After being denied at Axis, Steinlager’s ‘We Believe’ campaign rightly dominated last night with the grand Effie and three other golds, and, with awards for Yellow Toolbox and more glory for Volkswagen after it won the supreme award at the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards, DDB made it a double by taking the crown as the year’s most effective agency.
Steinlager’s classic white can, which was first produced in 1981 and discontinued in 1992, made its return before the Rugby World Cup, backed up by a TV campaign showing a die-hard supporter who had vowed to drink his white can from 1987 the next time the All Blacks won the ‘Big Rugby Event’ and a simple but effective outdoor campaign.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrv61awYz4A
When we asked how sales had gone just after the cup, the PR Shop’s Alysha Dingle told us 320,000 dozen had been sold as of 24 October, which was about 85 percent of what was produced.
“It’s captured about a 1.3 percent share of grocery, so sits well inside the Top 20 beer SKUs and is the biggest can SKU in the market,” she said. “It has driven about 1.5 million litres of incremental sales to Steinlager. So a big success.”
While Todd Gordon, who was Lion’s premium beer marketing manager at the time, said it believed it had the best sponsorship property and said there would be no attempt to crash RWC sponsor Heineken’s party with any ambush marketing, it’s fair to say there were plenty of allusions to the tournament in the campaign. And because Heineken was on guard for any tomfoolery, the degree of difficulty of slipping through the loopholes makes the campaign even more impressive (it’s thought there was a pretty robust social media campaign waiting to be launched that would’ve pitched big bully vs. little Kiwi battler if there were any challenges from Heineken).
As well as the top award, it took gold in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Most Effective Integrated Campaign and Best Strategic Thinking categories, while DDB nabbed a silver for Volkswagen in the Consumer Durables category and a bronze for Yellow in the consumer services category.
Pound for pound, Barnes, Catmur & Friends was probably the best performer on the night coming second on the points table with six Effies of its own, with Independent Liquor’s Boundary Road Brewery taking gold in the New Product or Service category and Most Effective Integrated Campaign and one silver, and Hell Pizza Roulette taking a gold in the Retail/Etail category and two bronzes.
2degrees took the Most Effective Client of the Year award for its collaboration with Whybin/TBWA, which won gold in the Sustained Success category for its ‘Zero to 1 million in just three years’ campaign.
Clemenger Group was playing up the performance of its network this year, saying BBDO put in a “dominant performance” and “won more awards and total points than any other agency by a significant margin”.
At Axis there were a few furrowed brows when Ghost Chips (and also Steinlager) missed out on gold and then went on to win a yellow pencil at D&AD soon after. But it was rewarded this tine, with Clemenger BBDO taking the hardest challenge award, along with one gold for social marketing and another for Best Strategic Thinking.
Colenso picked up the most awards across the most clients, but only took home one gold for Mountain Dew Skatepark in PR/Experiential, along with five silvers and a bronze spread between the Ice Bar Co. launch for Tip Top, the Pedigree Adoption Drive for Mars and Monteith’s ‘Sorry about the twigs, folks’ (Adoption Drive and Monteith’s twigs failed to back up the golds they won in Cannes).
DraftFCB, which won the most effective
agency title last year and had the second highest number of finalists behind Colenso, had a disappointing night by its high standards, with just one silver and four bronzes.
In total, judges awarded 14 gold, 11 silver and 14 bronze Effies. 90 finalist entries had been whittled down from 170 entries by 174 judges from the advertising, marketing and research professions over the three judging stages.
“There were some tremendously strong entries that rose to the top with tight, well-crafted stories of business success driven by campaigns that were well thought through and perfectly executed,” says convener of Judges, Lew Bentley. “The winning campaigns all managed to show how they overcame difficult situations with a mix of clever strategy and compelling creative.”
International guest judge Charlie Robertson, founder of the Red Spider Global network flew into Auckland for the final executive judging round. “Charlie brought an international perspective and a high degree of rigour to the final round of judging. His view was that the gold winners were genuinely world class,” says CAANZ chief executive, Paul Head.
Robertson, a veteran of several international Effie Award judging panels was impressed during his short stay.
“What surprised me was the level of scrutiny and the challenge to actually get through to the final was a lot harder in New Zealand than in some other countries. The great thing about New Zealand is this is where the creativity is happening. There were some great insights, some fantastic ideas and some of the more intellectually challenging issues facing a small country with small budgets and how to tap into the New Zealand psyche was an education for me.”
MAJOR EFFIE® AWARD WINNERS
Category: Grand Effie
Agency: DDB
Advertiser: Lion
Campaign: Steinlager – Believe
Category: Most Effective Client of the Year
Winner: 2degrees Mobile
Category: Most Effective Agency of the Year
Winner: DDB
Category: Hardest Challenge
Agency: Clemenger BBDO
Advertiser: New Zealand Transport Agency
Campaign: Legend
GOLD EFFIE® AWARD WINNERS
Category: Sustained Success
Agency: TBWA Digital Arts Network
Advertiser: 2degrees Mobile
Campaign: Zero to 1 million in just three years
Category: Best Strategic Thinking
Agency: Clemenger BBDO
Advertiser: New Zealand Transport Agency
Campaign: Legend
Category: Best Strategic Thinking
Agency: DDB
Advertiser: Lion
Campaign: Steinlager – Believe
Category: Most Effective Integrated Campaign
Agency: Barnes, Catmur & Friends
Advertiser: Boundary Road Brewery
Campaign: Boundary Road Brewery
Category: Most Effective Integrated Campaign
Agency: DDB
Advertiser: Lion
Campaign: Steinlager – Believe
Category: Most Effective PR/Experiential Campaign
Agency: ColensoBBDO
Advertiser: Frucor Beverages Ltd
Campaign: Mountain Dew Pinball Skatepark
Category: Social Marketing/Public Service
Agency: Clemenger BBDO
Advertiser: New Zealand Transport Agency
Campaign: Legend
Category: Retail/Etail
Agency: Barnes, Catmur & Friends
Advertiser: Hell Pizza
Campaign: Pizza Roulette
Category: Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)
Agency: DDB
Advertiser: Lion
Campaign: Steinlager – Believe
Category: New Product or Service
Agency: Barnes, Catmur & Friends
Advertiser: Boundary Road Brewery
Campaign: Boundary Road Brewery
| Category | Agency | Advertiser | Entry Title | Metal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charity/Not for Profit | .99 | Westpac | Chopper | Silver |
| Charity/Not for Profit | ColensoBBDO | Mars | Pedigree Adoption drive | Silver |
| Social Marketing/Public Service | Clemenger BBDO | New Zealand Transport Agency | Bloody Legend | Gold |
| Social Marketing/Public Service | DraftFCB | Electricity Authority | What’s My Number? | Bronze |
| Retail/Etail | Barnes, Catmur & Friends | Hell Pizza | Pizza Roulette | Gold |
| Retail/Etail | Publicis Mojo Auckland | Hallenstein Brothers | The Power Of The Suit | Bronze |
| Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) | DDB | Lion Nathan | Steinlager – Believe | Gold |
| Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) | ColensoBBDO | Frucor Beverages Ltd | Mountain Dew Pinball Skatepark | Silver |
| Consumer Durables | DDB | Volkswagon | VW Amarok | Silver |
| Consumer Services | Special Group | Unitec | Unitec – Change Starts Here | Silver |
| Consumer Services | Special Group | NZ Tax Refunds | WooHoo | Bronze |
| Consumer Services | DDB | Yellow | Yellow Toolbox | Bronze |
| New Product or Service | Barnes, Catmur & Friends | Boundary Road Brewery | Boundary Road Brewery | Gold |
| New Product or Service | ColensoBBDO | Tip Top | The Icebar Co. | Silver |
| New Product or Service | Z Energy | Z Energy | Z is for New Zealand (The Launch of Z) | Bronze |
| Limited Budget: less than $300,000 | justONE | Farmlands Trading Society Limited | The Party of the Year | Bronze |
| Most Effective Integrated Campaign | Barnes, Catmur & Friends | Boundary Road Brewery | Boundary Road Brewery | Gold |
| Most Effective Integrated Campaign | DDB | Lion Nathan | Steinlager – Believe | Gold |
| Most Effective Integrated Campaign | DraftFCB | Electricity Authority | What’s My Number? | Silver |
| Most Effective Integrated Campaign | .99 | Westpac | Chopper | Bronze |
| Most Effective Digital/Social Media Campaign | Barnes, Catmur & Friends | Boundary Road Brewery | Boundary Road Brewery | Silver |
| Best Strategic Thinking | Clemenger BBDO | New Zealand Transport Agency | Bloody Legend | Gold |
| Best Strategic Thinking | DDB | Lion Nathan | Steinlager – Believe | Gold |
| Best Strategic Thinking | ColensoBBDO | Frucor Beverages Ltd | Mountain Dew Pinball Skatepark | Silver |
| Best Strategic Thinking | Barnes, Catmur & Friends | Hell Pizza | Pizza Roulette | Bronze |
| Best Strategic Thinking | DraftFCB | Mitre 10 (NZ) Limited | The Easy As Guide to a Distinctive DIY Experience | Bronze |
| Best Strategic Thinking | DraftFCB | Electricity Authority | What’s My Number? | Bronze |
| Most Progressive Campaign | ColensoBBDO | Frucor Beverages Ltd | Mountain Dew Pinball Skatepark | Silver |
| Most Progressive Campaign | ColensoBBDO | DB Monteith’s | DB Monteith’s – Sorry about the twigs, folks | Bronze |
| Most Progressive Campaign | Barnes, Catmur & Friends | Hell Pizza | Pizza Roulette | Bronze |
| Most Effective PR/Experiential Campaign | ColensoBBDO | Frucor Beverages Ltd | Mountain Dew Pinball Skatepark | Gold |
| Most Effective PR/Experiential Campaign | Saatchi & Saatchi | Toyota | Top to Bottom | Bronze |
| Sustained Success | TBWA Digital Arts Network | 2degrees Mobile | 0 to 1 million in just three years | Gold |
| Sustained Success | bcg2 | Lion | Grants Corner to Corner 2009 – 2012 | Silver |
| Sustained Success | DraftFCB | Ministry of Social Development/Families Commission | Campaign for Action on Family Violence: Influencers | Bronze |
| Hardest Challenge | Clemenger BBDO | New Zealand Transport Agency | Bloody Legend | Gold |
| Agency of the Year | DDB | Gold | ||
| Client of the Year | 2degrees Mobile | Gold | ||
| Grand Effie | DDB | Lion Nathan | Steinlager – Believe | Gold |
