumbents survive – or thrive – while many past winners falter.

The mobile Internet is ramping faster than desktop Internet did, and we believe more users may connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within 5 years.

Five IP-based products / services are growing / converging and providing the underpinnings for dramatic growth in mobile Internet usage – 3G adoption + social networking + video + VoIP + impressive mobile devices.

Apple + Facebook platforms serving to raise the bar for how users connect / communicate – their respective ramps in user and developer engagement may be unprecedented.

Decade-plus Internet usage / monetization ramps for mobile Internet in Japan plus desktop Internet in developed markets provide roadmaps for global ramp and monetization.

Massive mobile data growth is driving transitions for carriers and equipment providers.

Emerging markets have material potential for mobile Internet user growth. Low penetration of fixed-line telephone and already vibrant mobile value-added services mean that for many EM users and SMEs, the Internet will be mobile.

TBWA nabs the bronze

Industry mag Advertising Age unveiled its Top 10 Best Agencies of the Decade and TBWA\ Worldwide was ranked third.

David Walden, chief executive of the TBWA\ Group in New Zealand, says the accolade is a great way to end the year and reflects well on the level of integration throughout the 270 TBWA\ offices in the global network.

“A strong international partner is incredibly important for local clients when you need a global resource for either learnings or best practice and TBWA\ delivers that in spades,” he says.

Goldring goes Tribal

Aaron Goldring has been handed the role of deputy creative director at Tribal DDB New Zealand and will work alongside creative director Dan Wright.

Goldring joins Tribal DDB following five years at AIM Proximity as the head of interactive art, where he was responsible for digital creative output for the likes of TVNZ, Vodafone, Air New Zealand, The Warehouse, Tower, Visa and the internationally-acclaimed Yellow Tree House project for Yellow Pages.

Pitchy business

The Pam’s account is up for grabs. Saatchi’s is keen to get back in there for a slice of what Nielsen says is a $54 million advertising budget, the biggest in the country. But there are mutterings that the departure of Andrew Stone and Mike O’Sullivan and the poor handling of the news by the agency could see it heading elsewhere.

Agencies in the running are rumoured to be .99 (which has New World), DraftFCB (which has Pak n Save and Four Square) and DDB (which has the Heinz Watties account).

Dave McAteer, general manager of own brands for Foodstuffs, wouldn’t confirm which agencies had pitched last week, but says a decision will be made by the end of January. And as far as potential conflicts go, he doesn’t perceive any. He says it all comes down to the best pitch, although if there was to be a conflict, he says it would probably be a “retail conflict”, rather than a product conflict.

And while all the regular characters were present and correct, some observant viewers may have noticed a new addition to the line-up: DraftFCB, who has taken the unusual step – for an advertising agency, at least – of sponsoring the show.

Justin Mowday, general manager of DraftFCB, says it’s a fairly unique arrangement and doesn’t know of any other ad agency to have taken this approach.

He says Mad Men is a fantastic show that’s relevant to the industry, so it makes sense to get his agency’s name in front of existing clients, potential clients, staff, competitors and anyone else who happens to be watching.

In fact, he says they’re basically laughing in the face of the maxim that ‘advertising agencies never advertise’, which, in his opinion, is slightly hypocritical.

“It’s advertising. If you truly believe in it, put your money where your mouth is,” he says. “We did.”

He says the agency has been “prepared to lead from the front in the heart of the recession” over the last six to eight months with direct marketing and TV campaigns. And the sponsorship of the show is just an extension of that confident approach.

And if you believe the Harvard Business School, which says marketing aggressively in a recession gains brands market share, he says it makes good business sense.

Mowday says there is something of a “blurred line” with this arrangement, however: Prime TV are one of DraftFCB’s best clients and have promoted the last two seasons of Mad Men on their behalf (most notably with a fairly controversial wind-up that involved two of its staff setting up a racist, sexist, homophobic smoke and booze-friendly agency that turned out to be fictional) and it has now paid Prime to sponsor the show.

He wouldn’t comment on how much the agency paid for sponsorship rights but he says it gets no special treatment when it comes to advertising other accounts. Anyone can buy ad space during the show — even other ad agencies, he says with a little twinkle in his eye.

Here are some of the DraftFCB TVCs that featured during Mad Men.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And their fairly tongue in cheek indents.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

• Separate to the sponsorship of the show, DraftFCB has created a micro-site for the show so viewers can see how they stack up against Mad Men’s suave protagonist, Don Draper.
• And for some light, slightly awkward relief, check out this rather entertaining interview with John Hamm, the All-American dreamboat who plays Don Draper.