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Unitec basks in Media Awards glory, Mitre 10 close behind

For the past few years, Unitec, Special Group and Naked—which has recently closed and been reborn as Open—have tried to bring a bit more chutzpah to the education sector and change the impression of the institution in potential students’ minds, first with the ‘Change Starts Here‘ docu-ads and then with the trade-focused follow-up, ‘We Make the People who Make it’. And in a slightly surprising victory, the campaign managed to beat out the big boys for the best in show prize at last night’s Media Awards at the Langham. 

The win was notable for a few reasons. For starters, it was an education campaign, a category not renowned for the pushing of boundaries or the winning of major awards. Secondly, it came at a time of flux for some of the main protagonists involved, with Matt O’Sullivan announcing the arrival of his new entity Open a few days ago after the local Naked office was closed, and marketing manager Jeanette Paine now working one day a week at Unitec and taking up a role with Global Women. And thirdly, it seemed be one of the rare few entries where both creative agency and media agency seemed to take equal billing and shows that the best ideas in the modern market often have both factions working together closely from the outset. 

“The chemistry between Naked/Open and Special was the winning ingredient,” says Paine. “Unitec and our students, staff and graduates are the people who make it.”

2013 saw a record 286 entries and best in show was judged by the international (well, semi-international) judging panel—Anna Chitty, PHD New York; Antony Young, Mindshare North America; Lindsay Mouat, ANZA; and Ian Sutcliffe, AA Smartfuel Limited—who agreed the Unitec campaign was rich with insight and made
very clever use of technology. The campaign also claimed three gold awards in the best use of a lead medium, best smart media idea
and social marketing/public service categories.

Given the campaign’s focus on the built environment, outdoor media was key, but it was used in a novel, often interactive fashion, with a series of videos produced to play on the city Link buses as they went past buildings featured in the campaign (the first time this type of GPS initiated activity has been used in New Zealand) and a bus shelter takeover that incorporated the track featured on the TVC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3zVShQP6Vk

This part of the campaign was designed to extend the key messages of the campaign to additional buildings on high traffic bus routes. And the bus shelter, located at Britomart Precinct, featured an Auckland cityscape and location-specific Adshels with interactive buttons that allowed waiting passengers to play (or stop) the song.

To further connect the grads with their creations, street posters, Adshels, billboards and street chalk stencils were also focused around locations featured in the ad. And a range of media partnerships, including a DJ booth that was custom built for George FM by the students, kept drumming home the message. 

The Made it Map, a key digital engagement tool developed by Special Group and Beweb showcased a range of disciplines and how they have helped shape Auckland and allowed people to place a virtual tag on buildings they helped build. 

The team also created online referral banners placed on Trade Me and other high traffic sites that allowed people to refer a friend or relative to a ‘trades’ course. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnViMw_rdYE

Close behind in the best in show stakes—and one of the favourites to take it out—was Mitre 10’s ‘Easy As’ DIY campaign by
DraftFCB Media, which successfully gave Mitre 10
strong market profile and competitive differentiation. It also delivered gold in retail/etail, best use of branded content, best communications strategy and best integrated campaign (TVNZ was also heavily involved in the production). 

Incorporating advice into the path to purchase and store experience was very smart (it even created a special Valentine’s Day project) and it also earned Mitre 10 the advertiser of the year award, with marketing co-ordinator Sophie Rose accepting the award and praising DraftFCB by saying that “coming from an agency background, you guys are amazing”.

While there was no agency of the year title this year, DraftFCB Media had the most golds with six, including one in the sustained success category for BMW’s reascension of the premium throne and for best use of earned media for Mini’s Driving Dogs, which, with just one gold, probably didn’t win as many awards as everyone was expecting. DraftFCB Media also took home three more silvers for Gregg’s Blimmin’ Gorgeous Guarantee in best integrated, FMCG and best communications strategy.

Other big winners included TVNZ, which went home with
the media brand of the year award for ‘Creating Conversations that Move
People’, with iSite Media taking a highly commended. 

“At a time when
audiences continue to fragment and channels converge, TVNZ impressed the judges
with their strategic focus on meeting the needs of agencies and advertisers,
and applying this across all facets of their business. They demonstrate
how they have taken their offer to the next level through the development of
new bespoke advertising solutions whilst still protecting audience scale and
quality across all touch points with outstanding results,” said convener of judges Lew Bentley.

Head of sales, Jeremy O’Brien, says the award endorses TVNZ’s position as the leading player in the New Zealand media market.

“To be judged best of the best by our peers is an outstanding achievement.The award reflects TVNZ’s strategic objective to create conversations that move people, through meaningful and effective business solutions. By keeping the consumer at the heart of our business and by creating solutions that effectively prompt action we are able to deliver tangible results to our advertising partners. Unparalleled reach and scale across multiple touchpoints, coupled with innovation, flexibility and agility have enabled TVNZ to meaningfully collaborate and achieve an unrivalled offering in the marketplace.”

Louise
Bond, chief executive of Spark PHD, was a popular winner of the Inspiring Individual Award (in
memory of Sandy Smith) and received a standing ovation. Her colleagues spoke of a woman who was not just a talented and accomplished
professional, but who is widely admired and makes a considerable
contribution to the media industry, including her ongoing service to the CAANZ executive board and media committee.

MBM took home a gold in best use of owned or earned for Griffin’s choco-ade and two more silvers in best use of insight and best launch. 

http://vimeo.com/50592423OMD, which led the finalist tally, took one gold for best smart media idea and another two silvers in best use of digital landscape and social marketing/public service for NZTA’s Facebook Speeder, which was developed by Clemenger BBDO and Resn. The agency took a total of 12 silvers for Frucor’s peach-flavoured water, NZTA’s Drug Driving, Avalon Travel’s Live like a local, Kapiti Couples’ Movie and The Intouchables Kiwi Critics for Roadshow. 

SparkPHD went gold-less, and ended up with five silvers, four for Unilver brands Surf and Cornetto and one for DB’s Rekorderlig cider.  

The other silver winners were Contagion for Tourism NZ’s Stories Beat Stuff in best use of digital landscape, Starcom for TVNZ’s My Kitchen Rules in consumer services and Ikon for Kordia in consumer services. MediaWorks TV took silver for best collaboration for The Block NZ, alongside sponsors Bunnings
Warehouse, Kiwibank, Mazda and Wild Bean Cafe. 

Interestingly, while there was plenty of chatting and revelry through most of the awards, the crowd was close to hushed for NBR’s Best Dressed award, which was won by SparkPHD’s Matt Vogts and OMD’s Genevieve Lawerence. 

“There was some truly outstanding work this year that really impressed both the local and international judges. And perhaps more importantly the work also clearly demonstrated that great media thinking and execution has the power to make the difference for a client’s business,” says CAANZ chief executive Paul Head.

And with no winner’s videos to plough through, very few speeches and no dinner break, the change in format for this year’s festivities, which featured Jacquie Brown as MC, certainly sped things up and let the crowd get on with what they really wanted to be doing. Speaking of which, where are the sausage rolls? 

2013 Media
Awards award winners:

Category

Recipient

Advertiser

Entry Title

THE BIG AWARDS

Best in Show

Naked and Special Group

Unitec New Zealand

Unitec

Advertiser of the Year

Mitre 10

Media Brand of the Year

(GOLD)

TVNZ

Creating Conversations That Move People

Media Brand of the Year

(HIGHLY COMMENDED)

iSite Media

The Big 5

Inspiring Individual Award

Louise Bond, Spark PHD

GOLD AWARDS

Retail/Etail

Draft FCB Media

Mitre 10

Making DiY Easy As

Social Marketing/Public Service

Naked and Special Group

Unitec New Zealand

Unitec

Best Use of Branded Content

DraftFCB Media

Mitre 10

Making DiY Easy As

Best Use of a Lead Medium

Naked and Special Group

Unitec New Zealand

Unitec

Best Integrated Campaign

DraftFCB Media

Mitre 10

Making DiY Easy As

Sustained Success

DraftFCB Media

BMW Group New Zealand

Reclaiming No.1

Best Communications Strategy

DraftFCB Media

Mitre 10

Making DiY Easy As

Best Use of Earned or Owned

DraftFCB Media

BMW Group New Zealand

MINI 
Driving Dogs

Best Use of Earned or Owned

MBM

Griffin’s Foods Limited

The Great Kiwi Comeback – Choco-ade

Best Smart Media Idea

Naked and Special Group

Unitec New Zealand

Unitec

Best Smart Media Idea

OMD

New Zealand Transport Agency 

Facebook Speeder

SILVER AWARDS

Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)

DraftFCB Media

Cerebos Gregg’s Ltd

Gregg’s Blimmin Gorgeous Guarantee

Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)

Spark PHD

Unilever

Enhancing everyday moments with the
sensorial delight of Surf

Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)

Spark PHD

Redwood Cider Co

Rekorderlig on Trend

Consumer Services

Ikon Communications Limited

Kordia NZ

Kordia IT Superhero

Consumer Services

Starcom

TVNZ

My Kitchen Rules

Best Use of Digital Landscape

Contagion

Tourism New Zealand

Stories Beat Stuff

Best Use of Digital Landscape

OMD

New Zealand Transport Agency

Facebook Speeder

Social Marketing/Public Service

OMD

New Zealand Transport Agency

Facebook Speeder

Social Marketing/Public Service

OMD

New Zealand Transport Agency

The Drug Driving Question

Best Use of Event/Activation/Sponsorship

Spark PHD

Unilever/Streets

Romancing the Cone – the launch of Cornetto
Enigma

Best Use of a Lead Medium

OMD

Frucor Beverages

Today’s lesson: how to sell Peach flavoured
water to blokes

Best Integrated Campaign

DraftFCB Media

Cerebos Gregg’s Ltd

Gregg’s Blimmin Gorgeous Guarantee

Best Integrated Campaign

OMD

New Zealand Transport Agency

The Drug Driving Question

Best Use of Insight

MBM

Griffin’s Foods Limited

The Great Kiwi Comeback – Choco-ade

Best Use of Insight

OMD

International Holidays Ltd.

Avalon Live Like A Local

Best Use of Insight

Spark PHD

Unilever

Enhancing everyday moments with the
sensorial delight of Surf

Best Launch

MBM

Griffin’s Foods Limited

The Great Kiwi Comeback – Choco-ade

Best Small Budget (up to $100k per annum)

OMD

Roadshow Film Distributors NZ

The Intouchables – Kiwi Critics

Best Launch

OMD

Tip Top Ltd

Kapiti Couples’ Movies

Most Effective

OMD

Going Digital

Hawke’s Bay and the West Coast Digital
Switchover

Most Effective

OMD

Roadshow Film Distributors NZ

The Intouchables – Kiwi Critics

Most Effective

OMD

Frucor Beverages

Today’s lesson: how to sell Peach flavoured
water to blokes

Best Collaboration

MediaWorks TV

Bunnings Warehouse, Kiwibank, Mazda, Wild
Bean Cafe

The Block NZ – MediaWorks

Best Communications Strategy

DraftFCB Media

Cerebos Gregg’s Ltd

Gregg’s Blimmin Gorgeous Guarantee

Best Use of Earned or Owned

OMD

Roadshow Film Distributors NZ

The Intouchables – Kiwi Critics

Best Smart Media Idea

Spark PHD

Unilever

Enhancing everyday moments with the
sensorial delight of Surf


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