Last night, in Ponsonby’s Sapphire Room, the StopPress team and Te Radar showered the industry in love as we celebrated the best humans, work and ideas from 2019.
Across the 13 categories, there were two winners, the people’s choice and the overall winner determined by us.
While nearly 10,500 votes were being cast, the StopPress team put their heads together, downed some gin & tonics and hit up some chatbots. When that strategy failed to deliver any winners, we decided to take trip down memory lane to see who and what got us talking this year.
The overall winners were presented wth doorstop and stop sign trophies, while the people’s choice winners were presented with a wedge of cheese.
Without further ado, below is a rundown of those who took one home.
Campaign of the Year Award
People’s Choice:
‘Life to the Power of 5G’
Vodafone by DDB and Sweetshop
Vodafone sure took us on a journey with this one. While salty water welled in our eyes as we thought Huxley was set to be put down, we’re instead shown the power of 5G. Bravo…and thanks for the tears.
Overall Winner:
‘Keeping Ho-Ho hush hush’
NZ Post by FCB
Love a good Christmas ad and for this Christmas, NZ Post have done a good job to deliver the feels while promoting their services. From the festive remake of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Little Lies’ to the sweet subtleties of whispers and growing noses, this ad delivers plenty of smiles.
Whoopsie of the Year
People’s Choice and Overall Winner:
Air NZ Rapping Safety Video
Air New Zealand got the hint this year that Kiwis weren’t fans ‘It’s Kiwi Safety’ video so it swapped it out for a previous video after only three months being live. The ‘It’s Kiwi Safety video was full of cringe-inducing moments as local stars were combined with Run-DMC’s 1986 song ‘It’s Tricky’ and the necessary safety instructions. Shivers.
Bravest Move of the Year
People’s Choice and Overall Winner:
NZME Erects Paywall
It was the talk of the town when NZME announced its plan to erect a paywall on their NZ Herald site. While commentators weighed in on whether Kiwis would revert back to their ways of paying for journalism after years of freedom, NZME went for it, and in doing so hit their year target of 10,000 paid subscribers within six weeks and proved that its content was still worth paying for.
Idea of the Year – sponsored by Google
Overall Winner:
‘Tap to Donate’
The Breast Cancer Foundation by oOh!media
oOo!media has changed the donation game with the first tap to donate billboards. Alongside the Breast Cancer Foundation, oOh!media erected the first panels on a Queen Street bus stop, providing a much more convenient way to donate $3 to the charity.
People’s Choice:
‘The Redundancy Clown’
Josh Thompson
When Josh Thompson was made redundant from FCB, he took a clown as his support person. According to the NZ Herald’s report, the clown made balloon animals throughout the meeting and mimed crying. Despite being made redundant, it appears the $200 spent on the clown was worth it as Thompson was quickly scooped up by DDB.
Move of the Year
People’s Choice:
Matt Williams and Freddie Coltart
Matt Williams and Freddie Coltart swapped FCB for DDB this year. The duo had been at FCB for nearly two years, where they had been promoted to creative group heads.
Overall Winner:
Andrew Reinholds
There was plenty of interest this year when Andrew Reinholds announced his departure from OMD where he was managing director. After joining the group in 1999 he was off to new things and a month later that new thing was announced as Stanley St. He’s now the agency’s head of media.
Watercooler Conversation Starter of the Year
People’s Choice and Overall Winner:
MediaWorks to sell TV
It wouldn’t be a rundown of the biggest goings-on in the industry without including the announcement that MediaWorks has put its TV business up for sale. With news first coming of cuts to its programming, MediaWorks’ TV offer was already in muddy territory.
Mascot of the Year
People’s Choice:
Cliff Curtis for Vodafone TV
It’s a far cry from his Once were Warriors days, yet Cliff Curtis showed us he’s still got the range as he partnered with Vodafone. The New Zealand celeb made us laugh, cry, smile, and consider changing cell phone carriers.
Overall Winner:
The Pink Blob for Powershop
While a big pink blob might not be everyone’s type, you can’t help but love the way he serves as such a companion to our female protagonist. He looks like company and cuddly all in one.
Best Sad Dog Campaign
People’s Choice:
‘Huxley’
Vodafone by DDB and Sweetshop
A rollercoaster of a spot, this ad dragged our hearts through the dirt, threatened to kill a dog just to introduce us to 5G. Heartless.
Overall Winner:
‘Quit for your Pets’
Quitline New Zealand by YoungShand
Not only are you slowly killing your lungs with tobacco, but you’re also killing your family members. Extra heartless points too YoungShand who actually killed off the dog to communicate their message.
Best Ad that’s not an Ad – sponsored by Mi9
People’s Choice:
‘Slice of Heaven’
Lion’s Tokyo Dry by DDB
Dave Bobbyn’s ‘Slice of Heaven’ is a Kiwi classic and while it does not deserve to be messed with, we love what Lion did for Tokyo Dry. Blending local with Japanese culture made for a memorable campaign and with a cool track and stunning images.
Overall Winner:
‘Brews to Outvote Boomers’
Wave Agency and the Mount Brewing Co.
Wave Agency, joined up with The Mount Brewing Co to deliver a message to young voters, if we all band together, we can outvote the boomers. The message was communicated on their lager cans, which were decorated with real angry comments from a boomer taking a stab at Millennials on the internet.
Meta Campaign of the Year
People’s Choice:
DDB spells it out
DDB celebrated its heritage this year with a new logo. Now, two ‘D’s form the ‘B’ and the full name, Doyle Dane Bernbach, has been included to reinforce the values the agency was founded on – creativity and humanity. We are slightly biased in liking this as it’s yellow and black like StopPress.
Overall Winner:
FCB pops bottles
FCB popped bottles this year to celebrate being awarded Creative Agency of the Year at Axis and Most Awarded Media Agency at the Beacons. But it wasn’t just any champagne being popped, the agency celebrated with its own drop dubbed ‘Number Fifty Seven’ and shared the news in a ‘Double Banger’ campaign in print and online.
Sage of the Year
People’s Choice and Overall Winner:
Cassie Roma
With a continuous flow of articles keeping us clicking on LinkedIn – some of which we have nabbed for StopPress – Cassie Roma, head of content marketing for The Warehouse Group, is living up to her “content” title. But it’s not all nitty-gritty business writing. With article titles including ‘I Like You, You’re Different’, ‘Things We Love: Slanguage & Saturdays’ and ‘Dudes, This One’s For You (Not Really) #internationalwomensday’, Roma is keeping us interested, entertained, up to date and educated across a plethora of topics.
Human of the Year
People’s Choice:
Georgia McGillivray
This year, Georgia McGillivray has celebrated her agency’s fourth birthday. The CEO and co-founder of The Social Club has made a name for herself over the years in the local advertising and marketing space and the whitepaper the agency released this year ‘The Ultimate Guide to Influencer Marketing’ is a rare source of insights into influencer marketing in New Zealand. For her work, she was a finalist for the Marketer of the Year title at this year’s TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards.
Overall Winner:
Catherine Harris
After joining TBWAGroup New Zealand as managing director two years ago, this year Catherine Harris was promoted to chief executive. The agency has been on the up since she joined, picking up the 2degrees account and welcoming Shane Bradnick as chief creative officer at the close of 2018. And this year, she’s brought on board Matt Kingston as head of strategy and planning and Guy Roberts as ECD to name a few hires.
Group of Humans
People’s Choice:
DDB
DDB was pipped to the post to win Most Effective Agency of the Year at this year’s Effie Awards but this isn’t a pitty nomination. The agency is responsible for some of our favourite campaigns of the year, including work for Vodafone, which it won the account of at the end of 2018. And within the agency walls, it’s welcomed new staff including Matt Williams and Freddie Coltart as creative directors and Gary Steele executive creative director. It also hired Josh Thompson, the man who took a clown into his redundancy meeting at FCB.
Overall Winner:
YoungShand
It’s been a big year for YoungShand. Take a look through this list and you’ll see a number of pieces of their work being mentioned among our favourite campaigns, including work for Quitline and New Zealand Blood Service. Alongside this, the agency has raised awareness of how Blind + Low Vision is opening the visual world in a clever and educational ‘AltTextForAllMovement’ campaign. All this work has been made possible due to its many account wins including Discover Waitomo for Tourism Holdings Limited (THL) health company Vitaco, and Hellers. Alongside this, it was also appointed as an all-of-government supplier.
Wild Cards
Player of the Year
EightyOne for ‘Support Women’s Sport Basin Reserve’
To tackle bias in women’s sports and secure the iconic Basin Reserve in Wellington a sponsor Eighty One went on a mission. The idea was to crowdfund the money required to change the Basin Reserve to ‘Support Women’s Sport Basin Reserve’. While the name didn’t stick, the media coverage it earned was a good reminder of how media gives more attention to male sports.
Coach of the Year
Sir Graham Henry for New Zealand Blood Service
Sideline Supporters of the YearKiwibank
Kiwibank for ‘I am Hope’
To leverage its sponsorship of the New Zealander of the Year event, Kiwibank got behind a good cause. With Mike King named New Zealander of the Year, the bank kicked off a ‘I am Hope’ social media fundraiser that saw Facebook users change their profile pictures while the bank pledged to donate $100,000 to the Gumboot Up NZ fund.
Best Use of a Clown
Josh Thompson for the Redundancy Clown
