Campaign Brief Q&A with Zac Riddell & Willow Whitham: Winning AXIS, cracking the Webby Awards, and creating work that matters
Zac Riddell and Willow Whitham (Zac & Willow) are a young creative team currently working at FCB Aotearoa. Willow, an Art Director with fine arts roots, and Zac, a former primary school teacher turned Copywriter, teamed up at Media Design School and quickly hit their stride as empathetic problem-solvers with a knack for storytelling. After winning the AXIS Student Challenge last month for Kinsultants—their heartfelt, tech-smart campaign built around the bond between neurodivergent kids and their siblings—the duo is now a Webby Awards finalist, making them the only Kiwi project in the Student category’s global top five. In this Q&A with Campaign Brief, the pair reflect on their creative process, the power of simplicity, and what it’s like to find early career success with a project that’s deeply personal.
1. Congratulations on winning the AXIS Student Challenge! Can you take us back to when you first saw the brief—what was your initial reaction?
Thank you! It was a huge moment for both of us, definitely the highlight of our very short career so far. The Axis brief was quite open: solve a problem using new tech from the last three years. We knew the biggest challenge would be trying to nail down a problem that we were both passionate about solving.
2. Kinsultants is such a unique and thoughtful idea. How did you land on the insight that siblings of neurodivergent kids could be the key to better support?
We stayed up late one night trying to really figure out what mattered most to us, so that we could find a meaningful problem to tackle. Willow has a wonderful older brother who is on the autistic spectrum. As a fiercely protective little sister, one of the things that matters the most to her is him. That’s how we landed on the insight that there’s a unique bond between an autistic child and their sibling. Zac was a primary school teacher in his past life, where he found that general research and advice around working with neurodiverse kids doesn’t always apply in the real world. With these two perspectives, we landed on Kinsultants.
3. The challenge required using emerging technology in an innovative way. How did you approach integrating AI into Kinsultants?
It can be easy to fall into the trap of using AI as the idea, so we tried to avoid thinking about it too much at the start of the ideation process. In the end the heart of the project is the sibling relationship, so we tried to implement AI in as subtle a way as possible so that it would support the project rather than overpower it.
4. The judging process at AXIS allows for feedback and resubmission. What did you learn from that process, and did you make any major changes before the final round?
So many changes – it was interesting starting this idea last August and finishing in February as we felt like it grew with us, getting closer to its final form as we got more experience. The main thing we learnt from the judges’ feedback and the whole process is the power of simplicity. We gained the confidence to chop at our thinking, getting rid of the fluff until we had a simple, cohesive project.
5. Kinsultants has now been recognised beyond AXIS, including being named a finalist in one of the Student categories at the world-renowned Webby Awards. What does that kind of recognition mean for you both at this early stage of your careers?
It’s always amazing to have an idea recognised, but it’s even better to have success with an idea that we have a personal connection to. The Webbys is such an amazing opportunity to get eyes on it from around the world.
We are the only Kiwi project in the student category top 5, so we’d really appreciate the support from our local industry – please vote for us at the link below:
https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2025/advertising-media-pr/individual/student
6. How did you two meet, and when did you realise you worked well together creatively?
We met in the Creative Advertising course at Media Design School. We were always distracting each other with random conversational tangents before we buddied up, which then worked pretty well when it came to ideating. We have each other’s back and we had a solid foundation of friendship before we started working together.
7. Do you each bring different strengths to the table? How do you balance your creative process as a team?
With a 10 year age gap and totally different backgrounds we are different in a lot of different ways, but we both love that moment when you finally crack a problem or idea. Our creative process is like smashing back a roast meal – messy, loud and sometimes a little violent (just kidding) but we balance our creative passion with a firm friendship outside of advertising and genuine care for each other as people. We indulge in a little creative conflict from time to time, but hold hands and skip when we go for lunch.
8. What made you both want to get into advertising? Was there a particular ad that made you think “I want to do that for a living”?
Willow found her groove with printmaking at Elam art school, but thought making her art her day job would totally kill it. She loved telling impulsive and untrue stories as a kid so thought she would enjoy the storytelling aspect of advertising. She grew up without WIFI or TV reception and has no memory of watching ads growing up, but loves Harvey Nichols’ “Love Freebies? Get Them Legally”.
Zac was following in the footsteps of his mates who worked in advertising, who, of course, advertised the career to him really well. He loves Waka Kotahi ads, and was obsessed with Honda’s cog ad when he was a kid. He always liked writing, and got really good at proofreading by marking thousands of kid’s stories over the years.
9. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far from working inside an agency?
We’ve learned that things don’t always go to plan, so a big part of the job is brutal positivity and an ability to keep on pushing. We’re also learning the art of simplicity and being willing to throw out parts that don’t serve your main idea.
10. If you could give advice to students entering next year’s AXIS Student Challenge, what would it be?
Find a subject that’s meaningful to you, and then commit to simplicity. If you can elevator pitch your idea to your mates who don’t work in ads, that’s a pretty good sign. Focus on the human truth of your project, and make sure the tech is supporting a story.
For more on Zac & Willow, visit: https://www.zacandwillow.com/
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