DDB takes out coveted Agency of the Year title at NZ AXIS Awards 2024; Motion Sickness wins Idea of the Year for Whanau Ora ‘Rep Your Suburb’; Good Oil named Production Company of the Year
The 44th AXIS Awards have just wrapped, held at Shed 10 in Auckland, where the industry gathered to recognise and acknowledge outstanding creative campaigns from the past 12 months. Following a two-month entry period and two rounds of judging by industry experts, the Commercial Communications Council awarded 102 Bronze metals, 76 Silver metals, 34 Gold metals and 3 Grands Prix.
CB NZ Agency of the Year DDB Group Aotearoa took out the coveted AXIS Agency of the Year title after scoring one Grand Prix, three Golds and one Bronze for Team Heroine ‘Correct the Internet’. The agency also scored a further five Silvers and four Bronze for campaigns including Volkswagen ‘The Greenprint’, L&P ‘Manu Togs’, KALÓ ‘I want real’, Vogel’s ‘Neighbours’, McDonald’s ‘Loved by all’, Speight’s ‘The Speech’ and Samsung ‘Think different.’
The Idea of the Year was presented to Motion Sickness for Whānau Ora ‘Rep Your Suburb’, which also went on to win a Grand Prix and three Golds. The agency also collected 10 Silvers including five for Whānau Ora ‘Our Future is Māori’ and six Bronze.
The third Grand Prix was awarded to The Monkeys Aotearoa for ASB & Youthline ‘Bagels by BENEE’, which also won a further five Golds and three Silvers. The Monkeys Aotearoa also scored three Bronze for No Ugly ‘No Ugly – Focus? Yes Please’, No Ugly ‘Say Yes Please’ and Kidscan ‘Too Hungry to Learn’.
It was an amazing night for Good Oil Films at the Axis Awards 2024 last night in Auckland. Good Oil were named Production Company of the Year, in addition to picking up Golds for work for Te Whatu Ora & Te Aka Whai Ora, for Cinematography and Direction, alongside a raft of Silvers and Bronze awards for this and other work in the past 12 months.
Zak Hawkins and Jack Close from Colenso BBDO won The Emerging Talent Award and Lucy Lim and Rose Heron won the Student AXIS Challenge for Netsafe ‘The Protective Peel’.
Kate Humphries, programme director for creative advertising at Media Design School (MDS) won the Comms Council’s first ever Outstanding Achievement award for her 15+ years of work inspiring future generations to be creative superpowers.
The evening saw the unveiling of a new trophy design supporting the evening’s theme of tipping the balance for better. The trophy was designed by Pitchblack Partners.
Says Josh Moore, this year’s convenor of judges and principal partner at Pitchblack Partners: “The quality of the work was outstanding, and it was great to see winning work across multiple brands and agencies.”
The 2024 AXIS Awards were presented by the Comms Council and were made possible through sponsorship from Cartology, Meta, NZME, oOh!media, Stuff, TRB, and TVNZ.
View the complete list of winners here.