Simon Bird finds that the industry’s preoccupation with ‘a point of difference’ probably isn’t the best use of time. However, he adds that getting marketers to buy into this could prove as hard as getting 19th Century doctors to believe that hand-washing was a good way to stop the spread of disease.
There will not shortage of pencils in New Zealand’s creative agencies next month, as they continue to dominate the international awards. This time seven agencies are adding 30 wins to the country’s hall of fame.
Over 900 ridiculously well-dressed media types took their seats at the Viaduct Events Centre last night for the 2015 edition of the Beacon Awards. Throughout the evening, each of the company tables gave partisan cheers when their co-workers stepped onto the stage to collect awards, serving as a reminder of the competitive banter that typifies the industry on a daily basis. And although most winners will no doubt feel a sense of pride—and the mild throb of a hangover—today, the most successful agencies on the night were MBM, FCB Media and Spark PHD.
For many, getting ink on your fingers after reading a newspaper is probably a rather quaint notion. But SparkPHD, NZME and ANZ embraced it for a Cricket World Cup supporter’s ad and came away with the win in newspaper ad the Ad of the Month.
Following on from Auckland Council’s appointment of DDB as its lead agency, Goodfolk has been appointed the digital communications agency and Alt Group will be responsible for arts and culture communications. This announcement brings the long-running process to an end, and gives the agencies until the next mandatory RFP process to work with the Council. PLUS: Goodfolk wins Fletcher Building account.
Earlier this year, Pedigree and Colenso BBDO tried to monetise slacktivism with Share for Dogs, a campaign that, as the name implies, asked people to watch videos of cute dogs and send them on so that a portion of the profit generated from the pre-roll advertising on each video could be shared with the charity. Now, extending a test campaign it ran last year, .99 and the Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand have also created a way for Kiwis to help by doing, rather than paying.
Industry happenings at iProspect, Spark PHD, Union Digital, Yukfoo and Ambient Group.
Following last month’s announcement that Vodafone was undergoing the process of reviewing its global media account (worth about US$950 million), it has now been reported that WPP’s MEC has won the final round of pitching, which was contested between MEC and Carat (part of the Dentsu Aegis network). So what does this mean from a New Zealand perspective?
Vodafone has made the most of Adshel’s Immerse product, which uses EL (electroluminscent) paper to give the impression of a Christmas tree lit with neon. The campaign with Spark PHD and DraftFCB saw the poster illuminate in different parts, with an animation sequence creating the neon sign effect.
Spark PR&Activate, Spark PHD and PHDiQ have drawn on their combined resources to create a campaign for Tiger Beer’s new rewards scheme Fortune Avenue.
With five golds at the Media Awards, a host of Yahoo DSA gongs, big campaigns for Vodafone, Instant Kiwi and ANZ, a re-signed agreement with Unilever and a new gamified planning system about to come onstream, Spark Group has had plenty to crow about this year. Chief executive Louise Bond takes the wheel.
Fresh from winning more Caples metal than any other agency in the world over the weekend, Colenso BBDO followed that up by winning Campaign Asia Pacific’s New Zealand creative agency of the year award ahead of DDB Group and DraftFCB, with creative chairman Nick Worthington named as the Australasian region’s best creative director. DDB Group also backed up a good year on the awards front, with Rapp/Tribal winning digital agency of the year ahead of Colenso BBDO and TBWA\DAN, while Spark PHD was rewarded for an impressive year with the media agency of the year title, ahead of Naked and OMD.
Marcomms folk are a competitive bunch. Always fighting over clients/awards/staff. And, in many cases, that competition is often a good thing for the quality of ideas, which is why PHD and its local outpost Spark Group are set to launch a new global operating system that taps into elements of gamification and crowd-sourcing to “encourage participation and collaboration” among the 2,500 staff across the Omnicom-owned group.
As Deep Throat said in All The President’s Men: “Follow the money”. And by doing that back in 2010 when MediaWorks relaunched its underperforming niche youth channel C4 as an edgy, mainstream entertainment channel called Four, now the money is following it.
Spark PHD welcomes back an old friend, CAANZ announces its international Effie judge, Healthy Life Media’s allergic reaction, Adshool students have something to crow about, The PR Shop goes corporate, TEDx announces its speaker line-up and Adobe appoints a new communicator.
Six teams teams of young media and creative agency whippersnappers were named as place getter in last night’s inaugural Fairfax Media Young Spikes Media and Integrated Competitions, but it was the Whybin \ TBWA and OMD teams that took out the winning spots, and each will now represent New Zealand at the Young Spikes competition held in Singapore in September.
Peter Myles, director of Omnicom Media Group, is to step down this week.
A leading figure in New Zealand media buying, Myles is a “victim of bureaucracy” according to former media boss Martin Gillman.
In 2007 Myles was appointed executive director of OMG (at times styled as Opera) a jointly …