Facebook ANZ has bolstered its Creative Shop with new appointments Karen O'Leary, former TBWA\Auckland creative director and Kiwi expat Dan Walton to creative strategist roles. The move brings an increased level of skills and experience to the ANZ team.

O'Leary will be based in Melbourne and Walton will be based in Sydney.

Dentsu Aegis Network has promoted Jacquie Bennett (right) to the newly created role of group head of strategy.

With a career spanning 15 years in advertising, including 10 within strategy roles, Bennett joined Carat as strategy director in 2014, and the focus of her role expanded quickly. In the new position of group head of strategy, Bennett will join the Dentsu Aegis Network NZ leadership team, with responsibility for providing strategic direction for clients and influencing change and collaboration across Dentsu Aegis Network NZ.

Brace yourself for the biggest BOTAB yet - it's the last at BOTAD's beloved home, the Kings Arms - so it'll raise a glass one last time to this legendary venue. Tickets are now on sale - so get in quick.

Whether you're a hippie at heart or a noughties kid, there'll be something for you to sing along to. The bands have been rehearsing songs from all eras for this epic Battle of the Decades.

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE

Theme: Battle of the Decades
Date: Thursday 31st August, 6:30pm
Venue: Kings Arms Tavern
Website: www.botab.co.nz
Cost: Comms Council Members $45 + GST and booking fee / Non-members $60 + GST and booking fee

Wendy's is the first New Zealand brand to take advantage of new technology with its latest Baconator campaign appearing on billboards in popular video games.

The Wendy's ads will appear on billboards, bus shelters and TV screens within the virtual gaming systems of multiple games spanning Xbox, PlayStation 4, Steam and PC platforms.

Tower Insurance is demonstrating its commitment to helping Kiwis deal with whatever life throws at them in a new brand campaign created by Barnes, Catmur & Friends Dentsu.
 
The campaign plays with time to reverse the effects of a series of disasters. We see objects that were destroyed coming back together in super slow-motion clips.

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Two lucky young creatives from Australia and one from New Zealand will be making their way to Las Vegas early in October thanks to Campaign Brief and the London International Awards.

Copywriter Alberta Gunner (above left) and art director Roxy Dalton (above right) from Clemenger BBDO Melbourne ~ Campaign Brief's 2017 Australian Agency of the Year ~ will represent Australia at the 2017 London International Awards' Creative LIAisons program in Las Vegas, featuring some of the world's most respected creative directors as speakers.

Representing New Zealand is Georgia Johnstone (right), a junior creative at Colenso BBDO, Auckland, Campaign Brief's 2017 NZ Agency of the Year.

Separately, J Walter Thompson Sydney is sending young art director Simon Hayes.

2017 will be the sixth year in which LIA will host Creative LIAisons, a mentoring program fully funded by LIA that runs concurrently with the LIA Awards judging. Not only are the attendees being given the opportunity to listen to some of the industry's biggest names, but they're also invited to sit in with the Juries on statue discussions. This represents a unique opportunity for the creatives to experience the judging process at a relatively young age.

Creative LIAisons is LIA's way of giving back. By refraining from a fancy award show the whole budget goes to organizing this unique event for young creatives.

United Media Solution (UMS), New Zealand Chinese digital marketing agency, has been appointed to manage Vodafone New Zealand's Chinese digital marketing account.

UMS will be responsible for managing Vodafone's Chinese language digital marketing account as the company seeks to engage with Chinese kiwis.

This is the first time Vodafone New Zealand has appointed a full-service Chinese digital agency and the move coincides with the launch of the company's Red Connect service, a Chinese language service for customers.

Each week Bestads picks the very best advertising in the world, in every medium - which is reviewed by a top creative director or team to select their own personal favourites.

This week's guest judge is Ben Welsh, chief creative officer, DDB Group, Sydney.

BEST TV
Twenty five years ago, Francis Fukuyama wrote a book called the End of History. Can't say I've read it, but the title always appealed to me.

I feel like I'm looking at the end of advertising history. All the original ideas have been used up. We're left with reruns and mash-ups.

I had been looking forward to this task. I'd even been watching a bit of telly on free to air to see what is happening in the real world, thinking that the world's best would be infinitely better.

It's not. (But then how can anything actually be infinitely better?) READ MORE...

New York Festivals, now in its 61st year, announced the appointment of Susan Glass Ruse (pictured) to the position of associate executive director of NYF's International Advertising Awards competition.

Ruse, an accomplished creative strategy leader will work in tandem with SVP executive director, Michael Demetriades spearheading the global development of NYF's flagship competition.
 
Ruse joins NYF after 19 years with HBO where she served as creative marketing executive producer developing campaigns for many of HBO's highest-profile films for use across all platforms.

London International Awards (LIA) has today announced the line-up of speakers for the 6th annual Creative LIAisons program, taking place at Encore/Wynn, Las Vegas from October 4th through October 7th.

Creative LIAisons is LIA's way of giving back. By refraining from a fancy award show the whole budget goes to organizing this unique event for young creatives.

The speaker line-up includes Kiwi expat Malcolm Poynton (pictured), global chief creative officer at Cheil Worldwide.

Says Barbara Levy, president, LIA: "All of our 2017 speakers have one thing in common. They all believe that the investment that LIA makes in Creative LIAisons is an invaluable investment in the future of the industry.

100% of New Zealanders not living in New Zealand suffer from homesickness, so Air New Zealand via creative agency Host Sydney, has enlisted the services of Kiwi television heartthrob Dr. T.K. Samuels to cure expats living in Australia of this very real illness.

In the campaign Dr. T.K. Samuels, star of New Zealand's favorite medical drama Shortland Street, delivers a public health announcement on homesickness.

The announcement is followed by a number of short films where the iconic Kiwi doctor helps get viewers on the runway to recovery by prescribing one of Air New Zealand's great deals. The campaign is supported by a 48 hour sale to New Zealand.

VIEW THE SPOT

Starcom New Zealand has today announced that it has won the media account for the ultra-fast internet provider, Stuff Fibre, following a competitive pitch.

Stuff Fibre is a new entrant to the market and Starcom will work to position the business as a challenger brand in an increasingly crowded marketplace. The advertising campaign will challenge incumbent providers, using tongue in cheek humour that appeals to Kiwis, while focusing on Stuff Fibre's product truths.

Spikes Asia has today announced the names of the 98 jury members from 17 countries who will judge entries from across the Asia Pacific region, 40% of whom will be female.

Josh Moore (pictured), CEO and chief creative officer at Y&R ANZ has been picked as jury president on the Outdoor and Radio jury. Kim Pick, creative director at Colenso BBDO will represent New Zealand on the Film, Print & Publishing and Print & Outdoor Craft jury; Jacquie Bennett, group head of strategy at Dentsu Aegis Network will sit on the Media jury and Sean Brown, general manager at Mango Communications will sit on the PR jury.

Anchor has created a new campaign with Colenso BBDO to launch its new Anchor Protein+ range of products. The campaign continues to build on the Anchor brand platform, Go Strong, introduced early last year.

Anchor Protein+ comes as milk, yoghurt and a smoothie booster. And they've packed a lot of it into a 30 second launch ad. A voice over leads us through no less than 11 Protein+ product consumption scenarios in 30 seconds.

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One of New Zealand's best loved characters, Stickman, has returned in his super hero alter ego as part of Pak'nSave's Super Birthday Deals campaign via FCB New Zealand.

This new brand piece included a bespoke Snapchat lens, which allowed New Zealanders to become Stickman the Superhero. The lens, which was a first of its kind for the New Zealand grocery retail category, went live on 5 August, only for 24 hours.

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Public Trust, New Zealand's largest and most experienced team of Trust, Estate and Will specialists, are dedicated to getting more Kiwis prepared for the future with its new campaign via Ogilvy NZ.

The challenge for the Ogilvy team was to find a way to engage New Zealanders in a conversation that most of us actively avoid. No one wants to confront death, especially when they are busy living life, but by not planning, we can unintentionally leave a mess for our grieving families to deal with.

VIEW THE SPOT

New Zealand intimates brand, Bendon Lingerie has launched a fully integrated marketing campaign via February, to promote the launch of its technically innovative new essentials range, Bendon Body.
 
The vibrant campaign depicts a diverse group of dancers and sportswomen including New Zealand netball star, Kayla Cullen dancing freely in the collection. Engineered for supreme comfort, the collection has been designed to move with the body by using the latest in intimates design and technology, underpinning the campaign message, 'Made to Move'.

Comms Council Industry support group, First Five Rungs, has announced an event, for millennials in communications and advertising to be held on Wednesday, 23 August, from 6pm-9pm at The Generator in Britomart, Auckland.

The panel of speakers includes TV1 sports presenter Jenny-May Clarkson, presenter/blogger Amber Peebles, the editor of Remix Magazine Steven Fernandez and Mai FM host Nickson Clark. All will share insight into how they managed the first five years of their career and how they got to where they are today.

Event Information:
First Five Rungs Event: Speaker Series: Media Movers with Jenny-May Clarkson, Amber Peebles, Steven Fernandez and Nickson Clark
When: 6pm-9pm, Wednesday 23 August, 2017
Where: The Generator (Lounge room), 22-28 Customs St East, Auckland, 1010
Tickets: $20+ GST + card fee available online

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Wendy's via creative agency Augusto, has released its latest campaign for Wendy's new range of iconic Baconator burgers. Included in the range is the addition of a new burger - The Ultimator, which comes loaded with bacon jam, bacon ketchup and baconnaise on top of four slices of thick-cut Manuka smoked streaky bacon.
 
And because of the scientifically-proven, addictive properties of bacon, a burger with more bacon than ever before gave Augusto cause for concern.

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VIEW THE FULL VIDEO

A joint initiative of Bestads and Campaign Brief, TheBestAdJobs.com offers recruiters and agencies a fantastic low rate of $50 per job listing.

TheBestAdJobs.com reaches the international audience of bestadsontv.com and the Australasian audience of campaignbrief.com, campaignbrief.co.nz and campaignbriefasia.com.

New and featured jobs have visibility on the Bestads and Campaign Brief sites 24/7, reaching upwards of 300,000 unique visitors a month.

VIEW JOBS

EMPLOYERS AND RECRUITERS: UPLOAD YOUR ADS HERE

The Campaign Brief App and Bestads App - the two most popular advertising Apps in the world - are both available for iPhones and Android phones.

The Campaign Brief App includes CB Australia, CB New Zealand, CB Asia and CB WA - all on the one app.

The Bestads App gives you immediate access to the weekly Top 6 TV/web film, Print, Outdoor/Ambient, Radio and Interactive advertisements from bestadsontv.com, plus guest judge comments each week by top international creatives.

Stay on top of the world's best advertising creative from the world's hottest ad agencies and production companies. Get the best of the week from the last 16 weeks (that's 96 best ads in each category). Judges comments also go back the last 16 weeks.

The Bestads app is a great tool to keep up with the best commercials from around the world, on your Apple or Android phone or tablet whenever you have a spare minute, and wherever you are. You can share featured ads on Twitter, Facebook or by email, direct from the app.

DOWNLOAD THE CAMPAIGN BRIEF iPHONE APP or search on iTunes.
DOWNLOAD THE CAMPAIGN BRIEF ANDROID APP or search on Google Play

DOWNLOAD THE BESTADS iPHONE APP or search on iTunes.
DOWNLOAD THE BESTADS ANDROID APP or search on Google Play.

Want to advertise on our Apps? A banner ad (320 x 50) on the Campaign Brief App and/or Best Ads App is restricted to only 3 advertisers. The fee is only $800 per month per App. To book contact Mollie: mollie@campaignbrief.com

LIA has extended its entry deadline to the new date of Monday, 14 August.

To view all of LIA's categories and requirements: visit LIA categories here.

Work submitted must be broadcast, published or released in a commercial environment with client approval between 1st July 2016 and 31st August 2017.

All companies and/or individuals involved in the creative process are eligible to enter.

For more information on submissions and eligibility: visit LIA Entry Kit here.

LIA does not charge late fees. If you require a deadline extension email info@liaawards.com.

ENTER NOW

Epica, the only global creative awards judged by journalists (including CB representing Australia and NZ) has opened its 2017 season for early bird entries.

Advertising, PR, design and digital agencies as well as production companies who start entering their work this August will receive a 100€ early bird discount. Submissions officially end on September 31st.

The creative prize judged by journalists kicks off its 31st competition with a lot in store. The new jury president, location and categories are just a few of the changes to the awards this year.

ENTER NOW

Clemenger Group, led by 99, with Colenso BBDO and OMD, have been appointed as agency partners for Auckland's public transport network, AT Metro. This is the first major assignment offered by the Auckland Council Group following the establishment of a closed agency panel earlier this year.

AT Metro is part of Auckland Transport (AT) and the brand unites Auckland's public transport network of trains, buses and ferries.

Winter sports means drinking. Which means more young New Zealand males are putting their lives at risk by driving drunk afterwards. Their mates don't want to see them hurt. But it's hard for them to step in.

So NZ Transport Agency and Clemenger BBDO | Touchcast have enlisted the help of some of New Zealand's most well-known commentators to remind every sports fan that they can be a legend by stepping in and stopping a mate driving drunk.

PLAY THE CLUBROOMS SPOT
PLAY THE LOCAL SPOT
PLAY THE TREV'S PLACE SPOT

The Clio Awards, the esteemed international advertising, design and communications competition, has announced David Lubars, chief creative officer, BBDO Worldwide and chairman of BBDO North America, as the 2017 Clio Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.

Lubars will receive his honor at the 58th annual Clio Awards set for September 27 at The Tent at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Says Nicole Purcell, president, Clio: "David Lubars is a creative genius," said Clio President Nicole Purcell. "His drive is unmatched, and that reflects in his hard-working teams across the globe that consistently produce forward-thinking creative work. We are honored to be recognizing a career's worth of accomplishments, and look forward to seeing what the next years bring."

The winner of more than 150 Clio Awards, Lubars will be recognized for his achievements during a continued 13-year tenure as BBDO's creative lead. Under his direction, BBDO has been named Agency of the Year more than 15 times by various industry publications. Recently, Lubars was named one of the top 10 creative directors of all time in a story published on the Forbes CMO Network.

Vogel's first commercial in nearly a decade, which launched a little over three weeks ago via Shine, has had a phenomenal response, with over one million views on Facebook, and 51,000 views on YouTube.  

The video, created by Shine, has had 44% higher view time that the APAC benchmark for YouTube, and 28% higher than APAC benchmark for Facebook.  It also has almost half as many shares (4,700) as likes (11,300). 

Contagion has bolstered its media offering with the appointment of Emma Bolser (left) as the agency's first new managing partner of media.

We have some very exciting news of some key hires and investment in our  media offering. As you know, the modern media landscape moves at high speed and we need best-in-class people who can come up with the best strategies for brands and make the information accessible. Above all, we need media people with lots of ideas that can be implemented with the minimum of fuss.

Bolser has been in the industry since graduating over 20 years ago working in the UK, Australia and NZ. Her formative years were at Rapp in London where she grew to love results; getting advertising to genuinely deliver business to clients. The creativity of brand became her passion when she moved to NZ in 2004, rounding out experience across all facets of media.

Each week Bestads picks the very best advertising in the world, in every medium - which is reviewed by a top creative director or team to select their own personal favourites.

This week's guest judge is Corinne Goode, creative director, BBDO San Francisco.

BEST TV
Winner: Royal Mail: Heist. Intense is not a word you generally associate with Royal Mail but this uncomfortably real heist is exactly that. A bold move for a company that once had Postman Pat as a spokesman. It also gave me a chuckle at the thought of saying some of my more ridiculous passwords out loud to an armed assailant. READ MORE...

Mastercard together with McCann Sydney, has launched a campaign aiming to change behaviour of New Zealanders from a card inserting, pin punching nation, to a country of proficient tappers.

Quite simply, they're asking New Zealanders to 'tap' as their preferred payment method for the chance of their home town taking on Richie McCaw and his touch rugby team. The town with the most number of taps per capita will host the ultimate game of touch rugby at their local park - broadcast to the nation.

VIEW THE SPOT

OMD New Zealand managing partner Andrew Reinholds (pictured left) has been selected to sit on the jury panel for LIA The NEW and Social Influences.

Judging will take place at Encore Hotel in Las Vegas from the 29th September through to 7th October.

VIEW THE FULL LIST OF JURY MEMBERS

The LIA 2017 entries system is open for entries.

Beth O'Brien and Thomas Darlow have returned to New Zealand to take creative group head roles at Colenso BBDO.

O'Brien was lured back to Colenso after a successful stint in New York as an associate creative director at R/GA and Droga5, where her and her partner created some of the country's most high profile work. During the most contested election in U.S. history, The New York Times and Forbes Magazine labelled their Role Models spot for Hillary Clinton "a masterpiece of political advertising" and a "Hall of Fame-level" ad. O'Brien has won over 40 national and international awards, including New Zealand's only ever a black pencil for K9FM, which she made at Colenso before leaving to the States.

The Global Awards has announced the creation of two specialised executive juries for the 2017 competition: Pharma(Rx) and Health & Wellness.

These equal and separate juries will judge submissions from each exclusive designation providing each jury the opportunity to cover the world of healthcare advertising in its entirety and with complete fairness.

Students from Billy Blue Design School at Torrens University Australia; Shillington College Melbourne, Media Design School New Zealand; Victoria University Wellington and ACG Yoobee School of Design Wellington have won numerous awards recognising their outstanding contribution to the creative industries at The Rookies - a global competition for young designers, creators, innovators and artists.

Recognising the outstanding talent emerging from higher education institutions around the world, The Rookies International Awards was devised by visual effects industry professionals Andrew McDonald and Alwyn Hunt to showcase the achievement of young creatives, and to help them launch their careers.

Building on from Haier's 2015 and 2016 partnership with The Block NZ, Haier's agency Sherson Willis has launched a new campaign concept to extend Haier's partnership with The Block NZ off the screen and involve local communities.

The resulting campaign features The Block NZ 2016 People's Choice Award winners Dyls and Dylz on a road trip to provide "Haier Help" to Kiwis in need.

VIEW THE SPOT
VIEW THE EDGECUMBE VIDEO
VIEW THE GETTING STUCK IN VIDEO
VIEW THE BIG REVEAL VIDEO

The Midas Awards for the World's Best Financial Advertising is now open for entries. Founded in 2001, the Midas Awards is the only awards show to recognize excellence in financial advertising and marketing on a global scale. The deadline to enter the 2017 Midas Awards is Friday, September 29th, 2017.
 
The Midas Awards charges out of the gate this year with New York Festivals Inc's, recent appointment of Scott Rose to executive director of the Midas Awards. Rose, a creative session producer and digital assets manager has produced and created showcase presentations for 4-plus years for New York Festivals 6 brands.  As executive director of the competition, he will recruit prominent industry executives to serve on the 2017 juries, create strategic alliances to benefit both the competition and its entrants and expand its global footprint.

SUBMIT ENTRIES HERE

Bridging together their collective talent and industry expertise to deliver a broader creative offering, two of Australia's most awarded production specialists, Electric Art and Cream Studios, have merged to become Cream Electric Art.

Delivering across an expanding number of different media, Cream Electric Art is built on the foundation that innovative production service requires collaboration between trusted creative partnerships. The new team is now made up of 20 specialists with extensive experience in CGI and creative retouching, across stills, motion, interactive, VR and AR.

Each week Bestads picks the very best advertising in the world, in every medium - which is reviewed by a top creative director or team to select their own personal favourites.

This week's guest judge is Graham Lang, chief creative officer, Y&R South Africa and Africa.

BEST TV
Winner: Procter & Gamble: The Talk. When a brave client wants to promote a relevant cause, things can easily and quickly go wrong. Like a rouge match in a gas station. All the good intentions in the world can't soften the blow of a poorly conceived and executed idea when broaching the subject of race discrimination. And the bigger the client, the bigger the pressure is to make everything stick just right. This script demanded composed story telling with all the right nuances in perfect harmony. BBDO and their production partners nailed it. READ MORE...

DDB NZ has welcomed back a familiar face, with Rory Mckechnie returning to Greys Ave as creative director.

Mckechnie, who previously enjoyed a five-year stint at DDB, has rejoined the agency after spending time in New York at Droga5 as a senior creative.

He picked up more than 60 local and international awards during his last stint at DDB, and has been involved with some standout campaigns during his tenure at Droga5, including The Ripple for Chase.

Mckechnie says he's excited to be back at Greys Ave after working for one of New York's top creative agencies: "DDB has always held a place in my heart, so the opportunity to return home with such an incredible experience under my belt is fantastic and I'm looking forward to producing more great work with the team here."

Ogilvy is set to bolster its creative firepower with the hiring of multi award-winning Aussie expats, Lisa Fedyszyn and Jonathan McMahon.

After multiple years working in New Zealand, Fedyszyn and McMahon have spent the past two years at Droga5 New York, where they have worked on clients such as Toyota, Sprint, Kraft and Chase bank. They are now returning to Auckland to take up group creative director roles at Ogilvy, supporting executive creative director, Regan Grafton.