Crafty Beggars hijacks billboards all over New Zealand in a new campaign via DDB New Zealand
Late on Thursday night last week a group of crafty guerrillas hijacked six billboards around Auckland city as well as in Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, making other businesses’ billboards their own in a new campaign via DDB New Zealand.
New Zealanders should stay tuned as there is talk of more hijacking in the pipeline.
Agency: DDB
Executive Creative Director: Andy Fackrell
Creative Director: Chris Schofield
Art Director: James Conner
Copy Writer: Christie Cooper
Group Business Director: Scott Wallace
Account Director: Susie Darling
Senior Account Manager: Jonathan Rea
Account Executive: Hannah Powell
Producer: Andy Robilliard
Editor: Steve Gulik
Designers: Phillip Swaine & Ashleigh Yates
Client: Lion Nathan
Assistant Brand Manager, Craft: Geoffrey Kidd
Marketing Manager, Mainstream & Craft: Jonte Goldwater
Brand Manager, Craft: Mark Scown
28 Comments
Nope
I hope a 6yr old child shot that.
That’s always been a good idea, appearing to subvert another company’s billboards as your own, and in beer at least goes back to late 80s poster campaign in the UK.
But are these real hijacks or fake billboards? The former would be interesting, the latter a bit lame.
That florist from New Plymouth is going to be pretty angry his billboard got hijacked.
This is to guerrilla what their beer is to craft, a thin cynical facade.
I don’t know where to begin with this lame-arse idea.
It’s tired. Done many times before. Isn’t true to the craft beer mantra. Reinforces that it is a Big Brewery brand. Makes the brand seem even more fake.
Plus, and worst of all, the beer is shite. Like a cross between Export Gold (DB) and a watered down Lion Red.
But hey, ‘crafty’ as an SMP, roll on the awards entry video.
V/O Mid-twenties male:
‘Craft beer is seen as elitist amongst beer drinkers in NZ, we wanted to challenge that perception…’
Can someone else please write the second part of this entry video script before I hand it over to the production company? Budget $50K.
This is the type of work you do when there isn’t really a story – fake scam. Boo. The craft community (and Independant L) must be loooooving this.
MG. Hahahah fake billboards for fake craft beer. perfect representation of the brand.
Hijacking is a good idea. Many of us have thought of doing that with billboards, these guys have done it.
This is fun! Sure it may not be a genuine hijack but it’s a good, simple idea and if you’ve seen the billboards in person it really is quite effective.
Kinda Krafty
If this was done to real company’s billboards, it’s very cool.
Christ. The brand name is based on a weak pun. Craft beer = crafty. ‘Craft’ and ‘crafty’ are almost diametric opposites.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the ad campaign then focusses entirely on the irrelevant half of the double-meaning.
I see no pride in the craft of making beer here.
Speaking of ambushes – how about Special getting 2 Degrees out of TBWA? Huge.
love it
$50K budget for an awards entry?!?! Is that what tvp tell you creatives film cos are getting? No wonder you all behave like we should be thankful to be involved.
We’re lucky if we get offered the promise of a job…. sometime in the future…. one day maybe… if the creatives haven’t fallen in love with another director in the meantime.
Money is almost never exchanged for ‘help’ on an award entry.
true story.
clever, good outdoor.
I have a Canon 50mm 1.4 if you guys want to borrow it for your next one
I can imagine the poor sinking hearts of the creative team as they learned they would not be allowed to hijack the billboards of real DDB clients and would instead need to create a series of fake billboards. The clue is: the original billboards are too nice and clean. Everyone knows real clients would never let them go out like that.
Alex you idiot, the billboards they hijacked are real.
so did these get any media attention? You know so the general public would get them and not just us advertising folk:)
TBWA have missed two big pitches… 2degrees and Goodman fielder!
They’re only real in the sense that small businesses were approached and offered a billboard which would be put up for them and then “hi-jacked”, surely…
‘… the billboards they hijacked are real.’
Uh, huh. In the sense that they are made from real wood and stuff sure.
I love all the hate, it means the campaign’s good.
I dig it,
it turns me on.
Keep it coming!
It’s funny when you see rebuttal against negative comments on here, because you know it’s the suits trying to defend the creatives who came up with it. Anyway this would have been better if they did it to real clients, as in not approaching a company to put up fake billboards for them to then hijack.
Obviously created to be a viral thing unfortunately not newsworthy enough to be picked up by any or many news outlets meaning the general public did not get to see it so therefore a fail on that front. Guys next time just do what Banksy would have done and say f#$k it, let my lawyers deal with it.
Banksy? don’t try to be hip, dad.
I’m hip I’m with it!
As others have said, this crap campaign is a perfect match for a crap beer. Could there be a more over-used, more lame billboard than “Keep Calm and drink crafty beggars”?
Big breweries read the writing on the wall in Wgtn: we don’t like you, you suck.