Australia & New Zealand Special: Overview

There’s a lot going on down under – talking testicles for instance, and other examples of Australia’s typically ballsy advertising, but also some economic ‘sphincter tightening’ and research overkill that’s dampening creativity. While in New Zealand, niftier, more nimble processes and simpler marketing structures are keeping the bright ideas flowing – from hybrid burgers to beer-waste biofuel. Selena Schleh talks to industry pros from both countries and finds the mood is largely bonza

Australia and New Zealand might occupy the same corner of the world, but as any Aussie or Kiwi will tell you, this geographical closeness belies huge differences. “A punchy nation that expects to beat the world at anything and everything, justified or not,” is how Scott Nowell, ECD of Sydney-based indie, The Monkeys, describes his country. By contrast, New Zealanders are a self-effacing bunch. “[There’s] a down-to-earth pragmatism. It’s not flash here… We don’t like to be pushy, or impose ourselves on people,” says Nick Worthington, creative chairman at Colenso BBDO Auckland.

Nowhere are these differences more apparent than in advertising. Australia’s approach is aggressive, and business-first, while New Zealand’s is more quirky. But what unites the two is a consistently high creative standard, and the past 18 months have been no exception. Australia’s 56 Lions secured it third place in the Directory Big Won Rankings – just behind the US and UK – while New Zealand brought home a respectable haul of 20 gongs from Cannes. 

The region isn’t without its issues. In the past two years, M&C Saatchi Auckland and Droga5 Sydney have shut up shop, a stark reminder that ANZ “isn’t exempt from the growth challenges the world currently faces,” comments John Gutteridge, CEO of JWT Australia and New Zealand, who also cites a talent drain to the States. Tight turnarounds and even tighter production budgets; the insidious creep of research; the whys and the wherefores of ‘content’, both long and short… the familiar list goes on.

Worries, wowsers and wild horses

Dig a little deeper, though, and for a country whose mantra is ‘no worries’, Australia seems to have a few more than its neighbour. Chief of these is a perceived dilution of its distinctive voice. “Australian creativity has always demonstrated the fact we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Humour is an extremely important part of our culture as well as in our advertising,” says Simon Langley, ECD at JWT Sydney. Where else in the world would you find an ad starring anthropomorphised balls (Clemenger BBDO Melbourne’s The Boys, for underwear brand Bonds) or a testicular cancer PSA popping up, so to speak, in a porn flick (M&C Saatchi Sydney and the Blue Ball Foundation’s Play With Yourself)?

Recently, however, that larrikin tone and boundary-pushing approach has turned blander and more risk-averse. “There’s a creeping, nanny-state conservatism that affects our industry as much as it affects the café that can’t put a seat out the front in case someone trips over it and sues,” says The Monkeys’ Nowell. “So many people are so damn scared.”

So what’s to blame? The economy, for one: 2015 saw the end of the mining boom and power tussles within the Liberal-National coalition government. Despite the ousting of unpopular PM Tony Abbott, political instability persists, producing what Cam Blackley, ECD at BMF Sydney dubs “an economic sphincter-tightening effect” on all aspects of business and marketing. Coupled with the country’s media market being one of the most expensive in the world, it’s little surprise that brands are playing it safe with their advertising. “Gut instinct and the human touch have given way to validation by endless testing and research,” adds Blackley.

The other big dampener is the rise of ‘wowsers’, or killjoys, on social media. “If you do something just a sniff controversial, you’ll find yourself in an online death match,” comments Nowell, whose agency experienced this first-hand with Operation Boomerang, a typically tongue-in-cheek Australia Day ad for Meat & Livestock, involving Aussies being militarily extracted to the motherland for a traditional lamb BBQ. The spot attracted a whopping 600 accusations of racism towards indigenous people and the inciting of hatred towards vegans, thanks to one notorious ‘kale-torching’ scene. Though cleared by the Advertising Standards Bureau, the social media backlash left a bitter taste.

Yet while some elements of the Twittersphere might be crushing creativity, it’s played a key role in highlighting Australia’s burning issues with gender inequality. In January, M&C Saatchi’s 21st birthday party hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, when its decision to have a burlesque performer jump out of a cake was branded sexist by trade journal Mumbrella.

Forced to issue a formal apology, the agency cited “huge efforts to champion gender diversity”, pointing out that 30 per cent of its creative hires in 2015 were female, but concluded “This does not excuse the mistake we made and we have learnt a very important lesson.” That followed last year’s furore at Leo Burnett Sydney, which came under fire from equality champion Cindy Gallop after releasing a photo of its all-white, all-male senior creative team. “It’s 2015… What the fuck are u thinking?” tweeted Gallop with characteristic candour, sparking a huge public debate on gender and racial diversity in the top echelons.

While unfortunate for the agencies in question (who to an extent carried the can for an industry-wide problem) these events have brought the issue to a head – hopefully hastening much needed change.

Diversity isn’t only an issue in the workforce. As JWT’s Gutteridge points out, falling revenues in traditional channels are forcing agencies to evolve and vary their offering, “which is both challenging and exciting in equal measure”. Focus has shifted to innovation and tech, and it’s here the country is excelling creatively. “Everything that’s winning awards and getting noticed is breaking new ground in media, tech or social,” points out Ben Welsh, M&C Saatchi’s ECD in Sydney and creative chairman in Asia.

His agency’s innovation arm, Tricky Jigsaw, is leading the charge with cutting-edge inventions such as the Titanium Lion-winning Clever Buoy shark detection system for Optus, currently undergoing testing at Sydney’s Bondi beach.

Production companies are getting in on the act too. Sydney-based FINCH has been steadily making a name for itself at the intersection of storytelling and tech, and in 2015 won the first ever D&AD Black Pencil in Innovation for its The Most Powerful Arm campaign, a world-first, petition-signing robot to raise awareness of a rare form of muscular dystrophy.

Meanwhile, Will O’Rourke, Revolver Films’ experiential projects offshoot, has found success with its work for national bank ANZ, creating 2015’s award-winning GAYTMs and, this year, transforming the Sydney branch with a glorious Liberace-inspired interior. That’s not to say that traditional channels are kaput. Far from it, says Wilf Sweetland, managing partner for The Sweet Shop Australia. “Amid the constant talk over the last decade around the death of TV advertising, this year we’ve seen the biggest ad spends ever recorded for TV.”

But when it comes to film craft, the increased burden of research has caused standards to slip, says Peter Grasse, EP at Curious Films. Having sat on the 2015 Spikes Asia film craft jury, Grasse says “Australia and New Zealand aren’t the wellsprings of craftsmanship they once were. We used to dominate these shows on a global scale, but our neighbours, Japan in particular, are often producing better ideas, made [in a] better [way].” BMF’s Blackley blames “a data-driven world, commoditised by value-driven content providers” for the issues with craft, but is optimistic that, with time, things will improve.

Other commentators are more upbeat. Michael Ritchie, EP and founder of Sydney-based production company Revolver, for example, says: “There’s generally a higher standard of work, purely based on the fact that viewers have so much control as to how and what they watch. A middle-of-the-road idea done in a middle-of-the-road way no longer has any part of the business, so that’s a good thing.”

There’s certainly nothing middle-of-the-road about Aldi’s Perfect Aussie Christmas, produced through Revolver, while Honda’s Dream Run and Wild Horse Chase (both Goodoil Films Sydney) and Lotto’s Imagine – Pop’s Gift (The Sweet Shop NZ) all illustrate the region’s ability to produce beautifully conceived, impeccably crafted film.

Another talking point is a rise in direct-to-client work, which Sweetland attributes to brand marketing departments increasingly bringing their creative in-house – the appointing of Clemenger BBDO creative director Rebecca Carrasco as Facebook’s head of creative for ANZ being a case in point. “It’s not something we actively seek... but some clients choose to work directly with us. I do think the lines have blurred, and by necessity we have to weigh up the best way forward,” says Revolver’s Ritchie. 

On the directing front, breakout star New Zealand’s Taika Waititi (due to shoot Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok this year) is one of the lucky ones: competition is fierce in the small Antipodean market and Curious Films’ Grasse says “there’s a general lack of bravery to give new directors a chance.” Oliver Lawrance, EP of production company Photoplay, which has offices in Sydney and Auckland, agrees: “It’s a hard market for new directors… Music video budgets have disappeared, and it’s [only] the super-low-budget content space that now gives some ability to build a reel.”

Nonetheless, fresh talent is continuing to push through with the likes of Doritos’ Crash the Superbowl finalist Peter Carstairs, whose tongue-in-cheek spot Ultrasound has garnered over 10 million YouTube views (see shots.net for an interview with Carstairs).

Breasts, bored dogs and beery fuel

Across the water, the mood in New Zealand is more buoyant. The country has long enjoyed a strong creative reputation, thanks to a ‘can do’ attitude and entrepreneurial spirit born of its remote location. “We’re a little country a long way from everyone and with that comes a unique culture of just getting on and doing things. People have an idea, and the next thing you know they are doing it,” says Colenso’s Worthington. Kiwis “try very hard to make things that are beautiful, interesting, useful or entertaining,” he adds.

When it comes to market and budget size, New Zealand might be dwarfed by its neighbour, but, says Shane Bradnick, ECD at DDB Auckland, bigger doesn’t always mean better when it comes to creativity: “[Australia] has more layers of clients and more layers of research to get through. The work reflects this. A lot of it feels like it’s had the edges knocked off and is a bit safer.”

But New Zealand enjoys greater freedom thanks to simpler marketing structures and a lack of hierarchy on the client side. “We’re small, we’re nimble and we have the decision-makers in the room with us,” states Brigid Alkema, ECD at Clemenger BBDO Wellington. “Our ideas are not over-analysed or scrutinised by too many. Things keep moving so we have speed of thought and speed of delivery.” The agency’s award-winning streak for the New Zealand Transport Authority bears this out.

Following the lauded campaigns Blazed and Mistakes, 2015’s Tinnyvision was a bold use of a new social media platform, involving a group of stoners broadcasting their dope-fuelled antics on Snapchat and duping followers into thinking they’d witnessed a genuine accident. Shot entirely on an iPhone, it’s an example of New Zealand’s willingness to experiment outside of traditional channels.

As Colenso BBDO’s Worthington observes: “The distinctive thing about advertising [in New Zealand] is the amount of work that isn’t classic TV advertising.” Colenso’s work bears this out: in the past 18 months, they’ve created biofuel made of beer waste (DB Export’s Brewtroleum), a radio station to entertain bored dogs (Pedigree’s K9FM) and a moisturiser that actually gives women wrinkles – by helping to prevent breast cancer, thereby prolonging their lives (Breast Cancer Foundation’s Breast Cream).

The latter two campaigns have helped Colenso become the 6th most creative agency in the world in the Directory Big Won rankings 2015 and though Worthington says “our goal has always been to try to be the best in NZ and then see how we fare against the rest of the world” DDB’s Bradnick sees global awards as “really important” for the country. “I think more and more creative work in New Zealand is coming out of real human insights as opposed to just New Zealand insights, so being recognised [around the world] gives people a sense that they’re part of a bigger global creative industry. It also helps to attract new talent, which can be limited here.”

New Zealand’s not doing badly at growing its own, however, if a certain audacious Peace Day proposal is anything to go by. Dreamed up by a young Kiwi creative from Y&R Auckland, McWhopper captured hearts, minds and stomachs across the world, and is a perfect illustration of New Zealand’s ability to produce bold, unusual work that resonates on a global scale.

It all adds up to a well-deserved reputation for creativity that Worthington doesn’t see changing any time soon. “If anything, the country is gaining confidence and you’ll see more of it.” And though its neighbour may be having a tougher time right now, they’re not going to take it lying down, says BMF’s Blackley: “There are a lot of bright people down here, and with a bit of new-found economic buoyancy, I expect [our] work will be more challenging in 2016.”