Axis 2021 – the winners

By Natasha Galloway

AUCKLAND, Last night: To celebrate the incredible creative advertising work from over the last 12 months, 760 advertising and production company professionals came together at Shed 10 in Auckland.

Emceed by the energetic and talented Chris Parker, the venue was packed to the brim with an industry appreciating being able to come together and swap chicken and beef, and win Bronzes, Silvers And Golds together IRL.

Tara Mckenty (ECD of Google, Sydney), and Leo Premutico (ECD and co-founder of Johannes Leonardo, New York) joined five local jury presidents on the executive judging panel this year.

Their role was to award the metal which included a total of 45 Gold Axis Awards, including 4 Grand Prix, and 6 Golds for the Recognition and OTY Awards including Emerging Talent sponsored by The Radio Bureau, the Google Axis Student Challenge, the Brand Axis sponsored by TVNZ, and the Grand Axis sponsored by Facebook.  

This year’s prestigious Grand Axis sponsored by Facebook, (who were out in force at the IRL last night), was scooped up by the visitors from Wellington, Clemenger BBDO, and the NZ Government for the biggest campaign that has become part of our everyday life: Unite Against Covid-19, an integrated campaign designed to help bring together the nation during the pandemic outbreak in 2020.

Clemenger BBDO ECD Brigid Alkema said: “Creating the platform that has helped shepherd us to this point has been no less of a team effort.

“From our incredibly brave clients to our many partners on this wild ride, Unite Against Covid-19 proves the power of collaboration and creativity to move people through our darkest moments with hope, humour and heart.

“We’re super privileged to have been able to play our part in guiding Aotearoa through this moment.”

Unite Against Covid-19 scored Clemenger BBDO three Golds in the categories of Design 360, Integrated, and as the ultimate Direct campaign, before going on to win a well-deserved Integrated Grand Prix.

“DDB took out the Agency of the Year title for 2021 – and the room erupted.”

Clems also went onto win a further Gold for their work with Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency called Doors in TV, Cinema and Online, above 30”.

Colenso BBDO and Clemenger BBDO jointly took out two Golds in Brand Experience & Activation and then in Creative Use of Media for the piece first viewed by the festival goers at Rhythm & Vines in the New year – Unstoppable Summer, a Covid-19 public service announcement.

This piece was loved by the judges and went onto win a Grand Prix in the major category of Brand Experience & Activation.

Colenso took home two more Golds for their work with Skinny Friend-vertising as a Direct Campaign and as a campaign in TV, Cinema & Online (Below 30”).

There were many other great creative contributions and well-deserving agencies at Axis 2020.

Special Group picked up two Gold Axis Awards for the Client Every Kiwi Counts and the very funny campaign called Meddle in the New Zealand Election. The golds were won in Direct Digital and for best Social Media campaign.

This campaign went onto win a much-deserved Grand Prix in the major category of Direct.

FCB NZ had a great win with our favourite PaknSave character Stickman and the campaign called Instickman for Foodstuffs was awarded a worthy Gold in the Influencer category.

To everyone’s delight, Saatchi & Saatchi has a sterling night and won three Golds with the much-loved ad for Toyota Hilux called Unbreakable Bond. The work won in Copywriting for TV Film & Video, in Film &Video for a TV spot over 30” and also in Integrated.

The spot was very popular amongst judges and was awarded heavily in Craft, that led to the 2021 Client of the Year Award sponsored by oOh!Media, being taken away by Toyota New Zealand. A big night for that team.

Craft had a great showing this year with a host of strong golds. Good Oil won four Golds in Cinematography, Direction, Editing with their partners The Editors and in Sound Design for the great piece of film called Doors for Waka Kotahi NZTA.

Sweetshop won three Golds in Cinematography, Direction and Editing for the great piece of work Unbreakable Bond for Toyota NZ. And a fourth Gold for Direction for Chorus and the work called Fibre. It’s How we Internet Now.” The director for Unbreakable Bond went onto win a Grand Prix for Direction which was loudly applauded by the room.

“The big winners included Clemenger, Saatchi, Colenso, Special, FCB, Good Oil, Sweetshop, Flux, Blockhead, and Motion Sickness.”

Flux Animation picked up a well-deserved Gold for the Disney piece called From Our Family to Yours and Assembly were awarded a worthy Gold for the excellent piece of work called The Voice of Racism for the New Zealand Human Rights Commission in the Digital Craft category of User Experience.

Blockhead also won a Gold in Visual Effects for You Can See It, You Can Stop It for Worksafe.

Motion Sickness completed the Craft Golds with their super-popular work for the Department of Internal Affairs called The Eggplant – an offshoot of the Keeping it Real Online campaign, winning in the category of Long-Form Campaign.

The 2021 Emerging Talent Award went to Stan and Aiken from DDB Group Aotearoa and the winners of the Google Student Challenge were Robyn Ramsay and Luke Roxburgh from Media Design School, for Kapiti – Only in your Country.

But in the end, it was DDB Aotearoa’s night. It felt like they owned the screen as they were awarded a massive swag of Silvers across five clients and seven campaigns, and then they took home six Golds for strong work across two major campaigns for Lotto and McDonald’s.

A beautiful example of art direction at its best, Reflections won Gold as an Out of Home Campaign for McDonald’s, and the single execution Fries won three further Golds in Craft for Art Direction and Image and then as a piece of great Standard Outdoor.

The campaign called Commas for Lotto NZ won a Gold in the Out of Home campaign category and the single execution called Cars was awarded a Gold as a single piece of outdoor advertising.

DDB went onto take the hard-fought for Agency of the Year title for 2021 – and the room erupted.

Comms Counmcil ceo Paul Head said: “Axis remains an important moment, and one that we all respect in the New Zealand creative calendar because it celebrates our best creative work; the work our industry is justifiably proud of because it has looked at the world through a new lens, challenged the existing paradigms, permeated popular culture and influenced behavioural change.

“Well done to all the winners this year.

“And a massive thanks to the generous support of our commercial Partners oOh!Media and TVNZ, and our sponsors NZME, The Radio Bureau, Google and Facebook.”

• View the complete list of last night’s results – and the photos – here:  www.commscouncil.nz