Campaign Brief Creative Circle: What’s hot in July?
Each month Campaign Brief invites top creatives to choose one standout piece of Australian work that isn’t from their own agency. It’s a space for celebrating the craft, fresh thinking and homegrown creativity that continues to raise the bar in our industry.
July 2025’s edition features Lauren Eddy, The Royals; Nathan Lennon, The Ministry for Communications & The Arts; Lisa Jackson, Connecting Plots; Zac Pritchard, Dentsu Creative; Sarah McGregor, AKQA; and Josh Stephens, Kerfuffle.
Lauren Eddy, The Royals
The launch campaign that keeps on giving. Each cameo is so perfectly precise, from the Macedonian Marvel’s Macedonian Marble, to Dane Swan’s Party Supplies. Even Ash Barty’s not-so-subtle baby bump makes you smile. Yes, it’s wall-to-wall product. But instead of zoning out to a montage of utes driving up mountains, you’re eagerly awaiting the next tradie’s laptop gag.
It’s a nice antidote to the heroic individualism that’s usually used to flog utes, too. Like the best of the Lamb ads, it’s about community. It’s that confident sense of their broad Australian audience (which you may roll your eyes at depending on who you are) that makes Tasman Town magic. And in an increasingly hyper-targeted landscape, this style of ‘gather round’ spot feels worthy of watching at the pub with your mates.
Client: Kia. Agency: Innocean Australia. Director: Ariel Martin. Production Company: Scoundrel.
Nathan Lennon, The Ministry for Communications & The Arts
I feel bad for anything released in June. You’re doing it tough when your work lands at the same time the industry is celebrating the pinnacle of creativity in the south of France. And if I’m being brutal, I haven’t seen anything lately that I’d bet on making it to the Palais next June. But the insight driving this Bravehearts film is bloody unsettling. By shifting the lens on grooming away from the tired image of strangers in white vans to the far more uncomfortable reality of trusted figures like family friends or relatives, it reveals a chilling truth that took innocent little me by surprise. The film is delicately directed, and the reveal hits you right in the gut, whether you’re in this industry or out there in the real world, where the impact matters most.
Client: Bravehearts. Agency: Engine Group. Director: Leah Purcell. Production Company: Taxi Film Production.
Lisa Jackson, Connecting Plots
This spot hit me hard. Young and Alone doesn’t just raise awareness about youth homelessness, it makes you feel it. It puts you right there, seeing the raw reality through their eyes.
I thought the way it played off survival-style reality TV to tell a very real survival story was clever. It grabs your attention with something familiar, then flips it to reveal a reality that most of us don’t see – or try not to.
As a mum, and just as a person, it shook me. The thought of young people sleeping rough, scared and alone, especially with how bloody freezing it’s been in Sydney lately, is horrible.
But what struck me just as much as the idea itself was how it came together. This wasn’t just an ad, or a campaign. It was bigger than that. A genuine collaboration between advertising, media, and youth organisations, each using their skills to try and make things better for those doing it tough. And that’s inspiring.
Client: Yfoundations. Agencies: Ogilvy, PHD. Director: Daniel Fletcher. Production Companies: Hogarth, Rabbit.
Zac Pritchard, Dentsu Creative
Getting two words onto a poster these days is worthy of award in itself, even if one of those words is a portmanteau of two other words. Word count aside these ads are good for a whole number of reasons. Well, three to be precise.
Number one, it’s perfect for Ajax. It’s also crazy to think that the infamous jingle of the 2010’s is still relatable in these. A crazy, chaotic mess made manageable with Spray n’ wipe.
Number two, they’re relatable. I can get pretty dramatic around messy things and I feel like this campaign speaks to me and I’m sure countless other parents, pet-owners, meal-preppers, clumsy-cooks and self proclaimed ‘clean freaks’. When things get messy it can feel like a literal disaster.
Number three, and arguably most importantly, they’re simple. There is nothing on the page that doesn’t need to be there. Everything from the headline, to the visual wipe device, to the rhyming tagline is paired back and serving a purpose. Well done to the team for getting that over the line.
Kudos to Jack and the crew at VML. I give this work my own portmanteau: Cleantertaining.
Client: Colgate-Palmolive. Agencies: VML, Wavemaker. Director / Photographer: William Meppem.
Sarah McGregor, AKQA
I really liked the Max launch campaign – short, sharp and to-the-point while ticking the box of highlighting some of the content you can expect to see on there (which at the end of the day is probably the biggest factor in deciding which streamer we choose to commit to). They work beautifully as a suite, but I have a soft spot for the Barbie execution – and after realising all the other streamers are just Ken, I of course, immediately signed up.
Client: Warner Bros. Discovery. Agency: Special.
Josh Stephens, Kerfuffle
If you look at any creative award show over the last decade, you could be forgiven if you thought the sole purpose of the advertising industry was to make the world a better place. Which is terrific, really. Creativity can genuinely make a difference, and it makes us all feel great about what we do. But the reality is we still need to come up with clever ways to sell things that aren’t very interesting, like the towing capacity of a car. So when this campaign popped up in my feed, it reminded me that we really need to celebrate the work that does the heavy lifting, and this campaign does it effortlessly. Well done to an un-worthy winner. Love it.
Client: GWM Australia. Agency: Thinkerbell. Production & Post: Limehouse. Director & Photographer: Jeremy Shaw
View previous editions of Creative Circle below: