Australia & New Zealand Country Report

New Zealand’s presence was undeniable this year at Cannes Lions. Bringing in a total of 57 Lions, they made their creativity known to all. Specifically, Burger King’s “McWhopper” and Heineken’s “Brewtroleum” campaigns had everyone talking. The Kiwis won multiple Gold and Grand Prix in different categories such as Print and Publishing, PR, Media and Integrated. The New Zealanders even bagged two Titaniums for the two campaigns mentioned above.

Australia also won a total of 71 lions. Campaigns like Sydney Opera House’s “#comeonin” and Samsung Australia’s “Brainband” were recognized in smaller, niche categories such as Promo and Activation and Digital Craft.

One thing that caught our attention was that the campaigns from New Zealand influence consumer behavior by appealing to a higher purpose. For example, the “Brewtroleum” takes the leftover yeast from brewing DB Export and turns it into a fully functional bio-fuel. It's not the aesthetics of the ad that lure consumers in; it’s more so about the idea behind the ad that consumers can relate to.

Through our advertising research in Part 1, New Zealand seems to be a ‘follower’ in terms of creativity between the two regions, with Sydney first emulating the success of the U.S. in the 1950s. Adland explicitly tells us that the two usually share resources with New Zealand lagging behind in terms of creative work, size of agencies, creative talent, etc.

We were expecting New Zealand’s ‘following’ trend to be apparent this year at Cannes Lions. We were proved wrong. Even though Australia led with 71 Lions from 1,782 entries, the campaigns that won did not compare to the success that New Zealand agencies have enjoyed in this circuit of Cannes Lions. Winning 57 Lions from 526 entries, New Zealand also took home three Grand Prix while Australia’s Grand Prix count in 2016 remained at zero.

Outdoor Grand Prix: Heineken, Brewtroleum, Colenso BBDO, New Zealand

Media Grand Prix: Burger King, McWhopper, Y&R New Zealand

Print & Publishing Grand Prix: Burger King, McWhopper, Y&R New Zealand

Executives and creatives alike in Australia and New Zealand followed the same philosophies that we discovered during our research on the two countries. We followed them on Twitter, and an executive at Colenso BBDO tweeted "2016 is a year when Kiwi creativity took centre stage at Cannes. Amazing." After conversing with citizens of these countries, we concluded that Australia and New Zealand follow the same philosophies stated in the text. Though New Zealand may not be much of a follower anymore, these two countries still overlap in terms of operations and television.