Tag: anz

Australia – Outdoor media agency QMS Media in Australia has promoted its current chief marketing officer Sara Lappage, to assume the newly created role of chief operating officer for ’Customer’.

The promotion aims to streamline QMS Media’s processes and communication, ensuring that agencies and advertisers continue to be best served with timely, intelligent solutions.

Lappage brings with her 26 years of experience in the media industry. Prior to joining QMS Media, she has previously worked as the director for marketing consultancy firm Verve Marketing Australia. Lappage has also worked as the group director of marketing for out-of-home advertising agency oOh!media. In her new role, Lappage will be overseeing QMS Media’s sales, strategy, and marketing functions, enabling complete alignment across the business as QMS further expands its digital offering and footprint.

Commenting on her promotion, Lappage said that she is excited to take on this broader customer focused role to help guide the team through the next evolution as a digital and data-led media business.

“As we prepare for further expansion with the launch of our revitalized and digitally focused City of Sydney asset, my goal is to ensure that our sales, marketing, and strategy offering to our clients remain squarely in focus. QMS is fortunate to have such a strong executive leadership team, and together with them and our incredibly talented teams across the country, I am excited to help drive our business forward and into the exciting future ahead of us,” said Lappage.

Meanwhile, QMS Media’s Chief Executive Officer John O’Neill, shared that QMS is truly passionate about being the best media partner for agencies and advertisers, so it makes sense to have the new role dedicated to ensuring they have the right framework, processes, communication, and delivery for the customers.

“With over 26 years of experience in media, Sara has proven that she has both the experience and knowledge of how to grow, nurture and deliver successful businesses. Sara’s passion and dedication for QMS, its people, and her understanding of what advertisers need, will ensure QMS continues to deliver solutions that drive results,” said O’Neill.

Australia – Global family history website Ancestry in Australia has launched a new integrated campaign titled ‘There Could Be More To Your Story’, which aims to inspire Australians to explore their own family history.

Ancestry offers its members access to one billion searchable family history records that reflect their multicultural heritage and enables them to explore local and international records including the convict and free settler lists, passenger lists, and electoral rolls and military records, as well as English, Welsh and Scottish censuses, and birth, marriage and death records, among others.

The integrated campaign is done in collaboration with creative agency Saatchi & Saatchi Australia and is the first piece of work for Ancestry since winning the project in December 2020.

Shot by Scoundrel award-winning director James Dive, ‘There Could Be More To Your Story’ visually demonstrates the rich tapestry of information available on the website that leans into the intrigue and meaningful discoveries associated with family history.

https://vimeo.com/544882373/c591117dff

Erin Bennett, the country manager of Ancestry Australia, said that Saatchi & Saatchi understands the magic that can come from uncovering the stories in the family history, and that their creative concepts bring this emotion to life in a fresh, visually compelling way that strongly captures the brand’s identity.

Saatchi & Saatchi Chief Creative Officer Mike Spirkovski, commented, “It’s fascinating how little many of us know of our past, especially the finer details which create the bigger picture. We wanted to showcase just how much goes into an individual’s story and the discoveries one could make when using Ancestry.”

Meanwhile, Anna Cherry, the national head of strategy at Spark Foundry, the media agency of Ancestry, said, “It’s wonderful to work with a partner like Saatchi & Saatchi who can help reflect this focus on reaching the curious audience end-to-end; from our media approach to the creative that will be in the market.”

The campaign will run in Australia and New Zealand, and will be handled by Spark Foundry.

New Zealand – Tourism New Zealand, the organization tasked to promote the country’s tourism around the world, has recently launched a new campaign targeted at its regional neighbor – Australia – to encourage the country’s locals who happen to be the country’s largest former international visitor market, to come explore and renew their wanderlust towards New Zealand. 

Done in partnership with creative agency Special Group Australia, the campaign titled ‘Stop Dreaming about New Zealand and Go’ takes a quirky turn with a depiction of an Australian dreaming about New Zealand from his sleep, and is then is then taken through a range of the country’s popular attractions including National Parks and even stargazing with a surreal giant Kiwi.

According to research by Tourism New Zealand, about 77% of Australians are actively considering traveling to the country on holiday, followed by 27% who want to visit their family, with 15% to visit friends.

Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive René de Monchy shared that despite record numbers of Kiwis ‘doing something new’ and traveling domestically, there is an estimated $12.9B annual gap from the loss of international visitors, and the return of Australian visitors is projected to help reduce this gap with both domestic tourists and international visits making up 70% the pre-COVID visitor market.

“The campaign is designed to tap into people’s renewed desire to explore and showcases New Zealand’s natural environment, experiences, and the warm welcome of our people. We are seeing longer itineraries being booked by Australians which helps support travel to more remote locations within New Zealand,” said Monchy.

According to Ann Lockhart, the interim chief executive of Destination Queenstown, Australia is likewise a hugely important visitor market for Queenstown, particularly over winter when Australian visitors previously made up around 50% of all of our international visits.

“The ability to welcome them here is a huge boost for Queenstown and we are delighted the trans-Tasman bubble is open and our tourism operators are open and ready to welcome our Australian friends back,” said Lockhart.

In line with the campaign, Tourism New Zealand has also released a toolkit for interested partners who want to adopt and integrate with the campaign. The kit provides an overview of the campaign, the creative assets, and details on how partners can get involved through their own channels. The kit is available for download through its website.

Australia – Australia’s fintech company Wisr has launched a complete brand redesign, done in collaboration with creative agencies Bear Meets Eagle on Fire (BMEOF) and Resn.

Wisr, formerly known as DirectMoney, deems to be the country’s first neo-lender and fintech pioneer in the consumer finance market. It builds products, apps, and services that brings financial wellness to Australians.

The new brand identity retains and builds on some previous aspects of the Wisr brand, which includes the logo and purpose, but almost everything else ‘Wisr’ has been rethought and reinvented around the new creative positioning ‘For your smart part’.

To mark its new brand redesign, Wisr has rolled out its first-ever major campaign with BMEOF, showcasing ‘For your smart part’. The comprehensive project runs across all brand design, product, and communication, and is built to deliver a clear message around its purpose – ‘financial wellbeing’.

The campaign includes an ambitiously crafted desktop and mobile experience, co-created by BMEOF and Resn. It also includes work from famed illustrator Peter Grundy, Swedish-based 3D animation artist Oscar Pet Petersson, and Revolver director Steve Rogers.

According to Wisr’s Chief Marketing Officer James Goodwin, the company’s focus is supporting customers’ smart decision-making and rewarding that good behavior, which in turn helps them achieve its purpose of helping improve Australians’ financial well-being.

“We’re massively proud of how we’ve built Wisr, but we also knew it was time to realign everything we were doing around a bigger idea, to take that next step. Bear and SPEED, our media partners, have challenged and supported us every step of the way along that journey,” said Goodwin.

Meanwhile, Toby Hussey, the managing director of BMEOF, commented, “It’s not often you find a project and partnership like this. What started out as strategic discussions and a campaign, eventually led to a complete re-evaluation of everything ‘brand’ for Wisr. It’s been a dream project for us.”

“Working with Bear and Wisr to help the brand come to life on the site, was a fun creative challenge. It was a great opportunity to bring a high level of design and polish to the fintech category,” said Dan Mercer, the creative director of Resn.

Australia – Havas Media Group in Australia , the media division of global marketing and communications group Havas, has promoted Francis Coady, former general manager of Havas Sports and Entertainment, to the newly created role of chief marketing officer.

Coady is an entertainment veteran with 20 years of experience working across various industries such as music, film, partnership, and content, as well as media, and marcoms. He has previously established the Havas Sports and Entertainment division, building it into a multimillion dollar-billing operation. Coady has won large-scale clients and produced award-winning campaign work for brands such as Gillette, LG, and Virgin, as well as Red Bull, and Destination NSW, among others.

Prior to joining Havas five years ago, Coady has previously worked as a director at management consultancy firm The Coady Group, where he managed artists including Thirsty Merc and Hi-5. He has also created and spent 13 years producing the Bondi Short Film Festival.

In his new role, Coady will be responsible for all internal and external marketing and communications, and existing client and new business relations. He will also be overseeing creative content media campaigns.

Commenting on his appointment, Coady said, “Our job as marketing professionals is to entertain, engage, and educate. The last five years working at Havas Media have given me the opportunity to bring this philosophy to life, with the support of incredible leadership, a smart, empathetic team, which has fostered a culture that is always focused on doing work with meaning.” 

Meanwhile, Havas Media Group CEO Virginia Hyland shared that Coady has made an outstanding contribution to their business after building the specialist sports and entertainment division from scratch.

“The creation of the CMO position not only recognizes Francis’ exceptional track record over the past five years, but it will also enable us to leverage his broad cross-industry expertise to grow the agency and the strength of our amazing client partnerships,” said Hyland.

A formal announcement on Coady’s internal replacement will be communicated shortly.

Sydney, Australia – Australian AI-powered marketing platform Metigy has partnered with freelance services marketplace Fiverr, to service the growing need of microbusinesses for digital solutions.

According to data from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), there had been a 14% increase in new business registrations during the pandemic. With this, comes an increased demand for digital, and both Metigy and Fiverr aim to provide digital marketing expertise by co-creating and launching a stream of free educational resources on their owned channels, helping freelance and small business community upskill in areas of digital marketing and business growth.

The new initiative also gives Metigy’s customers the ability to tap into a broad range of digital services such as photoshop editing, social media design, and copywriting, as well as programming, while generating new business opportunities for the skilled freelancers on Fiverr. In addition, Fiverr’s sellers will be exposed to a larger pool of SMEs actively seeking digital solutions.

Metigy’s CEO and co-founder David Fairfull said that they are excited to partner with Fiverr as both of them are on a mission to support small businesses.

“Amid the pandemic, we saw many small businesses close but this led to the rise of microbusiness owners and freelancers, many of whom made that scary leap to kickstart their own business. Now is the time to be investing in our global small business community, ensuring they have the right tools and technology in place to support growth and reach their full potential,” added Fairfull.

Meanwhile, Liron Smadja, the senior director of global brand marketing and international expansion at Fiverr, commented that the partnership with Metigy is a first of its kind for them, helping to boost exposure and business opportunities for their global freelance community predominantly in Australia but also in Singapore and the US.

“The partnership comes at the perfect time as we continue to build our presence in Australia, expand opportunities for our network of Fiverr sellers and continue championing the small business community. We can’t wait to see what this partnership brings and are looking forward to working closely with the Metigy team,” said Smadja.

The partnership is Fiverr’s first major marketing investment in Australia, while the announcement of the tie-up also comes after Metigy’s recent Series B funding round led by investment banking firm Cygnet Capital earlier this year.

Australia – Galderma in Australia, the pharmaceutical company which specializes in dermatological products, has appointed creative agency Emotive as its strategic and creative partner. 

Galderma carries the portfolio of some of the most well-known cosmetic products such as Cetaphil, Benzac, and Loceryl, and the appointment will see Emotive handling all of the brand’s creative business. 

For its first campaign, it has launched an ad for Cetaphil. The campaign aims to amplify the brand’s status as a top-of-mind product among consumers. While Cetaphil has been a familiar fixture in Aussie bathrooms for decades, its current branding as a ‘medicinal’ product strips it off of the ‘excitement’ factor that is most appealing to younger consumers, hence, the campaign’s focus on the reinforcement of its efficacy and safety in treating skin problems on this consumer group.

With the campaign titled ‘Hype-Free Skincare’, Emotive takes a sarcastic spin on the trend of influencers that are strongest among beauty products. The ad presents a fictitious ‘tell-all’ with an unidentified influencer acting as a ‘Skincare whistleblower’, who reveals to a reporter that while she keeps luring followers to try different skincare products, the ‘truth’ is “all you need is Cetaphil.” 

The tongue in cheek ad is capped off with a comic “So why come forward now?” question from the reporter to which the whistleblower answers, “People deserve to know the truth. Cetaphil face has everything you need.” 

“But while some might think having moisturisers that moisturise, cleansers that cleanse and products that are safe and work for everyone makes Cetaphil boring, when it comes to skincare, boring is good,” said Emotive.

According to Leah Elder, the digital and e-commerce lead of Galderma, the world of social media has influenced what people share and when it comes to skincare if its ‘not ideal for a #shelfie’ or hyped up, netizens are less inclined to share it. 

“Our Hype-Free campaign is a hilarious dramatization of a fictitious influencer having to hide behind a pixel, voice warp, and a protection program to conceal that it’s the trusted, humble brands like Cetaphil that may not make the YouTube glam table but you always have in your actual cabinet or get recommended by your dermatologist. We hope to make people laugh, we hope our closet fans relate and we hope newbies get to know us a little more,” said Elder.

Meanwhile, James Pash, the creative director of Emotive, commented, “Cetaphil was created by a pharmacist decades before social media, and it shows. Luckily for us, the team at Cetaphil was brave enough to let us embrace this truth. ‘Hype-Free Skincare’ highlights just how unpretentiously effective Cetaphil is by parodying the world of ‘skinfluencer’ endorsements and ‘skintertainment’.”

The campaign is now live, and also includes an ‘Influencer Protection Program’ hotline for real skincare influencers who are in need of support.

Australia – Creative and CRM agency Wunderman Thompson in Australia has announced the elevation of Melbourne team’s General Manager Nick Muncaster, to now assume the role of managing director for the unit.

Prior to joining Wunderman Thompson in 2019, Muncaster has held multiple leadership roles at several advertising agencies, including Ogilvy and Havas Creative in Sydney and Melbourne. He has also worked with brands within retail, telco, finance, and automotive, as well as extensive partnerships with the State and Federal Government, among others.

In his new role, Muncaster will be leading the brand’s vision for the Melbourne office, continuing to build a high-performing culture for talent and drive strategic growth for clients.

Commenting on his appointment, Muncaster said that he is excited by the opportunity and humbled by the support from the agency’s talented team and ambitious clients. 

“I’m looking forward to my next chapter within this dynamic industry and business. I am proud of our continued momentum at Wunderman Thompson and look forward to continuing to inspire growth across our client’s business in 2021,” said Muncaster.

Meanwhile, CEO of Wunderman Thompson ANZ, Lee Leggett, commented that they have met many talented and ambitious people in their ‘extensive search’ for a new managing director, and that the final decision to appoint internally is a testament to Nick’s strong leadership of its Melbourne team and clients for the past six years.

“For anyone who has worked alongside Nick, you will know for yourself how talented he is. Our Melbourne office is in great hands,” said Leggett.

Sydney, Australia – Media and marketing agency Mediabrands in Australia has recently announced the appointment of Maria Grivas as the new CEO of Reprise, Mediabrands’ digitally-led full-service performance agency in the country.

Prior to her new role, Grivas has previously worked as the chief data and technology officer at media agency UM Australia, a role she has had for the past three and a half years, and has been a member of UM’s senior leadership team. She has also been a mentor across the Mediabrands group on digital development.

Grivas’ appointment came after the resignation of CEO Matt Sallis, who cited family reasons related to travel restrictions from his base in Canada. In taking the leadership role at Reprise, Grivas will be playing a key role in shaping the group and will also be joining the Mediabrands Australia Executive Leadership Team.

Commenting on her appointment, Grivas said, “Having already worked closely with Reprise for some time, I am very excited about the CEO role. The business has a large team of very talented people doing great work and my ambition is to help elevate their successes as the industry evolves at pace.”

Meanwhile, Mark Coad, the CEO of Mediabrands Australia, commented that Reprise Australia plays a vital role in supporting the teams and clients with world-class communications solutions, and Grivas is the ideal future leader for the business.

“I’m thrilled that Mediabrands has the talent of Maria’s caliber to promote into such an important leadership position, as well as her high-quality team members. We will find Maria’s successor for her role in UM Australia in due course,” said Coad.

Reprise Australia has more than 150 people and offices in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, as well as Perth. The business works with many of Mediabrands’ clients across the group and also has independent clients.

Auckland, New Zealand – Creative agency TBWA\ New Zealand and financial institution Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) has launched a new campaign to promote its latest brand platform ‘We Do How’, a platform that aims to help improve the financial wellbeing of all New Zealanders by providing them with the resources, support, and products they need.

The 2-minute campaign, titled samely as ‘We Do How’, narrates the story of Ravi and Claire along with their two children Sameer and Tara Sharma. The first story shows the many ways Ravi and Claire set out to improve the financial wellbeing of their family, but that the heart of the story is about father and son as Sameer spends years working towards his dream of becoming a Black Cap, a New Zealand cricket team.

True to its message of ‘We Do How’, Sameer’s dedication in cricket and the persuasion he got from his father led him to an easy path of success, much like how ANZ provides an easy resource for New Zealanders to become more financially-savvy, as best reflected in their eagerness to remind that wealth is more about knowing they can pay for things to help their family thrive, according to an ANZ survey.

Speaking about the campaign, Shane Bradnick, chief creative officer at TBWA\ New Zealand, stated that they aimed that the story be a ‘universal one’ that we can all relate to about why people work hard in New Zealand and how people want their families to enjoy a better, happier life.

“It’s also a modern New Zealand story that reflects our diversity and how our love of family and a desire to help our kids succeed is a ‘why’ we can all understand. The Sharmas show us a range of ways to help us all start to improve our financial wellbeing and through them, we can see that if you have a ‘why’ then ANZ has the ‘how’,” Bradnick stated.

Meanwhile, Matt Pickering, general manager of marketing at ANZ, commented, “Kiwis want to improve their financial wellbeing, but often just don’t know where to start and so it’s the ‘how’ part that’s important. ANZ is committed to giving Kiwis the practical tools and know-how they need to do this, which is why we’ve set up our Financial Wellbeing Programme.”

ANZ has set up a six-step Financial Wellbeing Programme that is available to everyone, not just ANZ customers at anz.co.nz/financialwellbeing. The program starts with calculating a person’s financial well-being score and more than 22,000 Kiwis have already found out theirs.

The ‘We Do How’ campaign is currently rolled out on TV, digital, social, PR, OOH and in-branch. The company is also set to roll out a similar project internally for their staff called, ‘The Deck of How’, which is a deck of playing cards packed with financial well being ‘hows’, and also a digital book for its employees ‘The Book of How’ is also being produced.