FCB NZ + Assembly score two coveted purple pins at Best Design Awards for ‘Oat the Goat’
‘Oat the Goat’ has brought home two coveted purple pins in the Interactive and Moving Image categories at Saturday’s Best Design Awards. The interactive web-based story also won gold in the same categories along with silver for Public Good.
Says Tony Clewett, executive creative director, FCB: “A legacy project like this doesn’t happen very often, hence why we sweated over every little detail – from the animation, sound design, to every last word in the of copy. It was well worth the extra effort.”
The bilingual storybook, available in both English and te reo Māori, is the focal piece of a bullying prevention campaign created by FCB and Assembly for the Ministry of Education.
By combining a classic storybook format with the interactive possibilities of digital media, it allows children and their family to become involved in the decisions faced by the main character ‘Oat’ when he encounters bullying as a bystander.
The interactivity helps cement the moral of the story in the readers’ minds so they are empowered to support the targets of bullying if they face it in real life.
Since its launch in May, the story has made a massive impact on its target audience of 4-7 year olds with over 180,000 users engaging with it.
It is now a popular and highly-regarded resource for New Zealand primary schools, Kōhanga Reo and Kura Kaupapa and has been positively received by children, parents and teachers. With many educators even asking for more from ‘Oat’ and his adventures.
Assembly also scored another two Golds with Colenso BBDO for Vector Lights and one for ‘Geoff’. four eight five, Geometry and Ogilvy scored two Golds for Sanitarium ‘Garden of Goodness’ and Ogilvy picked up another Gold for NZ Police Pirihimana Car, DDB picked up two awards for Netsafe Re:scam and Flux Animation scored a Gold for Sheeple.
RUSH scooped three Gold Awards and a highly coveted Purple Pin. The accolades were for the Starship Children’s Emergency Department renovation and Z Energy Fastlane.
The Starship renovation project, winners of two Golds and the Purple Pin in the User Experience category entailed designing and building an interactive and functional space to help prepare and familiarise children and their families for the processes they will soon undertake with the clinical team.
RUSH took a human-centered design approach involving behaviour observation, talking to play specialists and nurses, and understanding the different coping strategies that reduce anxiety in order to create a calm, fun environment.
The ‘Animal Check-ups’ mural for instance, comes to life with different animal nurse/doctor characters to take children through check-up experiences, from lions teaching children to open their mouths wide to meerkats to reading their heart rate. It was developed using a mix of sensors, computer vision and machine learning.
Another feature was ‘The Magic Forest’; a window to an enchanting, tranquil world creating a calming space to relax and enjoy quiet time. The calmer you are, the more the environment rewards you.
The project has been hugely successful for Starship and continues to help children and their families with a much more comfortable experience, in what is often a stressful time.
Z Energy Fastlane took out gold in the Optimising category. The RUSH team developed Fastlane; the ultimate refueling experience, in response to customers’ needs for a faster, easier fueling process. Using a new mix of existing technologies, Fastlane enables Z Energy customers to drive in, fuel up, and drive off. No onsite payment is needed.
Fastlane is a real-time cloud Internet of Things application that uses computer vision on the forecourt cameras to recognise your car’s number plate to allow frictionless fuel dispensing and payment.
RUSH chief sales and marketing officer, Ghanum Taylor, says the wins are reflective of outstanding work by the team at RUSH in collaboration with the Auckland District Health Board/Starship, ASB and Z Energy.
Says Taylor: “I’m incredibly proud of the team and these awards. Both projects really showcase our remarkable capability to blend design with technology and have proven our model, skills and tenacity is what the market is looking for.”
This is the first year RUSH have entered the Best Design Awards and the wins cap off a particularly successful year, having operated for over 7 years with over 70+ employees with projects ranging across a variety of sectors, each with technology at the heart.