The BBDO network has scooped the trans Tasman double, with Colenso BBDO chosen as Campaign Brief's New Zealand Agency of the Year and sister shop Clemenger BBDO, Melbourne taking out the Australian title.
Says Colenso BBDO, Auckland managing director, Brent Smart: “This is the one important award that has eluded Colenso in my four years here. Since we last won in 2002 it seems like we’ve been the constant runner up, despite aspiring to be the best creative agency in New Zealand, which this win confirms we are. It’s a huge deal for an agency that’s all about the work.  And it says a lot about the massive impact that Nick has had in his first year here.”
Says Colenso BBDO executive CD, Nick Worthington: “From a creative point of view there is no other title that comes close.”
To read all about it and to check out the 2009 CB Agency Creativity/Billings Index 2009, check out Campaign Brief Online. For subscription enquiries contact Ginny at CB in Sydney: +612 9247 4933

Australian retail shop IdeaWorks has decided to close its New Zealand operation. The agency, which has eight staff, has resigned its clients, including Warehouse Stationery, the $15m account they won from DDB only last year, which has quickly been picked up by M&C Saatchi, Auckland, along with three staff from Ideaworks. The IdeaWorks Auckland office will officially shut its doors at the end of March.

After three days of huffing and puffing, our local AXIS judging contingent have whittled down over 650 entries to a very respectable 256 finalists. To see if you've made the cut, visit www.caanz.co.nz.
Colenso BBDO Auckland leads the agency pack with 50 entries shortlisted, followed by DDB with 43, Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand with 33 and DraftFCB with 24 shortlisted. The rest of the pack is way back, with fifth placed AIM Proximity with 11 entries shortlisted (six of them with Colenso BBDO), followed by TBWA\Whybin and Ogilvy with 9 each, Saatchi DGS with 8 and Clemenger BBDO Wellington and JWT Auckland with 7 shortlisted.
In other news, after only a week of being on sale, tickets to the 29th AXIS Awards are going fast.
The heavily reduced ticket price has attracted a lot of early interest. And going back to the ever popular sit-down format has helped too.
Axis has also confirmed their final panel of international judges: Kiwi expat director Steve Ayson (The Sweet Shop LA) and creative mastermind Jureeporn 'Judee' Thaidumrong (JEH Thailand) will be joined by Ian Heartfield & Matt Doman from Beattie McGuinness Bungay, London.  Previously at Fallon and AMV BBDO London, these guys were the Gunn Report's most awarded team in the world in 2006.  They've created a stack of great work, including the Cannes Grand Prix-winning Guiness 'noitulovE' spot. Needless to say we're chuffed to have them all on board.
Tickets are still available from the CAANZ website, but a sell out is expected before the Friday 13 March deadline.

The legendary Jeff Goodby, co-chairman, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, provides the CB Blog with the final day of exclusive diary installments from Final Judging of The ANDY Awards in Mexico.
Campaign Brief Australia/NZ, Campaign Brief Asia and Bestads are international media partners of the ANDY Awards, which undoubtedly has the world's hottest jury, chaired by Mark Waites, creative partner of Mother.




You hear that the ANDYs are special because they're the first major show to be judged every year. People say the results here will "set the tone" and somehow affect what's picked in all the other shows.
I don't think this is the case. I've been on those other juries, and we never cared a whit about what won earlier.
If anything, the later juries tried to avoid following the lead of the other shows.
There are indeed a couple things that make this show special, however.
First and by far the most important difference is the quality of the judges here. Looking the list over, a friend of mine in New York said, "If a bomb ever hit the judges' room, advertising would be fucked for years to come." While that might be a bit of an overstatement (Droga, who's not here, would simply declare a benevolent dictatorship and carry on), the talent in this place is truly ridiculous.
I learn a lot about the work from my own company when I hear it discussed -- and sometimes cruelly dismissed -- by this group. I said so to our chairman, Mark Waites from Mother, who said, "Yeah, it's strange to see a bunch of people who are used to getting their own way every day of their lives suddenly have to defer to other people's opinions."
Besides the judges, the other thing that makes the ANDYs special is the fact that this terrific group of judges is asked to adjudicate every single category in the show. At other shows, there are multiple juries, so you find the big names heading up juries of less seasoned characters.
Here, an all-star jury looks at all the work. It's a tougher crowd, for sure.
So where did it all come out?
Well you know I can't tell you. But I can mention my favorite things in the show: that Surfrider Foundaton campaign with the beach trash being sold in supermarket foam trays ("It's like the ocean is throwing our trash back in our faces," Prasoon Joshi said); a campaign that introduced a new Oasis album by having street musicians in New York play their songs even before the album came out; a moving TV spot from the Discovery Channel that celebrates, well, being on Earth ("Boombayatta Boombayatta"); Droga 5's cell phone incentive program in New York schools; a Mentos "Kiss Cam" on line.
They'll all do okay.
I can also mention some things that I thought were perhaps a bit overrated: Sarah Silverman's "Great Schlep" web film for Barack Obama; a singing dog for Volkswagen; a "Stop the cycle of violence" banner ad that you'll probably see more of in the shows this year.
They'll all do okay too.
In the larger sense, shows like the ANDYs are at a bit of a crossroads these days, I think.
They are strapped with an avalanche of work that doesn't really fit into the categories they've created (and thus certain work ends up winning in multiple categories and seeming better than it really is). Long form things don't really get the scrutiny they deserve - because they're just too, well, long. Good entry films can make okay work seem great, and bad entry films can waste a great campaign. And while there are fewer things that are
out-and-out fakes, there are entries that push the boundaries of what "real work" means. An FM radio station campaign, for instance, featured ten very beautiful executions in expensive color illustration. You had to wonder how they'd ever have the money to run such things, though.
Beyond that, there was a wider discussion about the ultimate purposes of the work and whether what is essentially charity work (like "Million") should be compared to Burger King web experiences. Advertising
people are always a tiny bit ashamed about whether we're really doing God's work, making us all a bit quick to glom onto campaigns that seem to have a higher calling. How do you keep everything on a level playing field? It will be a big question in years to come.
All in all, though, I think you'll like the show and hopefully find it inspiring, outrageous, and controversial.
And remember, as I tell my own people: If you could see the judging process, you'd be less elated about winning, and less deflated about losing.
Thanks for following this, if you did.

Campaign Brief has just launched a new creative website for the Asian region.
The website will be a place for all things creative in Asia, providing a creative meeting place for creatives working in Asia. The site will carry creative news and award show news, plus Seen+Noted and creative views, opinions and discussions.
We are certain it will become a daily visit for everyone working in agencies in Asia.
Submit your news via email to kim@campaignbrief.com  (please remember the site only covers creative news).

While the Australian judges for Cannes have been announced and we await the NZ announcement (c'mon Fairfax), CB NZ hears Andy Blood, ECD of TBWA\Whybin, Auckland has been appointed to the ultra exclusive Titanium jury, which is headed by Australia's Dave Droga, chairman of Droga5, New York.

Bluebird is moving its business to Colenso BBDO from 1 March.
This covers all of Bluebird’s brands, including Bluebird, Copper Kettle, Grainwaves and Flemings.
Bluebird is part of Pepsico International and this move brings NZ into alignment with the Pepsico International business.
Bluebird acknowledges that Publicis Mojo has done a great job over the last 20 years, one of NZ’s most enduring client/agency relationships.
“Colenso is an agency with real momentum and kicking off 2009 with such a significant account certainly builds on it.  Bluebird is a truly iconic New Zealand piece of business with great brands that we can’t wait to work on,” said Brent Smart, Managing Director of Colenso BBDO.
OMD will also take over media planning and buying as part of the alignment.

The legendary Jeff Goodby, co-chairman, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, provides the CB NZ Blog with day 3 of exclusive diary installments from Final Judging of The ANDY Awards in Mexico.
Campaign Brief, Campaign Brief Asia and Bestads are international media partners of the ANDY Awards, which undoubtedly has the world's hottest jury, chaired by Mark Waites, creative partner of Mother.





There are remarkable things that probably won’t win big at
the ANDYS, and I’m not necessarily talking about your
entry.
High on that list would have to be a GPS-based, mobile
device tour of the graffiti of Lisbon.  With it, you are
enabled to walk the streets of certain neighborhoods and
read explications of significant taggings, with information
about the artists and how their artworks were created.
There is also an entry from a San Francisco artist who
creates “reverse graffiti” by sandblasting through
stencils placed against walls that carry years of grime.
He decorated the inside of the Broadway tunnel (which
runs underneath Russian Hill) using a forest motif that
was quite striking.
I’m sure such things would still be in the show if someone
had thought to have them  sponsored by, say, a laundry
detergent.  But they didn’t, and thus the efforts will
probably be lost down the drain of dead ANDYs work.
Enough.
We think we’re so smart.  We think we invented all this
stuff yesterday.  Consider this:
If there was a Crispin Porter in 1880, it was Glasgow
grocer Thomas J. Lipton.  To advertise the satisfying
nature of his food, he hired skinny men through the
streets, all walking toward his store and carrying signs
that read, “Going to Lipton’s.”  Simultaneously, he had
fat men walking away from the store, carrying signs that
said, “Coming back from Lipton’s.”
He also had convex and concave mirrors inside the store
that showed you skinny on the way in and fat on the way
out.  This is no shit.  1880.
Back to Mexico:
*THAT AGAIN?  The recent “Halo” success taught us
something that only occurred to me this afternoon:  Treat
digitized games as emotional content and put heavy music
on them.  It’s the trick de jour.  Xbox does that this
year and the result does something I think modern media
does at its best – it suggests the moving parts of a
familiar form.  In this case, it’s a movie trailer,
capturing the tragedy of soldiers in the face of war.  You
can’t help but be moved.
Oh, wait.  I forgot to mention, you should also put it in
slow motion.
The effect is stunning.  If Xbox doesn’t win this thing,
it deserves a lot of study.  I will encourage it among
everyone I work with.
*LOOK! A CASTLE!  LOOK! A CASTLE!  ETC.  There is a
campaign encouraging support for the study of Alzheimer’s
that shows a crew of guys tricking older people by deftly
changing their circumstances – swapping a parked car out
on a poor old blue-haired woman, for instance, and
watching what happens.
“They should have used real Alzheimer’s patients,” one of
the judges pointed out. “Yeah,” someone else said, “but
then they might not have noticed the car was any
different.  They wouldn't have had a spot because the lady
might’ve just gotten in the car like it was no big deal and
driven away.”
*EMBARRASSING ROMANIANS VS. VAPORIZING VALUED
ACQUAINTANCES.  After many watchings, you realize that the
Burger King “Whopper Virgins” idea is very much inferior
to the thing that asks you to dump ten friends to get a
Whopper.  The former had a great build-up, but never
materialized.  The latter actually took advantage of a
truth about the Internet:  You desperately want to get rid
of some of those pesky Facebook friends, and you know
you’re looking for the first lame excuse to do so.
*QUICK, COVER YOUR EYES!  I don’t want to like that Nike
spot with Ladanian  Tomlinson and Troy Polamalu growing up
only to smash into each other, but dammit, I love it every
time.  The music is magnificent.
*HINT:  IT’S NOT JUST ME.  Is it just me, or is the
Microsoft campaign a little too obviously WAY too worried
about Apple?  Three judges have reflected similarly.  It
fails on account of this fear.
*COME ON, COULD THEY REALLY DO THAT?  If the youth of the
world had as much time as these entries claim they have to
participate in transparent wild goose chases, to vote
between inane flavors of Dew, and to turn out for
trumped-up parades about corn chip spicings, then we’re
fucked as a society in very deep ways.
On that note, I’d like to plug a second book.  I am not
being paid.
My ex-agency president, Colin Probert, who was the
smartest guy in advertising for twenty-something years and
no one knew it, has advised me to read Winston Fletcher’s
Powers of Persuasion, a history of British advertising.
Naturally, it WAY overestimates the importance of its
topic vis-à-vis the American kind, but that’s just me.
Read it anyway.   It’s provocative.
And it tells the following interesting story:
After World War II, commercial radio was illegal in
Britain. (You Commonwealthians may know this story.)  In
the early sixties, however, a guy named Ronan O’Rahilly
revived Radio Luxembourg, a company that hadn’t broadcast
since the war.  He did this by beaming from a ship that
was positioned just into international waters off the
coast of Essex.  His programming appealed to a teen market
and had a great name:  Radio Caroline.
Poetically, he announced every day that the station was
being broadcast “from a pirate ship.”  And he paid no
royalties to the musicians whose work he played.
Sadly, he was put out of business by the British
government in 1966.  But he was way ahead of his time, I
say.
In fact, I’m taking a jet ski off the coast of San
Francisco to scope out locations next week.  Stay tuned.

The legendary Jeff Goodby, Co-Chairman, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, is providing the CB Blog with exclusive diary installments from Final Judging of The ANDY Awards in Mexico over the next few days.
Campaign Brief, Campaign Brief Asia and Bestads are international media partners of the ANDY Awards, which undoubtedly has the world's hottest jury, chaired by Mark Waites, creative partner of Mother.




People think judging shows like this must elicit petty
competition on the part of the judges, but in my
experience that's hardly ever the case.
Yeah, you get a judge now and then who gets close to a
gold for himself or her agency and perhaps speaks
inappropriately, but that's very rare.  Instead, what I've
seen - honestly - is a widespread belief that judging is
more like curating a series of snapshots of what we're
proud of as an industry at this point in time.
It's almost like who did the work is less important than
showing the right stuff.
This group seems to be operating very much in that spirit.
This is partly, I think, because our chairman Mark Waites
comes from an agency so integrally associated with doing
the right thing in beautiful, unexpected ways.
It's also because we don't want all of you ragging on us
later on about what wins.
We saw the cutdown print, TV, and Internet categories
today and there is some very admirable stuff.  I don't
like to point up a charity piece as my favorite thing this
early, but I'm afraid that's what's happening.  There's a
terrific campaign for the Surfrider Foundation that
gathers together actual trash from famous beaches, then
packages it in foam trays and shrink wraps it like grocery
store display food.  They sell this "catch of the day" as
a fundraiser in places where real food is sold.  They also
display it in print ads, posters, and on the web, where
they auction the stuff off like eBay.  The effect is
startling - and moving.

Other thoughts today:
*DOES IT REALLY HAVE TO DO THAT?  There are a lot of
campaigns with interesting surfaces that turn out to have
nothing to do with the advertiser or their product.
 Honda, for instance, is represented by a stunt in which
those warning bumps on the highway are made to play music
- but it's not Honda music or even anything remotely
connected to Honda.  An HSBC spot shows an Indian cop
charmingly directing traffic and helping people in time to
an aria from "The Marriage of Figaro," but again, it has
little or nothing to do with the advertiser.
I guess this has always happened, when you think about it.
Why am I surprised?
*IT WOULDN'T MAKE MY MOM BUY CREST, HOWEVER.  The Crest
campaign that illustrates that you can say almost anything
with a great smile (bulldozer guy wrecks the kids'
playground to put up a power plant, guy tells his
girlfriend they both have head lice, etc.) is hilarious,
if a bit lengthy.  One wonders how long it actually ran.
*THE KIND OF BUSINESS IDEA THAT OCCURS TO YOU HERE.  I
think I will create a bank of ready-made video cards,
to be used for a small fee when making entry films.  They
will say things like:  "Our site crashed twice in the
first day" and "The response was tremendous" and "We had
over a million unique visitors."  You can't imagine how
many of those there are.
*INGENIOUS IF YOU DO IT, WRONG IF OTHERS DO.  People are
entering commercials that happen to feature athletes in a
category entitled "Best Use of Celebrity."  Shit, my own
agency did it, with the split screen campaign we did for
the NBA.  Lots of Nike spots entered this way.  Does this
sound right to you?  Not sure.
*THE CHAIRMAN ON THE TIVO.  Mark Waites opined that this
is curiously the only media business that has had a box
invented explicitly to thwart its noxious existence.

Finally, beach reading (which I am now doing little of)
has uncovered Lewis Hyde's amazing book, The Gift, a
study of how creativity is absolutely dependent upon a
spirit of graciousness and generosity, and is suppressed
by anxious jealousy and ownership issues.
This was a stance beautifully championed by the elegant
Saatchi man, Paul Arden, who wrote:
"Somehow the more you give away, the more comes back to
you.  Ideas are open knowledge. Don't claim ownership.
They're not your ideas anyway, they're someone else's.
They are out there floating on the ether.  You just have
to put yourself in a frame of mind to pick them up."
Or as Bob Dylan once said:  "I didn't write those songs.
I just wrote them down."

You can tell there's a recession when Andy Blood moonlights for Vodafone...
Greengrocer.pdf

AWARD, Australasia’s foremost creative course, has released the names of its accepted applicants for the inaugural Wellington AWARD School at: www.awardschoolonline.com.
Recently, a selection of top creatives from leading agencies across Wellington judged applications for the 2009 AWARD School and of these, 20 excited students will be going through the programme this year.
“Firstly, I’d like to thank my fellow Judges who were as proud as I to be selecting students for New Zealand’s first ever Award School. And secondly, I’d like to thank the applicants themselves who submitted entries from as far and wide as Italy, India and the States. For a relatively small market, the quality of submissions was very promising, and I can’t wait to ring the bell on the first day of school. Congratulations to all those who earned a spot," says AWARD School Committee Executive, Paul Nagy (pictured), creative director of Clemenger BBDO, Wellington.
AWARD School offers an amazing opportunity for budding advertising art directors and copywriters in Australasia to learn from the industry’s finest.

AWARD School Wellington start and finish dates:
Wednesday, 8th April - Thursday 23rd July 2009

To register your interest and for further information please visit www.awardschoolonline.com or contact Hannah Morden at AWARD on +61 2 9699 2999. Or email hannah@awardonline.com

The legendary Jeff Goodby, Co-Chairman, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, is providing the CB Blog with exclusive diary installments from Final Judging of The ANDY Awards in Mexico over the next few days.

East of San Francisco, there is a garbage dump so big you can see it from the moon.  It is rivaled tonight, however, by the first round of ANDYS work.
“It’s like they just passed everything through,” one of the judges says.  “Wasn’t there a cut down?”
It is a platitude to say that the entry films all sound the same.  First, make a tired, banal idea seem brilliant and new.  Then claim unheard-of results (“over 12,000 quality visits!”).  Worked up, Gerry Graf suggests that we do an entry video parody that makes “the TV commercial” sound like new ground.
“After much research,” he imagined the VO saying, “we located an amazing box that actually records moving pictures.  Then we had people MAKE BELIEVE THEY WERE A FAMILY AND INTERACT WITH THE PRODUCT!  Millions tuned in to watch the result…”
As if on cue, the next entry we watched was a film that made recycling sound like it had just been brilliantly invented last week.
Some other thoughts:
*Make sure your entry video is engaging to the judges in the first 15 seconds or else.
*Droga 5’s “Million” video is the best entry film ever produced.  If you haven’t seen it, it’s a seminar on entries in the modern award show age. It includes animation, interviews with city officials, even Esquire editor David Granger calling the idea “genius.”
*There are too many interactive entries that involve wild goose chases to find obscure things on the basis of dubious hints.  One cannot imagine cityloads of people having this much time.
*Arnold’s Pete Favat is wearing a T-shirt from the Massachusetts State Police’s Underwater Rescue Unit.  It seems somehow fitting.
*There is a “Non-Internet Interactive” category.  This is no shit.
*Things that were a hit, I think:  a Discovery Channel spot about the diversity and allure of the world, Adidas’s ubiquitous Beijing Olympic print which so beautifully captures China’s unique collective attitude toward their athletes, Coke’s parade balloons, maybe some ESPN.  I’ll know more when I see what makes it through this first round. 
See you tomorrow.

Campaign Brief, Campaign Brief Asia and Bestads are international media partners of the ANDY Awards, which undoubtedly has the world's hottest jury, chaired by Mark Waites, creative partner of Mother. 

Aphrodite’s Farm, a short film created and co-written by award winning freelance creative Pete Force has just won a Crystal Bear at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival.
The film, directed and co-written by Adam Strange and produced by Anzak Tindell premiered internationally in the Generation 14 plus youth section along with thirty other short films.
“It is such an honour to be awarded the Crystal Bear at the Berlinale, we are absolutely thrilled,” says New Zealand Film Commission Short Film Manager Juliette Veber. “Competition was really tough; we were up against some brilliant short films so this is an unbelievable outcome.”
Aphrodite’s Farm is a 15 minute fairytale set in Taranaki, New Zealand. The story centres around the family who produce the magical milk on Aphrodite’s Farm. When the family patriarch dies, the future of the farm is thrown into jeopardy. The arrival of young farm hand Friday creates even more chaos before finally bringing the family’s  
destiny full circle.
The six member Youth Jury made the following comments when awarding the top prize to Aphrodite’s Farm: “A phenomenal anecdote about holding tight and letting go, embedded in a fairytale and told with consequent humour – all this inspired our gut-reaction to the film.  The story is accessible but full of surprises and makes it clear the need to let go in order to proceed. These things happen – and they are unstoppable!”

The Pond has bolstered its design representation with the addition of three new self employed designers: Vanessa-Gaye Schiff, Glenn Chapman and Stephen Richardson.
All three come from interesting international backgrounds.
Schiff is a South African designer with a strong expertise in retouching. Chapman spent six years in London, at M&C Saatchi and TBWA, where he worked on brands such as British Airways, PlayStation and The Festival of London. And Richardson was previously based in Tokyo and New York.
Pond representive, Leighton Howl reckons since they all offer unique skills on top of their graphics work and, given the shortage of designers with international experience, they’ll all do well.
"The agencies we're dealing with now are more interested in designers with a bit of substance about them…designers who are creative not just from 9 till 5 but outside of work too. Because often our (clients) can make use of these broader skills directly on their own clients briefs."
"Vanessa-Gaye's had a book published through Random House UK, In the Forest Fey while Stephen has run his own fashion store with his own design range. His designs featured not long ago in both Wallpaper and Sportswear International along with recent illustrations in local Metro Magazine.
To check out their portfolios go to www.thepond.co.nz or for booking and availability enquiries call Clinton on +649  373 3791.

CB EXCLUSIVE - As a consequence of today's news that Dean Taylor, the current MD of Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland, has been promoted to CEO of Saatchi's Singapore/Kuala Lumpur, his wife Bridget, deputy creative director at DDB, has resigned to follow her hubbie to Asia. 
Dean Taylor replaces John Foley, an ex-Saatchi NZ team member who has been promoted to CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Australia.
Bridget told CB: "Eight years is a long time on paper.  But when it’s spent surrounded by super talented, wonderfully entertaining people, it flies by. There’s Regan Grafton, one of the few people who can make me blush and also the guy I’ve won awards with at every major award show including Cannes Gold. Toby Talbot, who never sleeps, opting instead to make incredible work.  And too many other people in the industry here to mention.
"So I’m sad to say that I am leaving to go to Singapore with my husband Dean Taylor who will be heading up Saatchi Singapore and Malaysia.  I’m calling it my first wifely duty.  Not that I’m not hanging up my Sharpie just yet.  There’s this Titanium award and D&AD pencil I rather fancy.  So please contact me at  bidtaylor@gmail.com if you’d like one of those too. I’ll also be continuing on ABCs The Gruen Transfer, beginning 25th February."
Says DDB executive creative director Toby Talbot: "Bridget has played a huge part in this agency’s success for many years. Her loyalty, her laughter and her filthy sense of humour will be missed by all of us. I’m sure that whatever role she chooses to take in Asia, be it ‘the CEO’s wife,’ a TV presenter, a gun writer or a CD, she will succeed brilliantly.
"I have exciting plans in place for DDB’s creative department with a new group head structure and a search underway for a 2IC."
 

Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand today announced several major promotions for its AsiaPacific network, including the appointment of Sonya Berrigan as Managing Director of the Auckland office.
Sonya (pictured top left), who joined Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland in 2003, will also continue in her role heading up key accounts including Westpac and TVNZ.
Dean Taylor (pictured middle left), the current MD of Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland, has been promoted to CEO of Saatchi's Singapore/Kuala Lumpur. He replaces John Foley, an ex-Saatchi NZ team member who has been promoted to CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Australia.
In Auckland, Murray Streets (pictured left) has been appointed General Manager overseeing the Telecom account, as well as retaining the role of Director of Strategy.
Andrew Stone, Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand CEO, says Saatchi & Saatchi has a strong commitment to recognising and rewarding talent, ensuring it builds its capabilities and succession through the network to continue to drive big ideas for the future: “Sonya, Dean and Murray are all fundamental believers and contributors to creating the big ideas that matter – and I’m delighted these promotions reflect an agency and network that’s always stepping up the pace,” he says.
Sonya joined Saatchi & Saatchi in 2003 as a Group Account Director to head up the NZ arm of the Trans-Tasman Westpac account, charged with driving the NZ business whilst ensuring Trans-Tasman efficiencies and alignment, reporting to both the CEO in Auckland and the GM in Sydney.
Prior to 2003, Sonya was Group Account Director at Whybin TBWA where she was responsible for repositioning ASB Bank to the bank that’s ‘one step ahead’ and was a key driver of the highly successful Goldstein campaign.
Dean joined Saatchi & Saatchi in Auckland in 2004 to lead the Telecom account. He has previously worked at Campaign Palace in Australia, and BBH in Singapore, and originally trained in London. Murray joined Saatchi & Saatchi the same year, emigrating from the UK where he had worked as a strategist for Publicis UK. 

The Bestads TOP 6 OF THE WEEK is now ready to view.

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Euro RSCG Sydney’s “Goodbye Bush” newspaper ad for Veet hair removal cream is back in the spotlight.  This  time for winning the NAB’s January Newspaper Ad of the Month competition.
“Some local bloggers feel that Australian ads shouldn’t be eligible to win a New Zealand competition,”  says Creative Manager Lexie Ribot.
The rules state, any ad that appears in a New Zealand newspaper is eligible to win Ad of the Month, and in turn is eligible to win the $10,000 cash prize for The Newspaper Ad of the Year.
“The Veet ad appeared in the Herald On Sunday so it is eligible to win.” said Ribot.
If you don’t want the Aussie’s to take home the $10,000 cash prize, then get cracking on producing a great newspaper ad.  Who couldn’t do with some extra cash this year?
There are just four more opportunities to win Ad of the Month and receive automatic entry into The Newspaper Ad of Year 08/09 and its $10,000 cash prize.
To view all the finalists and full terms and conditions visit www.nabs.co.nz (Inspiration/Ad of the
Month). 
 

The entry deadline for the 2009 One Show has been extended. You have an extra week to submit your work.
Entries must be received by: February 13th, 2009
http://www.enteroneshow.org

Entries entered into the online system after February 6th will be subject to a $10 per entry late fee.
Entries must reach the One Club no later than February 13th. 

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The BBC's Stephen Sackur interrogates the CEO of WPP, Sir Martin Sorrell....
View the video

With The Gruen Transfer gearing up to return to our screens, producers of the show are calling for Australian and New Zealand agencies to take part in The Pitch, the segment of the show in which competing agencies undertake an impossible brief.
“The Pitch became one of the most popular parts of last year’s show,” says Andrew Denton (pictured with AWARD chairman Richard Maddocks and his producer Jon Casimir last year), whose Zapruder’s Other Films company has started work on the second series for ABC-TV.
“The quality of work from the agencies happily exceeded our expectations from the very first episode. Even more importantly, most of the ads fulfilled the promise of the segment, taking the challenge of persuading us seriously.”
Denton says The Pitch is a chance for brilliant minds to shine: “We want to show the problem-solving nature of advertising. We want the television audience to realise that a good ad can change minds, even on an apparently unmovable idea.”
Agencies compete in each episode for the coveted Gruen trophy.
“Gruen scientists have calculated its relative value,” Denton says. “One Gruen trophy is worth 1.83 Cannes Lions, 2.6 Clios and 900 Logies.”
The Gruen team has already locked in more than half of the agencies for the second series, but there are still some opportunities for creatives who think they have what it takes.. If you’d like to nominate your agency for the challenge, contact Pitch producer Polly Connolly on +612 9217 2226 or pconnolly@zapruder.com.au

Campaign Brief has launched an interactive online version of the magazine that allows super fast access to current and archive issues. You can search throughout the archives for the name of a person or company and you can print any page. Clicking on any of the ads in the magazine will link to the web address of the advertiser, and you can view any of the commercials featured in the Creative Circle (and some other sections) in each issue by clicking on the images on the page. Eventually, the archive will grow to include all issues from the last few years, and we will be adding CB Asia soon as well as all The Work annuals. An amazing resource included with your subscription to CB.
Whether you are a subscriber or not, please register your details to access Campaign Brief Online and to receive your password.  Even if you are not a subscriber, once registered you can still use the site straight away and will be billed the annual subscription.
KEY FEATURES:
TURN PAGES by clicking the arrows at the side of the page, or by using the toolbar.
ZOOM IN by clicking anywhere on the page.
READ by dragging the page around when zoomed in.
ZOOM OUT by clicking anywhere on the page when zoomed in.
VISIT web sites or send emails by clicking on hyperlinks.
EMAIL any page to a friend or PRINT pages.
VIEW COMMERCIALS by clicking on images in the Australian and NZ Creative Circle sections.

This Durex Balloon Animals ad (via Fitzgerald+Co, Atlanta) seems to be doing the rounds at the moment –
http://superfad.com/player.php?project=251&item=566

One blogger suggests it's pretty similar to this spot done by Y&R New Zealand three years ago ....
http://www.thecraftshop.co.nz/work/inspiral/index.html

The legendary Jeff Goodby, Co-Chairman, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, will be providing the CB/NZ Blog with exclusive diary installments from Final Judging of The ANDY Awards in Mexico the week of Feb 16th.
Goodby will be providing for us two diaries -- one mid-week and one at the conclusion of judging. The first will appear here on Thursday Feb 19th and the second on Sunday Feb 22nd. (In the event he feels there are comments/observations he wants to record with more frequency, it’s possible we might get an additional installment along the way).
Campaign Brief, Campaign Brief Asia and Bestads are international media partners of the ANDY Awards, which undoubtedly has the world's hottest jury, chaired by Mark Waites, creative partner of Mother.

Veet’s ‘Goodbye Bush’ is the NAB’s January Newspaper Ad of the Month winner, created by Euro RSCG in Sydney. The same ad is currently best of the Top 6 of the Week on www.bestadsontv.com.
"A funny and relevant newspaper ad that had everyone laughing," agreed judges Bridget Taylor, CD of DDB,
Dave King, CD of AIM Proximity and Daniel Barnes, partner at Barnes, Catmur & Friends.
 
Agency: EURO RSCG Sydney
ECD: Rowan Dean
Art Director: Patrycja Lukjanow
Copywriter: John Gault
 
Runners up were two more great topical ads - Burger King created by Y&R and Guthrie Bowron
created by M&C Saatchi.  There was no December winner.  
The winning creative team will receive $250 cash. The ad will also appear in the “What’s New” section
of February AdMedia.  
There are just four more opportunities to win Ad of the Month and gain automatic entry into the
Newspaper Ad of Year 08/09 and the chance to win its $10,000 cash prize.
To view all the finalists at www.nabs.co.nz (Inspiration/Ad of Month).

Got nothing much on this morning? Here are all the Superbowl commercials, courtesy of AdAge.... and a similar list at Adweek.

CBNZ EXCLUSIVE - Awarded Aussie art director Michael O'Rourke, a long time creative at DDB Sydney, has moved across the Tasman to join Aim Proximity, Auckland as art director, working with creative director, Dave King.
O'Rourke spent a decade at DDB Sydney before being departing in February 2007. Later that year he landed at McCanns Sydney, teaming with Jonny Browne. After that, O'Rourke had a brief stint at Jack Watts Currie, Sydney as creative director.
O'Rourke's gong collection includes three acceptances at D&AD, two Silver and three Bronze Pencils at AWARD, two Caxtons and one ATV Award.