11th May, 2009

The last thirty days have been a little crazy on the digital awards front for the Clemenger Group.

The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996 during the Web’s infancy, the Webbys are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities.

We performed very well against some top class digital operations. We received six finalists in total which put us equal sixth in the world going into the big night.  RG/A received 14 nominations, Wieden + Kennedy (8 nominations), Crispin, Porter + Bogusky (8), Clemenger BBDO (6), DDB Worldwide (6), Razorfish (5), Goodby Silverstein + Partners (4), BBDO (4), Lean Mean Fighting Machine (3), Poke (3), and Euro RSCG (3).

We have converted two of the six finalists to Gold with Clemenger BBDO Wellington winning the Webby Award in the Banner Singles category as well as the Webby Award for Integrated Mobile Experience for Distracted Drivers.

At the One Show Interactive Awards, Clemenger BBDO Sydney received a Gold Pencil (Integrated Branding) and Sliver Pencil (viral) for Sega ‘Offset the Evil’, Aim Proximity/Colenso BBDO Auckland won A Silver Pencil for Yellow Pages ‘Yellow Treehouse’, Colenso BBDO a Bronze Pencil for New Zealand Book Council ‘Read a book at work’ while sister shop Clemenger BBDO Wellington won a Silver Pencil for New Zealand Transport Agency ‘Distracted Drivers’

Also this month AIM Proximity was also announced this month as the world’s most awarded agency for the first quarter of 2009 by the prestigious Won Report. For the period January to April 2009, Aim Proximity were by far and away the most awarded agency in the world. Not just the world of direct, the world of digital or the world of ambient, the whole wide world of everything.

Aim Proximity have three of the ten most awarded campaigns. One peice to point out that I haven’t mentioned belore on my blog is the work for New Zealand’s Yellow Pages iPhone Jonny campaign for instance is a good example of the work coming out of the agency. Is it DM, is it guerrilla marketing, is it digital, is it brand communications? Yes, yes, yes and yes. The idea was to put a bloke at the front of the queue to buy the new iPhone 3G, which Apple launched in New Zealand before anywhere else in the world.

He used Yellow Pages to keep body and soul together over the three days he waited. Pizza, exercise bike, sleeping bag, he got them all by calling Yellow from his (old) mobile. His blog and Yellow’s website gave punters the chance to win the iPhone from him once he’d bought it. And the whole stunt generated PR worth millions around the world.

Dave King, Creative Director of AIM Proximity (left) Darryn Melrose, CEO of AIM Proximity (right)

Darryn Melrose, CEO of AIM Proximity commented: "We’ve had a long history of success in New Zealand. To discover that we are the best in the world is just amazing. We’re very proud, but we’ll keep working hard to keep our rankings up high, and deliver great business results for our clients." Dave King, Creative Director of AIM Proximity added: "Winning awards is great. Winning awards for major clients like the Warehouse, Yellow and Vodafone is really satisfying, so thanks to each of these guys for letting us do the work."

27th March 2009
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The CAANZ AXIS Awards honor the creative talents of the New Zealand industry and are a celebration of the year’s most exciting and original ideas. The Clemenger BBDO Group dominated the awards with fifteen Gold winners including eleven awards in the digital and mobile categories (4 Gold, 4 Silver and 3 Bronze).

The top award of Grand AXIS went to Colenso BBDO for the digital work on Read a Book at Work for client New Zealand Book Council. The best integrated campaign went to Yellow Pages campaign – featuring a treehouse restaurant made entirely with services obtained from Yellow Pages – was made by Aim Proximity and Colenso BBDO.The New Zealand Transport Agency and its agency Clemenger BBDO Wellington won best TV advertising campaign for Wheel of Misfortune about safety at intersections and and received three gold awards in the mobile, viral and rich media categories for the Distracted Drivers digital work. New Zealand Transport Agency was also named Creative Business of the Year.

This year’s judging panel, made up of 43 local creatives and four international judges – Matt Doman & Ian Heartfield, Creative Directors from Beattie McGuinness Bungay London, Steve Ayson, Director from The Sweet Shop Los Angeles and Jureeporn Thaidumrong, Founder & Executive Creative Director from JEH Thailand – were all highly impressed with the quality of work submitted.

Digital and Mobile Awards are listed below;

	GRAND AXIS CAMPAIGN: Read a Book at Work ADVERTISER:  New Zealand Book Council AGENCY: Colenso BBDO
	360 AXIS CAMPAIGN: Treehouse Restaurant ADVERTISER:  The Yellow Pages Group AGENCY: AIM Proximity / Colenso BBDO
	GOLD Web site Design & Art Direction CAMPAIGN: Changing The Way You Fly ADVERTISER:  Air New Zealand AGENCY: Colenso BBDO
	GOLD Mobile Online Rich Media Ad Viral Video & Interactive CAMPAIGN: Distracted Drivers ADVERTISER:  New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) AGENCY: Clemenger BBDO
	SILVER Web site Design & Art Direction CAMPAIGN: Innovation Fold ADVERTISER:  Vodafone AGENCY: AIM Proximity
	SILVER Viral video & Interactive CAMPAIGN: The Big V ADVERTISER:  Frucor AGENCY: Colenso BBDO
	BRONZE Interactive Media & Innovative Ideas CAMPAIGN: 100K Cash Drop ADVERTISER:  Frucor AGENCY: Colenso BBDO
	BRONZE Mobile CAMPAIGN: Vodafones 10th Birthday, pass the parcel ADVERTISER:  Vodafone AGENCY: Colenso BBDO

20th March, 2009

The John Caples International Awards, honors the best in direct and interactive marketing around the world.  Our agencies in Australia and New Zealand were very prominent at these awards last night in New York.  For the first time in Caples’ 31-year history Aim Proximity went on and won both prestigious awards including Best in Show award for its Valentine’s Day campaign for The Warehouse, as well as the Courageous Client award for its Yellow Pages work. Aim Proximity won eleven awards in total including three Gold, four Silvers and three Bronzes.

Clemenger Proximity Melbourne received three awards, including Gold for Mars Pet Food DM, one Silver and one Bronze. Clemenger BBDO and Clemenger Proximity Sydney combined for 2 awards, 1 Gold for Sega and 1 Silver for Vinnies. Proximity also received a Silver for Black Dog Institute ‘Paint by Numbers.

The John Caples International Awards, was founded in 1978 by Andi Emerson, a direct marketing pioneer, in order to honor well-recognized copywriter John Caples. With international chairs in 53 countries, it is funded by industry agencies, clients and suppliers; is run by industry volunteers and is judged by more than 100 active, senior-level, international creative professionals.

Aim Proximity work was certainly the big talk at the award show, with Love conspiracy consumer campaign for the Warehouse receiving Best in Show. The judges said it was due to its ability to engage buyers over a period of time and provide them with an unforgettable, extremely relevant experience – all while creating the perfect cross-sell opportunity for New Zealand’s largest retailer.

The idea was to draw in as many first-time male customers by promising them the ultimate way to impress their girlfriends or wives without having to spend any money.

The multi-touch campaign featured a ‘secret’ microsite for men only – accessible only upon completion of a “Are you a man?” quiz, e-mail messages and a live event that got the attention of both men and women. The retailer flew a plane with a romantic message reading, “Babe, I Love You” trailing behind it. Each male conspirator was instructed to tell the women in their lives that they had arranged for the special plane. By registering with the retailer, the men could vote for the message and for where the plane would fly. Naturally, they were also given suggestions for additional romantic Valentine’s Day gifts available at The Warehouse.

As well as winning Best in Show Aim Proximity won the Courageous Client award for its Yellow Pages iPhone Jonny / Consumer campaign work. For a traditional print directory business like the New Zealand Yellow Pages, the iPhone might be the last thing that you want your customers to think about. However, Yellow sought to bridge the gap between the public perception of its brand and its ability to be the go-to online source people could use for any and all needs.

That is why the judges felt it should receive the Caples brand for courage. The brand clandestinely sponsored ‘iPhone Jonny’ to become the first person in the world to purchase an iPhone. He waited in line for three days and three nights in front of an Auckland store and received worldwide exposure for the stunt. While in line, he managed to secure food and shelter, get a proper barbershop shave, work out on a stationary bike and even host a dinner party, all the while blogging about how he secured these lifestyle assets by using yellow.co.nz. The day after Jonny purchased the phone, Yellow revealed their secret using a full-page newspaper ad.

It was also fabulous to see Vodafone’s Innovation fold / Consumer campaign going on to win Gold in the Microsite category. Mobile phones do pretty much anything you need. That’s the basis of this innovative campaign from AIM Proximity for Vodafone New Zealand. See the blog posting about the campaign here The multimedia integrated campign used TV spots and print ads to show consumers the things they could “fold” into their Vodafone device, including maps, music, television and the Web. The ads, along with a mobile marketing element, drove consumers to a microsite that further explained all the bells and whistles that Vodafone mobile devices offer. The goal was to drive home the point that the agency was on the cutting edge by targeting teenagers who love the latest gadgets, hip 20-somethings on the go and executives who need information at their fingertips with the message that you can have some outdated items — such as paper maps and landline telephones — all in one Vodafone device.

Congrats to the Aim Proximity team for these three pieces of work;

Creative Director
Dave King

Head of Interactive Art
Aaron Goldring

Copywriter
Michelle Rajalingam

Art Director
Dan Fastenedge

Senior Digital Producer
Andrew Simpson

Digital Designer
Jason Vertogen

Digital Designer
Shanan Goldring

Production Manager
Paul Pritchard

 
26th of February, 2009

The Clemenger BBDO network has scooped the trans Tasman double, with Clemenger BBDO Melbourne chosen as Campaign Brief’s Australian Agency of the Year and sister shop Colenso BBDO, Auckland taking out the New Zealand title.

“Putting all these pieces into place has taken some time but over the past 12 months, we have really started to see our efforts come to fruition,” said James McGrath, executive creative director of Clemenger BBDO Melbourne. “We are beyond the integration cringe and we’re now really confident in playing with ideas. Once we’ve got the idea, and if we don’t know how to actually make it happen, we know we’re really on to something.

“Campaign Brief Agency of the year is the award for the Creative class because of both its skilful analysis of business problems we face but more uniquely an understanding of the more mercurial nature of what makes an idea and their development special.” 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.”

Clemenger BBDO Melbourne Reception Campaign Brief Australian Agency of the year article posted on the wall	Colenso BBDO  Reception Campaign Brief New Zealand agency article posted on the wall