Saatchi & Saatchi NZ takes out Grand Axis for ASB Bank ‘Clever Kash’ at the 2016 Axis Awards; Colenso BBDO scores Creative Agency OTY title
At a sell-out event at the Viaduct Events Centre in Auckland last night, emceed by fantastically funny comedienne Urzila Carlson, 800 advertising types came together to celebrate the industry’s best creative work from the past year.
The highly coveted Grand Axis was awarded to Saatchi & 
Saatchi for its simple to use but sophisticated tech piece “Clever Kash” created for ASB Bank. The cute elephant money box allows children to physically experience money in our “non-cash” society and was a hit with all judges. The trophy will sit alongside the Grand Prix awarded in Digital & Interactive and a further five Gold Axis awards in Innovation, User Experience Digital Craft, Product Design Non-Tech, Design User Experience and Tech Driven Creative.
John Merrifield, chief creative officer, GoogleAsia Pacific and Warren Brown, founder of BMF, Sydney flew into Auckland earlier in the week, and joined the 4 local jury presidents on the executive judging Panel. Their role was to award the final metal which included a total of 21 gold Axis Awards, 4 Grand Prix and 7 additional Special Awards including Emerging Talent and NZME Student Challenge.
Y&R had a great night out at Axis this year with Burger King’s campaign “McWhopper“. This was a big hit amongst the local and international judges, winning four Golds across PR/Promo & Activation, Social Media, Integrated and then a final Gold Grand Prix for the bold and fantastic work done bringing McDonald’s and Burger King together for “World Peace Day.”
Says Paul Head, CEO, CAANZ: “The work that stood out this year, including CleverCash, McWhopper and Brewtroleum all signal and reflect a significant change in our industry as our clients demand ever more innovative ways to connect with consumers. It’s been a great year for creativity in New Zealand.”
Other big winners included Special Group with its work for 2degrees, “Play the Bridge”, DDB with three Golds, one in Craft for ‘Fargo Woollens‘ for Sky Television, a Gold in Promo &
Activation for ‘Reverse April Fools‘ for BMW Group NZ and Gold in Outdoor for ‘The Unforgotten Soldiers‘ again for Sky Television.
When it came to the Executive Awards, Integrated was so close and the executive judging panel felt ‘Brewtroleum‘ and ‘McWhopper’ were faultless examples for their Integrated Category so awarded both a Gold. And for new category Innovation, ‘Clever Kash’ and ‘Reduce Speed Dial‘ were also recognised as excellent although different pieces of work with Golds.
In Craft – Sweet Shop, Finch and Assembly rose to the top with Sweet Shop’s exciting piece, ‘Men In Black, Safety Defenders’ for Air New Zealand, Finch 
with excellent Direction on the emotional piece “Deng Adut” for the University of Western Sydney and Assembly with a beautiful piece of motion graphics for PWC, ‘Extraordinary Challenges’ – unanimously loved by the category judges in Auckland in February.
On the night though, Colenso BBDO/Proximity came out on top and were announced Creative 
Agency of 2015 with much loved work, Brewtroleum for DB, Pedigree ‘Found‘ for Mars and Reduce Speed Dial for Volkswagen. (Calculated on points awarded for finalists and/or metal won on the night).
These campaigns and others helped them to win five Golds in Promo and Activation, Direct Digital, Product Design Non-tech, Innovation 
and Integrated with a further Gold Grand Prix for Integrated and Product Design plus a swag of Silvers, Bronzes and Finalists.
Creative business of the Year went to ASB Bank (left) and The Sweet Shop celebrated five consecutive years 
in being named Production Company of the Year.
Former COO of Saatchis Worldwide and Assignment and now Lewis Road Creamery founder Peter Cullinane (left) was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his illustrious career in the advertising industry.
The executive judging panel awarded the Emerging Talent Axis to 
Katyana O’Neill and Renee Bryant from Barnes Catmur and Friends Dentsu, who demonstrated promising talent as newcomers to the industry.
The NZME’s Axis Student Challenge Award went to Deborah Chae and Kieran Buchan from AUT for their campaign for Lightbox and a big thanks to NZME and also to Young and 
Shand for supporting this award with a live brief and judges
Says Head: “Axis has always been the pivotal moment in the New Zealand creative calendar because it is a celebration of our best creative work; the work our industry is most proud of because it has broken the rules, permeates popular culture and influences behavioural change, and the winners this year are all great examples of those attributes.”
VIEW THE FULL LIST OF WINNERS – Axis Award Winners 2016 Final.pdf