A winning formula: FCB NZ’s Grand Prix success factors

FCB NZ proved its mettle once again by taking out a Grand Prix at the 2023 Axis Awards for its chilling work on ‘Toll Booth’ with Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency. The agency also received recognition for its campaigns with Fire and Emergency and Te Hiringa Hauora, Health Promotion Agency. StopPress sat down with Co-Chief Creative Officers Peter Vegas and Leisa Wall to find out how this impactful and potentially lifesaving work was created.

It was a nerve-wracking 40 seconds of silence after the FCB team first presented their pitch for ‘Toll Booth’ to their then reasonably new client Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency as their first piece of work supporting the ‘Road to Zero’ initiative.

Eventually the silence was broken as one of the Waka Kotahi team said to Wall: “I feel like you’ve just punched me in the stomach”.

This piece of work, ‘Road to Zero – Toll Booth’ went on to receive a Grand Prix at the 2023 Axis Awards, in both the Film and Video category with FCB, and in Craft – Direction with 3&7. The same campaign also scored 3&7 a Gold for Craft – Cinematography.

‘Toll Booth’ addresses the insight that more than 50 percent of New Zealanders believe that some deaths on our roads are acceptable.

The ad plays with the word ‘toll’ in the context of a road fatality, bringing the concept together with paying a monetary road toll at a booth, in a confronting and haunting manner.

“It was to put a stake in the ground and say: ‘this is not on’,” Vegas says. “It was really to create a disruptive moment that got people’s attention and build from there. Then come in with a plan to get to zero deaths.”

Despite facing several challenges due to the shoot happening during the pandemic and losing the Director Steve Ayson back to Los Angeles as New Zealand faced border closures and regional lockdowns, the FCB team were not deterred. After all, “adversity is opportunity in disguise”, a psychic woman once told Vegas.

As many in the ad industry will know, it’s difficult to recognise a golden idea until the work is out in the world, but in this case Vegas and Wall had an inkling that ‘Toll Booth’ was special.

“We’d written a lot of scripts before we came to ‘Toll Booth’. Pete and I were like, ‘This is the one.’”

Wall compares the process to having a baby with someone you’ve just met. “We were trying to build a relationship at the same time as produce this really important first piece,” she says.

“We had some interesting conversations, but I think clients get the work they deserve. They were really trusting of us and we listened to what they knew that we didn’t. I think the result speaks for itself. You don’t make a piece of work like that unless you’re really tight.”

Thankfully Waka Kotahi was as excited about the idea as FCB was and together they recognised the responsibility they had to the New Zealand public with this piece of work.

“I remember ages ago a Waka client said, ‘When we have a bad day, it’s lives lost. It’s not just that sales weren’t met.’ It is literally life and death,” Wall says.

Following on with the theme of life-saving campaigns, FCB was also recognised for its work with Te Hiringa Hauora, Health Promotion Agency on ‘How to Do Nothing’ and Fire and Emergency’s ‘Smokey’.

Vegas puts this down to FCB having a Wellington office where they source more Government work, meaning they are often tasked with “big issue” campaigns.

“There’s a real difference between the Auckland and Wellington ad landscapes though. We are really privileged to be able to have bites of both sides of the cherry, if you will,” Vegas says.

As for the 2023 Axis Awards, Wall says it’s a chance for the local industry to gather and share what they have been working on.

“I felt like the big agencies and the small agencies and the independents that have never taken part before were all there and all had amazing work.

“That’s what’s great about your local awards show. You get agencies opening their closet doors and showing you what they have been tinkering away with.”

Vegas says he enjoys seeing the independent agencies rise up as well.

“You have a really interesting mix in the industry of the network affiliated agencies and the up-and-comers. It just makes it a really, really interesting industry to be part of.”

Read more in our Axis 2023 series, here.

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