Tag: New Zealand

Australia – Coca-Cola has launched its FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 campaign initiative titled ‘Believing is Magic’ which seeks to promote and improve the collective journey of the FIFA World Cup, generating enthusiasm among fans of football worldwide.

The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 will be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, marking the two countries’ first-ever collaboration. From July 20 to August 20, the event will take place in nine locations, with ten stadiums.

As part of the campaign, Coca-Cola is providing a variety of consumer experiences, including a stadium tour across many places in Australia, where fans may journey through a tunnel filled with games and booths. A special fan-zone area will also allow football fans to capture moments and participate in game booths for a chance to win Coca-Cola tote bags and drink coupons.

Moreover, Coca-Cola’s television commercial will air in New Zealand on July 19 and in Australia on July 20, and it is now available on YouTube. The advertisement, which shows a global community of fans coming together to watch the games, underlines Coca-Cola’s capacity to bring players and supporters closer together. In addition, Coca-Cola will release short films featuring Team Coke athletes such as Ellie Carpenter from Australia, Katie Bowen from New Zealand, Alyssa Naehar from the United States, Wu Hai Yan from China, and Huynh Nhu from Vietnam. 

Kate Miller, marketing director of Coca-Cola Australia, said, “Coca-Cola is committed to bringing people together, and this is at the essence of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. This is more than just a football tournament – it is a celebration of positive change in society and a testament to the spirit of believing in magic.” 

She added, “When we unite and believe in the impossible, anything can be achieved. We want everyone to embrace the power of optimism, see what happens when you believe in magic, and be part of what will be an incredible FIFA Women’s World Cup.”

Auckland, New Zealand – ANZ has teamed up with TBWA\NZ and Eleven NZ to launch an awareness campaign which uses screensavers to remind vulnerable people on the rise of financial scams recently.

The initiative combines the one thing all grandparents want – pictures of their grandchildren – with advice they need – tips to avoid getting scammed. Said initiative was launched after research revealed that over half of over 65-year-olds have experienced an actual, or attempted scam in the last 12 months.

Launching just in time for Mother’s Day, the programme calls on New Zealanders to take photos of their children holding up a sign with banking safely tips, before adding the photo to their grandparent’s devices as its wallpaper. The goal is to have families share banking safely advice while uploading a wallpaper that serves as a reminder about steps grandparents can take to avoid being scammed in a way that’s memorable and loved.

Ben Kelleher, managing director for personal banking at ANZ says, “Older adults are being disproportionately impacted by a range of online scams – they’re afraid of being scammed but aren’t always aware of what to do to stay safe. Only 29% of them are speaking to their families about their scamming incident, so we are hoping this initiative will help them to speak more freely about this subject and feel more at ease.”

Meanwhile, Shane Bradnick, chief creative officer at TBWA\NZ, commented, “Sometimes security advice can be dry, forgettable and in formats that may never reach the people that most need it. We all know someone who has been affected by a scam recently because they are so rife. So we wanted to find a way to have families teach their loved ones and ensure the most important banking safely information gets to those most vulnerable to these scammers.” 

Australia – Following its successful Australian launch in late 2021, and off the back of a period of rapid growth, ad-spec business ‘The Spec Sheet’ has expanded into New Zealand.

Leading the New Zealand office is The Spec Sheet’s Head of Media and Sales, Nick Howie. Howie has extensive knowledge of the New Zealand media and marketing landscape with more than 17 years of industry experience. Prior to joining The Spec Sheet, Howie was TVNZ’s Head of Trading for more than five years. 

The Spec Sheet launches in New Zealand with the support of a vast network of local and global media partners, including TVNZ, NZME, Go Media, JCDecaux, Lumo, Stuff, and Mediaworks to name a few.

Founded by former Special Group talent Sharon Gray and Jesse McLallen, The Spec Sheet was built to help media owners, media agencies and creative agencies solve a problem that has plagued the industry for decades. Gray, a former digital producer, and McLallen, a former digital creative, created the platform to eliminate errors, cut out the unnecessary wasted time and increase collaboration during the ad spec and material instruction process.

In less than two years, The Spec Sheet has expanded to a client base of over 256 media owners – including Foxtel, Nine, Ten, Nova, SBS, ARN, and QMS – and now has over 44,000 ad specs, making it the largest verified ad spec database globally.

Sharon Gray, the co-founder, said, “We started The Spec Sheet out of sheer frustration. We knew there had to be a more effective, less laborious, and more accurate way of creating, sharing, maintaining and documenting ad specs. And so, The Spec Sheet was born. With the mission of making life easier for media planners, we’ve since onboarded almost every major media owner in Australia, taken our tech to the next level, and hired more than 20 incredibly talented people.”

“It’s been a massive journey, but we’ve got real talent in our team, and now a robust and polished product. As we’ve started to work with more and more media owners and agencies who do trans-Tasman planning, we knew that launching in New Zealand was the obvious next step in our journey.”

The Spec Sheet is already working with several clients in Australia who plan across markets, with interest from agencies on the ground in New Zealand rapidly increasing. 

Jesse McLallen, also co-founder, said, “Since we launched at the end of December 2021, the product has totally reinvented itself. The Spec Sheet is now a fully collaborative, living document that is powered by a library of media owner verified ad specs. It can be shared between all partners. Simply put, we connect media owners, media agencies, creatives and clients, providing an end-to-end solution, saving our customers up to 70% of time when they create and share spec sheets.”

“Aligning with global media industry players, The Spec Sheet is rapidly scaling and expanding our product suite. We are now proud to include Material Instructions as part of our offering, and we can’t wait to get started in New Zealand. This is just the beginning.”

Auckland, New Zealand – Public relations agency Mango Aotearoa has announced four new hires across its PR team namely Jo Martin as public relations account director, and account managers Braxton Dinnan, Ellen Pye and Clea Kanning.

Martin joined at the start of the year after a number of years running Brand New You, a personal branding organisation first established in Australia before setting up in New Zealand in 2020. Dinnan was also with Martin at Brand New You, and brings experience across PR, marketing and e-commerce.

Meanwhile, Pye was previously from Showroom 22 and brings her knowledge of fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands to Mango clients including Specsavers and Lion Beverages, as well as campaigns such as Correct the Internet for Team Heroine.

Lastly, Kanning, who hails from the UK, brings strong PR and social expertise, and is working with the team on Samsung, Booking.com and The Warehouse Group.

Managing Director Sean Brown says Mango Aotearoa is excited to expand the team and welcome such a variety of skilled people to the agency.

“As our business continues to grow, we are pleased to bolster our offering so that we can continue to provide top end integrated marcomms work for our fantastic clients. It’s particularly pleasing that Mango continues to attract the best talent, and we are delighted to welcome our four new recruits,” Brown said.

Some of the client accounts Mango Aotearoa has handled includes Cannabis Clinic, Volkswagen New Zealand, and Bendon Lingerie.

Sydney, Australia – After a competitive pitch, media agency Initiative has retained its media remit for distillery company Pernod Ricard to work across the entire brand portfolio including all Pernod’s wine, spirit, whiskey, champagne, RTD and ‘new to world’ brands, focusing on Australia and New Zealand market.

Since its sealed partnership in 2019, Initiative has helped the company to propel into culture, with notable highlights including challenging gender bias through The Glenlivet Break The Rules campaign, tackling regional inequality through Absolut Pride Relay, and launching major brands like Malfy Gin and Altos Tequila into market. 

Jo McAlister, managing director at Initiative, said that the agency is excited for another 3 years of partnership with the company to continue its journey in leading ANZ’s competitive alcohol beverage markets across all brand categories.

“This is phenomenal news and we are so proud to continue our partnership. For the past three years we have grown together as brands, collaborating via a truly open and transparent relationship and enjoying an agency/client bond that I’ve rarely seen in market,” McAlister added.

Eric Thomson, CMO at Pernod Ricard Winemakers, added, “The chemistry between Initiative’s team and ours was evident from the start of our relationship three years ago and it has not waned. We are delighted to continue our partnership as we both push forward to produce effective and creative work that connects and engages our customers in an increasingly complex market.”

In January, Initiative also retained its media business remit for energy networks owner Jemena Limited, extending its 10-year relationship with the brand. 

Sydney, Australia – In addition to its existing remit in Australia, digital marketing agency Tug agency has expanded its partnership with entertainment company and tourist attraction operator Merlin Entertainment to increase the share of voice and audience traffic for all Merlin Entertainments attractions in Australia and New Zealand through free, organic, editorial and natural search results. 

Merlin Entertainments, which is a home for tourist attractions, appointed the agency in July last year to manage the search engine optimisation for SEA LIFE Sydney. In the expanded role, the agency will now work on all four SEA LIFE locations in Australia and New Zealand and other attractions including WILDLIFE Sydney Zoo, LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Melbourne, Illawarra Fly Treetop Adventure and Otway Fly Treetop Adventure, Madame Tussauds and Sydney Tower Eye.

Matt Newman, head of e-commerce at Merlin Entertainments for APAC said that Tug agency has been consistently delivering strong performance so they are delighted to expand the agency’s remit for their operations in Australia and New Zealand.

“Merlin Entertainments offers something for everyone and we look forward to engaging more visitors at our attractions and creating more magical experiences for our guests with the help of Tug’s digital marketing expertise,” Newman added.

Charlie Bacon, managing director at Tug Sydney, commented, “Following a successful trial, we welcome the opportunity to extend our specialist search capabilities for all of Merlin Entertainments venues. They operate some of the most unique and memorable visitor attractions and the team is ready to ensure that the business continues to enjoy customer growth.”

Tug agency specialises in performance media, using data, media, content and technology with offices in Sydney, Singapore, London, Toronto and Berlin.

Australia – Home appliance brand Bosch has appointed Mediahub as its new media agency of record for Australia and New Zealand, with strategic planning across both markets commencing immediately with the first campaigns expected in the market by mid-year.

Through the mandate, Mediahub will be responsible for all media strategy and buying across all platforms for Bosch’s entire appliance portfolio, including kitchen, dishwasher, and laundry appliances.

Mediahub’s Executive Director for APAC, Andrew Livingston, said Bosch was ‘drawn to the agency’s highly strategic approach to brand growth, combined with its global-scale tools and technology.

“In our solutions we always look to push further, perform better, delivering media experiences that influence behaviours and create an emotional connection with customers. Bosch aims to continue its journey of digital transformation and was seeking an agency to help leverage all digital platforms in more innovative and intelligent ways, which is exactly the proposition we offer here at Mediahub,” he said.

Livingston added, “Bosch and the BSH family of brands is a highly respected global company and we are excited to be partnering with them on the next phase of their marketing journey.”

Meanwhile, Roberto Finamore, head of marketing at parent company BSH Hausgeräte GmbH, commented, “We were wholly impressed with the team’s strategic thinking, collaboration, and approach to our brief plus the agency’s extensive experience in running multi-market campaigns in APAC and specialised expertise in New Zealand. We are looking forward to working together and watching how their expertise translates through their media systems and processes to take our business forward.”

New Zealand – Due to its commitment to maintaining its growth, research and testing platform Stickybeak has appointed Anna Fitzgerald as its first head of global growth. In her new role, Fitzgerald will help in accelerating the platform’s global growth and give more support to its growing customer base.

Prior to joining Stickybeak, Fitzgerald was previously based in London, where she served as operations director for Edify systems in 2021, a hospitality software company. 

Fitzgerald will be directly reporting to Anna Henwood, chief executive officer of Stickybeak.

Henwood said that with Fitzgerald’s passion and knowledge of growing tech start-ups, the Stickybeak platform is set to maintain its continuous growth.

Meanwhile, Fitzgerald said that she’s thrilled to see the quality of technology companies that are based in New Zealand. 

She added, “Joining Stickybeak was an easy and exciting decision owing to its global impact, how it connects businesses and NGOs with real people in real-time, and its incredible team.”

Founded in 2019, Stickybeak helps individuals, academics, authors, unions, local government organisations, small businesses, and startups to commission public quantitative surveys. Their notable clients up to date include Dole International Foods, SC Johnson, Tetra Pak, Klook, The World Health Organisation, Edelman, and Ogilvy.

Sydney, Australia – London-based adtech data and location firm Blis has made a number of appointments and promotions to expand its operations in Asia-Pacific, specifically in the markets of Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. Amongst the notable leadership unveiled is the announcement of Donald Saw as its new country manager for New Zealand.

Saw’s role is expected to charge efforts forward in meeting the increasing demand from advertisers in New Zealand. He will leading the company’s sales and operations across the country. 

For leadership targeted at the whole of APAC region, meanwhile, Blis has named Lupe Prada as head of marketing and Clarie O’Mahony as head of client services. Prada will lead marketing initiatives in APAC while O’Mahony is tapped to be in charge of the client services team in the region.

In addition, Scott Mathison is the newly appointed sales manager for Queensland and Western Australia. 

Commenting on new appointments, Emma-Jayne Owens, managing director at Blis APAC, said that she’s delighted for their new hires as they continue to grow across the APAC region over the past few years.

She added, “They join Blis to drive our ambition for an even stronger team within each of our markets, where their combined local knowledge, expertise in client service and growth marketing allows us to provide solutions to help our clients’ businesses grow.”

New Zealand – Insurance company AIA New Zealand has appointed Bastion Shine as its agency for integrated marketing and communications. 

AIA NZ Chief Customer Officer Angela Busby said they have been impressed by the strategic thinking and market understanding that the Bastion Shine team brings to the table. 

“It is clear that they are as committed as we are in achieving AIA’s purpose of helping New Zealanders live Healthier, Longer, Better Lives,” she said.

As part of the remit, Bastion Shine will be helping AIA maintain a market-leading brand to match the latter’s industry position as New Zealand’s leading life insurer. “We look forward to working with them on new brand and marketing campaigns for 2023 and beyond,” Busby added.

On partnering with AIA NZ, Bastion Shine’s Managing Director Toby Sellers commented, “AIA is a purpose-led business and having the opportunity to partner with an organisation that positively impacts the health and wellbeing of New Zealand was a huge motivator for us.”

To bolster its marketing efforts, the AIA Group has been releasing campaigns in different markets, including the Merdeka campaign for AIA Malaysia, AIA HK’s ad series, and AIA Malaysia’s Chinese New Year film.