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The Stoppies 2018: All winners revealed

Last night, under a sky of stars, the industry convened at Morningside Glasshouse to mark Valentine’s Day with an evening of self-congratulation, celebration and awards acceptance at The Stoppies. 

Unlike other industry events, there was not a tuxedo in sight. Instead, champagne was swapped for pink gin and a beer, and canapes came in the form of mini burgers and fish and chips.

While 2019 is now well underway, the night was a chance for the industry to come together, reflect on 2018, celebrate the great work that came from it and reminisce on some of the moments that made us cringe such as the Whoopise of the Year and Stoush of the Year categories.

Winners were selected through the application of sophisticated algorithms, immersive VR experiences, artificially intelligent chatbots, a few games of rock paper scissors and a fair amount of arguing, our editorial team picked the overall winners across 16 categories (People’s Choice winners were determined through the online voting mechanism).

For those who took out the category win, the prize was a trophy that doubles as a doorstop and without further ado, below is a rundown of those who took one home.

The Idea of the Year

First up was the Idea of the Year Award and finalists for this category were:

  • Spark’s Kupu App,
  • the Testimatic Auto Ball Checker’ for Testicular Cancer NZ by FCB
  • ‘Oat the Goat’ for The Ministry of Education by FCB
  • Squawk’s Journey for Squawk Squad with Department of Conservation
  • Helius Theraputics
  • The Impossible Burger for Air New Zealand by Impossible Foods
  • ‘The 72 CLub’ for Lifeline by DDB
  • ‘Sweet As’ for The Warehouse by DDB
  • ‘Get the Skinny’ for Skinny by Colenso BBDO

The people chose ‘The 72 CLub’ for the People’s Choice and we agree. We love the flip on the 27 club and for that, DDB and Lifeline deserved a Stoppie.

Mascot of the Year

Up next was the Mascot of the Year and finalists were:

  • Russell the Brussels Sprout for My Food Bag
  • Kong for Mitre 10
  • The late Simon the Sloth for LifeDirect by Trade Me
  • Evie for Mercury

While the people chose Russell the Brussels Sprout for People’s Choice, our favourite was Evie for Mercury. We love how Evie came to life to travel the country as a driving billboard for the brand.

Synergy of the Year

In the category to get buzzword bingo going, our finalists were:

  • TVNZ + Spark
  • Radio New Zealand + New Zealand’s media outlets
  • Radio New Zealand + Te Papa
  • Lewis Road Creamery + Pic’s Peanut Butter
  • Blunt + Wellington Museum + Auckland Museum
  • Starship Children’s Emergency Department + ASB + Rush Digital + The Starship Foundation

The people liked the combination of TVNZ and Spark to with the Rugby World Cup rights, the best, but the win went to Radio New Zealand and New Zealand’s media outlets.

The content sharing partnerships are a clever solution to RNZ’s lack of advertising budget while also maintaining RNZ’s policy of sharing content.

Stoush of the Year

It wouldn’t be an industry of egos without a few stoushes popping up in our trip down memory lane. Last year there was plenty that went down and the finalists include:

  • Todd Scott vs media agencies
  • Ed Kindred vs The Spinoff TV
  • Who owns Cultural Codes
  • Kapiti vs Nice Blocks
  • Burger King vs McDonald’s
  • Stuff + NZME vs Commerce Commission
  • Huawei vs western countries
  • Derek Handley vs the Government
  • Auckland Pride Parade vs police uniforms
  • The Farmers Auckland Christmas parade vs Santa (Neville Baker)

While the people chose Auckland Pride Parade vs police uniform as People’s Choice, the StopPress team couldn’t keep its eyes off twitter when Todd Scott voiced his thoughts about media agencies. Congratulation’s Scott for turning your battle into a win.

Whoopsie of the Year

We’re sure the next round of finalists wished we’d leave some things in the past but for the sake of a few laughs and many cringes, we revisited the Whoopsies of the Year.

Finalists were:

  • Clare Curran’s failure to record meetings
  • Facebook and Cambridge Analytica
  • Name suppression laws
  • Air New Zealand’s Antarctica Safety video

The people selected Air NZ’s Antarctica safety video as last year’s Biggest Whoopsie and while we agree it certainly felt some backlash, our pick went to Claire Curran’s failure to record meetings.

We sent her a diary along with her Stoppie.

Staff Move of the Year

If the Movings/Shakings section on StopPress is anything to go by, the industry likes a game of musical chairs and 2018 was a particularly large shake-up.

The long list of Move of the Year finalists included:

  • Dan Martin
  • John Campbell
  • Paul Manning
  • James Mok
  • Josh Moore
  • Rufus Chuter
  • Shane Bradnick
  • Ben Goodale
  • John Fellet
  • Regan Savage
  • Jason Paris
  • Ben Fahy
  • Andrew Berglund

The voters felt the move of the Year should go to Shane Bradnick, who last year, hung up his DDB hat and moved to TBWA but for the winner, we couldn’t go past Dan Martin’s departure from FCB.

It blew up StopPress’ comment section and for that, Martin deserved the Move of the Year Award.

Account Move of the Year

Now, while we’re sure the finalists of the next category have all been celebrated as wins with the pop of a champagne bottle or two, one account move scored another win.

The finalists for Account move of the Year were:

  • Volkswagen
  • The Warehouse Group
  • Vodafone
  • Samsung
  • DB Breweries

Our thinking was aligned in this category with Vodafone taking out both the win and the People’s Choice Award. Vodafone may have found a new home for itself at DDB as holiday-mode was creeping in but that didn’t stop this move making a splash at the end of 2018.

Gone but not Forgotten

Taking a trip back in time reminded us of all the things we said goodbye to last year. Among them were the finalists for Gone but not Forgotten:

  • Paperboy
  • Simon the Sloth
  • Leighton Smith

While it was Bauer’s closure of Paperboy that appeared to have the greatest impact on you for People’s choice, it was LifeDirect by Trade Me’s decision to kill off its mascot Simon the Sloth that we chose at the winner.

The tragic, but clever, end was LifeDirect’s way of reminding us of the importance of insurance.

The 2018 Bravery Award

Now there’s no denying we live in changing times and for our 2018 Bravery Award, we considered those in our industry who are pushing the boundaries and actively moving it forward.

With that, finalists include:

  • Spark and TVNZ’s Rugby World Cup winning bid,
  • Shortland Street the Musical,
  • ‘The Dance’ for Speight’s by DDB
  • Paul Manning and Helius Therapeutics
  • The Spinoff TV

Now you were all impressed by ‘The Dance’ for Speight’s by DDB which took home the People’s Choice Award, but for the StopPress team, Paul Manning’s move to swap ads for medicinal marijuana when moving to Helius Theraputics was a bold choice that deserves top spot.

Best Ad that’s not An Ad

While The Radio Bureau and Think TV promote radio and TV, and print continues to defend its position in the market, not all ads come in the form of, print, TVC or Radio – and the finalists for Best Ad that’s not an Ad attest to that.

  • ‘Testimatic Auto Ball Checker’ for Testicular Cancer NZ by FCB
  • Responsible Camping Film for Tourism New Zealand and MBIE by Contagion
  • Evie for Mercury by FCB
  • ‘Find Your Fit’ for Got a Trade by Ogilvy NZ

The winner of People’s Choice Award went to Testicular Cancer NZ and FCB for the ‘Testimatic Auto Ball Checker’.

However, the win went to Got a Trade and Ogilvy NZ for the ‘Find Your Fit’ music video. We particularly love that all the sets for the video – ranging from electrical to plumbing – were built with the help of real apprentices and trainees.

Sage of the Year

In an industry that sells its expertise – and an industry that some may argue is fuelled by ego – it’s not surprising that we have a range of clever people who regularly contribute their views to our media channels and attempt to bend the world to their will.

Last year, those views earned four writers a spot as a finalist for Sage of the Year:

  • Graham Medcalf
  • Colleen Ryan
  • Paul Catmur
  • And Michael Goldthorpe as our finalists

While you all picked Paul Catmur as the People’s Choice winner, the StopPress team decided Collen Ryan’s dedication to putting pen to paper has well and truly earned her the title of Sage of the Year.

Ryan was unable to attend on the night, but keep an eye out on StopPress for her five-word acceptance speech. It’s sure to be a great read.

Agency-Client Partnership of the Year

If we had a dollar for every time we’d heard the word ‘trust’ when talking about agency-client relationships, we wouldn’t need to be throwing The Stoppies to make a living.

It was the idea of trust that got us thinking about the agency-client partnership of the year and with that the finalists are:

  • Mercury and FCB
  • Speight’s and DDB
  • BNZ and Colenso BBDO
  • The New Zealand Police and Ogilvy

It was Speight’s partnership with DDB that earned your votes for people’s choice and the evolution of the Speight’s brand with ‘The Dance’ makes it worthy of the win. However, as the official Agency-Client partnership of the Year, we couldn’t go past The New Zealand Police and Ogilvy given the consistently high standard of work in the past few years.

Disruptor of the Year

Another word we wish we had a dollar for every time it’s mentioned is ‘disruption’ so we figured it was only fitting we added a ‘Disruptor if the Year’ category.

Those who we felt made the biggest impact in 2018 were:

  • The OOH Industry
  • ThinkTV
  • Stuff
  • Voice Technology
  • New Zealand Post’s price increase
  • GDPR

You voted GDPR as the People’s choice, but the StopPress team felt the Disruptor of the Year Award should go to the OOH industry.

2018 was a year of great movement for it, with consolidation and partnerships, to make bigger OOH companies and media companies with better offers.

Campaign of the Year

Selecting the finalists for Campaign of the Year was great fun for the team as we trawled through StopPress pages and you guys clearly got into it too with over 1000 votes cast.

The finalists were:

  • ‘The Dance’ for Speight’s by DDB
  • ‘The Great Escape’ for Mercury by FCB
  • ‘Armoured Truck’ for Lotto by DDB
  • ‘#GetNZontheMap’ for Tourism New Zealand by Augusto
  • ‘The 72 Club’ for Lifeline by DDB
  • ‘Ko Tātou This Is Us’ for Biosecurity 2025 by Clemenger BBDO
  • ‘Road Commander’ for VTNZ by FCB
  • ‘Communication is Second Nature’ for 2degrees by DDB
  • ‘Bird of the Year for Forest and Bird
  • ‘in My Shoes’ for New Zealand Transport Agency by Clemenger BBDO

Now you chose ‘The Dance’ for Speight’s by DDB and we agree. Watching men trying to teach each other to dance was totally unexpected for a Speight’s ad, but it’s a perfect fit to give the ‘Good on Ya Mate’ tagline a contemporary vibe.

The ad stirred up all the feels in our team and for that, it deserved a Stoppie.

Human of the Year

One of the greatest aspects of writing for StopPress and NZ Marketing is the intelligent and passionate people we get to speak to every day.

With so many of you it certainly made for plenty of discussion among the team as we shortlisted industry leaders and with over 600 votes, you guys were also keen to have your say on it.

With that, our finalists included:

  • DDB’s Justin Mowday,
  • Curious Film’s Kate Roydhouse
  • TVNZ’s Kevin Kenrick
  • Stuff’s Alison Mau
  • Special Group’s Michael Redwood
  • PHD’s Louise Bond
  • And The Warehouse Group’s Jonathan Waecker

While all made a big splash, there can only be one Human of the Year and that honour goes to Justin Mowday.

At the helm of DDB, he lead it through a successful 2018 and more recently we wouldn’t be surprised if he spent his days voting for himself on repeat as he was also your People’s Choice.

Group of Humans

The last award of the night was for Group of Humans of the Year. With no entry for this award, it’s based off the feelings of the StopPress team, what we’ve heard over the year and what’s made out headlines. With this, there were a number of finalists from across the industry, including:

  • DDB
  • Special group
  • Spark
  • PHD
  • Tourism New Zealand
  • Augusto

The people felt the winners should be DDB and while we agree they’ve had a great year, the win went to Special Group.

After kicking off 2018 being named Campaign Brief New Zealand Agency of the Year, the momentum continued with more awards, new clients and hires and now, they have a doorstop to their collection. 

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