Living up to its tagline of Unexpected Works, DDB Aotearoa impressed the judges at the 2023 Axis Awards this year with its ‘If You Seek’ campaign for Tourism New Zealand which won the coveted Cultural Axis, and the highly successful ‘We Speak Late Night’ campaign for McDonald’s. StopPress met up with DDB’s Group Chief Creative Officer Matty Burton to find out how the agency harnesses the power of the unexpected in its creative projects.
Working on a campaign to encourage international visitors to visit New Zealand at the tail-end of a pandemic is no easy feat.
The magnitude and implications of the task was not lost on DDB. “It is a big piece of work, and it’s an important piece of work, and it’s not something to just be frivolous with,” Burton says.
“We took it very seriously. But I think that’s true with most of the things that we do as an industry. We’re there to help turn the wheels of industry and that helps people find meaningful employment etc. It’s important what we do. Sometimes we forget that.”
Showcasing the truths of Aotearoa New Zealand in a new way is also what led to the campaign being enticing to its intended audience as well as its unintended audience of a jury of advertising people he adds.
“We were all working, and this includes the client (Tourism NZ), to give Aotearoa, New Zealand, the work that it deserves. I think it’s a big responsibility when you are selling a country to the rest of the world.”
Working closely with RUN, a Māori-owned female-led agency, and Eat Big Fish, DDB went deep to understand and unearth some “beautiful truths” that also happen to be attractive to international travellers.
“The overall big truth is that there’s something very visceral about traveling,” Burton says.

“I think Anthony Bourdain said it best when he said: ‘Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown.’ Travel for the soul is quite enriching and it’s poetic almost what it can do for us. There’s something much more real about coming to New Zealand for the traveller, and it does awaken your senses at the core, and so that’s where we played a lot with,” Burton says.
“What are those visceral senses that people have and how can we manipulate that in a nice way?”
As a category, tourism advertising is crowded and filled with people trying to appeal to tourists and show them everything the destinations have to offer all at once. DDB and Tourism NZ decided to take a different approach and used this campaign to pique people’s interests by not giving everything away at once.
“If you tease some things and don’t show everything all at once, it’s human behaviour to be a little bit more interested in it,” Burton adds.
Keeping this tactic in mind, the team collaborated on finding interesting stories they believed people would want to hear but delivering them thoughtfully and with deliberation.
As an Australian who has lived in New Zealand before, and moving to New Zealand in the midst of the pandemic, Burton brought a unique perspective.
“When we started this pitch process I was still in MIQ with my family, moving to New Zealand. So the size of the task was not unknown to me,” he says.
Burton also believes that starting the tourism campaign a little later than some other re-opening campaigns after the pandemic, also became a strength and meant they were able to find a more unique angle and voice.
“We just lent into that and followed it. All of us; Eat Big Fish, RUN and Tourism NZ, trying to show off the things that we’re all really passionate about this country, and just trying to be true to it.”
DDB and McDonald’s work ‘We Speak Late Night’ also won a host of awards, most notably a Gold for copywriting, a Silver for Standard Outdoor Advertising, and another Silver for Out of Home.
This piece of work plays on the cultural brand of McDonalds’ being the go-to meal of choice on the way home from a night out.

“It ran in particular times of the evening for a particular audience. But it seems to have transcended that media and just popped up everywhere around the globe. And I think it’s because it’s hit on a cultural insight and lands it in a funny way,” Burton says.
As for the calibre of the work on the night, Burton says the Axis Awards play an important role in pushing the industry forward creatively.
“I’m really proud of our industry here. I think we’ve got lots of strong agencies and we do lots of great work, and all of us need to keep pushing each other forward. I think it’s really important that all of us are doing well because it lifts the level of everything.”
Read more in our Axis 2023 series, here.