The best PR stunt award
Winner: Whittaker’s K Bar pop-up shop
Pop-up shops are a favourite with consumers due the exclusivity of the experience, so creating a 1950s milk bar themed pop-up store was the perfect way for Whittaker’s to launch its limited-edition chocolate range. Lines snaked all the way down the street prior to its opening.
Runner up: Cavalier Bremworth’s dance interpretation of its new carpet range and Sensodyne winning the Guinness World Record for largest model tooth in Britomart, Auckland.
The best brand mascot award
Winner: Paper Plus’ “green blobby thing”.
It had been a long time since Paper Plus’ last rebrand, so when it decided to change things up, it didn’t hold back. It introduced a new brand mascot named Blurb – a plump, neon green alien with a deep, seductive voice. Speaking at Retail NZ’s shop.kiwi event, CEO Sam Shosanya said Blurb was attention-grabbing. “Part of the reason why blobby green things work is not the fact that people are going to run up to us and go, ‘What a fantastic campaign!’ I’m much more interested in them going, ‘I remember that was you’,” he said.
Runner up: Kevin the ANZ ATM.
This story originally appeared in NZ Retail magazine issue 747 December 2016 / January 2017
