In front of an almost capacity Langham conference centre young MC Oliver Driver had to shout to get attention. That’s becasue the 800-odd media and agency flunkies were riotessly celebrating their efforts last night at the CAANZ Media Awards.
And the big winner? Well it was linked to the halting of interest and inflation rates last year, it forced the electricity industry to drop its pants and it has already won a host of the country’s big awards. And DraftFCB continued its golden run by following up from the last two year’s efforts and taking the Best in Show title for its work on Electricity Authority’s What’s My Number? campaign.
233 entries were whittled down by 102 local media representatives and Mark Jenner, 2012 Media Awards convenor of Judges and head of digital at Telecom, said What’s My Number? earned the top title and four additional gold awards as a result to its outstanding media integration.
“The DraftFCB team drew on consumer insights to achieve a huge cut through in a tough market. Simply put, it was a really clever media strategy that rallied action from consumer,” he says.
The campaign drove over 400,000 users online to re-evaluate their power companies, resulting in the overall electricity market prices decreasing in response. Electricity prices dropped 0.3 per cent in the September quarter, only the third time in the past 40 quarters that retail prices fell.
When we talked with DraftFCB’s planning director David Thomason in August, he said the campaign had smashed all expectations and he was amazed at how quickly some of the power companies responded (Contact dropped its prompt payment price from 12 to 22 percent and acknowledged the campaign was the main reason for it, while Mercury came up with the Name My Number site).
“[The reason people weren’t switching] was all about apathy, so we had to make it simple and fun, not rational,” he says. As such, the post-it notes on foreheads was an appropriate platform to get people interested and check out the site (Powershop even used one on Che Geuvara’s head for one of its campaigns).
SparkPHD wasn’t far behind DraftFCB with five golds, two for Instant Kiwi X-Factor, and one each for Four (with Special Group), The Libra Design Project and Street’s Paddle Pop. Naked and Ikon took home two golds for Coca-Cola Happiness truck and The Powerade Challenge and Naked, ACP and Special Group took gold for ecostore’s Little Treasures.
In a similar fashion to last year, OMD came away with just the one gold for the Mountain Dew Skatepark, despite leading the pack in terms of finalists, while Total Media was the other gold winner for Pedigree Adoption Drive.
Other big winners included MediaWorks TV’s Four, which was awarded media brand of the year after rapidly establishing its brand credentials over the past 12 months, reaching a high a few weeks back with the 500th episode of The Simpsons. The judges said Four has been effective in building both a strong audience and the faith of advertisers and agencies in a short time—and its performance appears to have vindicated the dual channel strategy implemented during the brief Jason Paris tenure.
Client of the year was awarded to Neeraj Lala, assistant general manager of Toyota, who was commended for the strategic, insightful and fresh way he has championed the agency-client relationship.
The 2012 inspiring individual award was jointly awarded to Alistair Jamison, chief executive of Starcom & ViVaki NZ and Liz Fraser, general manager of MSN. The judges believed that both Jamison and Fraser demonstrated outstanding passion and commitment to building great teams, and equally deserved the title for 2012.
Anna Chitty, US director, business development and marketing at PHD USA and one of the international judges (the local decisions were calibrated by a team of two international judges and two senior New Zealand marketers) was impressed with the quality of media thinking existing in the local market.
“The entries were brilliant—the New Zealand industry is thriving. I loved judging these, and I have to say it was no easy task.”
CAANZ media committee chair Derek Lindsay said the work on show was a testament to the talent within the local media industry, and proves how insight-driven media strategies can benefit business performance.
| Best in Show | DraftFCB | Electricity Authority | What’s My Number? |
| Client of the Year | Neeraj Lala | Toyota | Client of the Year – Toyota |
| Media Brand of the Year | MediaWorks TV | FOUR | |
| Inspiring Individual Award | Alistair Jamison, Starcom | ||
| Liz Fraser, MSN | |||
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GOLD AWARDS |
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| Financial / Government / Corporate / Services | DraftFCB | Electricity Authority | What’s My Number? |
| Food / Grocery / Beverages (FMCG) | OMD NZ & Colenso BBDO | Frucor Beverages | Mountain Dew Skatepark |
| Media / Entertainment / Travel & Leisure | SparkPHD | New Zealand Lotteries | Capturing the hearts and minds of a new audience with Instant Kiwi X-Factor |
| Best Use of Digital Landscape | DraftFCB | Electricity Authority | What’s My Number? |
| Best Use of Content | SparkPHD | SCA Hygiene | The Libra Design Project |
| Best Use of Event / Activation | Naked Communications & Ikon | Coca-Cola Oceania New Zealand | Coca-Cola Happiness Truck |
| Best Use of Event / Activation | SparkPHD and Special Group | MediaWorks | FOUR: Repositioning a TV station through infamous entertainment |
| Best Use of Lead Medium: Audio / Visual | SparkPHD | Unilever – Streets | Making the Paddle Pop Lion Famous Again |
| Best Integrated Campaign | DraftFCB | Electricity Authority | What’s My Number? |
| Best Long Term Strategic Campaign | Total Media | Mars NZ Ltd | PEDIGREE Adoption Drive |
| Best Smart Media Idea | Naked Communications & Ikon | Coca-Cola Oceania New Zealand | The Powerade Challenge |
| Best Smart Media Idea | Naked Communications with Special / ACP | Ecostore | Ecostore Little Treasures |
| Best Communications Strategy | SparkPHD | New Zealand Lotteries | Capturing the hearts and minds of a new audience with Instant Kiwi X-Factor |
| Best Launch | DraftFCB | Electricity Authority | What’s My Number? |
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SILVER AWARDS |
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| Clothing / Retail / Fast Food | OMD NZ | Loyalty New Zealand | Flats Extreme Trolley Challenge |
| Food / Grocery / Beverages (FMCG) | Naked Communications & Ikon | Coca-Cola Oceania New Zealand | The Powerade Challenge |
| Food / Grocery / Beverages (FMCG) | OMD NZ | Heinz Wattie’s | The Verdict on Spaghetti vs Baked Beans |
| IT / Telecommunications / Consumer Durables & Automotive | OMD NZ | Dulux NZ | What’s your Dulux Colour of New Zealand? |
| IT / Telecommunications / Consumer Durables & Automotive | Starcom / Saatchi & Saatchi / Aim Proximity / Wright Communications | Toyota | Toyota FJ Cruiser Top to Bottom |
| Media / Entertainment / Travel & Leisure | OMD NZ | Sony Computer Entertainment NZ | Little Big Planet 2 |
| Media / Entertainment / Travel & Leisure | SparkPHD and Special Group | MediaWorks | FOUR: Repositioning a TV station through infamous entertainment |
| Best Use of Content | Brandworld | Lion Nathan | The Mix |
| Best Use of Content | OMD NZ & Colenso BBDO | Frucor Beverages | Mountain Dew Skatepark |
| Best Use of Event / Activation | OMD NZ | Loyalty New Zealand | Flats Extreme Trolley Challenge |
| Best Use of Lead Medium: Out of Home | Ikon Communications | New Zealand Police | NZ Police – Extraordinary Stories |
| Best Use of Lead Medium: Print | Naked Communications with Special / ACP | Ecostore | Ecostore Little Treasures |
| Best Use of Lead Medium: Print | Total Media | NZ Sugar | A Sweet Year |
| Best Use of Earned or Owned | Starcom | TVNZ | Lookalikes |
| Charity | ZenithOptimedia | Auckland City Mission | Become Someone’s Angel – Auckland City Mission |
| Best Integrated Campaign | Naked Communications & Ikon | Coca-Cola Oceania New Zealand | The Powerade Challenge |
| Best Small Budget (up to $100k per annum) | Naked Communications with Special / ACP | Ecostore | Ecostore Little Treasures |
| Best Small Budget (up to $100k per annum) | OMD NZ | Loyalty New Zealand | Flats Extreme Trolley Challenge |
| Best Small Budget (up to $100k per annum) | SparkPHD | Unilever | Lynx Labs: Lynx Dry 24 hour protection |
| Best Launch | Starcom / Saatchi & Saatchi / Aim Proximity / Wright Communications | Toyota | Toyota FJ Cruiser Top to Bottom |
| Best Sales Proposal of the Year | ACP Media | Total Media/NZ Sugar | ACP Media NZ Sugar |
| Best Sales Proposal of the Year | APN News Media | Yellow | Yellow Pages |
| Best Sales Proposal of the Year | MediaWorks TV | New Zealand Lotteries Commission | X Factor USA |
