Every time DDB chief creative officer Damon Stapleton writes, we glimpse at someone who cares deeply about his craft. His opinions aren’t PR pieces masquerading as thought leadership. They’re carefully shaped to nudge this industry in the right direction. Here’s another brilliant example.

Did Pak’nSave/ Foodstuffs really have a sale if Stickman didn’t grace our screens? The animated character, voiced by comedian Paul Ego, demonstrates the retailer’s no-frills approach both through his look and matter of fact, yet humorous tone. And his videos inject some fun into the potentially mundane task of grocery shopping. We asked him some deep questions about his life.

Kiwibank started 2017 by pushing the boundaries of advertising. Wanting to spark a conversation about money and New Zealanders’ behaviour with their finances, the bank, with Ruckus and TVNZ, created a whole TV series called Mind Over Money. General manager of marketing communications Regan Savage explains the move away from the TVC.

Rather than wrapping controversies in a PR blanket, Air New Zealand has taken a more transparent approach, openly admitting its struggles with the gender pay gap, sustainability targets and a range of other issues in a Sustainability Report for 2017. It’s easy to talk about the things that are going well, but it takes a brave business to admit when things go wrong. We talk to head of communications Marie Hosking about the importance of transparency.

Having produced a number of award-winning campaigns, including the ‘Child Replacement Programme’, and most recently given dogs the ability to take the perfect selfie, there’s no doubt the marriage of Pedigree and Colenso BBDO deserved the Client-Agency Partnership of the Year award.

Countdown, TAB, Go Healthy and Goodman Fielder are just some of the clients Y&R has picked up under Josh Moore’s leadership over the last year—all while still developing bold creative work for the likes of Arnott’s and Heinz Wattie’s. Moore may not have been present at any of the awards events this year, but that doesn’t mean his agency wasn’t noticed. Here’s the Y&R boss on what’s driven the agency’s success.

There’s no denying 2017 was a big year for Spark. The telco’s momentum has seen it cement its commitment to delivering great customer experiences, both from a personal and business perspective, with a series of campaigns that made us sit up and pay attention.

Last year saw Vogel’s roll out its first TV campaign in a decade, and it was worth the wait. ‘What do you bring to the table’ sparked discussion, inspired parodies, challenged stereotypes, attracted millions of views and has now also been acknowledged as our campaign of the year. Shine’s head of client services, Tim Ellis, gives us some insight on how it all came together.