How things have changed over the past few years. New Zealand is now punching way over its weight in the ad business. For decades, New Zealand creatives simply didn’t have the budgets that the bigger markets had. But, as the best ad people do, they have turned this negative into a positive and worked out how to use these small budgets to make big, world beating campaigns. Read more »
It’s been an unusually exciting week in the world of business directories: first came news the NZ Post-run Localist was suing Yellow. And now Yellow Pages Group chief executive Bruce Cotterill has stepped down, although the two events are said to be unconnected. Read more »
Hot on the heels of the Yellow/Groupy deal and in line with the online acquisition strategies of other major media networks, MediaWorks has entered group buying territory, signing a joint venture agreement with Cudo Australia, Microsoft and Nine Entertainment Co. to launch Cudo in New Zealand. Read more »
New Zealand’s (mostly) two horse international awards race between DDB and Colenso has continued apace and this time it’s Colenso in the lead, after it made Advertising Age’s ‘Agency A-List’—”the pick of the top advertising, digital, media, direct and PR agencies around the world”— and was named “international runner up agency of the year”, a spot it shared with Mother (London) and TBWA Hunt Lascaris (Johannesburg). Argentina’s Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi won the category and Wieden + Kennedy took out the agency of the year title. Read more »
The world is going gaga for social buying sites at the moment: Google was rumoured to have put in an offer of $6 billion for Groupon, Yahoo!7 just purchased Spreets for $40 million, APN has had a fair swag of success with its 50 percent stake in GrabOne and now Yellow has jumped on the bandwagon by snapping up group buying site www.groupy.co.nz. Read more »
In the just released January/February edition of NZ Marketing magazine, we looked back on the year’s biggest events/campaigns/achievements/flops/stoushes and compiled an obligatory—and extremely definitive—end of year list. But we figured it would pay to ask a few more industry high-rollers for their thoughts on the year in marketing. We’ll be posting their responses to our questionnaire over the next week. But to get the ball rolling, watch the opinions fly as Courtney Lambert offers her take on 2010′s goods, bads and uglies. Read more »
NZ Post announced its intention to snatch some of the Auckland directories market off Yellow and TradeMe in late October with a new start-up called Localist. And its first outdoor offensive has begun, with billboards going up around Auckland in the last few days. And, as well as talking up its own new offering, which is set to launch next year, they certainly don’t shy away from sticking the boot into the quality of the opposition’s services, something Yellow has acknowledged recently and is hoping to rectify with a big cash injection. Read more »
… as Yellow wins some more awards, the wheels on the Instant Kiwi scratchie bus go round and round, Fresh PR slips into something more comfortable, the University of Auckland School of Business reaches a big milestone with its 40,000th Short Course attendant, TVNZ ups its streaming, TV3 spruces up its website, the crowd goes wild for Microsoft Kinect and Sealegs is endorsed by scientists. Read more »
Yellow has won plenty of awards for its advertising. But it’s still in dire financial straights and it’s not faring so well against its rather powerful directories adversary Google. One of the big reasons for that is its poor user interface and search platform. But Yellow New Zealand has announced a new partnership with Yahoo!7, one of Australia and New Zealand’s leading online media companies, and will use its digital resources to “power and bring to life Yellow’s search and content experiences”—and, in return, Yahoo users will have access to Yellow pages business data. Read more »
It was revealed by the Herald yesterday that New Zealand Post seems to have designs on the directories business, after it snaffled Yellow’s ex-director of sales Greg Murphy and three other national and regional sales managers. But, not one to lie down in the face of adversity *ahem, Google, ahem*, Yellow is still trying to up the ante and has announced the launch of its new, locally developed iPad and iPhone apps.
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Who’s it for: Rexona by Generator United and Curious.
Why we like it: Depending on your viewpoint, the last Rexona spot that aired around the Rugby World Cup was either overwrought and overly earnest or powerful and beautifully shot. The follow up is fairly earnest as well, but Darryl Ward’s made it look purty in black and white and the slightly more casual approach works for us.
Who’s it for: Telecom by Saatchi & Saatchi and Prodigy
Why we like it: A simple idea, well executed—and there’s even a dose of sexy vampire-related humour. Extra points for the lead character’s rapid line spitting and the numerous attempts it probably took to get it right.
Who’s it for: National Bank by DraftFCB and Robber’s Dog
Why we like it: There’s a rich heritage of city slicker agencies claiming to know how to talk to the rural audience. But DraftFCB nailed it with this one (which we completely missed when it was launched ages ago as part of the ‘For the Places You’ll Go’ campaign).
Mio changes everything, apparently.
VW tugs on the heartstrings.
Samsung’s take on the spinning ball of death.
Intel’s big budget Ultrabook campaign takes us to the movies.
The invisible Mercedes.
Google’s Story of the Send.
Amnesty International’s graphic new ad shows that money can hide terrible things (depending on your workplace’s severed head policy, possibly NSFW).
Two-and-a-bit minutes of beautiful outdoorsiness for Decathlon’s in-house brand Quechua.
Cute kids review Skrillex.
Pumpers gotta pump, Quiky gets violated, Yahoo’s digital struggles explained, Skechers gets a smack, the QR code that requires beer and how did General Aladeen convince John Key to hold a machine gun in Cannes?
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