Rugby World Cup advertising continued to dominate throughout October, some say to the detriment of both quality and originality. And after being told to ‘touch pause engage’ one time too many, the NAB judges have decided no one deserves the October Newspaper Ad of the Month award. The obvious headlines and groan inducing puns featured across too much of the material – at times to the detriment of art direction.

But the judges have acknowledged some very strong contenders and have awarded an Honourable Mention to Special Group’s Channel Four Not Rugby Viewing Guide which cleverly allocated the channel’s programmes across the Pool, Quarter, Semi, Bronze and Final dates.  So in a way rugby was still the winner on the day.  As Bart Simpson would say “Oh the ironing.”

The judges said “… great strategy and an amusing clever idea.”

Ad of the Month judges for October were, Freddie Coltart, Ogilvy; Rob McDowell, Sugar and Matt Sellars, Saatchi & Saatchi.

Credits: 

Agency: Special Group

Creative directors – Rob Jack & Tony Bradbourne

Creative – Kim Fraser

Managing partner – Michael Redwood

Account director – Annabel Rees

Head of Marketing MediaWorks TV – Amanda Wilson

Brand Manager FOUR – Renee Colquhoun

Marketing FOUR – Gary Mulholland

Any ad that’s run in any newspaper around the country is eligible to enter the competition. (Email ideas@nabs.co.nz for competition details.)

The judges said “it only took a few words to simply explain what it’s all about – no asterisks or long copy and nice humour too.”

The Ad of the Month judges for September were Andy Hollis – Platform29 and Elwyn Pugsley – Procreation.

Credits for September’s winning ad are:

Agency: .99

Executive Creative Director: Craig Whitehead

Creative Director: Paul Hankinson

Creative team: Edward Bell, Mel Brooks, Amy Cattanach, Charlotte Henry.
Account Service: Helen Prangley, Jodene Murphy.

.99’s creative team receive $250 with the ad sponsored by the NAB into the 2012 Axis Awards. The ad also becomes a finalist in the 2011/12 $10,000 Newspaper Ad of Year competition. Any ad that’s run in any newspaper around the country is eligible to enter the competition. (Email ideas@nabs.co.nz for competition details.)

The March Ad of the Month judges were Ben Chandler from Federation, Joe Holden from Big Communications and Lucien Law from Shine. And they all concurred, saying the ad was a superb use of the medium, something this competition is often criticised for lacking as posters are repurposed for print, and a great example of a hard working retail ad.

M&C Saatchi’s winning creative team will receive $250 cash with the ad sponsored by the NAB into the 2012 Axis Awards. It also becomes a finalist in the 2011 $10,000 Newspaper Ad of Year competition. Any ad that’s run in any newspaper around the country is eligible to enter the competition. You know the drill. Check out the past finalists at the NAB website.

Credits:

Client – Warehouse Stationery

Agency – M&C Saatchi

Dave King – Executive Creative Director

James Bowman – Art Director

Nicci Doak – Writer

The December and January Ad of the Month judges were Kim Ellison, Hotfoot, Nic Hall, Ogilvy and Gavin Siakimotu, DDB, who described the ad as “compelling and eye catching with really engaging copy” (Hall didn’t participate in the final vote).

As for December, they said: “There were some missed opportunities but nothing stood out.”

Credits:

Agency: Ogilvy

Executive Creative Director: Damon O’Leary

Group Heads: Nic Hall & Richard Loseby

Creative team: Freddie Coltart & Matt Williams

To view all the finalists in the current Newspaper Ad of the Year series visit the NAB website.

This month’s judges were Paul White of AUT, Dan Davis of Insight Consultants and the NAB’s Munro. And the judges said: “A nice simple, topical idea that worked really well in newspapers.”

DDB’s winning creative team receive $250 with the ad sponsored by the NAB into the 2011 Axis Awards. The ad also appears in the ‘What’s New’ section of AdMedia and becomes a finalist in the 2010 $10,000 Newspaper Ad of Year competition (although last time Munro said he couldn’t imagine the Kiwi judges choosing an Aussie winner for the big prize).

Any ad that’s run in any New Zealand newspaper is eligible to enter the competition. Email ideas@nabs.co.nz for details. And click here to view the finalists.

Credits for the winning ad are:

Agency: DDB Sydney

Client: McDonalds New Zealand

Executive creative director: Matt Eastwood

Creative director: Adam Rose

Copywriter: Dave Shirlaw

Art Director: Jakub Szymanski

Account Director: Kenny Hill

Account Manager: Alexander Gordon

Robert Munro, the NAB’s general manager, says it is “reasonably unusual” for an overseas agency to win and he can think of just one or two other occasions (one for Veet and one for Mastercard) when it has happened.

“Obviously, we would prefer to have Kiwi ads win. But the short answer is that there’s nothing to stop [overseas agencies] entering,” he says. If the ad has run in a New Zealand newspaper, it’s eligible. Added to that, the esteemed judges judge each entry blind (aside from the ads entered by their own agency) to ensure the best ad wins and its agency provenance doesn’t come into play.

Naked’s winning creative team (creatives: Sesh Moodley and Paul Swann; designer: Kelly O’Rourke; and photographer: Chris Barlow) gets $250 cash and the ad will be sponsored by the NAB into the 2011 Axis Awards. The ad also becomes a finalist in the 09/10 $10,000 Newspaper Ad of the Year competition. But Munro hinted at the possibility of some patriotic bias for the big final: he thinks it would be “extremely unlikely” that the local executive creative directors who are chosen to judge the best newspaper ad of the year would decide on an overseas entry. To him, it would be akin to choosing a foreign campaign for Grand Axis.
Any ad that’s run in any newspaper around the country is eligible to enter the competition (email ideas@nabs.co.nz for competition details). And to view all the finalists in the current Newspaper Ad of the Year series visit the NAB website www.nabs.co.nz/Inspiration/AdofMonth.

The judges were Danielle Richards, from DDB, and Mick Stalker, from Colenso BBDO. They said (in unison): “Very topical and good use of the medium in a creative way”.

Credits for the winning ad are:
Agency: .99

Client: Vodafone

Executive Creative Director: Craig Whitehead

Creative Director: Craig Pethybridge

Copywriters: Craig Whitehead/Craig Pethybridge

Art Directors: Craig Whitehead/Craig Pethybridge

Designer: Ann Davenport

Account Director: Louisa Grant

Artwork: Tash Vranjes

Retouching: Michael Currie

Production: Amie Cutler

.99’s winning creative team receive $250 cash and the ad is sponsored by the NAB into the 2011 Axis Awards and it becomes a finalist in the 2010 $10,000 Newspaper Ad of Year competition.

Any ad that’s run in any newspaper around the country is eligible to enter the competition. Email ideas@nabs.co.nz for competition details. And to view all the finalists visit the NAB website.

Commenting on DDB’s cleverly hand-scripted long copy for the Arts Channel, the judges said: “It shows a great understanding of the target audience. A nice intelligent read”.

And as for DraftFCB: “Good use of the medium and an inspiring way to use the paper – an oasis of art in the newspaper!,” said the judges.

December and January’s judges were James Mok – DraftFCB (who abstained from the January vote due to conflict of interest), Lachlan McPherson – Publicis Mojo and Sarah Walter – The Pond.

December and January’s winning creative teams receive $250 cash with the ads sponsored by the NAB in the 2011 Axis Awards. The ads will also appear in the ‘What’s New’ section of AdMedia and are now Finalists in the 2010 $10,000 Newspaper Ad of Year competition judged later this year. Any ad that has run in any newspaper around the country is eligible to enter the competition. Email ideas@nabs.co.nz for competition details.

To view all the finalists in the current Newspaper Ad of the Year series visit the NAB website.

“There was a lot of mediocre work and nothing seemed to stand out,” said the judges Nigel Corbett (Sugar), Luke Chess (Saatchi & Saatchi) and Steve McCabe (Freelance Creative).

Lexie Ribot, creative manager at the Newspaper Advertising Bureau, says it’s not particularly unusual for no winner to be announced. Last year, for example, only eight finalists (from 11 months of judging) ended up vying for the $10,000 ad of the year prize.

“The judges are asked to be quite tough. We are trying to raise the standard of work. So we don’t want to choose something that the judges aren’t comfortable putting their name to,” she says,

Rather than focus on November’s newspaper ad mediocrity, however, she’s looking at the positives: it’s the first ‘no-win’ month this year and the existing finalists now have a better chance of winning the $10,000 Newspaper Ad of the Year.

“There’s some good creative work coming through, but just not this month,” she says.

Any ad that’s run in any newspaper around the country is eligible to enter. So email ideas@nabs.co.nz with the details of the work you want entered. The winning creative team from each month receive $250 cash and the ad is sponsored by the NAB into the 2010 Axis Awards.
To view all the finalists in the current Newspaper Ad of the Year series head to the NAB website.

And just in case you were losing faith in the art of print advertising, feast your eyes on these doozies from around the world.