NZ Army campaign wins online advertising award

12 May 2005

NZ Army campaign wins online advertising award

A team from Saatchi & Saatchi were last night (subs 11 May) named the winners of the XtraMSN X award for their online campaign for the NZ Army.

Tom Eslinger and Brian Merrifield from the agency’s interactive practice won their client $30,000 worth of advertising on XtraMSN, and themselves a trip to the Cannes Lions festival in June.

The interactive advertisement, which featured a challenge to assemble a rifle, was the clear winner according to international judge Jae Goodman.

“Personally I’m very anti-gun and anti-war,” he said, speaking via video conference to the guests at the Auckland award ceremony.

“But when I experienced this advertisement I was just driven to prove I was good enough for the NZ Army.

“When I experience a piece of communication that gets me to overcome my personal biases, I can’t help but be impressed.”

Goodman, who is Group Creative Director at Publicis & Hal Riney in San Francisco, says all of the advertisements he judged were universally appealing and as good as anything he’d seen from around the world.

Joint winner Tom Eslinger is the head of Saatchi & Saatchi’s interactive practice worldwide, though based in Auckland. He was the winner of the inaugural X Award in 2003.

The annual XtraMSN X Awards celebrate the creative excellence of agencies that use online advertising as part of their campaigns.

Telecom’s Head of Internet and Online Chris Thompson says that as the online advertising market continues to grow, more time and energy will be put into online advertising and the product will become even more impressive.

“The online advertising market in New Zealand was worth $15 million last year, and globally it’s close to $15 billion,” he says.

“The creativity we saw in the X Award finalists will continue to flourish as more agencies see the value of truly integrated campaigns, and invest in the online component as well as other new mediums.”

Goodman agrees, saying the arrival of real convergence opens up a whole new world for advertisers.

“Consumers don't know any better - they've never had a camera that plays music and makes phone calls before, so they've certainly never been marketed to using the impressive power of these devices.

“Try reaching consumers in a hundred new ways this year – take your messages out to all those new screens!”

ENDS

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