New Zealand’s Cannes Contenders: Special Group, Auckland and DDB New Zealand
How will NZ perform at Cannes this year? In the lead up to the Festival, Campaign Brief showcases the work we hope will impress the judges…
Special Group
Smirnoff ran a campaign that asked NZ’ers to submit their best ideas for an extraordinary night out. They chose the best ones, put up the money and help but gave the winners just 1 week to pull the event off. Everything was filmed and turned into a TV series: The Smirnoff Night Project. The series was a critical hit (Sunday Star Times, The Listener and stuff.co.nz all had Smirnoff Night Project as ‘Pick of the Week’ ) and it doubled the TV station’s viewership when it aired.
Special Group
New Zealand is a rugby mad nation, and during the Rugby World Cup the game was everywhere – across nearly all New Zealand media, 24/7. To get over the fact that they had no rugby content on their schedule whatsoever, channel FOUR positioned themselves as ‘The Home of NOT Rugby’ – a destination where non-rugby lovers could enjoy the latest award winning TV shows. It worked, over the RWC every other mainstream channel lost share – whilst FOUR’s viewership grew by 10%.
DDB
Steinlager always believed the All Blacks would win the Rugby World Cup, although not being an official sponsor, they couldn’t actually mention RWC. All they had was a white can, but all Kiwis know its significance.