Powerade has announced the launch of its new Always Forward campaign, featuring New Zealand's top performing athletes - Steven Adams, Sophie Pascoe, Kane Williamson and Israel Dagg, developed by Ogilvy New Zealand.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) has launched two heart-warming TVCs via FCB. The ads form part of the 'become a teacher' campaign which focuses on what really motivates teachers.Using two real life stories, the TVCs showcase the important life skills, such as kindness, self-confidence and resilience, that teachers impart on their students alongside academic learning.
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Once again Epica, which is represented by Campaign Brief in Australia and New Zealand, is encouraging agencies to enter its World Cup category.

Steve Le Marquand and Rik Campbell, founders of creative digital agency Resn, are this year's recipients of the John Britten Black Pin. The award is the highest given by the Designers Institute of New Zealand and recognises leadership, vision and achievement in the field of design.

The Clio Awards, the renowned international advertising, design and communications competition, has today announced that the 59th annual Clio Awards will take place on October 3rd at The Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City. Grand award winners for Clio and Clio Music will be announced live during the ceremony, which will bring together leading creatives, marketers and high-level executives across advertising, media and music to celebrate the year's most creative work. The 2018 Gold, Silver, Bronze and Shortlist winners from the Clio Awards and Clio Music were announced on September 5; the full list of winners can be viewed online at Clios.com.
 
Comedian, author and activist Chelsea Handler (pictured) will host this year's ceremony. Coming off two seasons of her groundbreaking Netflix series Chelsea, the first-ever talk show for the streaming platform, Handler is currently touring the U.S., leading humorous discussions about the current state of modern culture and politics.

'Oat the Goat' has brought home two coveted purple pins in the Interactive and Moving Image categories at Saturday's Best Design Awards. The interactive web-based story also won gold in the same categories along with silver for Public Good.

Saatchi & Saatchi has created a ground-breaking campaign for client Bay Audiology that uses the fusion of sound waves and animation in a totally new way.
 
Following on from the award-winning 'Emotional Hearing Test' campaign last year, Saatchi & Saatchi has created a new brand campaign to remind Kiwis of the simple but important things they miss with hearing loss.
 

The first thing advertising has to do is be noticed. It would seem right now many are forgetting this. If an ad isn't noticed the rest doesn't matter, does it?

Making an impact is the job. Which is why I have always thought it odd that creatives will take a hit if they do something that is deemed strange. However, if a piece work is vanilla, boring and unnoticed there are often very few consequences.

I am often asked why so much advertising is so shit. This tends to happen at barbecues where I smile sheepishly, shrug my shoulders and have some more lamb. However, when I saw the new Leeds logo and the new Diet Coke work I started to think about it a bit more. If you think about how much time and process is involved in advertising why is the output often so banal?

Following the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals Lions at the 2018 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the inaugural Grand Prix winner, The Palau Legacy Project, created by Host/Havas Sydney, was last night honoured with the "Champion for Humanity" Award from the We Are All Human Foundation. The Award was presented during the We Are All Human Foundation & Global GoalsCast UN General Assembly Kick-Off Reception of the UN's Global Goals Week, a reception to gather a coalition of champions and celebrate progress and key initiatives that made a difference over the last year.

United Media Solution (UMS), New Zealand's leading Chinese digital marketing agency, has been appointed by electricity provider PowerShop to build its brand with Chinese kiwis in New Zealand.

PowerShop, the online electricity provider which was founded in New Zealand and is backed by Meridien Energy, aims to increase its brand awareness among New Zealand's Chinese community.

UMS will be tasked with developing and managing digital marketing, PR and media activity to help increase brand awareness among New Zealand's Chinese community. The activity will include a dedicated brand WeChat Official Account, social media competitions and promotions.

D&AD has launched its 56th Annual today, with president Steve Vranakis choosing Magpie Studio as its designer; a longstanding part of the D&AD network and recipient of multiple prestigious accolades including three Pencil awards this year.

The D&AD Annual has become a benchmark for the best in creative work across the design and advertising industry - showcasing all D&AD Pencil winners from that year's awards. For the 2018 Annual however, D&AD and Vranakis wanted to not just celebrate Pencil-worthy work from the industry, but to also create something that would stimulate and inspire young creative talent.

WARC, the global authority on advertising and media effectiveness, has today released the Effective Innovation Report 2018, highlighting key trends of the world's most original marketing thinking.

Drawn from the winners of the Effective Innovation category of this year's international WARC Awards, a global search for next-generation marketing effectiveness, the report showcases innovative thinking that has transformed a business or disrupted category conventions to deliver tangible results.

Says Lucy Aitken, managing editor, case studies, WARC: "Following our analysis of the metadata around all the entries, we see that despite the considerable challenges presented by innovation, it is an increasingly popular and effective way for brands to grow."

Wellington's four year old ad-tech start-up Postr has experienced rapid global growth through partnerships with three top international telecoms, a doubling of its staff to 25 and a quadrupling of monthly revenue over the past 6 months.

By Aussie expat Ben Yabsley (left), ex-The Monkeys and M&C Saatchi, now a senior copywriter at Anomaly, New York.

There's a story about Jack White that pops into my mind whenever things are getting tough at work. I read somewhere that he likes to make things hard for himself when he's on stage. He likes to set his equipment up just a little out of reach. It means he has to strain to get back to the microphone in time for the chorus, and you can hear that tension in his voice. It's what gives him his trademark, strangled tone.
 
Creative departments are no strangers to tension. Jack White has to construct it, but we're in no short supply of the stuff. Our job is to bring about change. And when we run into obstacles that hinder our ability to bring about this change, it creates tension. How you deal with that tension determines the success of your creative career, and your overall creative fulfillment.

So, no biggie.    

So how do we manage this stressful but necessary evil? How can we ensure that tension doesn't ultimately undermine our creative pursuits... or lead us to become raging alcoholics?

A suite of three new 15 second TV commercials for Toyota Hilux have drawn on the 'less is more' communication style of a fair few of its drivers, to add to the launch campaign from October.

In a clear nod to the new look Toyota Hilux, the starring duo of mates return to admire, quietly, the updated version of their beloved ute, all played out in three distinct everyday settings.

The cream of the Auckland ad industry are currently out in force at the Campaign Brief / Sweetshop Legendary Lunch at the fabulous Soul Bar in Auckland.

Caltex, via Z Energy Group has debuted its new 'It's a local thing' positioning with a unique and quirky new campaign from J. Walter Thompson and Yukfoo Animation.

In Caltex's first major local communication from J. Walter Thompson New Zealand, the agency teamed with Yukfoo to produce an animated series of TVC that's a refreshing departure from category norms. In the first version while the conversation between Caltex staff-members and customers start off everyday enough, what happens next takes the concept of in-depth local understanding to a humorous new level. Caltex owners' unique connection with their locals is explored via the idiosyncrasies of their relationships, from local greeting rituals to celebrating those every day little wins.  

The call for entries for the global ADC 98th Annual Awards, one of the world's longest-running and most prestigious recognition programs for all forms of design and advertising, opened today with support from a compelling new short-form online film campaign concept developed by independent brand experience design company COLLINS and created by six highly accomplished illustration and animation studios.

Part of The One Club for Creativity, the world's foremost non-profit organization recognizing creative excellence in advertising and design, the ADC 98th Annual Awards celebrates global excellence in craft, design and innovation.  Entries are accepted at http://www.adcawards.org, deadline January 31, 2019. Juries will be announced shortly.

Sanitarium and Geometry, the shopper and brand activation arm of Ogilvy New Zealand, created a unique way for people to sample their plant based milks and demonstrate their ability to make everyday fruit and vegetable recipes taste even better.
 
Many people think that plant milks may not taste that nice and also don't know how to use them. However, due to gentle flavour profiles, So Good milks enhance the natural flavours of humble, everyday fruit and vegetables. Which makes them perfect for cooking.
 
But people can be a little apprehensive about trying something new.

Little Black Book's Immortal Awards were established this year to celebrate creative companies across the advertising industry who fight to protect and craft brilliant ideas. Free to enter for member companies of LBB, the Immortal Awards seeks to shake up the traditional model for benchmarking the creative work and talent across our industry.
 
Having limited submissions to a maximum of five per company, and streamlining entry points, LBB are now proud to boast a curated selection of the best work across the globe. The concentrated list is ready for the esteemed judging panel to review in New York in November.
 
Says Matt Cooper, founder, Little Black Book: "We are really proud of what we have achieved with this award. We don't want to be another award show that boasts about a high number of entries, in fact quite the opposite. We celebrate the quality, not the quantity of our entries."

Epica is back in Amsterdam this year. Why?
The obvious answer is that Amsterdam is one of Europe's most vibrant creative hubs, which is true. But I say that every time. It's also true that Amsterdam is ideal in terms of logistics: a friendly city, located at the heart of Europe, where everyone speaks English. We have great support there in terms of our local partner, the magazine Adformatie. Plus, the journalists on our jury always enjoy coming to Amsterdam. Even though we give them very little time to party.

The cream of the Auckland ad industry will attend the Campaign Brief / Sweetshop Legendary Lunch this Thursday September 20.

Thanks to Sweetshop's generous sponsorship, this invite-only event is sure to be another legendary occasion.

United Media Solution (UMS), New Zealand's leading Chinese digital marketing agency, has been appointed by New Zealand Avocado, to create and manage its digital marketing presence in China.

New Zealand Avocado, the body which represents the country's avocado growers, has appointed UMS to build awareness of the brand and products in the China market as part of an overarching strategy to quadruple sales of NZ avacados to $280m and title productivity by 2023.

New Zealand Avocado was granted access to the Chinese market in January 2018 and will look to leverage this government approved market access to generate greater awareness for avocados from New Zealand.

Yellow has today launched the first above the line campaign since rebranding, introducing Kiwis to Yellow's Marketing Machine, a comprehensive digital marketing offering of needs-based solutions, designed to help SMEs thrive.

Portfolio & Reel's New Zealand + Australian production company directories have just been updated.

Seat New Zealand has today announced its appointment of DDB as its creative agency.

The appointment will see DDB leading all marketing communications as the Spanish car brand looks to grow its presence in the New Zealand market.

AdFest has announced that Ali Brown, partner and executive producer at Prettybird in Los Angeles, will join AdFest 2019 as jury president of Film Craft Lotus and New Director Lotus.

Says Brown: "It's an honor to be joining the jury at AdFest 2019. I am excited to see first-hand the agencies, brands and production companies who are producing the best work across the Asia Pacific and Middle East."

With offices in Los Angeles and London and a diverse roster of filmmakers, creatives and collaborators, Prettybird produces entertainment that is creatively led and platform agnostic. The company's work has been recognized at award shows worldwide, and Prettybird was named Creativity magazine's Top Production Company of the Year in 2015.

The One Club for Creativity, a leading global non-profit organization celebrating creative excellence in advertising and design, and Diageo North America today announced a significant partnership to recognize and promote diversity, inclusion and gender equality among young creatives around the world.

The partnership ties in with The One Club's Young Guns program, which for more than 20 years has served as the industry's only international, cross-disciplinary, portfolio-based awards competition that identifies today's vanguard of globally and culturally diverse creative professionals 30 years of age and under.  

The first component of the partnership is the Diageo-Young Guns Diversity & Inclusion Award, kicking off this fall.  Teams at Diageo North America and The One Club will review portfolios of all Young Guns 16 global finalists and select a winner of the new award. 

The FireFlies Antipodes is calling for riders for its third tour taking place from 17 to 23 February 2019. The ride covers approximately 1,000km over six gruelling days from Christchurch to Queenstown in New Zealand. Riders are dedicated to raising awareness and fundraising in the media world in aid of Beating Blood Cancers and Leukaemia.

The final deadline to enter the London International Awards is 11pm NY time, Friday, September 14.

Comms Council Industry support group, First Five Rungs, announced its latest event, First Five Dates, on Monday, 6th August, 2018. Aware that young industry members don't have the same networks as those who have been in the industry for years and are often more reserved at senior networking events, the First Five Rungs saw the need for a more relaxed and casual networking event that millennials can dip their toes into.
 
Tickets to the 'speed-dating-esque' networking evening sold rapidly, with the event completely sold out by Monday, 27th August, a record time for the group. A mammoth 120 guests attended on the night, seeing the Bauer mezzanine space packed with excited millennials mixing and mingling at their "dates".

LIA has announces that Merlee Jayme, chairmom/ chief creative officer of Dentsu Jayme Syfu, will preside over the 2018 Radio & Audio jury.

Jayme is the first Filipino to be awarded: The Creative of the Year for Southeast Asia in the Campaign Asia Pacific Agency of the Year Awards. She is "chairmom" and chief creative officer of Dentsu Jayme Syfu and the only woman in the 20 top creative directors in Asia as reported by Campaign Brief Asia.  A business-minded and award-winning creative, she has been recognized with the CEO of the Year 2016 by the IABC Philippines and the St. Hildegard Most Influential Woman in Communications 2017. Under her leadership, her two-year old integrated agency Dentsu Jayme Syfu has already been named the 2016 Creative Agency of the Year for the Philippines by Campaign Asia and the inaugural Spikes Asia Country Agency of the Year 2017 for the Philippines. Jayme is also a mom to four beautiful girls, and an inspiration in breaking the glass ceiling in this mad men's world.