What started as “drunken idea” between Kristian Barnes, Jason Williams and Michael Kean this year celebrated its 12th year, as the YoungGun Awards were again distributed to advertising’s most promising minds under the age of 30.
The Media Design School AdSchool (formerly Axis) End Of Year Show is on tonight from 5.30 until 8pm at the new building at 92 Albert Street. And they want you industry juggernauts to sit down in front of the fresh-faced students, grunt a bit, leaf through a few pages and then decisively and/or contemptuously slap down a special sticker or two before wafting off again in the direction of the bar.
…as the Ogilvy juggernaut keeps rolling, SparkPHD hires an ‘Irish media maven’, The Radio Network’s long-serving chief exec gets set to step down, Fluxx welcomes the co-founder of the Beige Brigade, Naked nabs a new comms planner, International Rescue adds five newbies to the flock, Media Design School tastes glory in Los Angeles, Lily & Louis wins a couple of accounts, ActionActors takes to the stage and Mark Hanson sets up a new kind of PR agency.
Colenso BBDO is currently dealing with the loss of one of its biggest clients. But there was a ray of light last night at the Aotea centre when its ‘Home Alone’ ad for Pedigree Dog Food was given the newspaper ad of the year award and the creative team responsible for it took home the $10,000 booty.
The Media Design School has just moved into a new swanky building in the Auckland CBD and to celebrate it’s launched a new series of weekend workshops for busy design professionals looking to upskill or add a few new strings to their bows. But the learning doesn’t stop there: the ever-popular—and free—NZ Post Direct Marketing Workshops are back again, with Rapp/Tribal’s creative director Aaron Goldring and Federation’s creative director Ben Chandler set to spread their words of wisdom.
Creative students at Media Design School’s AdSchool have triumphed at the 2011 Bees Awards winning the award for Best Student Brief, the only Kiwi win in this year’s awards. The international awards honour the best in social media marketing practices. Ben Andrews (art director) and Craig Douglas (copywriter), won the award for their campaign ‘Dreaming in a foreign language’, created to a special brief for client Mango Languages. The campaign shows innovative use of Facebook to market language learning software.
… as Air New Zealand brings one of our boys back into the fold; Acumen Republic appoints a new head honcho; TVNZ says goodbye to Good Morning—and up to 12 fulltime staff; Thick as Thieves enlists a new award-winning director; Air Asia hits the runway running and announces a national marketing manager; another All Black endorses something; AJ Park gets a taste for internal promotions; and two films made by the Media Design School strike Hawaii gold.
DDB was recently crowned the YoungGuns agency of the year (primarily on the strength of the Sky Arts Channel campaign) and Media Design School is also beaming, with recent Adschool graduates Ed Knowles, frontman of Kiwi band The Checks (wanna see a cool music video?) and Charles Twaddle taking home a Silver Bullet for ‘Reflections’, an ambient outdoor advertising campaign that plays on famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Sydney Opera House for HSBC.
Creativity can come from anywhere. And the Media Design School obviously recognises that, because it’s calling for wildcard entries to fill two positions on this year’s creative advertising course.
There’s almost nothing you opinionated marcomms folk love more than passing judgment on a new logo and the Media Design School’s bright and explosive brand makeover is quite the departure from its former black and white identity.
…Media Design School students win thing; a magical mystery store opens its doors in Auckland’s High St; The Documentary Channel is no more; social buying site GrabOne celebrates a milestone; the hunt is on for New Zealand’s Next Top Bookshelf; African adventurers and other charities look for assistance; Air New Zealand’s Christmas auction kicks off; ex-Fonterra boss Roger Boyd launches the ‘beverage of the well-travelled’; InComm arrives in Australasia; 2Degrees, now in 3Dimensions; NZ Post gives everyone a hurry up; and marvel at the glamour of the IAB/Facebook Xmas party.
In news that’s sure to rip the grundies of the Media Design School students who recently showed off their portfolios to a range of creative big wigs at the 2010 end of year show (three creative pairs were snapped up beforehand), next year’s Adschool students will not only be honing their skills, they’ll also be competing for a new $5000 cash scholarship sponsored by specialist communications recruitment company Marsden Inch.
Two New Zealand soldiers are trapped behind enemy lines in western France during World War I. They find a crying baby in a ditch, lying under its dead parents. What happens when one man wants to save it and the other doesn’t? Not only is this based on a startling true story, but the CG animated short film version, Poppy, has won two top awards at the SIGGRAPH 2010 Computer Animation Festivals.
It’s not every day you get a chance to see the inner-most workings of an institution that was ranked as the world’s fourth best creative ad school by YoungGuns earlier this year. But it just so happens the young whippersnappers from Media Design School are showing off the year’s wares on Wednesday night from 5.30-8.30pm at the Mini Garage on Ponsonby Road. So, if you’re in the biz, get along and see what the future holds.
More proof, if any were needed, that New Zealand is still hitting it out of the park when it comes to creativity in advertising after the Adschool at Auckland’s Media Design School was named the fourth best (a very good position, as DDB’s Moro campaign shows) advertising school of the decade on account of the gongs its students have taken home in the first ten years of the YoungGuns Awards.
For the second year in a row, DDB walked away with a cool $10,000 after the Sky Arts Channel Mark Rothco spot took out the Newspaper Ad of the Year prize last week (this Throaties spot won the 2009 edition). And the highlight of the night—aside, of course, from the big grand finale announcement, the delectable nibbles and the burly guard who was keeping watch over the silver briefcase on the table that was filled with $10,000 cash—had to be the Q+A video with Chuck Porter, the convenor of judges at this year’s event and co-founder of award-hogging US ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky.