AUCKLAND – At the recently concluded Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity 2017, PHD New Zealand was named Media Agency of the Year following its impressive performance in the awards competition. The agency’s campaign for DB Breweries received two golds and one silver, making it the most celebrated work in this year’s Media category.
The winning campaign, DB Export Beer Bottle Sand, struck a chord with audiences in New Zealand by drawing attention to the fact that two-thirds of the world’s beaches are retreating. The mass-consumption of sand for various purposes, such as construction and manufacturing, causes a serious environmental threat, one which DB Breweries decided to address. By showcasing the technology that converts empty beer bottles into a sand substitute through an integrated media approach, the campaign was able to deliver 204 million impressions and reach 97% of the target audience. It also produced 13 million empty beer bottles and generated 53 million views.
This is the second campaign by DB Breweries and PHD to tackle environmental issues through innovation. Their 2015 campaign, asking Kiwis to consume beer in order to produce biofuel from the leftover yeast of the brewing process, was equally successful, collecting a Media Gold Lion at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in 2016.
“Innovation is at the core of everything we do at PHD,” commented Louise Bond, CEO of PHD New Zealand. “Our partnership with DB Breweries has allowed us to constantly push the boundaries and cut-through the clutter for an important cause. We look forward to continuing the momentum and delivering groundbreaking work.”
Young Spikes winners accepting their award.
The network also participated in the educational program of the conference, having brought Moon Ribas, an avant-garde artist and cyborg with a seismic sensor implanted in her elbow, to the Masters of Creativity Stage. In an interview with the network’s Head of Strategy for APAC, Chris Stephenson, Ribas shared personal experiences and views to elaborate on PHD’s global thought-leadership publication, MERGE: The Closing Gap Between Technology and Us. As a testament to the network’s budding talent that will shape the future of the industry, PHD also won Gold in the Young Spikes Media competition for the third year in a row.
In main photo, Chris Stephenson, PHD APAC’s Head of Strategy, accepting PHD New Zealand;s Media Agency of the Year award.
