Yellow Chocolate and Colenso BBDO dominate Axis Awards

Last night’s 2011 Axis Awards should’ve been called the Colenso BBDO Awards after the agency was all over the gold gongs like a fat kid on cake.

Colenso won 10 golds, eight of which were for Yellow Chocolate, the ninth for its guerilla stunt for TVNZ show The Pacific and the last for emerging talent.

Yellow Pages was the business of the night with nine gold awards, including creative business of the year, all for Colenso’s work on Yellow Chocolate.

Colenso took out two of the top Axis awards, the titanium Axis and the integrated Axis as well as the grand Axis for best in show, all for Yellow Chocolate.

Hot on its heels was Special Group, which won the interactive Axis award for Orcon.

Special won four golds including online advertising, digital craft and direct response (all for Orcon), a solid outcome after scooping all the top awards at last year’s show.

DDB also had a top showing with two agency awards for Cadbury and Sky, while its Leaf Blower TVC for Sky won in the TV single commercial category, visual craft and direction.

The Leaf Blower TVC’s associated company Capital City Films also won production company of the year.

Clemenger BBDO was the only other ad agency to appear on the gold winners’ list, with a design award for Sounds Like Us for Radio New Zealand.

Other than that it was the Colenso BBDO show as the agency went through gold gongs like a regular person goes through breath mints.

Rounding out the Colenso honours were staffers Kia Heinnen and Zoe Hawkins, who won the emerging talent award.

Happily, there was not a district council campaign in sight on the gold list and the only council campaign to win any awards was Colenso's "A Rubbish Idea" for Auckland City Council and Heart of the City.

The only other ad agencies to make an appearance in the total awards list were DraftFCB, TBWA and Saatchi & Saatchi (which scored only one bronze award in total). 

CAANZ president and DDB Group chief executive Sandy Moore – who recently won CEO of the year – said the work on show was testament to agencies’ collective ability to rise to the challenge and prove how powerful great ideas can be.

“AXIS remains the pinnacle of creativity in New Zealand,” Mr Moore said.

“It rewards ideas that have captured the imagination of New Zealanders, ideas that have effected change, and ideas that have ultimately achieved business results for our clients.

“CAANZ’s vision is for insight and creativity to be commonly accepted by clients as integral components of their business,” Mr Moore said.

“Vehicles like the AXIS awards play a key role in bringing that vision to life.”

The lifetime achievement award was awarded to David Bell of AXIS AdSchool fame.

The gold list:

Grand axis: Colenso BBDO (Yellow Chocolate)

Titanium axis: Colenso BBDO (Yellow Chocolate)

Interactive axis: Special Group (Orcon business banner)

Integrated axis: Colenso BBDO (Yellow Chocolate)

Creative business of the year: Yellow Pages

Production company of the year: Capital City Films

Axis lifetime achievement award: David Bell

Emerging talent: Kia Heinnen and Zoe Hawkins, Colenso BBDO

Visual craft: Capital City Films (Leaf Blower, Sky)

Direction: Capital City Films (Leaf Blower, Sky)

Digital craft: Special Group (Orcon business banner)

Digital craft: Oktobor: Shihad Sleepeater

Guerilla advertising: Colenso BBDO (Dog Fight, TVNZ)

Direct response: Special Group (Orcon business banner)

Direct response: Colenso BBDO (Yellow Chocolate)

Direct campaign: Colenso BBDO (Yellow Chocolate)

Design: Clemenger BBDO (Sounds Like Us, Radio New Zealand)

Online advertising: Special Group (Orcon business banner)

Social: Colenso BBDO (Yellow Chocolate)

Digital/interactive campaign: Colenso BBDO (Yellow Chocolate)

PR/experiential: DDB Group (Snow Globe, Cadbury)

PR/experiential: Colenso BBDO (Yellow Chocolate)

TV single commercial: DDB Group (Leaf Blower, Sky)

The ad agency total awards tally:

Colenso BBDO: 10 gold, 6 silver, 13 bronze

Special Group: 4 gold, 1 bronze

DDB Group: 2 gold, 5 silver, 7 bronze

Clemenger BBDO: 1 gold, 2 silver

DraftFCB: 7 silver, 4 bronze

TBWA: 2 bronze

Saatchi & Saatchi: 1 bronze