A year of ups and downs for agencies

January

* Generator picks up $8.2 million DB account.

* Meares Taine wins Clear account.

* Gestro Horne nabs Mercury's lines business.

* Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide CEO Kevin Roberts named Outstanding Advertising Agency Executive of 1998 in US by Frohlinger's Marketing Report.


February


* DDB campaign for Radio Pacific featuring Christ vetoed as "blasphemous". Same campaign, with depictions of abortion, homosexuality, and a vampish Helen Clark subsequently canned.

* Media debate: has Diana's passing contributed to significant decline in weekly and monthly women's titles?

* Singleton, Ogilvy & Mather (SO&M) win Ministry of Education's $3 million literacy and numeracy campaign account.


March


* Shell New Zealand signals account shift to J Walter Thompson.

* ACNielsen figures show daily newspaper circulation and business. weeklies in decline: only Evening Post, Dominion and Sunday Star-Times make significant gains.


April


* M&C Saatchi wins Tourism Board account off politically embroiled Saatchi & Saatchi (Saatchi Auckland), with the Aucklanders reportedly demanding $3 million to sever relationship with Tourism Board.

* The New Colenso lands its largest client - the Land Transport Safety Authority and its $11 million account.

* Australia's Tourist Commission awards its PR business to Professional Public Relations NZ.


May


* Adspend figures are released for 1998, showing the industry's worst year in nearly a decade: overall print advertising fell, radio held, and TV, cinema and outdoor advertising gained.

* Beyond Public Relations proves a phantom menace to parents with launch of Star Wars merchandise.

* Saatchi's Godzilla and DDB's Kelly Browne/AMI Insurance campaigns win gold at the Clio awards in New York.


June


*141 Palace Plus wins Media Award Grand Prix in Cannes.

* Auckland City Council looks to supplement revenue with Harbour Bridge advertising, public sees red.


July


* Original Sin - Levi's launch brand repositioning: heavy on sex, easy on brand reminders.

* Screens and receipts from Australian ATM machines sold as prime advertising tool by NCR for first time.

* French magazine publisher Hachette and PMP Pacific Publications announce a joint venture to publish Elle and Elle Cuisine in Australia and New Zealand.

* SO & M win Pizza Hut Australasian account.

* Cannes advertising awards: Toyota "bugger" commercial wins gold.

* English-born David Ogilvy - co-founder in 1948 of New York-based ad agency Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather - dies in France.

* Foote, Cone & Belding win $2.4 million Health Funding Authority account for mental illness.

* "Hard Earned" spat brews between Carlton (Bates) and DB (Generator).

* Tourism Board's newest campaign - JAFA - puts rosy spin on derogatory anti-Auckland moniker.

* London-based Kiwi chef Peter Brown credited with increasing Meat New Zealand sales by 13 per cent with "lamb from back home" TV ads.


August


* Marketing awards - supreme winner Merino New Zealand.

* Meares Taine wins Auckland Museum account.

* M for Media secures Heinz-Wattie media planning and buying business.

* Merged Radio Pacific and Radio Otago become Radioworks New Zealand.

* "Bugger" wins Australian Television awards.

* Generator wins Mighty River Power advertising account.

* Bates Palace wins advertising for Westfield.

* Sheraton Auckland shifts to DDB.

* "Pure" New Zealand - M&C Saatchi/Tourism Board's global campaign launched in Queenstown - labelled "predictable" by critics.


September


* Saatchi & Saatchi and WestpacTrust skewered over rescue helicopter ads featuring grateful rescuee who turns out to be actor.

* Apec boosts Brand New Zealand: priceless soundbites from President Clinton; advertising's appropriation of the hongi endangered.

* Bates Palace wins Caltex business.


October


* DDB wins Schwarzkopf account on heels of Meridian Energy coup.

* Young & Rubicam and Goldsack Harris publicly consummate rumoured relationship.

* Saatchi Auckland win pitch to handle TVNZ's expansion into digital services.

* Nude couple promote New Zealand Natural Ice Cream in Australia with frisky outdoor campaign - Kiwis have to settle for airbrushed bottoms in print.


November


* Lion Breweries consolidates fragmented ad/marketing services, Saatchi Auckland beneficiary.

* Saatchi Auckland involved with TV One rebranding.

* Apparel maker Canterbury gains contract to supply Wallabies after losing the All Blacks contract to Adidas.

* Colenso turns a downtown fountain into a blood-bath to promote screening of Scream on TV3.

* Jim Beam advertising to move to Y&R/Goldsack from 2000 as part of a global realignment.

* Saatchi boys upset many with feel-good message to disgraced national rugby team.

* Is Kevin Roberts "God"? asked North & South magazine.

* Advertising Complaints Authority busy due to sensationalist election advertising.

* Lion Breweries revisits old, politically-incorrect ground with ads designed to mock cultural pursuits, then proceeds to set up a "men's creche" serving beer at the Ellerslie Flower Show.

* Advertising Agencies Association (AAA) announces plans to restructure and rename. Executive director David Innes resigns.


December


* Letterbox Media Association creates furore with ACNielsen research showing consumer excitement over junk mail advertising

* Beer in supermarkets keeps brewers' agencies busy.

* Unceremonious: Sanitarium drops Saatchi & Saatchi in Australia and New Zealand and picks up SO & M; TAB ditches The Bates Palace in favour of The New Colenso.