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DraftFCB gets quality, OMD gets quantity and precarious stage claims two victims at CAANZ Media Awards

There were 730 media folk in their gladrags, a couple of unfortunate but highly comical stage mishaps, some well-received self-deprecating humour from Martin Devlin, some cheeky on-stage planking hijinks and a large sumo wrestler dishing out gongs—quite literally—at the CAANZ Media Awards last night at the Langham in Auckland. And it was DraftFCB Media and OMD that left with the biggest smiles. 

DraftFCB Media put in a very good showing at last year’s awards, including best in show for its Whitcoulls work, and the Mini SOHO – What’s your Number? campaign took the big one this year. The campaign has already won a number of creative awards and the smart use of unconventional media like magazine spines and gym changing room lockers to get each of the 15 unique, customised cars in front of its target audience demonstrated how a clear and insightful media strategy could deliver outstanding results.

The crux of the campaign was to create 15 different personalities for each Mini SOHO that it wanted to sell. It then tried to get Kiwis to part with $50,000 to buy one of the cars online, sight unseen, without a test drive and without any of the traditional discount negotiation offered by car yards. It was a tough sell and a big challenge, but, by tapping into perceived scarcity, it worked: it had hoped to sell one, but it ended up selling ten.

As well as best in show, The Mini Soho campaign won four other golds in the IT/Telecommunications/Consumer Durables & Automotive, Best Use of Out of Home, Best Use of Digital and Best Smart Media Idea categories. Draft continued its winning ways with The Journal, picking up a gold in the Financial / Government / Corporate / Services category and one more silver. It also took home three more silvers on top of that and Derek Lindsay, who has headed up the team since 2006, was handed the special leadership award for leading the business out of the recession and wrapping up 2010 with more clients, staff and revenue than forecast.

OMD didn’t fire at last year’s awards and only picked up one gold, but there was plenty of walking up to the stage, shaking hands and smiling for photos last night after it took home what one of its staffers called a mountain of silver with some gold cherries on top (Pepsi Max It Jobs and Nivea Visage NZ next Top Model took gold and it won another 13 other silvers, although slightly surprisingly, the Ad on Pause innovation for Primo that featured on TVNZ Ondemand wasn’t deemed good enough to make the golden grade).

OMD’s Zac Stephenson also won a highly commended for the leadership award and Spark PHD’s recently departed co-founder Richard Fenner won the inaugural Inspiring Individuals award, which was sponsored by MediaWorks in memory of Sandy Smith.

The hotly contested Media Brand of the Year was won by TVNZ, which, over the past few years has made a good fist of moving from a standard definition, two-channel television network into a digital media company delivering content on a variety of screens and differentiating itself by keeping innovation at the core of is business model.

And the even more hotly contested NBR Best Dressed accolades were taken out by Brendan Hewitt of Spark PHD and Michelle Cole of Media Works TV (check out a montage of all the beautiful people here).

All up there were 13 gold and 23 silvers dished out. But, win or lose, these awards are renowned as an opportunity for colleagues and competitors to let off some steam and, judging by the feverish grinding and hair flinging on the dancefloor that was taking place in the wee small hours, the media crowd certainly appeared to be giving it a good nudge at the APNO Friends in High Places shindig afterwards.

Gold Awards:

Best in Show: DraftFCB Media, Mini SOHO – What’s your Number?

Media Agency of the Year: DraftFCB Media

Media Brand of the Year: TVNZ

Leadership Award: Derek Lindsay, Managing Director, DraftFCB Media

Financial / Government / Corporate / Services: DraftFCB Media, Ministry of Health, The Journal

Food, Grocery, Beverages (FMCG): OMD New Zealand, Frucor Beverages Ltd, Pepsi Max: Max It Jobs

IT / Telecommunications / Consumer Durables & Automotive: DraftFCB Media, BMW Group NZ, Mini SOHO – What’s your Number?

Best Use of Television: OMD New Zealand, Beiersdorf, Nivea Visage NZ Next Top Model

Best Use of Out of Home: DraftFCB Media, BMW Group NZ, Mini SOHO – What’s your Number?

Best Use of Digital: DraftFCB Media, BMW Group NZ, Mini SOHO – What’s your Number?

Best Smart Media Idea: DraftFCB Media, BMW Group NZ, Mini SOHO – What’s your Number?

Best Small Budget: ZenithOptimedia, Lion Nathan, 9.09 Baileys Time

Best Sales Proposal of the Year: MediaWorks TV, New World, New World, Cleverbaskets

Silver Awards

Financial / Government / Corporate / Services: DraftFCB Media, Ministry of Health, The Lowdown

Clothing / Retail / Fast Food: OMD New Zealand, McDonald’s (New Zealand) Limited, McFlurry

Food, Grocery, Beverages (FMCG): Total Media, McCain Foods Limited, School Veggie Patches; OMD New Zealand, Beiersdorf, Nivea Visage NZ Next Top Model; OMD New Zealand, Fonterra Brands (New Zealand) Ltd, Primo: Take A Moment and Chill; OMD New Zealand, Fonterra Brands (New Zealand) Ltd, Mainland Butter: A Simple Pleasure

IT / Telecommunications / Consumer Durables & Automotive: OMD New Zealand, European Motors Limited, Volkswagen Transporter

Media / Entertainment / Travel & Leisure: Starcom & Colenso BBDO, TVNZ, The Pacific

Best Use of Television: OMD New Zealand, Frucor Beverages Ltd, Mizone: Mizone Moments

Best Use of Print: OMD New Zealand, Fonterra Brands (New Zealand) Ltd, Kapiti

Best Use of Out of Home: Total Media, McCain Foods Limited, School Veggie Patches Red Truck Tour; OMD New Zealand, Heart of the City Limited, Outrageous Flight

Best Use of Radio: ZenithOptimedia, Lion Nathan, Cider Days

Best Integrated Media Campaign: Total Media, McCain Foods Limited, School Veggie Patches; Ogilvy, Progressive Enterprises, Countdown – Serving up MasterChef NZ

Best Long Term Strategic Campaign: DraftFCB Media, Ministry of Health, Leading the Fight Against Depression

Best Response/ROI: DraftFCB Media, Ministry of Health, The Journal

Best Smart Media Idea: OMD New Zealand, Frucor Beverages Ltd, Mizone: Mizone Moments; OMD New Zealand, Fonterra Brands (New Zealand) Ltd, Primo: Pauseview; OMD New Zealand, Loyalty New Zealand Limited, Fly Buys for Music

Best Small Budget: OMD New Zealand, Heinz Wattie’s Ltd, LOL; OMD New Zealand, European Motors Limited, Volkswagen Transporter

Best Sales Proposal of the Year: SKY Network Television, DB Breweries Limited, Heineken DRAUGHTKEG Super SKY Weekends

Leadership Award: Derek Lindsay, DraftFCB Media; highly Commended, Zac Stephenson, OMD New Zealand.

Case studies of the winning gold campaigns will be up on www.caanz.co.nz soon.

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