Timezoneone Blog

It was meant to be a big sporting weekend for some of us southern zoners. Starting on Saturday with the Peak to Pub, a race which consisted of snowboarding or skiing down Mt Hutt, biking down the access road and then running to Methven. A few hardy souls had entered but were at the mercy of New Zealand’s infamous changeable weather. The warm nor’wester brought with it strong gale force winds which forced the event to be postponed to Sunday. Unfortunately most had other plans so were unable to compete which was a shame.

On Sunday morning the wind had changed and brought rain. Three more zoners got up early to compete in the Physiomed Women’s Triathlon. The initial adrenaline was a little dampened when we arrived, and the longer we stood in the rain waiting for the event to begin the more our enthusiasm waned. Luckily by the time the race started the weather gods had noticed our sun dance and the rain stopped while we were swimming, and stayed away for the duration. We all managed to stay upright and on our bikes which was a bit of a feat due to the slippery conditions. After some amazing photo finishes we waited to see if any of us placed our respective categories. Sadly, not this time, but watch this space!

A great effort by all, big ups to Maria (2 time duathlete) and Liz (triathlon newbie).

Rose ‘tri veteran’ 3 time triathlete  

We are delighted to welcome Lor Gold to our Zone and to our blog.

Lor is a marketing and advertising pioneer, a true industry heavyweight with deep experience in all categories.

He joins TimeZoneOne as Chief Global Creative Officer and in so doing he takes a big step from an Old World agency life to a New World agency life of time-shifting, off-shoring, fresh not frozen creative, Skyping, going deep, 24 hour teams and ‘up close’ creative and campaigns.

You can call Lor on 312 436 1448 or email him at lor.gold@timezoneone.com and he can tell you more.

His new TimeZoneOne friends welcome him; we love having him around and know that our clients will too.

All the Zoners

PS. Hope you enjoy the video, he ís quite photogenic (oddly).

TimeZoneOne names Lor Gold Global Chief Creative Officer September 29 2008
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This Sunday is Father’s Day in New Zealand.  So this weeks ‘Zoner of the Week’ goes to all the Dads at TimeZoneOne for creating so much more than just extraordinary creative, Nigel Foley, Andy Carruthers, Murray Grossmith, David McLeod (me) and Hamish McDonald. Mark Cornellison gets an honorable mention, but narrowly misses out on new socks and hankerchiefs this year, his baby is not due for another month.

Here’s a little Father’s Day entercation…

Although normal English punctuation guidelines indicate that the holiday should be spelled “Fathers’ Day” (as it is a plural possessive), common usage dictates that the ostensibly singular possessive “Father’s Day” is the preferred spelling.

In New Zealand…

the average age of fathers of new babies is 33 years.

Fathers with children aged under one year manage 42 minutes less sleep than the average of 8.5 hours.

Over a lifetime, fathers have seven fewer Father’s Days, on average, than mothers have Mother’s Days. This is because men generally start parenting later in life and women have a longer life span. So make the most of it.

More than a quarter (28 percent) of babies born in New Zealand last year were to fathers who were not themselves born in New Zealand.

In the USA…

Father’s day is celebrated on the 3rd Sunday of June (In New Zealand, it’s the 1st Sunday of September.).

there is an estimated 64.3 million Dads.

Americans spend around $11 billion on gifts for Father’s Day. This is about $7 billion less than the amount spent on Moms for Mother’s Day.

David ‘top of the fooseball ladder’ McLeod

We have a new bloke in the New Zealand office, Robert MacDonald. He comes all the way from nearly-tropical Glasgow, Scotland. To introduce Robert to the rest of the team and expose him to a bit of kiwiness, I put a simple Kiwiness Exam to him. It is very scientific, there are 10 questions, each question worth 10 marks, to give a total kiwiness percentage.

SECTION 1: SMALL TALK.
A. How’s it going?

brilliant! (6/10)

MODEL KIWI ANSWER: Sweet as.

B. Whatcha been up to?

getting married, emigrating, skiing (4/10)

MODEL KIWI ANSWER: Aw, ya know, nothin’ much

SECTION 2: HAVE YOU EVER…

A. Climbed Mt. Everest?

no, just K2…just joking but I have done the Gobi Challenge which a 140 mile trek through the desert carrying all my own food and equipment! (8/10)

MODEL KIWI ANSWER: Na, I don’t need to, cos Sir Edmund already did.

B. Used the Metric System?

Robert: yes (8/10)

MODEL KIWI ANSWER: Yeah, heaps.

C. Spent Christmas day at the Beach?

no, just in the deep dark depressing depths of a Scottish winter (2/10)

MODEL KIWI ANSWER: Yeah, heaps.

D. Eaten any of the following?… Porkbones and pūhā? a Crunchie Bar? Green-lipped Mussels? Hāngi? Chocolate Fish? Rotten Corn? Pavlova? Fish and Chips? Huhu grubs? or a Hamburger with beetroot in it?

Robert: Yes and deep fried Mars Bars too! (8/10)

MODEL KIWI ANSWER: Yeah, heaps.

SECTION 3: DO YOU…

A. Know any Māori words?

Robert: Te (0/10)

MODEL KIWI ANSWER: Yeah, heaps.

B. Own a pair of gumboots? If yes…. If it weren’t for your gumboots, where would you be?

Robert: What are gumboots?? (0/10)

MODEL KIWI ANSWER: Yeah, If it weren’t for me gumboots, where would I be? I’d be in the hospital or infirmary.

C. Follow Rugby?

Robert: not really because Scotland are crap at all sports, except in 1984 when they won the grand slam!!! woohoo! (While not a very kiwi response, Robert is absolutely correct. 10/10)

MODEL KIWI ANSWER: Yell the name of your local team for as long and loud as possible. eg. ‘CAAAAAAAANNNNNNTEEEERRRRBBBUUUURRRRYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’

THE RESULT.

Robert is 46% kiwi as. That’s a C- pass, wellll done Robert. we’re chuffed to have you onboard.

David ‘Brian’ McLeod

For a little ‘from the archives’ fun, I dipped into the darkest corner of the TimeZoneOne archive cupboard and pulled out ‘Idea Unique ARCHIVE ONE’ - circa May 1995. What interesting long forgotten work lays on this dusty little Kodak Writable CD with InfoGuard Protection? Well, I found a little piece of my childhood on there, in the form of some adverts for Linwood City Shopping Mall…

For those who didn’t grow up in Christchurch’s coolest suburb, Linwood City was an old mall that was renovated many times and renamed EastGate Mall, all that remains of the old mall now is the McDonald’s. I was there when that McDonald’s opened (I got a cheeseburger happy meal, the toy was baby kermit the frog riding a skateboard) and I had my 10th birthday party there and won the monthly birthday prize draw. I would’ve been about 12 when this advert was made, and I might’ve entered my mum in the competition if I wasn’t so busy playing Street Fighter II and Puzzle Bobble ‘fully hard out to the days’. My mum worked at the Post Bank and we used to go to Video Village and rent Sega Master System games and my sisters would get Benji and Care Bear movies and my best friend from primary school was banned for 2 years for stealing marbles from Whitcoull’s… and I was a little sad when they started tearing stuff down, like the big Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog characters on the roof, and changed the name to EastGate.

Anyway…

Sticking with the ‘old stuff’ theme… here’s something really old that’s less about me and more about the graphic design/advertising industry. Welcome to Adobe Illustrator 88….

David ‘Puzzle Bloggle’ McLeod

In the spirit of the Tri-Nations and the current rugby crazed Southern Hemisphere it would seem remise of me not to mention the newest TimeZoneOne client - USA Rugby.

Richard McDonald, new business extraordinaire met with Nigel Melville (CEO & President of Rugby Operations USA Rugby) on Tuesday August 19^th in Boulder, Colorado (yes another Boulder client).

We look forward to working closely with USA Rugby and helping spread the great game of rugby in the USA.

So well done us!

Blogged out from the foxhole

It is just about college football time in the US and the hype about the upcoming schools and their potential is the topic of much conversation.This week saw the first Preseason 2008 NCAA Football Rankings hit the press and it was the first time in University of Georgia football history to come out on both the Associated Press (AP) and USA Today’s Poll as the number one preseason college football school.

As with all preseason rankings they can be a little presumptuous, however the University of Georgia Bulldogs have been biting their time the last few years and maybe could we see the year of the dawg????

Coming from Australia eight years ago and knowing very little about football (or as we call it gridiron) I really immersed myself into the American college football rite of passage.  I learnt the fine art of tailgating and other fun and somewhat unique experiences. 

So Saturday August 30^th is the official start of the 2008-09 college football season.  I look forward to seeing my old school (alma mater) Georgia Southern University take on the number 1 ranked Georgia Bulldogs, great viewing and couch time will be installed for this brown bear.

In the spirit of Richie and Tatts experience we have nominated University of California Bears as the official TimeZoneOne College football team - GO BEARS!

TimeZoneOne College Football Analyst - Folksey

My zoner of the week goes to our recently departed Elizabeth Davidson, who has left us temporarily to have her first baby. Best of luck Lizzy, we will miss your beautifully articulated phone voice when we call the New Zealand office, as well as your incomparable assistance with projects.

As we wave good bye to one zoner, we also welcome another.  Jackie Clark has joined us to replace Elizabeth. Jackie comes with many years experience in advertising, with a strong background in television production.  Jackie, we all look forward to working with you.  Welcome to the team!

Raewyn

My zoner of the week goes to Raewyn.  Raewyn has been a busy bee of late with numerous things on her “mental” to do’ list.

This week in the life of Raewyn consisted of a week of annual leave but as we all know annual leave doesn’t exist in the life of Mrs. Topp.  The week started off with a wonderful start with her mother coming to Chicago from the hinterland of Canterbury, New Zealand.  A few days later Raewyn celebrated her birthday in style by trouncing around her new Chicago home renovating site and making chooses on what light bulbs would be adequate in all the fixtures…..  And along with this she had time to come into the office and work until all hours of almost every night.

So hats off to Raewyn for shining the TZ1 torch….

Blogged out for now - Richard

Right on the back on the TV3 camera’s…the TimeZoneOne creative team had the pleasure of sharing a cup of tea with New Zealand’s “uber entrepreneur”  Stephen Tindall, Founder of The Warehouse.

Stephen is an avid supporter of the New Zealand “knowledge economy“. We believe the TimeZoneOne business model is a perfect example of the “knowledge economy” in action - we use Flat World technology to bring our clients New World creativity.

Why New Zealand?

• Exceptional creative talent
• Global thinkers
• English speaking, strong communication
• Western (USA and UK) culture
• Technologically advanced
• Can-do mentality
• Time zone advantage
• Friendly
• Cost of doing business advantage

Richard