Start spreadin’ the news… NZ’s own Dave King, M&C Saatchi NZ’s executive creative director, has won the prestigious Irving Wunderman award at the 34th John Caples International Awards Gala, held recently in New York. In fact, the entire Kiwi contingent will be ‘waking up in the city that doesn’t sleep’ to find they’re ‘king of the hill, top of the heap’–between them they managed to bring home 50 awards from a record 51 finalist places (that’s one more than Australia, thank you very much), including seven Golds, 12 Silvers, six Bronzes and 25 Finalists. That’ll melt those little town blues.
The grand prix, Dave King‘s Gold Irving Wunderman lifetime achievement award, honours professionals who have developed their talent into a compelling body of creative work, spanning at least a decade. King has this in truckloads, and has won over a dozen Cannes Lions, 30 Caples gongs as well as countless other local and international awards. He has been awarded a number of One Show Pencils, plus the coveted D&DA pencil.
King has been responsible for some of New Zealand’s most high profile creative campaigns: The Police recruitment drive campaign attracted international press coverage, while the very personal touch for the Fire Service campaign won an Orca radio award for the Fire Service Anthems campaign. For history buffs, and kids too young too remember, when King joined M&C Saatchi Australia in 1999, the company won Australia’s Direct Agency of the Year award six years in a row. Prior to rejoining M&C Saatchi in 2007, King was creative director of AIM Proximity Auckland. At his helm AIM became the number two ranked DM agency in the world, according to the Won Report, and King the third ranked creative director in the world. Let’s face it–the man’s a national treasure.
Another big winner on the night was Colenso BBDO. The agency won three Gold Awards: ‘Rear View Girls’ in the Viral Video Marketing category, ‘Skate Pinball’ in Launch Campaign, and ‘Doggelganger‘ in the Campaign Microsite category. Colenso BBDO also won seven Silver, a Bronze and seven Finalist Awards.
‘Impulse Saver’ for Westpac won the Colenso team three Silver Awards: for the Mobile App, Launch, and Integrated Campaigns.
‘Doggelganger’ brought home two Silver Awards, for the Launch Campaign, and Creative Use of Technology categories.
‘V Paintball’ for Frucor, and ‘Beautify Your City – A Rubbish Idea‘ for the Auckland Council, added two more Silvers to Colenso’s bulging trophy cabinet, for both the Integrated Campaign and Print Collateral/Non-mail category.
‘Skate Pinball’ won the Colenso team a Bronze Award for its Integrated Campaign.
Colenso BBDO’s 12 Finalist awards were for Beautify your City in the Ambient/Guerilla Marketing category, Yellow Local for Out of Home, Direct Response TV, and Print Ad, ‘Max it Jobs‘ and ‘Shortland Street Summer Fling‘ in Social Media, and ‘Impulse saver’ in the Creative Use of Technology category.
DDB Group’s Rapp Tribal went in with nine finalist places and wasn’t disappointed, coming out with a Silver, two Bronze, and six Finalist Awards. ‘Big Thank You’ for Telecom won it the Silver for Direct Mail/Customer Retention category.
The Rapp Tribespeople won two Bronze Awards in the same category–Integrated Campaign. ECD Toby Talbot and CD Regan Grafton’s ‘Believe‘ for Lion Breweries and CD Aaron Goldring’s ‘Share the joy‘ for Cadbury.
DDB Group’s Rapp Tribal also won Finalist Awards for ‘Yellow Apples‘ in the DM Five Dollar category, ‘Looking Good in Yellow‘ in the Retention Non-mail category, ‘The Schmancy App‘, in Social Media. ‘Share the Joy’ and ANZ’s ‘Welcome the World‘ in Interactive Campaigns, and Warnie Chicken Bites for Integrated Campaign.
DrafFCB went into the awards holing seven finalist places. Six from seven ain’t bad, as it won a Silver, two Bronze and four Finalist Awards.
The ‘Say No to Naff‘ knitted envelope was returned to sender with a Silver Award for Direct Mail Flat (1-500) attached.
‘Make Friends‘ for the SPCA won Bronze for Social Media. Mini’s ‘Carminica‘ won Bronze for Ambient/Guerilla Marketing, and ‘Vacuum Cleaner Bags‘ for Save the Children won Bronze for DM Under Five dollars per Piece.
‘Vacuum Cleaner Bags’, ‘EFFIES – Call For Entry‘, ‘Sports Stories‘, and ‘Say No to Naff’ also won Finalist Awards in DM under $5, Print Collateral/Non-mail, Radio Pod, Social Media categories, respectively.
After being named a finalist in three categories, ‘Fujikistan’, the campaign created for Fuji Xerox, has won Gold in two of them. Republik was awarded Gold for ‘Best Dimensional Direct Mail’ and for ‘Best Copy Writing’. It was also awarded Finalist for Best Art Direction. The campaign has already enjoyed huge success, collecting Gold at the International DMA ECHO Awards, a Gold and Silver at the Effies and two Gold’s at last years RSVP’s.
Republik director, Paul McNamara says. “Fuji Xerox is a great client and this project was a massive challenge, but one that has well and truly paid off. It has completely blown away all sales and revenue targets and has set a new benchmark for product launch strategy for Fuji Xerox. After all the hard work, it’s great to get this kind of recognition”.
Clemenger BBDO Wellington had high hopes going in with six finalists, and ended up with a swag of loot. It came away with a Gold Award for the ‘Sneak Up Ads’ for the New Zealand Transport Authority (NZTA) in the Print Collateral, non-mail category and five Finalist Awards:
‘Fabric Adshels’ Out of Home, ‘Don’t Bail Out‘ for the NZTA in the Direct Response TV category. ‘What’s Your Dulux Colour of New Zealand’ for Integrated Campaign, ‘Fabric Scooters‘ for Best Art Direction, and the ‘Sneak Up Ads’ for Creative Use of Technology.
AIM Proximity won three Silvers from its three finalist places, all for the same campaign: ‘FJ Top to Bottom off road – 60 years of Land Cruiser, in the Campaign Microsite, Launch Campaign, and Interactive Campaign categories.
Special Group came home with a Bronze Award for ‘Living Office Banner‘ for Orcon in the Online category, and .99 won a Finalist Award for New World brand Web as did Publicis Mojo for ‘Angels’.
The John Caples International Awards has international chairs in 50 countries, is funded by industry volunteers and judged by 100 active, senior level international creative professionals. Between 200-300 marketeers from around the world attend the annual dinner and presentation with a celebratory multi-media display of the winning entries.