DDB wins NBR Agency of the Year Supreme Award

DDB is the supreme winner of the National Business Review Advertising Agency of the Year awards, adding to a slew of wins.

The agency has had a cracking good year, winning both Campaign Brief’s and Fairfax’s Agency of the Year awards, golds and silvers at the Axis awards and winning Fair Go’s most popular ad of the year with the “Lucky Dog” advertisement for Lotto, which chief executive Sandy Moore said was always difficult to win because it was decided by the public.

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Notable hires include top creative Andy Fackrell, whom the agency has described as “a bit of a legend,” to step in as executive creative director while Toby Talbot is on secondment for a year with DDB London. Creative director Chris Schofield and managing director Justin Mowday were also poached from DraftFCB this year.

Andy Bell has become the new general manager of DDB’s digital company, RAPP Tribal, adding to a lineup Mr Moore called “fantastic.”

“We’ve made a huge investment in people this year at a time when the market is so tight that people would think, well, it’s not a year for investment. But we’ve gone for it and it has all worked out well for us.”

And the year has been booming in more areas than awards and new hires – Mr Moore said DDB had had an “incredibly successful” year financially.

“Last year was a record and this year we’re going to beat it, which is quite incredible in a tight market like New Zealand at the moment.”

Mr Moore said the company, as part of the Omnicom group, had a policy of not disclosing profit figures but DDB had had record profits and revenue in 2010 and 2011 would surpass that.

It has been an alcohol year for the agency, which won Lindauer and, later, the Steinlager account, which involved bringing back the white can. While the client was unsure about bringing back the can initially, Mr Moore said, the campaign had been an “unbelievable success,” reinvigorating the public’s appetite for Steinlager and for canned beer, with over four million cans sold to date.

The agency was also extremely happy with the work it had done with Sky TV on the “Drill Sergeant” campaign for the Rugby World Cup, he said.

“That was a marvellous campaign and we’ve received a lot of kudos from that.”

DDB had a number of clients who had “stayed true” for many years, Mr Moore said, including McDonald’s for 35 years, Cadbury for 22 years, Sky TV for 17 years and AMI Insurance for 19 years.

Highlights included getting “best of class” people to join the agency, consistency of performance for clients and turning in a good financial performance in a tight market environment, Mr Moore said.

And what’s next for the agency? “More of the same.”

DDB: Paul McHugh, Lucinda Sherborne, Toby Talbot, Sandy Moore, Justin Mowday, Scott Wallace,
Robert Limb

DraftFCB– back on the podium
It’s back for a second round as the Five Star winner from last year re-mounts the podium.

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It has been a good year for DraftFCB, with awards including Agency and Campaign of the Year at the Effies, the RSVP Grand Prix and Nexus Supreme awards and Media Agency of the Year at the Cannes Media Awards, group chief executive Bryan Crawford said.

And as a finalist in the JRA best places to work this year in the medium to large category, Mr Crawford said the agency must have been doing something right.

New staff had been added in the digital, social media and data analytics areas but the senior management team, which had steered the agency to success over the past few years remained the same, he said.

While supreme winner DDB snaffled creative director Chris Schofield, Mr Crawford said DraftFCB would make sure it got it right when looking to replace him in the New Year.

Mr Crawford said the agency was involved in a number of significant pitches this year.

NBRreported earlier that DraftFCB had resigned the Orcon account, reportedly to pitch for Vodafone.

A highlight of the year was the agency’s work with the Electricity Authority, including the “What’s My Number” campaign, Mr Crawford said. “When a campaign’s credited with having an impact on the country’s inflation, the way that Electricity Authority switching campaign has, that’s pretty cool.”

Other new work included the Going Digital campaign as New Zealanders switched from analogue to digital television and accounts with ACC, JR Duty Free, NBRNZ Opera, Maritime New Zealand, New Zealand Transport Agency and George Weston Foods.

DraftFCB has certainly been busy, to the extent that it has resigned a number of pitches this year, including the aforementioned Orcon account.

DraftFCB also bowed out of the Auckland Council pitch, when the agency decided it was better to focus on other things, Mr Crawford said.

“Our first priority is to our existing clients and that’s the way we approach things.”

Clients like Noel Leeming, Genesis Energy and Pak’nSave had stayed with the agency and Mitre 10 had been with the agency for over 30 years, he said.

Highlights for the year included dominating “right across the board,” he said, and not just in a single award category or area of business. The agency was proud of the impact of some of its campaigns, he said, including the Ministry of Health online journal for depression.

And on the agenda next was a new year with a clean slate, he said.

“Every year you start again in this business.”

DraftFCB: Arna Davies, Bryan Crawford, Emma Popping, Lucy Cole, Jane Wardlaw, Catherine Walker, Karen Codd, Simon Teagle

String Theory– making holy grail of viral
The agency started only 18 months ago but has grown rapidly to become the creative agency behind Labour’s election campaign.

String Theory: Jeremy Taine, Jane Cherrington and Nick Barnes.

String Theory worked with and for other agencies, as well as doing its own work, strategy head Jane Cherrington said.

Filling in for other agencies included creative head Jeremy Taine’s stint with Saatchi & Saatchi for three months as executive creative director at the start of the year. The agency’s management team is also made up of production head Nick Barnes, who this year worked with M&C Saatchi for a New Zealand Police project.

The agency’s own work included pieces done for Macquarie Bank in Australia and New Zealand, including a television commercial involving paragliding off a mountain, Mr Barnes said.

The company, which was String Theory’s founding client, had stayed with the agency and with Mr Taine. Macquarie Bank had followed Mr Taine from Ogilvy to String Theory, Dr Cherrington said.

New work this year included the Labour campaign, for which the agency drafted a new take on opening night addresses. Dr Cherrington said opening night addresses were usually boring and String Theory had decided to do a documentary detailing Labour’s DNA.

She said the piece was watchable and beautiful.

New work also included a soon-to-be-released online viral campaign created for free for Good Books, a charity Dr Cherrington conceived and launched.

“We think we’ve created the holy grail of viral because it’s so amazing.”

String Theory had hired new suits, she said, but often worked by bringing in staff when required on projects.

Dr Cherrington said the agency had tracked steadily upward in revenue and profit since starting 18 months ago and its second year was shaping up to be ahead of its first.

The key to good strategy, she said, was a confluence of talent and information and a constant process of calibrating brand to context. An agency needed to have great creatives and great clients who understood the process.

Shine – building up business
The agency behind the Mammoth brand has significantly increased its share of the Fonterra business this year.

The agency doubled its business with the dairy giant to about half the Fonterra business, as well as winning the Fonterra Innovation of the Year award, Shine founder and co-owner Simon Curran said.

The client award was the one the agency was most proud of, Mr Curran said, which it won for its Mammoth Supply Company brand (food for men, including yoghurt, iced coffee and dips).

Other new business wins for the year included winning Lion Nathan’s Speights and Beck’s brands and winning Freeview and stuff.co.nz, Mr Curran said.

Lion Nathan had proved an enduring relationship, Mr Curran said, as the agency headed into its second year with the firm and more than doubled its business with Lion in the past 12 months.

This plus its other wins had made it Shine’s best year yet, Mr Curran said and, while the market had been flat and difficult for others, Shine had had a “storming” year, he said.

“Twelve months ago we set out to make sure we had a real focus on delivering business results and we’ve had a sterling year of doing that and are now looking forward to the year ahead.”

New hires included executive chairman James Hall, previously chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand and chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi London, Mr Curran said, which the agency was exceptionally excited about.

Mr Hall would become a co-owner of Shine and would be a big draw for clients, Mr Curran said.

Another key hire was deputy creative director Julian Andrews, formerly of Saatchi & Saatchi London, as well as Arch MacDonnell from Inhouse Design as design director, Mr Curran said.

The future of the agency was looking bright, with new wins that Shine would now focus on, Mr Curran said.

BELOW: Winners gather on NBR publisher Barry Colman's yacht, M.V. Liberté IV.