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Note:
links in archived stories may have expired due to the removal of the stories
from, or changes to, the websites from which they were derived.
Another Webby for Edge
Exponents Tourism NZ's consumer website newzealand.com,
designed by Shift, has won the Webby
award for best tourism website in the world for a second time. Known as the
Oscars of the internet, the Webbys are managed by the International Academy of
Digital Arts and Sciences. Previous winners in the tourism section include the
New York Times, Expedia and Lonely Planet. "Newzealand.com has won several
NZ-based website awards in the past but a second Webby recognises the
international calibre of their online work," says Tourism Minister Damien
O'Connor. "The tourism world is highly competitive, and this new award
shows how sophisticated and cutting-edge NZ's marketing is."
(13 June 2006)
Lovin’ Lovemarks
NZedge co-founder and CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide, Kevin Roberts,
launches Lovemarks: The
Future Beyond Brands, in the USA, UK and Australia.
“Roberts new
book is not just another one of a multitude of works about brands and
advertising that connects consumers to these brands. One look at Lovemarks, and
you will instantly see why. It excites … of sensuality, mystery and … that
is not often found in the black and white that typically rests between two hard
backs.” Mary Quant, Roberts first boss, was guest of honour at the New York
launch party, covered by New
York Social Diary.
(May 2004)
A sporting life
NZ-born
BBC sports producer and
director, Malcolm Kemp, has died aged 57 of cancer. Kemp's illustrious career
saw him executive produce seven Grand Nationals, the 1994 football World Cup and
1996 European Cup, and direct the BBC's coverage of the 2002
Commonwealth Games in Manchester - the latter winning both Bafta and RTS awards.
"Malcolm
was an extraordinarily gifted director," said BBC Director of Sport, Peter Salmon.
"From enormous sporting occasions such as the Commonwealth Games to World Darts
from Frimley, Malcolm brought originality, flair and confidence to any project
he touched."
Registration site
(6 April 2004)
Roberts New Yorker for NY
The Citizens
for NYC awarded their 2004 New Yorker for New York award to Kevin Roberts at
a dinner at the Waldorf Astoria, also honouring Walter Cronkite, Nane Annan and
Kati Marton. “The Saatchi & Saatchi family exemplifies this spirit of
public service that is at the Citizens for NYC’s core.” In accepting,
Roberts says he is fortunate to live on the island at the centre of the world,
and also the ones on the edge.
(5 April 2004)
Intellectual melting pot
Denis Dutton-led website Art &
Letters Daily hailed as "a one-stop shopping catalogue of intellectual
ideas" in Washington Times. The popular site is unique in its
ideological range and lack of personal bias. Dutton: "Arts & Letters
Daily doesn't so much break stories as assemble provocative thinking […]
It is intended only to incite thought."
(25 January 2003)
Shooting from the lip
Legendary NZ-born war correspondent, Peter Arnett, has again found himself in the midst of
political controversy. NBC and National Geographic fired Arnett after he stated on
Iraqi state television that the initial US war plan had failed. Arnett was
immediately picked up by Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper. Editor Piers
Morgan: "Peter is one of the most respected journalists in the world, and
we are delighted he is joining us to expose the truth about a war increasingly
dominated by propaganda."
(2 April 2003)
Scene-stealing scenery
"New Zealanders watching the latest batch of car advertisements on
Australian television could be excused for thinking they were back at
home." Rugged and diverse, NZ terrain is the showcase of choice for the
latest Holden Commodore, Ford Falcon and Toyota Camry Sportivo models. All three
companies cited the beauty of the country, the quality of the roads, and the
professionalism of the local film industry as reasons for choosing a New Zealand
setting. Says a Toyota spokesman: "[we opted for] a new, aspirational landscape."
(4 November 2002)
"That's the way it is:" broadcast legend bows out
Brian "Hendo" Henderson, Channel 9 Australia's "stalwart newsreader" for the
last 46 years, has announced his retirement. Born and bred in Southland, NZ, Henderson started out on Dunedin radio.
Moving to
Sydney in the 1950s, he began reading the nightly news in 1964. Hendo's prolific
career and his
trade-mark signing off: "that's the way it is", have secured him an
iconic place in Australian TV history. Kerry Packer: "Like all his other loyal viewers, I'll be
sorry to see him go. He's been there night after night, a constant presence in a
changing world."
(21 October 2002)
Creative edge export
A sharp demonstration of the New Zealand Edge: Financial Time's article
'Time is on their side' trumpets the on-island advantage and new world export
success of Christchurch creative agency TimeZoneOne.
Boosted by the value of the dollar to the pound, they are able to deliver,
"high-quality brand collateral at twice the speed and half the price."
Creative Director Richard Tattershaw: "Our team is extremely committed
- not least because they can work alongside the best in smelly old London while
still enjoying a great lifestyle in one of the most beautiful places in the
world." TimeZone's clients in the UK include Scottish regional transport
body Strathclyde Passenger Transport, and the US wine company Kendall Jackson.
(30 September 2002)
The most feared woman on the internet?
NZer Rebecca Wilson ("director of leaves and petals" at the
experimental Dutch Arts' Foundation Studio
for Electro-instrumental Music) postulated as as a real identity behind Net
legend Netochka Nezvanova. Nezyanova has a fearsome reputation - gifted computer
programmer and polemicist, an artist and a pain-in-the-ass, a critic of
capitalism and fascism, as well as a capitalist and a marketer and perhaps a
performance herself.
(01 March 2002)
Jonah scores
Jonah saves the fish in Epica d'Or-winning, New Zealand-filmed Adidas ad.
(January 2001)
Go native?
A beer ad showing beach babes "going native", (doing a haka), has
been withdrawn from British TV after being branded insensitive and racist.
(11 December 2000)
Kiwi president of iconoclastic
Toronto advertising agency
New Zealander David Fong was earlier this year appointed President of Toronto
advertising agency TBWA/Chiat/Day and along with Creative Director Jamie Way has
turned the agencies flagging fortunes around with the attraction of some
big-name clients.
(24 July 2000)
New Zealand weaned spin-king appointed to Buckingham Palace
We are amused - a colonial has been given the job of putting spin on the damming
corgi stories (head of public relations for HM the Q). Currently head of
communications for British Airways, South African born Simon Walker was
formerly communications director for the New Zealand Labour Party and
protagonist in a notorious TV debate with the late Prime Minister Rob Muldoon.
(8 July 2000)
Serendipity the secret to cyber-success
"Human beings, by and large don't know what they're interested
in,' says Dennis Dutton, a professor in New Zealand who started and edits
the highly accliamed Arts and Letters Daily, perhaps the most
eclectic, serendipity-driven web-site out there."
(7 June 2000)
Whatever you do don't go in the water
More bloody innovation saw Colenso pick up a Golden Lion at the Cannes
Advertising Festival. The campaign to promote the opening of the movie Scream,
unlike another Kiwi winner at Cannes, involved a little civic water
pollution.
(June 2000)
Who are you? What the Audi ad says about you
The wakeboarder
depicted is a chap called Gavin Broadbent, who is New Zealand's
wakeboarding champion. The ad was filmed in the Tasman Sea off the west
coast of NZ,
(18 February 2000)
The Rumours began about a year ago…
Comix 2000 New Zealanders Dylan Horrocks (whose extraordinarily moving comic novel Hicksville
was 1998's breakout alternative hit) and Chris Knox each contribute
wonderful strips.
(Feb 2000)
Bugger
A Cultural phenomenon has reached Asia, and it has bugger-all to do with
Bulgarians or heretics, but something to do with a car advertisement, a racehorse
and climbing Mt. Everest,
(10 March 2000)
When
Substance Puts Style in its Place
There’s more to the web than pornography, semi-literate navel-gazing
and slick shopping sites, but finding quality information can be difficult
… a site that makes it easy.
(2 March 2000)
Emotional rescue:
Kevin Roberts demonstrates the sharpness of his
edge at Conference in San Francisco "Shielded all in black, wielding his New Zealand accent as a sword, the
Saatchi and Saatchi CEO launched a tireade on Tuesday at Ad:Tech World San
Francisco aimed at "The Cluetrain Manifesto" and all things
"e". "I believe in storytelling. I believe in
seduction" he said."
(11 May 2000)
Stunts at 25mph in six inches of water help to demonstrate the Audi Quattro
A6
The ad took nine days to film at Bethell's Beach on the west coast of New
Zealand.
(2000)
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Risky business
A viral advertising
campaign by NZ's Prodigy Films has caused a stir online. Created for Irish
skincare line Elave (Ovelle Pharmaceuticals), Prodigy's "Nothing
to Hide" clip is a risqué parody of the countless cosmetic or personal
hygiene ads set in a laboratory. To emphasise the purity of its products, the
Elave take on the traditional "lab technician" ad features an all-nude
male and female cast. "New Zealanders are so laid-back that they made it
seem totally natural," said company owner Joanna Gardiner of the shoot, in
which she also appeared. Gardiner claims that sales of Elave products have
soared by 500% as a result of the risky campaign, which has been viewed, at the
time of writing, by more than 350,000 people. "Nothing to Hide" was
directed by Brendan Donovan and produced by Caz Hearn, with creative work by
Dave Govier and Levi Slavin.
(15 May 2007)
Kiwi joker cracks UK
Hawera-born comic Ben Hurley,
27, has secured a seven-part sitcom with the BBC's Radio 4. The series will
co-star Hurley's mentor and veteran comedian Andy Parsons, whose writing credits
include Spitting Image and Alas Smith and Jones. Hurley moved to England from
Wellington last year in a bid to crack the country's famously competitive comedy
circuit. He describes his routine as having evolved from pure observational
comedy to include more political and satirical content. "I think it's just
growing up a little bit - a bit more life experience," he said in
Wellington's Dominion Post. Hurley played a key role in establishing
Wellington's comedy scene, running a successful weekly stand-up night at Indigo
bar for four years. He has won nearly every NZ comedy award on offer and scored
a British agent after appearing at last year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
(June 2007)
Funny man finds his feet
In just over a decade, Hawera-born comedian Alan Brough has established himself
as one of Australia's most popular talents. Since moving to Melbourne in 1995,
Brough has appeared in films The Nugget and Bad Eggs, co-hosted the Tough Love
radio show on Triple M, and written, directed and acted in numerous theatre and
stand-up performances. He is currently a team captain on the hugely successful
ABC music trivia show Spicks and Specks. "You'll never get any dirt on
Alan," said an ABC audience usher in the Sydney Morning Herald,
"Everybody loves him." Brough describes his move across the Tasman as
self-imposed exile. "One of the reasons I moved to Australia was because of
[his NZ television debut] Melody Rules. It truly was one of the reasons. It was
such a horrendous experience and I was so embarrassed by it I had to go
overseas." Brough will appear in the one-man show Top Town in next month's
Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
(26 February 2007)
Loving the lovemarks
An Australian is looking to NZ for inspiration in re-branding
itself at home and abroad; hoping to shed its "where the bloody hell are
you" ocker image by emphasising its sporting culture, vibrant food and wine
industry, and Aboriginal heritage. Columnist Elspeth Probyn writes in The
Australian, "I've been playing with the idea of what Saatchi &
Saatchi's chief executive, Kevin Roberts, calls lovemarking. He developed the
idea when he was in NZ as a strategy to turn that distant little place into the
centre of the world. Roberts wants
expat Kiwis to be a central element in his worldwide lovemarking of NZ."
Roberts, co-founder of NZ Edge, launched the Lovemarks
concept five years ago
and has since published two books on the subject.
(13 September 2006)
Kiwi bunny and the Princess has E! Hit
Former Playboy Bunny, New Zealander Sandra Costa continues to turn vision into reality. Today, an international business woman and entrepreneur, Costa’s clients are amongst the “Rich and Famous”. President of Sandra Costa Development, interior design and build company and COO of MME Worldwide, a music entertainment and management company based in Hollywood, Costa takes charge of celebrities homes and careers including actress and songwriter Princess Ann Claire who stars in the Hit reality show “ Love is in the Heir “ that recently finished its first season screening on E! The show is based on reality, improv and humor. Princess Ann Claire, Iranian royal heiress, rejects the royal lifestyle in search of her own identity, which means living in Los Angeles and Nashville, looking for an acceptable husband and pursuing a career as a country singer. The “Princess”, managed and mentored by Costa, is proud to be half Kiwi (her great-grandmother was the first woman to wear slacks and drive a Ford in New Zealand).
(2005)
Working 9 'til... 9
UK-based digital media company - Mere
Mortals – wants to establish a NZ office in two years time, enabling a 24-hour
working day for its trans-hemisphere employees. Managing director, David
Jeffries, cites NZ’s LotR-enhanced reputation for cutting edge technology,
strong support of new businesses, and relatively cheap employment costs as
reasons behind the move, which he describes as “a life dream.”
(31 March 2004)
Brian bows out
BBC stalwart, Brian Perkins, has resigned from his post at Radio 4, ending a
news-reading career spanning 4 decades. The Guardian describes the
resignation of NZ-born broadcaster as
a loss: "Perkins' voice has come to symbolise Radio 4's calm
authority”. As well as returning to NZ to play double bass for the New Zealand
Symphony Orchestra, Perkins enjoyed a cult
status on British television’s Dead Ringers impressionist show where
his smooth tones were generously lampooned. Says
Ringers writer, Laurence Howarth; “We have done him right from the start.
He's the heart of the show, one of the cornerstones, so this news is almost
unthinkable."
(4 September 2003)
Auckland loves Lucy
American broadcaster CBS is the latest offshore company to take advantage
of New Zealand as a production location. Currently shooting in Auckland is Redhead:
The Lucille Ball Story, a 3-hour television movie.
(18 March 2003)
Last action hero
"In the age of digitized battle, is there still such thing as a war
correspondent?" According to New York Metro, NZ-born Peter Arnett is
the last, and greatest, of a dying breed: "He is the real thing, an actual
slogging-in-the-mud combat reporter […] who, by a media fluke became a famous
person." At 67, Arnett is returning to Iraq as a freelance war reporter -
taking on his former employers at CNN at their own game.
(11 November 2002)
Arts & Letters Daily: The Resurrection
"If the internet could express emotions, a collective groan of despair
would have filtered through a quarter of a million modems [...] with the sudden
closure of a site called Arts & Letters Daily." The
"directory of ideas" - created by Canterbury University's Denis Dutton
- was temporarily cancelled due to the bankruptcy of its chief sponsor, American
magazine Lingua Franca. Fortunately for SMH fans, not to mention
the other 250,000, the site was rescued by the Chronicle of Higher
Education. Dutton was amused and flattered by
the distressed e-mails that he received: "Somebody said
that he felt like he'd been used to drinking coffee out of his favourite cup and
suddenly his wife had broken it."
(October 2002)
A toast to Elvis
Not content with gracing the billboards of Wellington, NZ toast artist Maurice
Bennet is going global. Bennet's Elvis tribute was noted in Ananova's
quest for the world's weirdest news: "on his website he says he produces
the effect by toasting bread to different tones to create skin highlights and
shadows." Will there be peanut butter at the opening?
(13 August 2002)
Substance wins
And this web award
actually means something: the Webby's are the internet Oscars. All the
more glory to Christchurch-based Arts and Letters Daily which was awarded the
People's Voice award for best news site. University of Canterbury Professor
Dennis Dutton's site was given the prize by the International Academy of Arts
and Sciences whose members include Bjork, Beck and Branson and IT gurus from Larry Ellison to Mark Tribe - entrusted with sorting out the worthwhile bytes
from the chaff. Vicki Hyde's Scitech
Daily was a finalist in the science category.
(18 June 2002)
Kiwi sites in Webby race
Two Christchurch based websites are in the running for Webbies - the internet
version of the Oscars. They are University of Canterbury Philosophy of Art
Professor Dennis Dutton's brain-tickling Arts
and Letters Daily and SciTech
Review Daily run by New Zealand Science Monthly editor Vicki Hyde.
Nominated in the news and science categories respectively. Help NZ win a Webby
by clicking on the Kiwi Vote graphic below and voting (by June 7th).
(April 2002)
I run my MTV
As MTV worldwide celebrates its twentieth birthday Kiwi and
"old-school music fan and Mojo
reader", Brent Hansen "has been instrumental in making MTV as
powerful an entertainment force - and marketing
tool - in Europe as it is in America." Part of MTV since 1987, Pres
and CEO of MTV Europe, Hansen has seen the entertainment juggernaut edge
into 100 million homes across the contininent, launch the careers of acts as
diverse as Madonna and Eminen, and change the way we appreciate music.
(22 July 2001)
Chiat/Day edge
New Zealand "tough guy" David Fong gets Toronto ad agency into shape:
"We have to be world class."
(27 November 2000)
Godless Digest
"The Digest, however, has been less than honest. In a
December 1999 story by Raffaele about the Chatham Islands in New Zealand, a
fisherman picked up a lobster trap and exclaimed, "Gifts from Maru (sic), God of
the Sea!" Yet according to both the writer and the fisherman, that never
happened."
(October 2000)
Lovebug the secret to on-line advertising
Internet advertising that works has become the advertising industry's holy grail.
Futurist and nzedge.com co-founder Kevin Roberts says that solution remains the
same as always: good web advertising will play on emotional connections. Roberts
cites
examples that have successfully made the connection, from the lovebug virus to
the Apple i-mac.
(10 July 2000)
Phil Keoghan spot on as adventure crazy host
Remembered in New Zealand as host of Spot On, 3.45pm Live, Phil
Keoghan has made a name for himself in the US as host and executive producer of Phil
Keoghan's Adventure Crazy, a popular show on Discovery Channel that covers
everything from caving in Alberta, to uncovering everything at a nudist resort in
Florida.
(June 2000)
Wall Street gets
emotional rescue from the edge
Kevin Roberts says there is a challenge for the 'anti-social medium' of the web,
traditional advertising and product design in general. That is, to get emotional and
to create mystery and sensuality in order to re-connect with people. "These cowboys are obsessed with technology instead of
ideas. They
think that "e" stands for electronic, when "e" stands for emotion."
(18 May 2000)
Youth TV prepares for the digital challenge
Interview: Brent Hansen: MTV Europe’s president has seen the network flourish
in his 13 years there.
(18 February 2000)
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Debating the warrior gene
The Mongrel Mob feature in an episode of BAFTA award-winning BBC documentary Ross
Kemp on Gangs, in which Kemp explores the history of the gang, formed in
Hastings in the 1960s. He follows members into clubhouses around the North
Island, and examines their feud with the Black Power gang. Members spoken to by
Kemp, attribute their blood lust to a Maori fighting tradition. The programme,
which has appeared on UK television, has caused controversy, specifically in
debate about the historical "warrior" culture the Mob identify with.
The episode will not screen in New Zealand as TV1 says it was never cleared for
international distribution.
(4 May 2008)
Balibo deaths back in spotlight
The 1975 deaths of two Australian, two British and a New Zealand journalist in Balibo,
East Timor, are back in the political spotlight after a Sydney inquest found
conclusive evidence of deliberate murder and lies by Indonesia, and complicit
silence from the Australian government. A new book by NZ activist Maire
Leadbeater reveals similar complicity in Wellington, following a policy on both
sides of the Tasman to support Indonesia's invasion of the newly independent
East Timor. Last month, two Australian police officers barged into visiting
Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso's Sydney hotel room, demanding he testify at the
inquest. The incident has caused a diplomatic storm between Indonesia and
Australia, with Australia anxious to appease its neighbour. The son of slain NZ
cameraman Gary Cunningham, John Milkins, has asked the Australian government to
officially apologise to the families of the journalists, rather than try to
"smooth the waters" with Indonesia: "For the Australian
Government to apologise [to Indonesia] while the Balibo five families are still
waiting for an apology, that is unacceptable to us."
(8 June 2007)
Triumphant return to the airwaves
Te Kuiti-born comic Tony Martin has made a brilliant return to Australian
radio with the success of his Get This show on Triple M. Martin was regarded as
one of Australian radio's leading figures in the 1990s, thanks to his hugely
popular drive show on 2Day FM with Mike Molloy. In 1999 he left the show after
being diagnosed with a rare and potentially fatal genetic blood disorder called
hemochromatosis. For the next seven years he applied his talents to an array of
projects, including acting roles in Bad Eggs and Kath & Kim, a successful
run at the Melbourne Comedy Festival and writing his memoir Lolly Scramble. Tom
Gleisner of production company Working Dog describes Martin as "one of the
most brilliantly driven creative minds" he has ever come across: "He
has a frightening work ethic. Even last year when Get This was just a one-hour
show, the amount of work Tony would put into that - you could tell this was
someone who was watching everything from Lateline to Question Time to strange
cable television shows just to find that perfect sound grab."
(5 March 2007)
Free at last
Kiwi Fox News cameraman, Olaf
Wiig, has walked free after being held hostage for two weeks in Gaza. Wiig
and Fox correspondent Steve Centanni were captured by a previously unknown
militant group, the Holy Jihad Brigades, in what was longest forced imprisonment
of foreigners in the Gaza Strip in recent years. "Olaf is absolutely
convinced that if it wasn't for the work of the NZ [diplomats], they would not
have got out," said his father, the Rev Roger Wiig, in the NZ Herald.
"The NZ effort was quite staggering." Much of the credit has also gone
to Olaf Wiig's wife, journalist Anita McNaught, who helped create a
"groundswell of opinion amongst the Palestinian people" through her
frequent televised appeals.
(28 August 2006)
Clarke on Clarke
Australian news magazine, The Bulletin, featured a lengthy interview with John
Clarke in its May 23 edition. The NZ-born wry humourist, who has lived across
the Tasman for the last 30 years, is described as "surely one of the most
original and prodigiously talented creative spirits in Australia." The
creator of Fred Dagg, Olympics send-up The Games, and books The Complete Book of
Australian Verse (a parody) and The Tournament, Clarke is one of the best known
faces and voices in Australasia. His next project is writing the script for a
musical version of the children's book Snugglepot and Cuddlepie.
(23 May 2006)
Modesty Blaize
Magazine editor, Auckland native and
former Craccum muse, Louise
Chunn, interviewed in the Guardian. Since leaving NZ in the early 1980s,
Chunn has worked on such esteemed titles as Fashion Weekly, Just 17,
Elle, the Guardian, British Vogue, and ES magazine.
She has edited British InStyle since 2002. “People often ask me: ‘Why
give a job to a New Zealander?’ When you come from the outside you can get away
with more.
(7 March 2005)
One-stop provocation shop
Denis Dutton’s
Arts & Letters Daily website received a
generous write-up in the Voice of America. A&L Daily is a
collection of links to interesting (and often incendiary) articles available
online, sourced from all over the political spectrum. “I want to have
left-wingers, who are devoted to their left-wing publications, by mistake
clicking on right-wing publications and broadening their horizons,” says Dutton.
“I want to have right-wingers click on the more and find that they're at
Dissent or The Nation and reading the left-wing view. I think it's
much more interesting to be surprised.” In its six years of operation, monthly
readership of A&L Daily has jumped from 300 to 300,000.
(12 September 2004)
Scoop: the hard news
Wellington independent new-media news agency Scoop
again makes international headlines for its principled media coverage. The Guardian
applauds the "fiercely independent news agency's" boldness during the
recent Iraq war: "For several months, Scoop Media has been publishing the
kind of graphic images you rarely see in mass circulation newspapers or on
western television. And, until now, rarely on the internet." Scoop is
portrayed as a brave new-media guardian of the fifth estate, willing to look
behind the strings, censorship, reader-friendly sanitised imagery, and
propaganda prevalent in mainstream media.
(21 August 2003)
Kiwi ads bug Cannes
Kiwi ad agencies excelled at
last month's International Advertising Festival in Cannes. Grey Worldwide
Auckland won the Outdoor Grand Prix for its
innovative insect-eye-view Kiwicare bug spray campaign (click above) and Clemenger
BBDO NZ and Colenso BBDO NZ received Lion awards. Young gun Gold Lion winner
Lee Premutico's (work below)
move from Colenso Auckland to Saatchi & Saatchi London is profiled in Shots.
"We didn't think it would be long before Leo Premutico's talent was
spotted."
(24 June 2003)
"Kiwi babe-magnet" gets top billing
New Zealander Zane Lowe is to host one
of Britain's highest rating shows - the evening slot on BBC's Radio One.
Radio One controller Andy Parfitt: "Zane is one of the most exciting
presenters I've seen or heard in years ... He has masses of energy and passion
for the music, which is infectious, which makes him absolutely the person to
connect our listeners to the new bands and the artists they really care
about."
Registration
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(2003)
"Amo, ergo compro"
NZ's leading ad-man, Kevin Roberts, interviewed in Italy's L'espresso.
"He dresses completely in black and looks like a bar room bouncer just back
from Armani. But Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, is anything but a
bouncer: instead of throwing customers out, he throws them in. With loads of
ideas about practically everything..."
(21 November 2002)
Fine print
Kiwi publications took out several top spots at the 2002 Pacific Area
Newspaper Publishers' Association awards in Adelaide, with The Gisborne
Herald named "Newspaper of the Year." Other high achievers were
the Christchurch Star, New Zealand Herald, Waikato Times, Timaru Herald,
and the Wanganui Chronicle.
(13 October 2002)
First to drive Everest
The latest US advertising campaign for the Toyota
4Runner sport utility centres on scaling the rugged heights of Mt Everest. The
Saatchi & Saatchi production uses NZ icon Sir Ed Hilary in its bid to reclaim
Toyota's "king of the mountain" status among SUV brands.
(23 September 2002)
Club Edge
Saatchi & Saatchi's London office went on a Euro junket to win Agency of the
Year at the industry's top awards at Cannes. Their infamous inuendo-laden and
intricately art-directed campaign
for Club 18-30 won a Grand Prix Award. AdAge
applauds Saatchi' s "creative dominance". There is a strong edge
influence in the win with the agency helmed by NZer James Hall (left, above) and
led globally by NZEDGE co-founder Kevin Roberts.
(19 June 2002)
Poached Kiwi
Creative Kiwi Malcolm Poynton
convinced to ditch London for life with Saatchi & Saatchi across the ditch.
(2 March 2001)
Wgtn Saatchis in world top-10
In a volume compiled by editors of graphic design bible Graphis Saatchi
& Saatchi's Wellington office, originator of the award winning Toyota bugger and
Adidas All Black haka campaigns (above), makes the world top-10 list for
"consistency and excellence over the years"; alongside ideas
hot-houses like the Netherland's KesselsKramer and South Africa's TBWA.
(2001)
PM Groucho re TV
"I find television very educating. Every time someone turns on the set
I go and read a book." Helen Clark is in perfect agreement with
Groucho Marx's thoughts on the box.
(21 November 2000)
Connection made
New Zealand is on one end of the Southern Cross cable, the longest and
largest fibre optic cable ever. The cable provides 120X the capacity of the 1992
vintage PacRim, but is expected to be fully committed in under four years.
(15 November 2000)
AL&D 'indispensable'
"Arts and Letters Daily triumphantly confirms its founder's
original hypothesis - that there is a cornucopia of wonderful writing out there
on the web...but its success is mainly due to the way it met the needs of the
large group of internet users who are turned off by the frenetic 'hot picks' and
'cool links' of the brain-dead surfing community."
(17 December 2000)
Dr. Johnson of the web
Arts and Letters Daily and Cybereditions,
the Guardian's
top two brain sites on the web are the work of Canterbury NZ academic Denis Dutton.
"Over
dinner with him, trying to keep up with his knowledge and ideas about wine,
Glenn Gould, Kant and evolutionary psychology, you can feel like Boswell
invigorated by the company of Dr. Johnson."
(3 November 2000)
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Good morning Beijing
NZ journalist Edwin Maher, the first Western news anchor on Chinese state
television, has received China's highest honour for foreigners. Maher was
awarded the Chinese government's "Friendship Award" in a ceremony at
the Great Hall of the People. Maher has been the Western face of Chinese
broadcasting since 2003, when he was hired by China Central Television's English
Channel (CCTV-9). He has often been criticised by his Western contemporaries for
being a mouthpiece for China's communist leadership. "You can never please
everybody all of the time," he says in response. "But you can try
within the parameters of the system and environment that the broadcasters
operate to provide a better standard of news bulletin." Maher
began his broadcasting career in Wellington in 1965 at what is now Radio New
Zealand National. He also worked for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for
nearly 20 years.
(10 December 2007)
A life lived large
NZ-born war correspondent Kate Webb has died of cancer aged 64. Described as
a "modern day Annie Oakley, packing pens instead of pistols", Webb
bore witness to some of the most important events in recent Asian history,
including the fall of President Sukarno in Indonesia, the Vietnam War, the
assassination of Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, the Cambodian "Killing
Fields", East Timor's civil war and the Hong Kong handover. Webb's
journalist colleagues remember her as a hard-drinking, man-eating chain smoker;
a fiercely dedicated professional with a nose for trouble who never lost her
remarkable sense of compassion. "People always think I must be so tough to
survive all this," she said at her retirement in 2001. "But I'm a real
softie. But maybe that's what it takes - you have to be soft to survive. Hard
people shatter."
(14 May 2007)
Guardian handles the jandal
The Guardian pays tribute to the jandal/thong/flip flop - a welcome arrival in
Britain given the recent heatwave. A brief history of the humble rubber shoe
attributes its commercial origins to the NZ Jandal, Skellerup's trademarked
abbreviation of "Japanese Sandal," in the 1950s. Guardian: "As
Europe and the US swelters in a long hot summer, dress-down codes and the impact
of global warming mean that it may be flip-flops that keep the world
moving."
(20 July 2006)
NZ has the edge online
NewZealand.com, Tourism NZ's award-winning website, earned further raves in a
feature article by Brand Channel. "A ninth annual Webby Award winner, the
homepage of NewZealand.com is a vibrant blend of heritage and enterprise, with
both tourism and trade promoted in a decisive but considerate manner,"
writes reviewer Ian Cocoran. "Bedecked in images of raw, natural beauty and
with multi-lingual functionality, the portal is easily navigable and appealing
in its simplicity. Far from being superficial however, the real allure of the
website lies within its sub-culture, perhaps not too dissimilar to the country
it represents."
(9 January 2006)
Powerhouse collaboration
Miracle: A Celebration of New Life,
the multi-media collaboration between photographer Anne Geddes and Canadian
singer Celine Dion, has reached
Bestseller status in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal,
and Publishers Weekly since its October 12 launch. “I've always been a
huge fan of Anne's,” says Dion on the
Miracle website.
“Long before I became a mother, I admired and appreciated the beautiful way she
photographs babies. It has been wonderful working with her on this very special
project.” The 180-page coffee table book features more than 100 images of
newborn babies, including 19 with Dion. It also comes with a CD of lullabies and
classic covers by Dion and a behind-the-scenes DVD.
(1 November 2004)
Edge Polish
New Zealand Edge
co-founder and Saatchi & Saatchi global CEO Kevin Roberts interviewed in
Poland on the future of advertising and how Saatchis has triumphed through the
recession (Advertising Age named it Global Agency Network in 2002).
Roberts is asked: what are big issues facing Poland? Experience in making the
edge connection informs the answer: "By entering the EU the country is facing a major opportunity, with the potential for economic
benefit. Above all, 'Brand Poland' should be promoted, focussing on the colours
of its emblem and its [the country's] history." Also, Saatchi UK's
Kiwi head James Hall, profiled in The
Times on how the agency has thrived: "we were interested in
ideas" citing amongst work the acclaimed Full Stop anti-child abuse
campaign for NSPCC.
(07 July 2003)
Hey big spender
Australia's John Fairfax
Holdings Ltd
has bought NZ's top media group - Independent News Limited (INL) - for NZ$1.19
billion. The package includes more than 80 major newspapers and magazines, and
means that over 30% of Fairfax's future revenue will come from NZ.
(15 April 2003)
Animating America
Auckland-based Flux
Animation Studio has made impressive inroads to the US market via a
reciprocal partnership with New York's Hornet Inc. The companies first teamed up
on Saatchi's acclaimed Anchorville series, creating a CG campaign remarkable for
its scale and attention to detail. Flux animators are currently wowing the
crowds at Madison Square Garden with their half-time cartoon show for the New
Jersey Devils.
(December 2002 - January 2003)
Arnett phones home
"So Broadcast News meets Armageddon. It's a rilly big
show!" Telefilm Live From Baghdad - based on Robert Wiener's memoir
of CNN's involvement in the Gulf War - aired on US HBO December 7. Starring
Michael Keaton, Helena Bonham Carter and Bruce McGill, Baghdad looks at
whose voice was really reaching the American public. Just how did CNN's main man
(NZ's Peter Arnett) get a working telephone line, anyway...?
(9 December 2002)
Virtually he tanagata
Wellington interactive media company, Clicksuite,
has been nominated for the creative technology industry's Oscar equivalent: an
International EMMA (Electronic Multimedia Technology) award. Clicksuite has been
entered in the Public Institutions / Services Information category for its
design work on the Dictionary of New
Zealand Biography website. The company recently won gold and bronze medals
at the New York Festival's New Media Awards.
(November 2002)
A believer in the green light
"Without a doubt one of the most
brilliant journalists and columnists of his generation." Neal Travis,
the "brash, swashbuckling New Zealand import", legendary editor of The
New York Post's in/famous Page Six
gossip column, as well as a novelist, died on 14th July. The high school
drop-out from Dunedin worked as a journalist in NZ and Australia before hitting
the big time in New York. "Gatsbyesque"
Travis was a huge personality in New York, known as much for his "Savile
Row tailored shirts and handsome shock of silver hair," friends in high
places, and rapier wit as for his no-holds-barred style of reportage.
(July 2002)
Bugger. New Zealand creatives doing it better
Australian advertising, left in the mud by a Cannes Gold Lion winning Toyata
Hilux ute, barks enviously about creative NZ: "many an
advertising executive here would give a black BMW to get approval from
Australian corporates for the type of advertising campaign the New Zealanders
are producing. It's often quirky, irreverent, funny, and yes, even effective ...
New Zealand definitely punches above its weight."
(07 March 2002)
Internet Oscars
Wellington web firm Click
Suite scoops the internet equivalent of an Oscar at the European
Multimedia Awards. The company won the business training award for its 'Find
the Lady' CD-Rom, designed to inspire London-based advertising agency Leo
Burnett's staff in 100 offices around the world.
(29 November 2001)
Cyberreads
Denis Dutton's "admirable venture," Cybereditions,
allows publications to be constantly updated, exploiting the interactivity and flexibility of the net to
deliver superior content.
(3 March 2001)
£40m free mag
TNT and Southern Cross, Britain's free mags for antipodean expats,
have been sold for £40m. The buyer, Trader Media Group, plans to launch a
complementary website.
(21 November 2000)
Birth blocked
New Zealand website Calendargirls' planned broadcast of a live birth on
Christmas day was stymied by a high court ruling.
(24 December 2000)
A&LD rave
"Ever find yourself overwhelmed by the mass of information the net
makes available?" Make like those in the know and head to New Zealand (and
the web's) hottest site, Arts
and Letters Daily.
(19 November 2000)
Direct Success
Saatchi & Saatchi's Access
50/50 campaign for Telecom scooped a Gold International Echo award from the
Direct Marketing Association. Auckland's Aim Direct also won gold, making
a tally of two New Zealand firms among the twelve international recipients.
(16 October 2000)
Newzedge footnote: "I link therefore I am"
Paying tribute to the emblematic (and Kiwi conceived) Arts and Letters Daily,
Jenny Lynn Bader writes, "There are entire
publications on the Web that are just indexes of other publications ... an
imaginatively hyperlinked site
should ideally have the beauty of a collage, or at least of a gallery exhibit.
Its references should resonate the way good literary allusions do - even more so
..." Whaddya think???
(20 July 2000)
Wall Street gets
emotional rescue from the edge
Kevin Roberts says the challenge for the 'anti-social medium' of the web,
traditional advertising and product design in general, is to get emotional and
to create mystery and sensuality in order to re-connect with people. He
cites the Apple I-Mac as an example.
(18 May 2000)
Kiwi Dennis Dutton's Arts and Letters Daily makes Brill's Content
'Best of the Web'
"Arts
& Letters Daily" combines a Renaissance thirst for intriguing writing
with the online imperative of speed - a sensibility evident in the site's duelling
mottoes: "Bookmark This Page" and "Veritas odit
moras," Seneca's rendering of Sophocles' "Truth hates delay."
(April 2000)
Kiwi editor of Chicago-SunTimes leaves to pursue 'private goals'
New Zealand born Nigel Wade, 54, former foreign
correspondent with the Daily Telegraph in London, said that he was taking
a "new direction" in his life after 37 years in journalism. He
has been the tabloid's top editor since 1995.
(20 April 2000)
Communication Arts Site of the Week
Wellington Saatchi and Saatchi win Site of the Week in prestigious design
magazine Communication Arts for their website for choreographer Michael
Parmenter's dance opera, Jerusalem.
(19 April 1999)
Breath of fresh air from
ideas company wins Cannes award
Saatchi&Saatchi Auckland won a Golden Lion at the renowned Cannes
Advertising Festival for its innovative solution for the Auckland Regional
Council Anti-Pollution campaign. The campaign involved local artists decorating
stormwater grates to increae awareness of urban-pollution.
(June 2000)
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