Campaign Brief Creative Circle: Australian Creatives pick their current favourite ads

Each quarter CB asks top Australian creatives to choose the best Australian ad agency-produced ad they’ve seen lately ~none of their own agency’s work of course…

Barbara Humphries, The Monkeys. TasmanAI. Hats off to the team working on Tourism Tasmania for this brilliant demonstration of human creativity with a classic Tassie irreverence. Send in a prompt, and you’ll get something back in real time ie, however long it takes to interpret it, for real. In a world obsessed with optimizing, expediting and scaling – this is a lovely reminder of human autonomy and the time it takes to create things of value.

Paul Nagy, VML. Brent Smart’s annoying, eh? Just swanning around making interesting ads that real people and advertising people alike seem to just… like. The latest Telstra ‘Better on a Better Network’ campaign is a great example. Short and sharp gems, lovingly crafted, and valuable enough from an entertainment pov to make people stop and engage. Makes Telstra interesting at the same time. Easy, right? Anyway he’s annoying af.

Cass Jam, Bear Meets Eagle on Fire. The Tasmania ‘Become a Winter Person’ work is so bloody good… and that means a lot coming from a true rock lizard. I hate Winter. But I love this. It gives the good and bad truth of travelling to Tassie in winter, so you can make your own mind up. Also pan flutes. Black & white film. That OOH. Ooft.

Gavin Chimes, Howatson+Company. Tech unboxing videos have become wallpaper. To help Samsung’s Galaxy S24 stand out, CHEP created packaging that harked back to Samsung’s roots as a Korean grocery store. The designs are wonderfully lo-fi-hi-tech, telling a brand story in a way that feels completely fresh for the brand. I love how the copy was in Korean, prompting influencers to use the translation feature of the phone. Brave and effective.

Scott Dettrick, M&C Saatchi. The Telstra ‘Four Bars’ OOH campaign highlights the benefit of reliable connectivity with a clever minimalist typographic device that rewards viewer’s curiosity. The eye-catching designs invite you to check each placement, eager to see if it’s one you haven’t seen before.

Letizia Bozzolini, Special. I’m loving Telstra’s ‘Better Network’ campaign. When I first saw it I loved the underplayed humour and attention to detail. Then, during the Olympics, I have appreciated such a variety of content while other brands run the same 30 sec (Woolies, I’m looking at you). And the cherry on top is the use of real voices from Australian towns.

Sebastian Vizor, Havas Host. Better on a better network – Telstra. The word ‘better’ usually feels somewhat lazy. But, I can forgive it here as it’s obvious it’s anything but in execution. These 26 stop-motion films are the epitome of true craft, where every detail has been sweated over. They are simple, speak to a cross section of audiences and are downright charming. But above all hero a confidence that only Telstra can offer.

Sara Oteri, 303 Mullen Lowe. Telstra ‘This is footy country’. I can’t fault this spot. It stirs up all sorts of affection and patriotism…which says a lot given I can count on one hand how many footy games and trips to the country I’ve experienced. The casting, art department, music and copy, right down to the tagline are just so on point.

Jerome Gaslain, The Works. Always hard to pick one piece but, after a long hesitation I decided to celebrate the work of Thinkerbell for the iconic Tooheys brand. The piece following the main campaign is brilliant. It’s genuine, opportunistic, well shot but most importantly it associates the brand within culture beyond slapping a logo on a jersey or else. Any opportunity to embed a brand within popular culture is a win. As a plus it can be cut into multiple formats. Well done.