News Snackies: Cadbüry gets its Röck Döts on

A little light on exciting action this week, as the ad world sticks its head down and gets all pitchy-like. But we know about that already. So here's a selection of small items and fun stuff to snack on while you wait for your main, and spare a thought for Your Correspondent, who's succumbed to that evil cold that's going around.

Crünchie Röcks
Fallon London has come up with a new spot for Crunchie, but with a difference. It’s for a new product called Crunchie Rocks (think little hokey pokey nuggets plus chocolate covering), not the usual suspect chockie bar. A bloke in a caravan sings a Tina Turner classic and suddenly he’s off with the song fairies. All he needs are some rock dots and a hotel room to trash. Yeah, Cadbüry. The campaign is supported by outdoor and digital (but only in UK – sorry, rockers).

Lill to Sydney
Acumen Republic is setting up a Sydney office and has appointed current staffer Coran Lill to group account director to lead the establishment. Mr Lill has been at Acumen since 2005. Prior to that he worked for the NBR and was a solicitor at Buddle Findlay. Catherine Arnott has also been appointed senior account manager in Sydney, from Sydney-based Recognition PR.

Good riddance to bad rubbish
Need a dose of opinion on the eventual disappearance of print? This bloke says “good riddance” to books as the iPad and the Kindle take over the world and “book romanticists cry themselves to sleep.” He makes the point we’re losing the throwaway paperback, the airport paperback and the beachside paperback, which are all disposable books and are just filthy paraphernalia in this life.

Been there, got the t-shirt
As much as I enjoy railing against the Social Media Cult (although seriously, how cool would one of their t-shirts be? Somebody hook me up), I have to admit Twitter is very useful for getting an insta-answer for a random question, such as “can we still buy pseudoephedrine in pharmacies in New Zealand or has the government gone all nanny pants already?” Helpful folk, those Twits. Anyway, here’s an amusing situation from ABC News Online in Australia, where the investigative unit (and wouldn’t we love one of their t-shirts, too) asked, “Got something you want investigated? Tweet @abc—investigate.” They weren’t so prepared for the response though. Some of life’s burning questions involved gems such as: “Dear @abc--investigate, what's love got to do with it?" and "Why won't MC Hammer let me touch anything?" Fair enough question, the latter. Check out #askABC for more fun.

BCG on the rum
Blackwood Communications Group has done a complete overhaul of the Coruba rum brand in order to “take the spirit back to its much loved kiwi roots [sic]." It’s a project 12 months in the making and includes a new brand position, “the rum from the sun.” Look out for new TVCs – shot at Muriwai beach by Josh Frizell – and in-store and bar promo campaigns. The media spend will stretch out all year long. Unfortunately the associated website is still under construction.

And in short:
Mr Drinnan reports that Craig Herbison, general manager of marketing and branding at Telecom, is leaving the company.

Monica Wales at Opinion Added takes note of the giant numeric Mini campaign.

Josh Borthwick at adhub on online ad spend. The IAB has just released a report with an increase of 15.27% year-on-year for Q1 2010 over 2009. “The market seems buoyant again and there are general predictions of strong continued growth in online advertising across the rest of 2010. Agencies seem optimistic and even Wellington’s brushing off the bruises from 2009 government budget cuts.”

There's no Ad Show filming tonight or next week. This week's episode was filmed over a long lunch with the lovely Neil Livingstone, Mike Hutcheson and Geoff Dixon at Auckland restaurant Clooney. You can catch that episode tomorrow on TVNZ7 at 9.35pm or online on Friday. Next week there's no Ad Show as we take a break to make way for a Media7 special. After that there are five episodes left in the season (June 9-July 7 filmings), so if you've been meaning to make it along to a filming and haven't yet, get yer skates on. Wednesday evenings from 6.30pm at TVNZ, refreshments and scintillating conversation provided.

Finally, if you’re in Auckland on June 3, you might want to hop along to Late at the Museum. There’s a discussion featuring Brent Impey, Colin Peacock, Dr Martin Hirst and Eric Kearley, who’ll tackle what is happening in the changing digital landscape (with Finlay Macdonald to moderate). What does it mean for journalism, broadcasters, policy makers and audiences? What is happening, and what needs to happen, to ensure the independence and profitably of content creators in the age of open source media? And how do you deal when people expect to read, hear and watch content for free?