OOHMAA reveals Q4 winners of The Speccies

OOHMAA has announced the Q4 winners of The Speccies, celebrating the very best in Aotearoa’s out of home advertising.

These campaigns stood out for their bold creativity, smart use of the out of home format, and ability to capture attention in a crowded landscape. Q1 2025 nominations open on March 18; if you’ve got a great out of home campaign, why not put it forward?

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the winners!

Best use of Technology/Data

Advertiser: Green Cross Health
Campaign title: Awkboards
Creative agency: FCB
Media agency: Hearts & Science
Out of home format/s: Digital large format billboards

Campaign details: Green Cross Health’s out of home campaign used transaction data and custom-triggered digital billboards to announce its arrival on Uber Eats — in the most indiscreet way possible.

From lubricants to laxatives, some pharmacy purchases can be a little awkward, but now, the embarrassment isn’t yours—it’s the Uber driver’s. Each time an order was picked up, a highly public digital billboard humorously broadcasted the discreet delivery, letting New Zealanders know they could now skip the awkward checkout and have their essentials delivered straight to their door.

Judges’ Comments: Clever use of data sets from two brands (purchase data from Life Pharmacy and delivery data through Uber Eats) with a humorous twist delivered through the creative. Showcased the strengths of out of home but bringing a new spin to existing use cases – with pre-identified embarrassing purchases triggering the campaign, using time and geotargeted media selection to showcase within specific areas just who was taking advantage of this new capability for Life Pharmacy. Clever and funny, best combination.

Out of the Box

No winner.

Judges could not award the ‘Out of the Box’ category in Q4. While many entries demonstrated creativity and innovation, none fully met the judges’ criteria for groundbreaking and unexpected Out of Home campaigns. 

Feedback from the judges on the entries into this category was – while ‘Out of the Box’ is often interpreted as adding physical extensions to a bus shelter or billboard, true creativity goes beyond just aesthetics — it should offer the audience something more meaningful and engaging. Unfortunately, none of this quarter’s entries fully demonstrated that level of innovation, so no award was given.

Be Seen

Advertiser: Auto Trader
Campaign title: Tell New Zealand about your car
Creative agency: 4AM
Media agency: Lassoo Media
Out of home format/s: Digital billboards

Campaign details: This out of home campaign fuses TV, Kiwi creativity, technology, media, and user-generated content. At its core, the campaign magically turns live car listings into entertaining digital billboard advertising. To spark engagement, a brand TVC and brand billboards cleverly drives entries for this unique user-generated billboard campaign. Every fortnight, winners are selected and then ingested into a customised automation platform to create over 100 different billboard designs optimised for all billboard sizes across New Zealand. Programmatically distributed, these live listings tap into people’s desire for 15 minutes of fame, with a media spend often exceeding the value of the car.

Judges’ comments: I loved the seriousness of this campaign. It’s fun, sure, but they weren’t mucking around; they wanted to be seen, and they were. But it wasn’t just big. It was beautifully crafted – for me, it was head and shoulders above everything else because of this.

Somehow, the design was loud and bold, but not in a way that was ‘shouty’, too in-your-face and naff. Just that subtle angle on the type and the frames of the pictures, the use of a consistent colour to link the campaign to the user generated executions – which could have been a disaster – all came together to work really well. The language was economical – there wasn’t a word there that didn’t need to be and of course, being the hero of the campaign, the outdoor linked beautifully with the television which was a class act in itself.

I think we all wish there were more big ‘proper’ campaigns like this. 

Best use of Channel

Advertiser: Auto Trader
Campaign title: Tell New Zealand about your car
Creative agency: 4AM
Media agency: Lassoo Media
Out of home format/s: Digital billboards

Campaign details: As above.

Judges’ comments: A seamlessly integrated campaign that cleverly used the value and visibility of out of home as the prize to drive audience participation. The modern and consistent visual simplicity coupled with the humorous copy made for an engaging and authentic ‘Kiwi’ brand experience across its various stages.

People’s Choice

Advertiser: McDonald’s
Campaign title: Grimace Shakes
Creative agency: DDB
Media agency: OMD
Out of home format/s: Multi format

Campaign Details: In October, Grimace brought his famous shake to New Zealand, and to celebrate, we turned the town purple with an unmissable out of home campaign. Leveraging large-format screens, bus backs, street posters, special builds, and double-decker buses, the campaign had a strong Gen-Z focus, ensuring Grimace stood out from all other advertisers. Bus shelters lit up in Grimace purple, street posters oozed whipped cream, and screens in high student-density areas made sure the younger audience couldn’t miss the shake’s arrival.

The People’s Choice: This category isn’t judged by OOHMAA; instead, it’s powered by MediaWorks’ Optionation Survey, capturing the real opinions of everyday people. Grimace was the star of the show in Q4 – the ad stood out, with powerful use of colour and a beloved charater – which made everyone smile.

OOHMAA extends a massive thank you to its amazing judges: Elaine Gibbons, Megan Smith, Richard Unsworth and Paul Taylor for their time and expertise. Whakawhetai ki a koe!

To the incredible winners: congratulations; your work is inspiring! Q1 2025 nominations open on March 18, so now’s the time to get your best work in the spotlight. Whether it’s a stunning design, a clever strategy, or a campaign that turned heads, submit entries before April 10.

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