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Golden days as Gladeye and Method nab international digital accolades

Two Auckland-based digital creative agencies have flown the Kiwi flag at the 2012 Communicator Awards, with Gladeye taking home three golds for Moa Beer, Collette Dinnigan and the agency’s own portfolio website as well as another two silvers, and Method Studios winning gold for a custom Xbox Kinect Game for Smith&Smith that was aimed at insurance brokers.

The Communicator Awards, which are judged by the International Academy of Visual Arts, received over 6,000 entries from around the world and the Kiwi agencies were in good company, because Disney, Fiat, Toyota, Ford, Schweppes, the NFL, Gatorade, and Citibank were also among this year’s winners.

“We’ve always focused on craft,” says Gladeye director Tarver Graham. “So it’s nice when this stacks up in terms of international recognition as well as results on the ground. Our own site [which won a special award for Excellence in Visual Appeal]is actually three years old. It should’ve been entered in a veteran’s class. But we’re stoked with this win because it’s vindication that if you don’t follow trends you can make lasting design even on the fast paced fashion cycles of the web. There’s a lot to be said for working with the right clients. Both Moa Beer and Collette Dinnigan invest enormous attention to detail into their products. Collette just won the Australian Fashion Laureate. We try to get this attitude across online.”

Gladeye kicked off in 2006 and recently moved from Herne Bay to a new studio space in Parnell. It also works with 42 Below, Ecoya and Pure Advantage and is currently looking to grow the agency team.

“It’s our strength that we have creative, design and execution under one roof,” he says. “There’s a killer atmosphere when you get the right team together and let them feed off each other for the duration of a project.”

Its silver awards of distinction were earned for Gimme-5 in online advertising & marketing – Game or Application and Hell Zombies in online advertising & marketing, social media (this was shared with Barnes Catmur & Friends).

As for Method Studios, which recently announced a merger with Magnet Design, the gold for its Smash Hero game for Smith&Smith made it the only Australasian agency to win an award in the interactive category.

The game uses the Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect sensor to create a virtual cone that senses the position of a players’ hands in that cone and it then uses the gestures of players’ hands to control gameplay.

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“Smith&Smith approached us to build a database of brokers from an insurance conference,” says Samantha Ramlu, Method Studios’ managing director. “We decided to do something a little different—a game to draw the brokers in, and by appealing to their sense of competitiveness, get them to willingly sign up. Smash Hero worked perfectly, attracting registrations from 50 percent of conference attendees and leaving a pretty memorable Smith&Smith brand impression in brokers’ minds.”

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