Creative + Effective: DDB Aotearoa crowned Campaign Brief New Zealand Agency of the Year

Holding six Agency of the Year titles, 2021 was the most successful year in DDB Group Aotearoa’s history. Another year in isolation hasn’t stopped the agency from smashing its targets. Winning a bunch of new business, adding more trophies to the cabinet and welcoming a slew of talented folk. DDB Aotearoa is Campaign Brief’s 2021 New Zealand Agency of the Year.

Despite strict award budgets due to the continuing pandemic, DDB still put in a sterling performance at the award shows. At D&AD, the agency walked away with three Wood Pencils and New Zealand’s only Yellow Pencil. Cannes didn’t escape the agency either, with a haul of one Gold, one Silver and three Bronze Lions. DDB Aotearoa secured 2021 Axis Agency of the Year, Campaign APAC Social, Digital and PR Agency of the Year awards, as well as Spikes Asia Country Agency of the Year. The agency also won the Grand Prix For Good at Spikes.

And the agency didn’t just excel creatively: DDB Aotearoa was also named fourth Most Effective Agency in the World by Effies and eleventh Most Effective Agency in the World by WARC.

And to top it off – DDB was crowned the leading agency in the TRA Think TV survey – winning five out of the top 10 places. This survey, run by The Research Agency and judged by New Zealanders, proved the widespread engagement of the agency’s work. Importantly, these awards were won across a wide range of clients including AA Insurance, Autism NZ, ecostore, Lion, KidsCan, Kiwirail, Lotto, McDonalds, NZ Aids Foundation, Sky, Volkswagen, Vodafone and Westpac.

According to DDB Group Aotearoa chief creative officer, Gary Steele, the agency was lucky to work on a wider variety of client briefs, his favourites being Samsung ‘iTest’, Steinlager ‘Alt Blacks’ and New Zealand AIDS Foundation ‘Sperm Positive: The Baby That Changed The World’.

Says Steele: “Each job had its challenges but it was how we all came together even when we were all isolated across the country to make them happen. It was amazing to watch and I couldn’t be prouder of all the clever people that helped make that happen.”

Exiting the agency mid last year, outgoing CCO Damon Stapleton said he was honoured to work on big brand work, including the new Sky campaign, Lotto’s ‘Imagine On Ice’ and world-class work like Samsung ‘iTest’.

Says Stapleton: “I am really proud of the past seven years at DDB, which has led to the Campaign Brief New Zealand Agency of the Year title now being won twice in the past three years.”

Commenting on his time working with the long-standing creative team, Stapleton adds: “The highlight for me was playing a part in building a culture where creativity was valued and those special people were able to do their best work.”

Standout work in 2021:

NZ Lotteries – On Ice
Many Lotto players put off checking their tickets to give themselves longer to ‘imagine’. So, instead of doing what every Lotto ad on the planet does and focus on the win, DDB decided to focus on the wait. The agency told the story of a team of researchers who wait six months to check their Lotto ticket so they could keep imagining while they waited out the Antarctic winter. But, just as audiences were about to find out if they had won, the agency cut to the ending… and made people wait, a month, to find out what happened. DDB then updated the end frame on its ads with didtheywin.co.nz; a microsite that turned the audience into the Antarctic researcher and challenged them to explore the Antarctica base to see if they could figure out how to unlock the ending and $50k worth of hidden prizes. By the time the agency drew the winners, New Zealanders had spent a combined 3.2 years hanging out in the research base, dreaming of winning big.

Samsung – iTest
Many iPhone users believe android devices, like Samsung, are too complicated and different to what they’re used to. They don’t even consider Samsung. So, DDB found a way to turn their iPhone into a Samsung so they could try android from the safety and comfort of their old device and see how intuitive Samsung is to use. But iTest wasn’t just a replica of the Samsung One UI experience on iPhone; it was a fun interactive tutorial. Every part of the experience was designed to entertain and guide them. And, Apple couldn’t block iTest on the app store because iTest wasn’t an app, it was just a website. Over 8,000,000 iPhone users have now tried out a Samsung, thanks to iTest and there are hundreds of YouTube demos of the experience uploaded from fans around the world.

NZ AIDS Foundation – Sperm Positive
In 1981, HIV was a death sentence. In 1997, the virus became treatable, but beliefs about HIV never changed. To end decades of stigma, DDB had to prove that HIV is safe in a way the world has never seen: by creating life. On World AIDS Day, the agency launched Sperm Positive: the world’s first HIV-positive sperm bank. The online sperm bank instantly created a global conversation, and showed the world that when treated, HIV cannot be passed on – even through childbirth. And now in 2021, Sperm Positive isn’t just changing beliefs; it’s changing lives. To date, four babies are due, 32 women have registered as recipients, 27 HIV-positive sperm donors have joined, and at 2:05pm on January 27th, 2021, the first baby from an HIV positive sperm bank was born, proving to the world once and for all that HIV cannot be passed on – she’s a girl.

Steinlager – Alt Blacks
Kiwis dream of becoming an All Black, but for most people it just wasn’t meant to be. To keep the dream alive, Steinlager teamed up with the All Blacks to give Kiwis an alternate pathway to a black jersey – the Steinlager Alt Blacks. The Steinlager Alt Blacks is a team of 23 everyday Kiwis selected for their character and quirky talents, not their rugby skills. Each person was digitally immortalised in full detail (pot bellies and all) as a player in one of rugby’s most popular video games – Rugby Challenge. And on October 2nd, as curtain raiser to the All Blacks v Springboks game, an unlikely squad of regular Kiwis took on SA in an eSports match live-streamed to an audience of over four million, and won.

MacKenzie – NZ’s Biggest Pie Warmer
Pies are comfort food and in winter there’s nothing like the comfort of being warm when out and about. So this year, DDB hit the streets to help keep people warm by turning a cold bus shelter into a toasty hot pie warmer. Custom heated elements were installed in the ceiling that activated at the touch of a button. Not only was this pie warmer a fun, highly immersive experience, it also helped remind people just how perfect a hot MacKenzie Pie is throughout the colder months.

Pet Refuge – Opening
Many people struggle to understand why someone living with domestic violence, can’t simply leave their abuser. DDB wanted to show that for many of these victims, leaving their pet with their abuser simply isn’t an option and they often have nowhere to go. But now Pet Refuge is open, it can temporarily look after pets so families can escape abuse.

Pump – Dairy Dancing
Pump was facing a crisis. With Kiwis becoming less inclined to pick up single use plastics while out and about, DDB was tasked with reminding Kiwis of water’s hydrating and revitalising benefits. The agency had to show just what a bottle of Pump could make you feel.

Everybody Eats – Goodie Box
Every day in restaurants all over NZ, unfinished meals end up in the bin. This means plenty of food needlessly goes to landfill every year – a frustration for chefs nationwide. All the while, one in five Kiwis today lives in food poverty. The agency’s idea: in a moment of too much food, it got diners to think about those with too little by creating the Goodie Box. The doggy bag reimagined, that lets people help those with nothing, so they
 can feel good about taking their leftovers home. People could scan the QR code to give $5 or more, and a hungry Kiwi gets a fresh meal at Everybody Eats. 60-plus of NZ’s top restaurants got on board in three months, 100-plus projected by 2022.

Johnnie Walker – Voice Edition
A bottle of Johnnie has always been the default gift for Father’s Day. But this year, DDB used voice technology to create the most meaningful Father’s Day gift that a dad could ever get. This gift preserves Dad’s stories so that they can live forever. With its integrated audio technology, people could record the conversations they have with their Dad over a glass of whisky. Then family will always be able to hear his voice.

Samsung – Team Galaxy
How do you make Samsung cool to a generation wedded to their iPhones? DDB teamed up with the coolest people in Aotearoa to create #TeamGalaxy – Lance Savali, JessB and Sin Howard – local talent on the rise, who share Samsung’s value of innovation 
and creativity. And, they took over Samsung’s social channels with dance, music and rap to launch the Samsung GalaxyS21. They kickstarted a brand perception shift and generated 1.5m impressions and 300K reach.

Westpac – Westpac Giant
For the first time in over five years, Westpac New Zealand has launched a new brand platform ‘Together Greater’ that underpins its ambition to bring more of life’s possibilities within reach of all New Zealanders. Using its strength and size to empower customers, Westpac provides the security that drives freedom for its customers to pursue possibilities. New possibilities, ones no longer out of reach when you have Westpac by your side. To launch the new Together Greater platform, DDB entered the world of storytelling to create something unique and distinctive in the financial space. The film tells a metaphorical story set in 
a fantastical Aotearoa, the story of Maisie, a young girl that had
 a dream to create something for herself, and a friend that stood beside her every step of the way. It demonstrates how anything is possible when you have a partner that has your back.

Sky – The Watch
To launch the ‘Life Needs More’ Sky platform, DDB created a campaign that showed how much-loved entertainment can permeate life, no matter who, or what you are. The film features iconic film and TV quotes being delivered to camera by a cast of unexpected Kiwis, who happen to be talking animals. It’s only at the end of the spot that audiences realise how they know these phrases – by watching Sky through people’s windows.