What were the standout products in 2012? From TV show The Voice to the Toyota 86 to video game Diablo 3, check out the AdNews picks, as featured in the AdNews Annual.
The Voice
It was the show that put the Nine Network on cloud nine during the middle of the year and had many tipping the return of the broadcaster’s mid-‘90s mojo. The inaugural season of The Voice featured A-list judges in Joel Madden, Delta Goodrem, Keith Urban and Seal and managed to find some great singing talent as well. Scottish-born Darren McMullan made for a great host and audience numbers regularly topped the six-figure mark. The show was almost a victim of its own success with Keith Urban leaving to judge American Idol in 2013, but the signing of Latin sensation Ricky Martin to replace him was a big win. Of course, a huge part of The Voice’s runaway success came down to its popularity on social media. The show’s Twitter hashtag, #TheVoiceAU, regularly trended worldwide during the Monday night live performance shows. The ultimate watercooler show.
Toyota 86
Two-door sports cars made a comeback in a big way this year thanks to Toyota and Subaru. The companies combined to produce the spine-tingling Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ (the car is basically the same for both brands) sports car at an earth-shatteringly low price (from $29,990), and it sold out straight away. In a market in love with the SUV that was a massive deal. It even took home Drive and Top Gear’s Car of the Year.
Apple iPad Mini
Steve Jobs said it would never be done. A seven-inch tablet is just too small, so why bother? Despite the launch of the iPad mini, Apple stuck to Jobs’ word with the mini being 0.9 inches larger than the cursed number. In typical Apple product fashion, fans flocked and general consumers went along for the ride. Apple managed to shift three million of them in three days – something tablet magazine publishers will be loving to bits.
Cadbury Marvellous Creations
Eat your heart out, Willy Wonka, Cadbury is muscling in on your territory. Marvellous Creations revolutionised the chocolate space this year and seemingly all Cadbury had to do was throw a heap of different ingredients into its chocolate before randomly shaping it and shipping it out the door. Sales were helped along by one of the more memorable ad campaigns of the year, ‘Joyville’.
Foxtel Go
With the introduction of 4G the world is becoming our technological oyster. There are few better examples for making use of it than Foxtel Go. All that multi-channel goodness available on your iPad for no extra cost. The Foxtel Go app is intuitive and functional, delivering a large number of Foxtel channels on your iPad and soon your iPhone. Now you can watch Gossip Girl and Escape To The Country no matter where you are. If that’s what you’re into.
Nike+ Sportswatch GPS
Running is for losers. If you want to be cool and run you have to do it with stuff strapped around you. Like this, the Nike+ Sportswatch GPS which tells the time, counts your calories and tracks your location so you can map your run later on and show the world on social media. You know, because everyone on Facebook wants to know how fast you ran five kilometres.
Diablo 3
The videogame industry is now more profitable than the movie industry. It’s the little factoid that everyone knows but assumes everyone else doesn’t know. Blizzard, the makers of Diablo 3, certainly know now. Despite issues on launch, the game still managed to rack up a whopping 3.5 million sales in the first 24 hours. That makes it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Skyfall.
H2 Coco
Step aside, Red Bull, move along V, coconut water is the new beverage king and H2 Coco is leading the movement. Available in a range of flavours, its so good that Lara Bingle didn’t have time to put her top on when she did a photo shoot for the drink. According to the website: “Coconut water’s unique nutritional profile gives it the power to balance body chemistry, containing the essential nutrients that helps give more zest to life.” Mmm... zest to life.
The Sapphires
Now that we have The Sapphires we can all stop talking about The Castle as if it’s the only good movie that ever came out of Australia. The Sapphires proved that the Australian film industry still has it and Jessica Mauboy managed to prove that Australian Idol stars are useful for more than just Christmas albums and the mispronunciation of everyday words. In its ‘day-but’ week the movie took in $2.32 million at the Australian box office. Not too shabby.
Asta
It’s been a big year for Australian music with Gotye becoming President of the United States of America and Delta Goodrem properly recovered from her relationship with Brian McFadden. While all this has been going on, AdNews’ pick of the tunes, Asta, has flown under the radar a little bit. The winner of Triple J’s Unearthed High competition, the Tassie lass is ace at rolling out sensationally emotional tunes with a twist of pop. Great stuff.
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