1. Favourite local campaign that isn’t yours
Vogel’s campaign by Chris Schofield and the team at Shine – a great local example of emotive work that drives affinity and also impacts sales in an everyday purchase area.
2. Favourite campaign that is yours
Really proud of working on the Green Party’s general election campaign this year, as you may have heard it was a roller coaster ride at times, but I’m really proud of the collective team and we did some great work around dynamic digital outdoor and social media in my humble opinion.
3. Favourite international campaign
State Street Global Advisors ‘Fearless Girl’ by McCann NYC.
It’s a remarkable piece of breakthrough advertising in finance, which is as rare as hen’s teeth, and what’s more, it showcases that great ideas are often very simple but brilliantly executed.
4. Least favourite campaign
That’s a hard question, we are now in the attention economy, it’s so easy to filter things out. Maybe I should single out Spark’s Fathers Day ad, not because it wasn’t a great piece of video, it was, I’m picking on it because it made me teary every single time, reducing me to a red-eyed mess, so I started to avoid it like the plague because it worked so bloody well on an old softie like me.
5. Your own biggest success
Our house needed a lot of work thanks to the old leaky house syndrome, and my parents kindly took me and my family in for a number of months, and yet my marriage still survived. That’s my biggest success right there.
6. Most significant launch/innovation/thing of the year
I’m biased perhaps because I work with them, but Z building New Zealand’s first commercial-scale biodiesel plant using the by-product of the New Zealand meat industry is actually really cool—given that almost a fifth of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions come from transport. Having a world class New Zealand company passionate about reducing the carbon emissions from the fuels they sell and publically stating fossil fuels is not their future is brave and I applaud it.
7. What should be un-invented?
Emails, I’m just under a constant deluge of emails.
8. Lamest trend
“Happy Christmas”. When did that become a thing, it’s Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas, not Happy Christmas.
9. Best brands
I’ve deliberately excluded the wonderful brands we work on at MBM for full transparency—I love you all!
Eat my Lunch
Air New Zealand
10. Best stoush
The whole Atomic 212 thing blowing up across the Tasman is a doozie!
11. Heroes
Alysha Delany and Annabelle Wilkinson – they are my heroes for sure. I’m in awe of how they are amazing at work and also amazing mums, and then they still find time to clean up my mistakes and put up with me!
James Shaw – he impressed me how committed he was to trying to get the Green’s back into parliament to ensure there was a green voice in government.
Hannah at MBM, who just gave everything this year in a tough spot she rocks!
Last but not least my wonderful wife, she’s unbelievable when I’m down she lifts me up, when I’m dark she brings back the light
12. Villains
I just think it’s wrong how big global media companies can make huge revenues in New Zealand and then not contribute back to our society through taxes or even salaries etc here in New Zealand. It may be legal, but it’s just not right, global companies need to remember they should also enrich, not just exploit, our little islands and its wonderful people.
13. What died in 2017?
I’m just glad it wasn’t me, I’ve got to lose some weight!
14. What’s the biggest mistake marketers will make in 2018?
Assuming technology trumps heart. There is a lot of effort going into tech but not the same effort into what are they are saying to customers and consumers. Tech can enhance communications, but it’s not a replacement for saying the right thing.
15. What’s the most Black Mirror/sci-fi horror thing likely to happen in the near future?
I’m not sure if I’m in Elon Musk’s camp about the fears of AI or not…but one thing I do know is that AI is coming fast, in all works of life…so that will be part of my summer reading programme.
