PHD wins Campaign OTY at the Festival of Media APAC Awards for ‘DB Export Beer Bottle Sand’

PHD New Zealand’s work has been commended on an international stage once again, winning the prestigious ‘Campaign of the Year’ at the Festival of Media APAC Awards 2018. The title comes after the agency’s highly acclaimed ‘DB Export Beer Bottle Sand’ campaign picked up four gold trophies, including Oceania Campaign of the Year, and one bronze, making it the most celebrated campaign at this year’s Festival.

PHD Group’s chief executive Louise Bond says she is incredibly proud of the success the agency has had around the world in recent years.

Says Bond: “We’ve had an outstanding couple of years. When you talk to marketers from other countries, they know of PHD New Zealand’s success and that recognition is highly rewarding.”

The Festival of Media Asia accolade adds to PHD’s Media Agency of the Year win at the Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity in October of last year. PHD’s sister agency, Spark PR & Activate, also won an ICCO Global PR Award for Best Media Relations in November, again for DB Export Beer Bottle Sand, while creative agency Colenso BBDO has also been highly acclaimed for its role.

The recognition comes as DB ends its 18-year relationship with PHD following a global agency realignment.

Says Bond: “It feels good to go out on a high note, indicative of all the great work we produced together over the years.”

Other winners from New Zealand include Y&R Engage with a Gold in Best Communications Strategy for Arnotts ‘Apocalypse Steve Hansen – Don’t Lose Your Biscuit’ campaign as well as a Silver in Best Use of an Influencer. FCB Media has won a Gold in Best Social Media Campaign for Testicular Cancer NZ ‘Go Balls Out’.

With a focus of achieving efficient scale and engagement, every media moment was orchestrated to become a talking point; earning Y&R Engage’s campaign for Arnotts business a disproportionate amount of attention and creating earned momentum through to purchase. The unexpected campaign focused on dramatising the disappearance of biscuits from life as we know it, making them the hero of a story designed to feel as big as a feature film.

The campaign delivered strong sales growth, making Arnott’s relevant to Kiwis and establishing the phrase ‘Never, ever lose your biscuit’ in the Kiwi vernacular.

Says Nicky Greville, national GM, Y&R Engage: “The focus on engagement is a winning formula. As opposed to a traditional-only approach, the engagement-driven campaign gained massive earned media. The outcome was a platform that was hard to miss, both in the ad breaks and media as many outlets, including Stuff and NZ Herald, were quick to pick up the conversation.”

View the full list of winners – Festival-of-Media-APAC-Awards-2018-Winners.xlsx