September 28, 2006
Welcome to Idealog Weekly, the free email newsletter for New Zealand commercial creatives, entrepreneurs and anyone rich with ideas. In this week’s issue: games and grog, how to knock ’em dead, natural moodlifters, search our Swicki, a chair that can cook, web DNA and the quote of the week Games and grog What a day for creative Kiwis—early yesterday we heard that Bacardi has offered $138 million for 42 Below, the upstart vodka brand, and then last night the Planet NZTech blog picked up on the news that Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will set up a game development studio in Wellington with Microsoft and its shoot-em-up subsidiary, Bungie, the creator of the Halo series of games. When 42 Below listed three years ago the company was valued at $60 million, which upset a few observers at the time. It’s never made a profit but chief vodka bloke Geoff Ross has always insisted the aim was to build a market, and no-one will argue with him now. The company makes a product that’s not difficult to like, but that’s not what Bacardi is buying. The megamillions are in recognition of an inspired advertising and marketing image that is impossible to copy and differentiates 42 Below from every other brand of grog out there. Bacardi already owns a premium vodka—Grey Goose, one of the fastest-growing vodkas on the market—so it clearly sees some unique value in the 42 Below brand. There’s plenty of room, to grow, too: market leader Smirnoff sold over 20 million cases of its product last year; 42 Below managed less than half of one percent of that. Peter Jackson, meanhile, is obviously enjoying producing the new Halo movie. Filming isn’t even expected until next year and already Jackson has expanded the relationship to create Wingnut Interactive, a joint venture with Microsoft and Bungie. This is huge news for Wellington and New Zealand’s creative industries. Developing games is hard—it requires people who can crunch complicated numbers, dream up complex storylines and characters, and create moody and varied artwork and digital environments. It’s also expensive. Wingnut Interactive will draw creative, skilled people from across the globe and will kick-start the careers of many clever New Zealanders. Wellington already has a prolific game studio, Sidhe Interactive. This is great news for Sidhe—they’ve always been the developer from far-off New Zealand. Now they’ll be the ‘other’ studio in the creative hothouse of Silicon Welly. So in celebration, here are some reminders of the extraordinary marketing that lies behind 42 Below. (For those who care about such things, that last link might not be work-safe. Turn the volume down if you’re easily embarrassed.) How to … knock ’em dead It’s the stuff of nightmares: public speaking. But great speakers aren’t born, they’re made. Learn the tricks in Simon Young’s article on public speaking on our website. He’s assembled a grab-bag of useful advice that will have you wowing crowds and even get them to remember what you’re talking about. Natural moodlifters Mother’s Little Helper has had a bad rap in recent years. I have no idea what the side-effects are for Cesradyston, a “natural moodlifter”—or whether it’s smoked, popped, sniffed or ingested—but hey, who needs reality when petrol is so expensive?
Search our Swicki There’s a new feature on our website: a Swicki, the community search software developed by Christchurch-based Eurekster. Our swicki learns from the searches that users make and produces a ‘link cloud’ that shows the things that Idealog readers are currently interested in, and links them to the best sites around the world. The swicki appears on every page—scroll down a bit. Try it out!
A chair that can cook When you’re cooking you’re probably not seated, right? That’s the insight that led Vestal Design to create the DoubleSpace chair, which flips over to become a kitchen bench with built-in electric hobs. Just the thing for a shoebox apartment in Auckland. We look forward to seeing what Vestal Design comes up with when they realise people rarely have watch TV and sleep at the same time, or bathe and do the dishes. (Right?)
Web DNA In Idealog #2 we featured the amazing personalised art produced by Canada-based DNA 11, which will take a DNA sample and print your ‘DNA portrait’ on canvas (it has since started created personal fingerprint art, too). Thomas Baekdal has taken the same idea and will create a ‘DNA image’ of your website. Here’s ours.
Quote of the week “I think we as New Zealanders should be pretty rapt to see a Kiwi brand become an icon in the luxury goods world. The brand has always been unashamedly New Zealand and now with Bacardi’s help our country’s vodka brand is set to become a major global force.”
—42 Below is just getting started, says chief vodka bloke Geoff Ross More at Idealog online Read more on our website: Web exclusives, opinion, Idealog IP and the Idealog blogs. See you at idealog.co.nz. Matt Cooney
Editor
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