And the winners are… The OOHMAA team is excited to unveil the Q3 winners of ‘The Speccies’ – celebrating the best in Aotearoa’s out of home advertising.
OOHMAA writes these campaigns dazzled the judges with bold creativity, a deep understanding of how to get the most out of an out of home campaign, and the power to stop audiences in their tracks.
These entries have now earned their shot at the OOHMAA Annual Awards, which open for entries on 20 January 2025. Without further ado…let’s meet this quarter’s stars!
Best use of Technology/Data
Advertiser: Whānau Ora
Campaign Title: Real-Time Reo
Creative Agency: Motion Sickness
Media Agency: Motion Sickness
Out of Home Format/s: Digital Billboards
Campaign Details: In celebration of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week), Whānau Ora has launched an innovative digital Out of Home campaign, ‘Real-Time Reo’. Designed to make te reo Māori a part of everyday life.
Motion Sickness worked closely with LUMO to build a custom dashboard that responds to live data—such as weather, time of day, sporting events, and breaking news—with relevant phrases and translations, turning every moment into an opportunity to learn and celebrate te reo Māori.
Judges’ Comments: We’ve seen the use of live data before, but it often feels unnecessary – who needs to be reminded when the best time of day to consume an alcoholic beverage is?
The best way to learn a new language is to use it in your everyday life, so pairing this with tech that targets you at different moments throughout your day is what makes this campaign simple and effective.
Be Seen
Advertiser: Take the Jump – Kia Māia Te Peke
Campaign Title: Hotter than Climate Change
Creative Agency: VML
Media Agency: VML
Out of Home Format/s: Digital Billboards, Retail and EV Charging Stations
Campaign Details: A nationwide push to encourage New Zealanders to take easy and practical climate actions. We needed to inspire confidence that personal climate action was possible and desirable.
To encourage individual climate actions, we tapped into another angle. Doing good makes you feel good, and when you feel good, you look good. We showed how positive climate actions, like walking to work or planting trees, can look hot and encourage people to feel Hotter than Climate Change.
They were directed to find out more about what simple actions they could take at takethejump.org.nz, and we could tell people were eager to take up the cause with a huge increase in visitor numbers as soon as the Out of Home hit the streets.
Judges’ Comments: The best way to be seen is to do something people haven’t seen before. This approach to climate change felt fresh and interesting, especially in a space where it’s been attempted in many ways.
Out of the Box
No Winner.
This category received many entries; however, the OOHMAA judges could not award a winner for the ‘Out of the Box’ category in Q3. While many entries demonstrated creativity and innovation, none fully met the judges’ criteria for groundbreaking and unexpected out of home campaigns.
Feedback from the judges on the entries into this category was – It’s easy to think ‘Out of the Box’ means to build something on top of a bus shelter/billboard, and while that may be a more literal approach, we believe it’s the ones that offer the audience something beyond aesthetic treatment that works best; we didn’t see this example of this in the entries received this quarter and therefore no award was given.
Best Use of Channel
Advertiser: Whānau Ora
Campaign Title: Real-Time Reo
Creative Agency: Motion Sickness
Media Agency: Motion Sickness
Out of Home Format/s: Digital Billboards
Campaign Details: In celebration of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week), Whānau Ora has launched an innovative digital Out of Home campaign, ‘Real-Time Reo’. Designed to make te reo Māori a part of everyday life.
Motion Sickness worked closely with Lumo to build a custom dashboard that responds to live data —such as weather, time of day, sporting events, and breaking news—with relevant phrases and translations, turning every moment into an opportunity to learn and celebrate te reo Māori.
Judges’ Comments: This campaign made the most of all the tactics Digital Out of Home delivers: dynamic creative, time-of-day targeting, and reacting to real-world events, all bundled into clear, concise creative that taught the audience something. Fabulous!
People’s Choice
Advertiser: Griffins
Campaign Title: Griffins Cookies
Creative Agency: Pitchblack
Media Agency: MBM
Out of Home Format/s: Bus Shelter Special Build
Campaign Details: Griffins partnered with oOh! to create a bespoke scent and a bus shelter take-over to activate their annual Cookies campaign. Griffins wanted to position Cookies as primarily an adult, permissible indulgence to be enjoyed as a treat during the commute, at work and for an after-dinner snack.
A bespoke cookie scent that was created to compliment the visual elements. This activity was also complimented across oOh’s high-reaching network, with 138 static, retail and classic panels targeted to supermarkets.
Judges’ Comments: This category is judged by the Consumer on the street courtesy of MediaWorks’ Opinionation Survey.
The special build for Griffins was the People’s Choice winner for Q3, achieving a likeability score of 67%, which was 79% ahead of the Q3 benchmark. It succeeded in capturing the attention of an audience that clearly enjoys a Griffin’s cookie.
OOHMAA extends a massive thank you to its amazing judges: Monica Wales, Olly King, and the talented duo Tim Thatch and Gaetano Perry! Your time and expertise were invaluable. Whakawhetai ki a koe!
To the winners: congratulations; your work is inspiring! We can’t wait to see what you come up with next, so get ready to impress us again; Q4 nominations open on January 20, 2025! Submit your entries on the OOHMAA Awards website.