The unforgivable sin, according to Niven Boyle.

Niven Boyle’s a media planning veteran whose agency The Media Dept happens to be based in Christchurch. He’s a fan of street posters, which is why we asked about his favourite campaigns, the future of the medium, and the thing no self-respecting designer should ever do on posters.

How did you come to be in the ad business, and why did you set up The Media Dept?

I fell into it really. After a background in airline sales and marketing and then being involved in setting up Sports Betting in New Zealand, I moved back to Christchurch and got a suiting job with a local agency. It didn’t take long for my boss to realise I was better suited to media because I was good with numbers and loved going out for long lunches. Those were the days…

I suppose it was just a natural progression to start my own company, which was over 10 years ago now.

What is it like being based in Christchurch? 

We’ve got a lot less fences and buildings than we used to have. There are fewer site options, and without much of a CBD there still isn’t the pedestrian traffic that other cities have. Owners of new buildings seem less keen on having posters, which makes things a bit trickier.

Whilst we run a lot of national campaigns, we do tend to become quite adept at making budgets stretch further as we’re used to working with budgets that have a lot less ‘0’s!

As far as planning and buying New Zealand-wide campaigns, we can do anything that agencies in other centres can.

What’s the place of street posters in the media landscape? 

Posters are great for delivering frequency and getting into areas not available to other media. As soon as you’ve hit the streets you’re immediately communicating to a lot of people. You can saturate a city or target a particular suburb, so the flexibility is ideal.

Name a street poster campaign that sticks in your mind. 

I still remember the old AMI Insurance campaign ‘Party at Kelly Browne’s’. While it ran across a number of other media, I first recall seeing street posters in odd places and wondering what the hell was going on. It could have been the embryo of social media – you decide you’re having a party and put posters up everywhere to make sure 10,000 gatecrashers turn up.

What’s your biggest bugbear with the way people use the medium?

Creative that uses size 7 font!

Seriously, I don’t understand why so much outdoor advertising looks like a transposed magazine ad. A simple, clear message and as few words as possible should be deemed mandatory. If that is ignored then the creator should be sent to Outdoor Design 101 for remedial lessons.

Could you share a story of a poster campaign that worked brilliantly?

I’ll always remember the very first campaign we did for ‘All Right?’ This is a Healthy Christchurch initiative set up through Canterbury District Health Board after the earthquakes. The timing and creative were perfect after what had happened to the city. It captured many of the emotions of the time and just totally resonated with people.

Any thoughts on the future of street posters, especially in today’s media landscape?

I think there will always be a place for real posters. Digital will become more prevalent as time goes on but there are still things only the printed word can do. For example, your printed street poster is up 24/7 for as long as you’ve booked the site, instead of being displayed on rotation for a fraction of that time.

For the foreseeable future I can’t see posters being usurped.

See what Niven Boyle is talking about- book your campaign today

Robots, stolen poster frames, a naked man doing a handstand.

They’re just some of the things Conal Hume has worked on, replaced or encountered during his time with Phantom Billstickers.

Conal’s currently our Bay of Plenty Advertising expert for Tauranga and Rotorua. He first joined us in Wellington and has brought his energy, imagination and initiative to bear on every role he’s undertaken to date.

You started out obsessed by robots…

I moved to the Wellington, wanting to learn how to make robots. Not the kind that build cars but the kind you see in cartoons and movies. The fun, imaginary robots…but I wanted to find ways of making them real.

I started with a course at Massey but after one year I could see that was not going to teach me how to make the things I had seen on the TV and in movies, so I moved to Natcoll. One year later I had a Diploma in Animation and Digital Video – I made the best virtual Ninja Turtle model my tutor had seen – and had just started a Diploma in Digital Video Post Production.

So how did you end up at Phantom?

I had seen people putting up posters all over town and thought that could be a fun job. It’s essentially ‘copy and paste’ but physical, on buildings in the real world. Then I stumbled across an ad looking for a Billsticker and applied. I said I could start that weekend and boom, hired. Thanks, Ben.

I started with the Newtown run, part-time Saturday and Sunday. Then I went full-time and later began making mock-ups, building frames, modifying sites for campaigns, and even designing and installing new sites in unconventional places like gardens, windows and non-flat wall space.

It was a fun five or six years. Frankly I’m not sure how long it was – it was all a bit of a blur that I became obsessed about.

Eventually I decided to move back to the BoP, and fortunately Phantom were keen to start up a Bay of Plenty Advertising division with me in charge of operations. Yee ha, here we are!

Take us through a typical day on the job.

I get a list of what posters need to go up and I head out to put them up, then check up on them to make sure they’re in good condition.

Every now and again someone will try peel a cool poster off the frame but give up once they realise it’s pretty well stuck on. I’ll fix the damage and make it look nice again.

Is there a poster campaign that sticks out in your mind?

I really like the ones that are interactive. When I was in Wellington there was a campaign where we put up Jockey underwear on sites, and the public could nab ‘em. It was pretty funny seeing the look on their faces when they posed for photos.

Then there was the time free chocolate was put inside Phantom frames over Christmas. Hordes of people showed up wanting their chocolate fix.

What makes posters special compared to other advertising media?

The analogue nature of the street poster. People stop just to watch the new poster go up, especially if it’s windy. Some even want to help out. It’s really the best of Bay of Plenty Advertising.

It bugs me when they’re taken, but it’s actually nice when someone steals a frame. Sometimes they really want the poster but can’t peel it off, so they rip the frame off the wall and take it home. Over my time on the job I’ve seen a dozen or so Phantom frames in people’s backyards or lounges. Loving homes, I hope.

What’s the most unusual thing you’ve had to deal with as the Bay of Plenty Advertising Specialist?

Once I rocked up to a site and the site wasn’t there. It was pretty big, so where did it go? And one of the guys I worked with once saw a naked man doing a handstand in the early hours of the morning.

It can be pretty raw at times. One time in Christchurch, after hours on an install blitz, I went for a walk along the coast. I stumbled upon a group of guys that had an injured comrade with a severely broken ankle and head wound after falling off a cliff. I ended up hugging him for about an hour to provide body warmth until the helicopter came to pick him up.

What are your interests away from work?

I like designing things, and finding out what works and what doesn’t. I bought a 3D printer and have been experimenting with 3D structures that work the same as their virtual counterparts. It’s one step closer to building a fun robot. What a time to be alive!

Writing programmes that make computers do things is another interest. I have recently been trying to make those ‘magic eye’ images that have a 3D image trapped in a 2D plane. I reckon it could work really well with Phantom’s Weather-tight pasting technique.

I also like to go exploring new places like hiking tracks or go for a kayak somewhere. It’s a great way to find new things and just chill out and be one with nature.

To find out how you can make the most of our Bay of Plenty Advertising, please contact us