Over 500 advertising and marketing folks descended on the Langham last night for the final and, some might argue, most important event on the awards calendar. The Effies Awards are so highly coveted because the judging process places enormous emphasis on the business results achieved by creative ideas. Winning the big awards is notoriously difficult, and this was again reiterated this year with only seven gold gongs being handed over the course of proceedings. Here’s the lowdown on who won what.
Browsing: CAANZ
The 2016 NZ Effie Award finalists have been announced by CAANZ after a panel of 150 industry judges selected 102 finalists from 17 categories.
CAANZ has elected a new president in PHD chief executive Louise Bond, following Simon Lendrum’s decision to step down after his two-and-a-half-year tenure.
EMANZ (the Experiential Marketing Association of New Zealand) is set to merge with CAANZ PREScom (PR, Social and Experiential Committee) after six months of discussions. Bringing together the industry bodies will focus resources to help future-proof the experiential industry.
Ahead of the upcoming CAANZ PresCom event on the commercialisation of content, The Spinoff’s Duncan Greive gives his $0.02 on the matter and says that while there are some prickly ethical issues to deal with, brand-funded content offers a glimmer of hope for the craft of journalism and can work in everyone’s favour when done well.
On a dark and windy night, six advertising-employed goth bands slithered into the King’s Arms, fishnets, face powder, bad eyeliner and all, to pay homage to the likes of 1980’s goth bands The Cure, The Cramps and movement-starters Bauhaus. And despite straying from the theme and playing songs which you couldn’t really call gothic, Colenso BBDO aka Pegasus and the Job Numbers were crowned the winner of this year’s Battle of the Ad Bands organised by CAANZ and Flying Fish, after a polished and upbeat set that wooed the crowd and judges alike.
Last night, at an event hosted at the Pullman Hotel, CAANZ kicked off this partnership by introducing two new courses to the local market: The IPA Effectiveness Test and the IPA Commercial Certificate (CAANZ also plans to release a third paper focused on search marketing before the end of the year).
Industry happenings at PHD, Snakk, CAANZ, Darkhorse, Lily & Louis, ZM, My Food Bag, the Marketing Association, CIevents and TedX.
379 entries across 75 categories have made it through to the finals of the Axis Awards, with FCB leading the way on 54, followed by Colenso BBDO with 49 and DDB with 47. Special Group has 31 finalists and Saatchi & Saatchi rounded out the top five with 26 finalists.
Industry happenings at MPA, MediaWorks, OMD, CAANZ, The Pond and Unity Films.
New season ranges at Fairfax, Nielsen, Bayleys, NZME and CAANZ.
After more than 170 preliminary judges and 60 category judges pored over the entries for the 2014 Effie Awards, 113 of them have made the finalist list, with FCB New Zealand topping the charts on 23, Colenso BBDO/Proximity New Zealand on 18, DDB and Saatchi & Saatchi on 11 and Ogilvy & Mather on ten.
Industry happenings at Touchcast, Healthy Life Media, BOTAB, CAANZ and Blockhead.
The trade blogs are renowned for snarky, often anonymous comments that call into question the motivations for campaigns or their claimed success. But as part of it drive to get more entries for the upcoming Effie awards, CAANZ and .99 are aiming to show that, due to the focus on real-life results rather than the shiny, new and enticing, a trophy in this awards programme will go a long way to silencing those critics.
FCB’s already well-awarded ‘Bottled Walkman’ campaign has landed three nominations, while Whybin’s ‘Effies Results Don’t Lie’ campaign has received two nominations in the Design category at Cannes.
The first-ever Beacon Awards took place last night at the Viaduct Events Centre in front of a capacity crowd, and it was FCB Media that got by far the most exercise, with independent MBM winning agency of the year, MediaWorks TV winning media brand of the year, Maritime New Zealand taking client of the year and Nielsen’s Claire Harris accepting the inspiring individual award.
Football fever (and football-related advertising fever) is ramping up as Brazil gets ready to host the World Cup in June. And there was a bit of fancy footwork in New Zealand last week when a selection of Auckland agencies put down their iPhones and laced up for the inaugural CAANZ soccer tournament. Plus: agencies also skive off to play basketball for TRN’s 3 on 3.
CAANZ chief executive Paul Head this morning announced that Simon Lendrum, managing director of JWT New Zealand, has been elected to the position of CAANZ president, which was vacated by DDB’s Sandy Moore after his recent resignation.
FCB Media, OMD, SparkPHD and Mediacom have taken a large number of finalist placings in the CAANZ Beacon awards, for which winners will be awarded on 1 May. Mediaworks, TVNZ and iSite Media are in the running for the Media Brand of the Year.
All the best ideas in the business were recognised last night at the Axis Awards, and one of the best men in the business was recognised too, with advertising veteran Sandy Moore accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award.
The creative love may have been shared in the call for entries campaign, but now the creative competition begins, because the 2014 Axis finalists have been announced and Colenso BBDO/Proximity is in a familiar position atop the list with 56 nods, followed closely by DraftFCB on 54, DDB on 37 and Saatchi & Saatchi on 30. Plus: Clemenger BBDO’s new Axis logo.
For some, a pitch is the most efficient method of choosing an agency partner. For others, it’s an overly expensive, time-consuming beauty parade. CAANZ has conducted two surveys to see how local agencies view the pitching process. And the results show there’s plenty of room for improvement, says chief executive Paul Head.
The bar for call for entries campaigns has risen significantly in recent years, with the likes of DraftFCB’s ‘The real judge of advertising is the consumer’ campaign for the 2011 Effies and TBWA\’s ‘Results Don’t Lie’ effort this year standing out. And there are a couple more good ones bubbling away at the moment for the Axis Awards and the newly rejigged Beacon Awards.
For the second year in a row, Barnes Catmur & Friends’ Friends Electric took the top prize at the only ad award that really matters, BOTAB.
As part of last year’s Battle of the Ad Bands, the winning band, Barnes Catmur & Friends’ Friends Electric, ate the 50 gallons of personalised ice cream and drove the Audi slightly above the speed limit. They were also given a recording session at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios and had a music video filmed. So, as the industry gears up for this year’s musical showdown tonight at the Kings Arms, what better time to reveal the fruits of that labour.
After a fairly controversial 2012, CAANZ and a bunch of senior ad folk engineered a few big changes to this year’s Axis proceedings to make the awards, as Colenso BBDO’s Nick Garrett said, a more collegial, more credible and more celebratory event that aimed to show the business community how influential creativity could be. And now CAANZ has announced some more changes to the programme for 2014.
The most important night on the advertising calendar looms once again. And if the Battle of the Ad Bands registration poster is any gauge, it looks like it’s going to be a twerk fest this Thursday at the Kings Arms Tavern. So make sure you get your tickets.
Whybin\TBWA’s ‘Results Don’t Lie’ campaign for the 2013 New Zealand Effie Awards put a few creative big-wigs from New Zealand’s advertising industry in a dark room, gave them lie detector tests and asked them about the legitimacy of their most awarded campaigns. The results have been comical and controversial in equal measure and, with awards night looming, the agency has stepped it up a notch, announcing that one of its own—chief creative officer Toby Talbot—will take to the stage for a live polygraph test as part of the evening’s proceedings.
Colenso and DDB are the outstanding performers among the 86 finalists in this year’s Effie awards. According to a revised list by CAANZ and TVNZ, Colenso BBDO and DDB have 19 finalists.
In a recent column in NZ Marketing (and again in StopPress) John Baker expressed some opinions on the recent launch of Standard Media Index (SMI) in New Zealand and on media agencies in general. Paul Head, the chief executive of CAANZ, responds to some of the specific comments on behalf of its member media agencies.