When former Saatchi & Saatchi boss and ICG executive director Mike Hutcheson decided to do a master’s thesis on New Zealand creativity, he didn’t want to produce an unreadable 60,000-word treatise. Instead he used interviews with four senior New Zealand business leaders – former Saatchi colleague Kevin Roberts, Les Mills International chief executive Phillip Mills, Hobbiton director and ex-Tourism NZ head George Hickton, and Innovation Council chief executive Louise Webster – to put together a 30-minute video examining the paradox that New Zealanders come up with great ideas and largely fail to commercialise them. But the attitude that creates the problem may also be part of its solution, he says.
Browsing: Mike Hutcheson
Originally established as a pre-press company in 1990, Image Centre Group has gradually moved into other areas like design, web development, full service printing, publishing, digital signage and advertising in an effort to bring the idea of an independent, marketing communications group to life. Now it’s added a crucial—and up until now missing—cog to that wheel: the creative heft of Mike O’Sullivan and his business The Collective.
There’s been a fair bit of carnage in the local business and trade press in recent years, with The Independent closing, Fairfax flicking on a few of its titles and moving Unlimited online, and Mediaweb seemingly hanging on for dear life at present. But Vincent Heeringa, publisher of Idealog and NZ Marketing, is hoping to fill what he thinks is fairly large information void with The Briefing, a membership-style media offering aimed at leaders from the C-Suite “who share the determination to transform their business in a world of radical change”.
What sorcery is this? Six of the country’s most experienced admen—Mike Hutcheson, Ross Goldsack, David Walden, Peter Cullinane, Sandy Moore and Roger MacDonnell—were spotted feasting at renowned advertising haunt Cibo on Friday. This gathering certainly wouldn’t have happened a few years back. So what’s brought them together? The only logical explanation is the launch of a new advertising agency.
The growth in the outdoor industry is largely being driven by digital media, both ‘place-based’, like shopping malls, oil chains and airports, and large format. In the Asia/Pacific region, ad spend in digital out-of-home has grown 19 percent on average every year from 2006 to 2011 and global spend in the sector last year was $US7 billion, which is forecast to grow almost 20 percent this year. So local digital signage network nGage is bringing together a few smart cookies at an event that aims to showcase the digital signage ecosystem and offer a glimpse into the future.
Yesterday in the Image Centre Group’s boardroom, a company was reborn, with the country’s biggest home services franchise Green Acres launching a new, more contemporary brand.
The TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards turn 21 this year. And like all good 21-year-olds, it’s received an oversized key, downed a yardie, taken a good hard look at itself and emerged into adulthood with a snazzy new ‘Everything Marketing’ brand and eight new categories.
Life is tough. There are many undesirable situations in the world right now. The Greek economy, world hunger, Justin Bieber … Idealog doesn’t claim to have all the answers but its latest issue can help with some of the lesser details, like how to read your rival’s financial statements, shut down a dinner party bore, give a winning speech, get on the front page, self-publish and more.
Labour’s political big wigs gathered together yesterday to fire the first election salvo and spell out the party’s intention to impose a capital gains tax if it wins power in November. And the campaign, which is being led by Image Centre Group and String Theory, hopes to persuade Kiwis to vote for the reds by playing on the ideas of fairness and ownership of the future.
Last week BrandWorld’s David MacGregor let his opinions be known about James Hurman’s new book The Case For Creativity. Now it’s ex-Colenso bod and adman par excellence Mike Hutcheson’s turn.
“Unconventional, artistic, quirky, humorous and youthful” New Zealand streetwear brand Federation has been named the winner of the inaugural James & Wells: Fashion Communication Design Award, beating out the other two finalists Cybelle and Moochi for top honours.
Applications for the inaugural James & Wells: Fashion Communication Design Award, a joint effort from Fashion Industry New Zealand (FINZ) and James & Wells Intellectual Property to celebrate creativity and excellence in fashion-specific communication design, are set to close on 11 March.
The award is open to all New Zealand clothing designers …
Three men, three very different presentations and a multitude of ideas about what could be around the marcomms corner … for your viewing pleasure, Pure Productions has released recordings of the sage words of Colenso BBDO’s planning director James Hurman, TVWorks chief executive Jason Paris and Image Centre Group’s Mike Hutcheson from the Future of Television Advertising event it held recently. So, if you weren’t cool or important enough to actually be there, they’re certainly worth a gander.
The fund-raising ball is well and truly rolling for LifeWise’s The BigSleepOut. But it’s not too late to send a few dollars the way of some of your fellow marketing/business types who are sleeping rough for a night on 14 October and raising awareness and money for homeless people.
Mike Hutcheson, one of the founders of Colenso and executive director of the Image Centre Group, is a well-renowned raconteur, gadabout and occasional oratorical stuntman. But no matter how many times you may have heard his anecdotes, he tells them so well and so humorously that you don’t actually mind hearing them again. And, as his holistic, semi-philosophical presentation on the future—and the past—of television advertising showed, telling stories is what advertising is all about—and, in his opinion, television is still the best way to tell them.
From left: Julian Andrews, Martin Bell, John Baker, Vincent Heeringa
Actually, that headline is only partially true: HB Media, creators of StopPress, NZ Marketing, Idealog and Good, has joined forces with Tangible Media, which publishes a range of magazines including Dish, NZ Retail and NZ Rugby World. And the new, award-winning media beast is set to become New Zealand’s largest independent publishing company.