Motion Sickness turns K Road receipts into cash

Receipts from money spent on Auckland’s Karangahape Road will become currency in this new loyalty scheme for a neighbourhood.

It’s a campaign mixed with an economic experiment and a museum. It’s opening on September 11. It was created for the Karangahape Road Business Association by Motion Sickness.

For the two weeks of Karangahape Returns, paper receipts from purchases around the neighbourhood will become legal tender. Three receipts will get shoppers a miniaturised version of the ‘Vegas Girl’ painting as a key ring. For several hundred receipts they can get a lease to the shop after it closes.

An ode to history

Long known as NZ’s unofficial red light district, Time Out voted K Road one of the world’s coolest streets. But foot traffic has been lacking in recent years. This new campaign aims to be a shot in the arm to this problem.

Each of the priceless artefacts sold in the store – many one-off historic items – are an ode to the rich history of the road, as well as its contemporary reality.

Original 1975 photography prints from artist Fiona Clark of the thriving LBTQI scene are among the curios on offer. For 33 receipts, you could scoop a 1000-piece Mercury Plaza memorial puzzle of the iconic space – shuttered and demolished last decade. And there’s a one-off ‘KRO4D’ number plate for 200 receipts.

The artefacts on offer also reflect the contemporary face of the street, with a one-off full-size stencil from fine line tattoo artist Thom Hinton, an explosive sourdough starter from Fort Greene, or a USB stick of field recordings from the road.

These items will be available as long as stocks last at 490 Karangahape Road from September 11 to 20.

An experimental art project

“We built this more like an experimental art project than advertising, and that’s exactly what we loved about it. We turned the receipt into currency: a loyalty programme that drives spending, invites mischief, and builds a world only K Road could handle,” says Motion Sickness executive creative director Sam Stuchbury.

Karangahape Road Business Association CEO Jamey Holloway calls Karangahape Returns a ‘twisted loyalty programme’ for the country’s best street: “Part conceptual art, part economic experiment, part souvenir shop.”

Stuchbury adds: “By the end of the campaign we’ll have a room full of receipts, each with a price on it. We plan to use a very powerful effectiveness tool to add these up and measure how much people spent on the street – a willing intern and AI.”

Physical recepits only – ecommerce doesn’t count for Karangahape Returns. 

Credits:

• Agency: Motion Sickness
• Executive Creative Director: Sam Stuchbury
• Senior Art Director: Hamish Steptoe
• Creative: Freddy Riddiford
• Account Manager: Alexandra Clark
• Media Planner: Ella Liddell

  Production

• Production: Motion Sickness
• Head of Production: Joseph McAlpine
• Producer: Morgan Leary
• Production Designer: Joseph Leary
• Stills Photographer: Kayle Lawson
• Videographer: Ned Pound
• Construction Manager: Samuel Montgomery
• Retoucher: Denny Monk

  Publicity

• Leni Ma’ia’i & Finn Hogan – Dig PR 
• Client: Karangahape Business Association
  Jamey Holloway – General Manager
  France Hémon – Marketing & Communications Director

  Karangahape Returns original product creator credits:

• “Shopkeeper” – Tony Downing
• “Karangahape” back tattoo piece by Thom Hinton and Madison Taiapa at Bruce Tattoo
• “Mercury Plaza” Puzzle & image by Stjohn Milgrew, 2025
• “K Rd Field Recordings” soundscapes by James Gibb and Oliver Johnston at Cay Ltd
• “Red Eye” book by Ann Shelton, 1997
• “Go Girl” postcards and badges from the 2004 tour of 1974 original photography series by Fiona Clark

Special thanks to KBA business suppliers: Barber Dan, Coco’s Cantina, Fort Greene, Lambs’ Pharmacy, Eight Thirty Coffee and Bridget Pyc – Property Sustainability Manager at Samson Corporation.

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