The Year in Review: Dave King
M&C Saatchi has had a good couple of years since snaffling three of AIM Proximity’s big dawgs. It won a host of new accounts last year, it recently added Orcon to the stable and it’s released some stellar work for the Police and Fire Service this year. Here’s what executive creative director Dave King made of 2011.
Favourite campaign that isn’t yours: The JK Depression stuff is fantastic. The Effies Call for Entries was great and I genuinely look forward to seeing new PAK’nSAVE ads. And I’m most definitely not trying to land a job at DraftFCB.
Favourite campaign that is yours: The fact that Maori Television blitzed the other channels with its Rugby World Cup coverage makes me incredibly proud. And I love our New Zealand Fire Service ‘Anthems’ radio ads. Listen to them here: NZF-60-2064[1] NZF-60-2062[1] NZF-30-2063[1] NZF-30-2061[1]
Least favourite campaign: 
Fresh Up’s Thirst is Creepy just pips Lumino Dentists. Based on a nonsense non-truth and too similar to Red Stripe’s Creepy Foot Doctor.
Best brand: Sky. When Paul looked after it, the ads were great. And under Toby’s stewardship the greatness has continued, with the very odd exception.
Best stoush: I live in a bit of a bubble so only notice a stoush if I find myself yelling at someone or find someone yelling at me.
Heroes: Steve Cochran, Paul Hankinson and Regan Grafton. Three guys who have been responsible for making agencies and clients look great in New Zealand for years. They are also great people who don’t act superior or blow arse. Any young creative looking for inspiration should look no further than these guys.
Villains: The foreigners responsible for turning one of the world’s leading direct agencies into nothing more than a few pieces of tin on the side of a building.
Most memorable marketing moment: Nothing tops the Abstain for the Game incident. There are a bunch of creatives out there claiming they ‘weren’t’ in the room at the time, which is a bit of a rarity.
What do you think?