This campaign, titled "Delusions of Safety", raises awareness of the critical importance of vehicle safety, asking New Zealanders the simple question: can your car protect you in a crash?

Encouraging Kiwis to question vehicle safety and check both their own, and their loved ones, car safety ratings at rightcar.govt.nz, it delivers the vital message that not all cars are built the same, and vehicle safety is paramount in protecting lives in the event of a crash.

It’s no secret that advertising is awfully expensive at Christmas. So in one of his most on-brand campaigns to date, Stickman went off-brand to bring Kiwis more Super Deals in store at PAK'nSAVE.

As the low budget frontman of New Zealand’s most well-known low-priced supermarket, Stickman is always looking for new ways to keep PAK’nSAVE’s advertising costs down. This year, he’s cooked up what he reckons is his savey-est idea yet.    

Using all the charm in his wheelhouse, Stickman managed to convince other well-known brands to lend him their backgrounds. Mercury, JB Hi-Fi, St Pierre’s and Nature’s Fresh all agreed to leave their yellow end frames up, so Stickman could get his Super Deals message out to Kiwis before Christmas.  

The story of a NZ Post courier driver and his very special delivery.

The task was two-fold: get Kiwis to choose NZ Post when sending their parcels across the country, and furthermore, create awareness and education around its superior ‘courier’ delivery option. So along came a story about a very unique sort of relationship.

Based on the central truth that if physically crashing and getting caught isn’t enough of a disincentive to drinking and driving, "More to Lose" aims to reframe the consequences of drink driving.

These consequences are more realistic, but no less emotionally impactful. Because if putting lives at risk and loss of licence is not enough of a disincentive, losing respect and mana as a man, partner, father, son, employee, and pride of the family, certainly is.

A campaign for the Electoral Commission, created in partnership with our friends at RUN Aotearoa.

FCB Aotearoa, RUN Aotearoa and the Electoral Commission have worked together to create an awareness campaign around significant changes to the Māori Electoral Option.

Sand Unity Kotahitanga builds on previous Māori Electoral Option campaigns centred around The Sandman aka artist Marcus Winter (Te Roroa, Ngāpuhi), who creates whakairo-inspired artworks using the medium of sand. This time, Marcus is out of his small studio, and surrounded by space, light and friends, all participating in making one of his jaw dropping creations on a giant lightbox.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency releases "Through My Eyes", a look at the speeding issue through the lens of a police officer, who has heard all the excuses.

In an effort to target speeding and speeders, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency released this piece of work which follows a police officer as he stops drivers for speeding. This is part of the wider Road to Zero strategy.

“King’s Feast” sees a mini medieval saga laid on for Four Square’s glorious rebrand.

FCB Aoteaora and Four Square have proudly released their ‘King’s Feast’ campaign to crown their recently launched ‘What’ll It Be Today’ platform.

This marks Four Squares’ first return to television in almost 20 years, and follows their ‘How Convenient’ spot, where two wily ladies fleece a young man of his grape juice and chocolates as he boards a bus.

“We’ve loved working on the latest chapter of this iconic brand. When you visit a new Four Square store you’re struck by the way they have evolved with the times but still kept hold of that lovely sense of nostalgia, so it was important to us to ensure this balance was achieved in the brand work too”.

Leisa Wall, Co-Chief Creative Officer

FCB Aotearoa teamed up with Te Hiringa Hauora / The Health Promotion Agency to address the mental health of young Kiwis, with some surprising results.

It’s a confronting fact that Aotearoa has the highest youth suicide rate in the developed world. Young people in NZ are exhibiting high levels of mental distress, with a third of those young people not receiving support in the way they need.

TheLowdown.co.nz (Te Hiringa Hauroa The Health Promotion Agency’s youth mental health resource), set out to understand the most effective ways young Kiwis facing mental health struggles could be supported by their peers.

Traditionally, communication campaigns around this subject are targeted at the person suffering mental health issues, and not their support network. This approach could often be met with little or no engagement, as the sufferer is not inclined to take action; a major marker of deteriorating mental health: an unfortunate Catch-22.

But research suggested that, whilst young people desperately want to help their friends, they often don’t feel equipped to do so. They don’t realise support doesn’t need to be a full-on conversation and that just hanging out/being there is an extremely effective way to start helping.

Targeting the most vulnerable age range of 15 – 19, workshops with rangitahi were conducted which addressed this insight. The research findings were resoundingly confirmed and so ‘How To Do Nothing’ was created.

The campaign consists of five 60” online films, three 60” TVCs, Spotify and radio ads voiced by Kura star Dahnu Graham, Twitch partnerships, and a presence on Instagram and TikTok.

Meet The Wonders, Mercury's champions of Energy made Wonderful.

Mercury and FCB NZ have launched the latest campaign on the “Energy Made Wonderful” platform, featuring a team of energetic helpers.

“Save Your Energy” introduces The Wonders, who enthusiastically provide the power behind every electrical device. Clad in Mercury’s signature yellow, they are charged (pun intended) with helping Mercury customers make the best use of their energy, saving it so they can spend it on wonderful.

The campaign consists of 60s, 30s and 15s TVCs, several online and social videos, and a number of static ads. The 60s TVC can be viewed here (link).

FCB Executive Creative Directors, Leisa Wall and Peter Vegas, said “We often forget just how wonderful power makes our everyday lives. The Wonders are a personification of this and will bring the brands’ video and activations together in a truly ‘Energy Made Wonderful’ way”. 

Zac Ella, Director at Sweetshop said, “It was dreamy working with Mercury and FCB. This was one of those jobs where everyone had fun – from writing the pitch to delivering the goods, everyone mucked in and even the sun came out to play with a golden zing! And that energy is alive in these films – each shot slides into the next with a joyful handshake.”

The second TVC instalment "Riding Together" launches for the Waka Kotahi "Road to Zero" campaign.

FCB, in partnership with Waka Kotahi,  NZ Transport Agency, has launched the second of its TV commercials called “Riding Together” as the third component of its public awareness campaign, as part of the Road to Zero strategy. 

Road to Zero, New Zealand’s road safety strategy, was launched by Te Manatū Waka, the Ministry of Transport, in 2019 and Waka Kotahi is the government agency leading its delivery. Underpinned by a vision of zero deaths and serious injuries in Aotearoa by 2050, Road to Zero initially aims to reduce deaths and serious injuries on New Zealand roads by 40% by 2030 (based on 2018 levels).

The first ad “Toll Booth” launched on 13 February  reminding people that we needed to stop paying the toll with human lives. This second TVC “Riding Together” demonstrates the safe system approach, which is part of the plan to get to zero road deaths by 2050.

The premise of the safe system approach is that while mistakes are inevitable – deaths and serious injuries from crashes are not. The Safe System seeks to create a safe and forgiving road system that makes the safety of people a priority.  That shared responsibility, or the fact that we all have a part to play,  is summed up in the tagline of the new commercial,  “It takes Everyone to Get to No One”.

“When the safe system approach was first explained to us it made complete sense  – the challenge then was how to communicate that in 60 secs  which  I think we’ve managed to achieve nicely. ”

Sean Keaney, Managing Director – FCB Wellington

“While we still need individual drivers to make good decisions, that is only one part of the safe system. This approach has proven internationally to significantly reduce serious injuries and deaths from road crashes and we know we can achieve a similar outcome in New Zealand.”

Lauren Cooke, Senior Manager Education and Marketing, Waka Kotahi

The new campaign from FCB, to support Road to Zero, rolls out to New Zealanders in three phases, with the first phase, a mass reach television commercial, airing from the 13 February across the main TV networks, online video and cinema.

The campaign targets all New Zealander [aged 16 and over] and carries on across TV, online, print, cinema, OOH, digital/social and partnerships.