Campaign Brief New Zealand

New Zealand Listener is the NAB’s November Newspaper Ad of the Month winner, created by DRAFTFCB.
 “A smart ad” thought the judges James Mok (DRAFTFCB) and Jacko Van Deventer (The Craft Shop).
Mok abstained from the final vote.
 
Agency: DRAFTFCB
Creative Director: Jeff Harris, James Mok
Art Director: Iain McMillan
Copywriter: Antony Wilson
Designer: Roxanne Hawthorne, Iain McMillan
Typographer: Roxanne Hawthorne, Iain McMillan
Account Service: Fleur Head, Lee Dodds, Victoria Barnes-Graham
Planner: Lisa Divett
Client: Chris Gwin – APN News & Media
 
The winning ad will be sponsored into 2009 Axis Awards, and the winning creative team will receive
$250 cash. The ad will also appear in the “What’s New” section of November AdMedia.  The ad will
automatically be a finalist for The Newspaper Ad of Year and its $10,000 cash prize.l
 To view all the finalists as well as winners from previous months, visit the website:
 www.nabs.co.nz/Inspiration/AdofMonth.   

The Call For Entries to the 29th Annual AXIS Awards opens today, Monday 1 December.
This year’s theme ties into our industry’s obsession with collecting at award shows.  Everyone wants to walk away with everything.  Always.
So, to feed the beast, DDB New Zealand have created a collectable series of 64 AXIS 09 Top Trump style stickers, each containing hard-hitting stats about the nation’s top creatives.
Aside from learning who has the worst Fashion Sense, the most Charm or the highest Lunchability score, the first person to Collect Them All will win a MacBook.  Second place receives an iPhone.
High-profile industry figures have already lent their support (well, their photos at least) to a series of viral teaser spots, and demand for the stickers is already heating up.
Auckland’s finest ad eateries have also signed-up to help distribute stickers to patrons, and a website allows visitors to trade cards, create their own and even play online through a purpose built Facebook application.
For more information, visit collectthemall.co.nz  Call for Entries close 4pm, Monday 2 February, 2009.

It's soon time to pick Campaign Brief New Zealand Agency of the Year -- and also to work out the 2009 CB Creativity/Billings Index (or Hot+Cold Chart).
As far as most agency creative directors are concerned, CB Agency of the Year is the most coveted of all AOY titles to win - and where an agency is placed on our annual chart is critical to many agency's new business performance in the coming year (that's the bit of most interest to CEOs!).
If you are entering other trade magazine Agency of the Year competitions, please send us (almost) the same thing. You'll be pleased to know it's free to enter, unlike some of the others -- and you won't have to personally front a jury of competing agency execs and clients in a Sydney hotel to present your case!
Provide your TV/Viral/Integrated on a DVD and Print/Outdoor/Ambient work as A4 laser prints. (Keep the package small this year!). Please list highlights of the year, including all awards won in 2008, new people, plus accounts won and lost, etc. in a separate doco.
Please only include work that has run between January 1 to Dec 31, 2008.
Even if you feel it's not your year, please send us your best as it is vital to work out where your agency fits on the 2009 CB Creativity/Billings Index.
Make sure your package arrives at CB prior to Friday 12th December, 2008.

Address packages to:
Campaign Brief
Level 1
24 Hickson Road
SYDNEY NSW 2000

HONOUR ROLL: CB NEW ZEALAND AGENCY OF THE YEAR
1999 Colenso BBDO Auckland
2000 Saatchi & Saatchi NZ
2001 Colenso BBDO Auckland
2002 Colenso BBDO Auckland
2003 DDB New Zealand
2004 Publicis Mojo Auckland
2005 Saatchi & Saatchi NZ
2006 Saatchi & Saatchi NZ
2007 DDB New Zealand

A sell-out crowd of 800 guests celebrated the most outstanding creative work in the Asia Pacific region tonight (November 27th) at the striking Overseas Passenger Terminal in Sydney.
A record number of 10 Gold winners were awarded, with the overall number of winners tallying 206, 13 less than 2007 even though there were 620 more entries across the region. Publicis Mojo, Auckland was the only NZ shop to take home a Gold Pencil, won for their Speight's Great Beer Delivery integrated campaign.
Multiple Gold winners were; Lowe and Rivet Sydney for MTV 'Welcome Snoop', Leo Burnett Advertising Sdn Bhd for Tan Hong Ming and Exit Films for Schweppes 'Burst' via GPY&R, Melbourne. (The ECD on that multi-awarded spot was Paul Catmur, now partner at Barnes Catmur, Auckland.)
AWARD Network of the Year went to BBDO, AWARD Agency of The Year went to Lowe and Rivet Sydney and MTV Networks Australia was proclaimed AWARD Client of The Year.
The winner of the Encouragement Award, recognising those who have demonstrated an outstanding ability to answer briefs with a freshness of thought and creativity, went to Brett Colliver from DDB New Zealand.
The show opened with an amusing piece that poked fun at the industry, produced by Revolver and The Editors before MC Peter Berner took the stage to present this year’s awards.
Winner numbers went up by 19 for Australia (2008: 104 winners, 2007: 85 winners), New Zealand received 19 less than last year (2008: 45 winners, 2007: 64 winners) and Asia went down by 13 (2008: 57 winners, 2007: 70 winners).

Download the full list of winners:
AWARD Awards Winners 2008.pdf

The Gold winners:
•    Leo Burnett Advertising Sdn Bhd - Tan Hong Ming - Television & Cinema - Community service & charity, individual - any length
•    Exit Films – Schweppes Burst - Craft in Television & Cinema - Direction Design
•    Exit Films – Schweppes Burst - Craft in Television & Cinema - Cinematography
•    Leo Burnett Advertising Sdn Bhd - Tan Hong Ming - Craft in Television & Cinema - Casting
•    TBWA\China - Adidas Olympic - Print - Consumer Magazines, campaign - black and white or colour
•    Publicis Mojo Auckland - Speight's Great Beer Delivery - Integrated campaign
•    Lowe and Rivet Sydney - Welcome Snoop - Integrated campaign
•    TBWA\China - Adidas Olympic, Hu Jia - Print Craft - Art direction
•    Lowe and Rivet Sydney - Welcome Snoop - Direct Marketing - Direct Response Advertising, campaign
•    Leo Burnett India - Luxor Pop up Interactive - Banner ad (including expanders, sequential, synchronised)
 
The Top 10 agencies:
1    Lowe and Rivet Sydney
2    Colenso BBDO Auckland
3    Ogilvy New Zealand
4    George Patterson Y&R Melbourne
5    Leo Burnett India
6    Clemenger BBDO Wellington
7    TBWA\China
8    M&C Saatchi Sydney
9    Clemenger BBDO Sydney
10  Grey Melbourne

Top 5 Agency Networks:
1    BBDO
2    TBWA\
3    Leo Burnett
4    Lowe and Rivet
5    Ogilvy

Guests partied away at Ocean Room and Wildfire Restaurants, followed by an after party at Soho Bar until the early hours.
 

The Clemenger Group in New Zealand are pretty happy after last night’s haul in Shanghai at the Asia Pacific Digital Media Awards. They walked away with four awards including the highest accolade, the Platinum award going to Colenso BBDO, for the Read at Work campaign for NZ Book Council. This awards goes to the campaign that exhibits the most originality and innovation.
The Digital Media Awards honour the best in digital marketing and communications in the Asia Pacific region, highlighting work that demonstrate outstanding creativity and effectiveness across the industry. All eyes were on what digital work was going to be awarded out of Korea, Japan, China and India but it was New Zealand that showed the breakthrough work in the digital arena.
 
•           The Platinum Award (Best in Show)
Colenso BBDO New Zealand for New Zealand Book Council
http://www.brandrepublic.asia/DigitalMedia/Awards/awards/platinum.html
•           Gold – Best Not for Profit Campaign
Colenso BBDO New Zealand for New Zealand Book Council
http://www.brandrepublic.asia/DigitalMedia/Awards/awards/nonprofit.htm
•           Silver – Best Leisure/Travel Campaign
Aim Proximity New Zealand, Colenso BBDO New Zealand – Grabaplan -Air New Zealand
http://www.brandrepublic.asia/DigitalMedia/Awards/awards/travel.html
•           Bronze – Best Mobile Campaign
Clemenger BBDO – Land Transport New Zealand
http://www.brandrepublic.asia/DigitalMedia/Awards/awards/mobile.html

The International ANDY Awards, entering its 45th year as one of the industry’s preeminent creative advertising awards shows, is reinforcing its position as the first important show of the season in its new advertising campaign. With a proven track record as the predictor of the top winners in the creative shows that follow, the ANDYs are claiming its influential role by stating “Win the GRANDY, Win Them All.”
“Given the consistently on-target evaluation of the ANDY juries, we decided it was time to proudly ‘claim’ this prescient role and remind creatives they lead the way when they become an ANDY, and especially, GRANDY winner,” says Mark Waites, Chairman of the ANDY Awards and Creative Director/Co-founder of Mother London.
Conceived by Mother under Waites, the campaign message is supported by the charting of past GRANDY winners (ANDYs Best of Show) that went on to win at Cannes, The Clios, The Art Director’s Show and The One Show. Each show is visually represented by its award, be it the ANDY head, Cannes Lion, Clio scepter, One Show and Art Director’s pencils (for print work, go to www.andyawards.com).
The Call-for-Entry online campaign satirizes the emails of websites like Friendster and LinkedIn that invite you to be part of one’s social network. The interactive piece creates a jack-in-the-box surprise by opening as a traditional “friend network” notification from one of the famous ANDY judges such as Jeff Goodby or Bob Scarpelli (http://www.creativesconnect.net).
The unexpected comes when the face of that judge appears laughing; the viewer is then reminded of their ranking in the creative food chain, mocking the idea this stellar executive would never be their friend unless they won the GRANDY. The edgy joke can be forwarded to other industry friends and colleagues as part of the campaign’s viral roll-out.
“We wanted to have fun with the popularity of online social networking and the conditional nature of ‘acceptance’ by our creative heroes,” says Waites. “We feel this Call-for-Entry will make people take notice and encourage them to spread the word about the ANDYs through sharing a relatable, comical bit of industry insecurity.”
The print campaign rolled out the last week of October and continues through December in Boards, Campaign Brief, Campaign UK, Contagious, Creativity, ihaveanidea.org and TaxiDesign. The Call-for-Entry digital piece was blasted out in early November.  

King Street Advertising's client Tompkins Wake is a lawfirm who has been having difficulty attracting top lawyers to relocate to Hamilton (Hamilton gets a hard time by the media). They came to the agency wanting a solution to their "situations vacant" ads that weren't working. This is what they came up with: www.thecaseforhamilton.co.nz

Account team: Chris Williams, Julie Townsend
Creative team/writers: Konrad Smith, Tony Aubrey
Producer: Luc McPake
Design: Megan Baker
Web: Claudia Hill
Media: Kwan Leung

The "letter" above appeared as an ad in Lawtalk and will run in the NBR tomorrow. Check out the video on the website.

Saatchi & Saatchi and DDB are the only New Zealand agencies to make the Top 50 Awarded Agencies in the World tally in this year's Gunn Report, ranked =37 and =43 respectively.
Leo Burnett Sydney is the only Australian shop in the Top 50, ranked =24.
The most awarded agency in the world this year was BBDO New York, followed by Fallon London, DDB London, Saatchi & Saatchi New York and McCann Worldgroup/Tag, San Francisco.

After an absence of over 3 years McCann has re-established a presence in the New Zealand market with the opening of its Auckland office.
The office has been opened to primarily service the L’Oreal/Maybelline/Luxury business which has been with Lowe but as they have now merged with Draft FCB who handle a competitor they cannot remain on the roster – so the business has been brought back into the McCann network.
Heading up the New Zealand office will be Ben Lightfoot, who brings a strong background in both creative and account/agency management. The McCann NZ agency will begin with full capabilities including ATL, BTL and everything in between.
“It is a wonderful opportunity to be joining McCann’s international network and especially being part of the team bringing them back in to the New Zealand market. And to do so working with the L’Oreal Group brands is incredibly exciting,” says Lightfoot.
Says Chris Mort, Chairman and CEO of McCann Worldgroup Australia: “Ben and his team are very impressive – and I am absolutely delighted to have them representing McCann in New Zealand.”
Ben Lightfoot can be contacted on +64 (9) 3639609 or +64 (21) 800649

AWARD and Campaign Brief to co-host a truly legendary lunch for AWARD Members,
generously sponsored by The Sweet Shop.

AWARD Members and VIP guests will be treated to a special lunch on Wednesday 26th November, the day before the AWARD Awards. Those attending from interstate and overseas are encouraged to come to Sydney a day earlier to celebrate in a two day AWARD mini-festival.  
The lunch will be held at the beautiful Wharf Restaurant at Pier 4, Hickson Road.
Limited FREE tickets will be distributed to AWARD Members on a first reservation basis. All members must complete the booking form to ensure their place.
The AWARD Awards Presentation Evening & Cocktail Party will be held on Thursday, November 27th at The Overseas Passenger Terminal Sydney. 
Bookings for both events can be reserved and purchased by contacting AWARD:
Telephone  +61 2 9699 2999
Or download the booking form:
AWARD Members Lunch Booking form.pdf

AWARD School launches in Wellington in April 2009. Supported by the industry’s finest, it’s a unique part-time training course in creative advertising.

Originating in Australia, AWARD School focuses on great ideas and turning these into great ads. It’s been running in Australia for 25 years and is the premier creative education system in the Asia Pacific region. AWARD School is the only ideas based training program for aspiring art directors and copywriters in advertising.
Paul Nagy, Creative Director Clemenger BBDO Wellington (pictured above left)) has been appointed by the AWARD Executive Committee as the School Leader for 2009 and says: “As an AWARD graduate myself, I’m thrilled that the finest creative school in the region is coming to Wellington. It will give students a genuine springboard into the industry and keep the creative spirit of this city burning bright. Can’t wait.”
Students applying to do the course will have to be accepted via an application.
The application questions for the course will be available to download from www.awardschoolonline.com on 16th January 2009.
AWARD School Wellington dates: Wednesday, 8th April – Thursday 23rd July 2009.
The 16-week part time course will run from April to July in Wellington. The course consists of a Monday evening lecture and Thursday evening tutorial. AWARD school invites lecturers and tutors from some of the most talented pool of people currently working in the industry. AWARD School is completely unique. It is a course in IDEAS and how great creative thinking applies to advertising. It provides students with insight into the creative process and develops the creative disciplines of art direction and copywriting.
David Droga, Worldwide Chief Creative Officer, Droga5 (pictured above right), is a former graduate of the School and staunch supporter: "I owe a great deal to AWARD School.  As an ex-student it helped propel me in the right direction fast. There are plenty of advertising courses, AWARD School is one of the few run for the benefit of its students and the industry."
To register your interest and for further information please visit www.awardschoolonline.com or contact Hannah Morden, hannah@awardonline.com or telephone +61 2 9699 2999.

A pair of gumboots set in a grassy box have been judged the supreme winner of the 2008 Art Of The Envelope Awards, held last night at Hopetoun Alpha, Auckland, hosted by renowned graphic artist Otiz Frizzell.
Mark Lorrigan, Jordan Sky, Alex Hamilton and Sarah Crimmins at Saatchi DGS created the Best In Show ‘Gumboots’ campaign for their client Gen-I. The high-impact direct mail piece was sent to more than 300 New Zealand companies to promote the new Gen-I Blackberry 8830 phone, and how the Blackberry 8830’s wireless access to the office allows employees to spend more time “in the field”.
The campaign was also judged the winner of the Avant-Garde category. The Saatchi team wins a trip for two to New York Design Week.
The Art Of The Envelope Awards are held each year by Candida Stationery and the New Zealand Post Mail Marketing Service, to showcase ground-breaking use of creativity in envelope and ‘outer’ concepts and design, and celebrate innovation in direct mail.
Other category winners, who each take home fantastic prizes to the tune of $2,000, were:
•    Mailed Masterpiece: Y&R for BNZ ‘Raincoat’ (Danny Brown, Stacey Roper, Vaughn Davis)
•    Redefine & Redesign: Madinagoodway Ltd for Fitland Auckland ‘6-Pack’ (Mari Pettersson)
•    50c Classic: TBWA\Tequila for ASB ‘Hatvelope’ (Tamryn Baumgarten, Michael Goldthorpe)
Jason Hall of Rapp also won the online voters’ prize of an Air New Zealand Mystery Break for two.
Says New Zealand Post Mail Marketing Service Marketing Manager Fiona Woolley: “More than 140 entries were received for the 2008 awards. Entries used everything from live bacteria to raincoats, hats and blenders to create ground-breaking and engaging pieces of direct mail – making the task of picking a winner extremely difficult for the judging panel.”
A second showcase event is being held in Wellington on Thursday 20th November. Tickets are available for this event, to be held at the Exchange Gallery, at www.pushtheenvelope.co.nz
 

Curious Film in Sydney has signed one of New Zealand's most hotly anticipated young directors, Summer Agnew.
Aged 28, Summer has been highly awarded for his talents as a documentary and long-format director, despite only graduating from the Elam School of Fine Art five years ago.
"More and more agencies are looking for directors who can apply their long-format experience in a commercial context. Summer is not only a prodigious director and scriptwriter, he is experimental and extremely bright – he understands where things are moving," says Peter Grasse, of Curious Film in Sydney.
In 2007, Summer snared one of the industry's most prestigious accolades by winning the Screen Production & Development Association (SPADA) New Filmmaker of the Year Award.
His documentary, Minginui – co-directed by fellow Elam graduate Adam Luxton – has screened at film festivals globally and was hailed by critics as triggering a new era in New Zealand filmmaking: "A deathly barrage of audio and visual decay … It's a partial, if not gradual step forward towards a more progressive, less conservative national cinema," wrote film and arts journal Lumiere.
Minginui offers a glimpse into New Zealand's remote Te Urewera rainforest, where the closure of a local forestry sparked a deterioration in local living standards. The documentary reveals New Zealand's landscape in a far more unforgiving light than cinema audiences typically see.
More recently, Summer's short film Patu Ihu screened at Homegrown 08 at the New Zealand International Film Festival. Featuring a core cast of children, the film has been described as "a touching exploration of memory and the lifelong influences that a particular event can have upon us" (Lumiere).
With a background in fine arts, Summer's long-format work is atmospheric and imaginative, honest and uncomfortable; while his commercial work reveals his innate understanding of the flaws and quirks that make us human.
With a name like 'Summer Agnew', it's perhaps not surprising that Summer (pictured) grew up on a commune in Auckland's stunning Waitakere ranges. He concedes that these unconventional beginnings may have contributed to a lateral approach to his work: "Where I grew up people were always telling stories, and I learnt there are always different ways they can be told," says Summer, whose portfolio of work demonstrates a breadth of creative abilities.
He co-founded music video production company The Pyramid Scheme in 2003 and has directed video clips for New Zealand bands including Dimmer, The Checks and Sola Rosa.
Summer won a Qantas New Zealand Television Award in 2006 for the TVNZ series Lets get Inventin and in 2008 developed and co-directed the arts documentary series New Artland for the digital network TVNZ6. Summer has just finished directing a 40-minute documentary for Kapiti Fine Foods and Colenso BBDO.
View Summer’s showreel  and for more information, contact Peter Grasse at Curious Film Sydney: peterg@curiousfilm.com or visit www.curiousfilm.com

AWARD’s long-standing tribute to unparalleled junior creative stars, the Encouragement Award, launches again this week, with the winner presented on stage at the AWARD Awards Presentation Evening November 27th 2008.
The Encouragement Award has honored young creatives since 1992, recognising those who have demonstrated an outstanding ability to answer briefs with a freshness of thought and creativity.
Previous winners include Ted Royer, Dejan Rasic, Leo Premutico and Guy Rooke.
Entries will be judged by AWARD’s Chairman Richard Maddocks, ECD of Clemenger BBDO Sydney and AWARD’s Chairman of Judges David Nobay, Creative Chairman, Droga5 Australia.

Eligibility Criteria
Maximum three years in an agency creative department
Teams and individuals can enter
Nominations taken by Creative Directors or Agency Management only
Australian and New Zealand Applicants only
Submissions – as jpeg, mpeg and word.doc/pdfs - max 4MB per file, on CD only – no email submissions accepted
Four examples of the entrant’s work; aired or published within the last 18 months
One Written reference from Creative Director or Agency Management - .doc or pdf
Entrant’s biography - .doc or pdf
 
Post or Courier CDs to:
Hannah Morden
AWARD,
Suite 43, Level 4,
61 Marlborough Street
SURRY HILLS  NSW  2010

Deadline Midday, Friday 21st November 2008 – No Extensions.
Any entries received after the deadline will not go through for judging.
 
Contact hannah@awardonline.com or telephone 02 9699 2999 for more information on the Call for Entry process.

Cutting-edge art and off-the-wall design push the envelope to new heights in this year’s Art of The Envelope Awards. The finalists were announced today by awards partners, the New Zealand Post Mail Marketing Service and Candida Stationery. Y&R lead the agency tally with six Finalists, followed by Rapp with three and Saatchi DGS and TBWA\Tequila with two apiece.
Says New Zealand Post Mail Marketing Service Marketing Manager Fiona Woolley: “The award entries this year have truly pushed the envelope. From the wacky to the beautiful and the simply downright clever, the talent and innovation demonstrated by all of our finalists shows that well-planned direct mail really can be a work of art.”  
Entries received this year included an envelope that can be worn as a dress, a pair of gumboots and the world’s first piece of direct mail to feature live bacteria.
Finalists are vying for several top prizes including the Best In Show prize of a trip for two to New York Design Week. Category winners in the Mailed Masterpiece, Redefine and Redesign, The 50c Classic, and the all-new Avant-Garde section will receive one of four fantastic prizes.
Says Woolley: “This year we’ve been able to grow the Awards with a real focus on inspiration – challenging designers and marketers to stretch their imagination and redefine the limits when it comes to the creative possibilities of envelopes and any other ‘outer’. The results speak for themselves.”
The category winners and Best In Show will be announced at a showcase event in Auckland this Thursday 13th November. A second showcase event will be held in Wellington on Thursday 20th November.
For more information or inspiration, or to purchase last-minute tickets for the Auckland and Wellington showcase events, head to www.pushtheenvelope.co.nz

Advertising for a Mission Impossible movie screening on TV2 tonight took on its own mission impossible twist this week with a campaign involving a rival TV network and wild animals.
In the early hours of yesterday morning, a giant billposter advertising Mission Impossible 3 was plastered over the front windows of rival network TV3 headquarters in Auckland. The billposter, reading: “Mission Objective: advertise this movie in enemy territory”, was one of several pieces of creative developed by Saatchi & Saatchi to advertise the movie.  (Mission log: There was one security guard. Fortunately she bought the clip board and orange vests). 
A second giant billposter was set up in the lion enclosure at Auckland Zoo yesterday afternoon. This one, reading: “Mission Objective: advertise this movie in a lion enclosure”, was installed with the help of zoo officials. This one was more short-lived, with the poster quickly torn apart by one of the lions. (Mission Log: Creatives were informed that they hadn't been fed yet which explained roaring, growling and salivating. Putting the sign in enclosure was truly frightening.)
An online stealth mission was also conducted on the TV3 website. A specially designed Sanyo banner, containing a built in ‘time-bomb’, was set up so the picture would morph into the TV2 Mission Impossible 3 advertising.
A series of billposters around the city, with a mission objective of being stuck up with chewing gum, completed the creative. The latest advertising was part of an ongoing campaign for TV2 movies. This has included a number of billboards for an American Psycho screening earlier this year, including an American flag with a bloody handprint, and a billboard drawing attention to a hotel with blood-stained windows.
A suitably gruesome billboard was also created for a Kill Bill screening in May, with a shot of Uma Thurman wielding a sword given an extra dimension with a large ‘blood’ splatter from the billboard down the wall and onto the footpath and several parked cars.

VIEW THE CHEWING GUM BILLBOARD
VIEW THE CHEWING GUM POSTERS
VIEW THE GUERRILA ATTACK ON RIVAL NETWORK
VIEW THE LION ENCLOSURE
VIEW THE GUERRILA ATTACK ON RIVAL WEBSITE

Creative Director: Luke Chess
Executive creative director: Mike O’Sullivan
Creatives: Matt Swinburne & Mike Felix
Interactive:  Mac Mackaskill
Interactive producer: Liz Knox
 
Account service team:
General manager: Sonya Berrigan
Group account director: Jillian Stanton
Senior account manager: Natalie Gibb
Account manager: Jody Lorimer

Producer: Conan Gorbey

Colenso BBDO, Auckland has taken out the Radio Grand Prix at the London International Awards, held tonight at the Hippodrome in Leicester Square, for their 'Offensive' spot for the NZ International Comedy Festival. The spot also won Gold for Humour and Gold for Copywriting, as well as Silver for Entertainment.
Colenso BBDO also won Silver in the Digital Media category for the NZ Book Council 'Read a Book at Work' concept and Silver for Poster & Billboard, for Deadline Couriers 'Self Destruct'. In the Radio category, Saatchi & Saatchi scored a Silver for their TVNZ Movie Promotion 'An Inspirational Story', Rapp New Zealand won Silver for Direct Mail for their www.perpetualcard.com 'Perpetual Card', and Robber's Dog won Silver for Direction, for the 'Culture Change - Uncle Mark' spot for the Alcohol Advisory Council of NZ as well as Silver for Jam Sessios 'Sponge' in the Low Budget category.
Of the 17,969 total submissions from 81 countries, only five percent (5%) reached Finalist status. From that elite group, 1.4% attained Silver status and only 0.7% were awarded Gold Statues. The vast number of submissions reflects the prestige and explosive growth of the London International Awards since its inception in 1986 when 2,600 submissions were considered. 
A complete list of finalists and winners can be viewed at: www.liaawards.com 

The AXIS Adschool end of year show on Thursday night was a corker with all the top NZ agencies represented and hundreds of guests coming through to see the culmination of a great year. It was a fantastic conclusion to David
Bell's last time as the Creative Director who is now returning full time to the business at Y&R.
VIEW THE VIDEO

Saatchi & Saatchi has lured high flying suit Mark Cochrane home again with an appointment to Group Account Director in the Auckland office.
Cochrane, a Kiwi who has spent the past two years at TBWA\London as European Business Director, joins Saatchi & Saatchi in January. In London, he has been leading major accounts such as PlayStation UK and MARS EUROPEAN Confectionary brands, including Twix, Starburst and Skittles.
Cochrane, with multi-award winning Cannes, Axis, RSVP and Effies campaigns under his belt, will work with Toyota, DB Breweries and KFC at Saatchi & Saatchi.
Prior to moving to TBWA\London, Cochrane was a Trans Tasman account director at TBWA\Whybin Auckland, working on accounts including adidas New Zealand and Australia, PlayStation NZ, Bridgestone NZ, Firestone Direct and Woosh Wireless.
Earlier he had spent another couple of years working in London, freelancing and then as Advertising Campaign Manager for O2 – a role that included a five country brand launch, as well as managing rugby, football and Brit Awards sponsorships.
Andrew Stone, Saatchi & Saatchi CEO, says Cochrane brings a great breadth of ideas-based advertising expertise: “From our point of view, Mark has got amazing global experience working across some very high profile and innovative brands, and we are very pleased he is joining us.”
Cochrane says Saatchi & Saatchi’s inclusive agency model and commitment to continually pushing the boundaries were the big attractions for him: “I love the Saatchi & Saatchi brand, I love what they do, and I love the huge steps they have taken to integrate digital and direct as core drivers of the future. And I can’t wait to get started with Toyota, DB and KFC!”

The Communication Agencies Association of New Zealand (CAANZ) launched the Digital Leadership Group (DLG) at a function in Auckland today.
The DLG has been established to provide a unified industry voice with the aim of helping New Zealand businesses embrace the digital environment and develop commercial opportunities.
The DLG is made up of senior digital leaders drawn from CAANZ members who are exposed to international trends and who are at the forefront of helping clients succeed in the digital marketplace.
DLG members are united in their concern with the lack of digital progress in New Zealand and are collectively charged with getting New Zealand businesses to creatively engage audiences online and to promote the digital skill set within agencies and their clients.
DLG Chair Darryn Melrose (pictured) said New Zealand may have a slightly misleading image overseas as a technologically advanced digital market. This has largely been off the back of the success of digital animation companies like Weta Studios in creating stunning visual effects for films like Lord of the Rings and King Kong.
“However, scratch the surface and there is a different reality to digital development in New Zealand. Whilst success stories do exist in New Zealand with the likes of Air New Zealand, and the ASB, the vast majority of New Zealand businesses have been slow to adopt effective ‘business to business’ and ‘business to consumer’ digital strategies commonplace in other OECD countries.
“Many New Zealand businesses don’t effectively engage the services of creative digital agencies and largely limit their online presence to ‘brochureware’," said Melrose.
The DLG believes the time is right for New Zealand businesses to make advances in developing digital relationships with local and international customers. There is a global and local consumer base that is both willing and able to transact with New Zealand businesses.
Digital advertising represents a move from traditional ‘push’ advertising to a more interactive conversation with customers.  International research shows that for advertising to be effective it must talk with someone rather than about something.
“Unfortunately, many marketers in New Zealand still view digital as a non-core advertising medium rather than viewing it as an effective medium to create dialogue, edify customers and generate new revenue streams. Creative digital content should be an integral part of a company’s marketing mix,” said Melrose.
The DLG will run a Digital Forum in February 2009.  The forum will focus attention on assisting New Zealand businesses to develop effective digital strategies.