How the AWARD School Auckland ‘Leaked Email’ fooled the heavies in the NZ advertising industry

AWARD needed the big wigs of Auckland advertising to attend the AWARD graduation and quickly snap up the students, in an already crowded market. So DDB New Zealand played off the fact that no matter who you are you always want what someone else has.

The agency had to convince the ECDs around town that DDB ECD Toby Talbot was already making a play to get the best students before the other agencies.

This was done via an email ‘accidentally’ sent from DDB to Colenso BBDO’s Steve Cochran instead of DDB’s own Steve Kane. With the help of Cochran this email was then sent all staff to Colenso and then it quickly made its way to the local ad media and was even reported for real on admedia.co.nz.

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And it worked. The ECDs attended and 50% of the students gained agency placements on the night.

Says DDB senior creative Lisa Fedyszyn: “We think that it’s a great solution to the brief, and shows off the students’ talents for grasping good ideas and what this industry is all about. And it was a good combined effort from DDB and Colenso to help the next generation of creatives get off to a good start.”