DEC AD PICKS

29 Dec 2018

Welcome to the last of 2018's Ad picks. I hope you've enjoyed reading them this year.

Burger King and McDonald's rivalry has been going on for a long time and this takes it up another notch from Burger King. Customers could get a free Whopper if they had the Burger King app, but they had to order it right next to McDonald's. A very bold move, let's see what McDonald's return serve with.

The reaction from the McDonald's staff are priceless in the campaign video.


I just watched Home Alone for the first time in a long time and this ad came along a week later. A fun modern version of the film with Google Assist. Not much Kevin had to do this time, it's well produced and it's a coup getting Macaulay Culkin.



See you in 2019.

NOV AD PICKS

28 Nov 2018

I can't believe it's nearly the end of 2018.

The John Lewis Christmas ad is one of the most anticipated ads of the year and it delivered again this year. Although, if someone didn't tell me it was a John Lewis ad before hand, it could have been a trailer for the Elton John film coming out next year.

Anyway, you've probably already seen it, so I wanted to share this 'John Lewis' spot for Twitter. They have found Mr John Lewis, who got the the Twitter handle @johnlewis before them.

They've jumped on the bandwagon of the whole John Lewis ad in a fun way. It makes you imagine the amount of tweets he gets, especially around Christmas. His phone would be dinging every second.


This next spot is for Monopoly, if it was real life. Filmed as if it was a real police station with the cells and interview room. It has all the lovely touches from the game from the get out of jail card to being bankrupt 3 years running then buying a hotel.


This one, I spotted as soon as I finished writing October ad picks and I really want to share it. It's for Volvo trucks who have created some multi award winning work in the past couple of years.

They enlisted hard man Dolph Lundgren to train up the trucks in a circuit style class, with an amazing  production and tech team. My favourite is the truck doing a pull up. It really does show off the power of these vehicles and what incredible things they can do.


Paris is known for its landmarks and they have a lot of tourist shops selling tourist tat and also miniature statues of their key sites. Centre Pompidou wasn't one of them and was missing out on tourists visiting them so they created their own and spread them around the city's shops. It's a clever way to get people talking about them.


I hope you've enjoyed reading and watching these 4 ads in this month's ad picks. Have a great Christmas and I'll be sharing the last one of the year before the year's out.

PADC AWARDS 2018

13 Nov 2018

Last Friday night was the 2018 Perth Advertising and Design Club (PADC) awards. It was a fantastic night at Frasier's in Kings Park, that kicked on late. We won a Bronze for our Perth Zoo bus wrap (shared below). We also picked up a finalist for our 'Give way to the bus' bus backs for Transperth.




NEW WORK - PTA

6 Nov 2018

A new campaign for Public Transport Authority (PTA).

When drivers approach a level crossing, they are sometimes in a position where they can cross but not necessarily be safely clear of the grid if 


they have to stop for lights on the other side. It’s simply a case of bad judgement which occasionally has fatal consequences.

This campaign dramatised the fact that even the most minor misjudgement could have massive repercussions, so it’s not worth the risk.





Cinema Credits
Agency: Gatecrasher
Client: PTA
Director: Anouk Ratnawibhushana
Sound Design: Justin Braine
Visual Effects: Paul Donnelly




Outdoor Credits
Agency: Gatecrasher
Client: PTA
Photographer: Sam Passante
Retoucher: Jade Foo


OCT AD PICKS

28 Oct 2018

Welcome to October's Ad Picks. This month I've got 3 stellar ads to share with you and I can see all three picking up some international awards.

The first is this spot for Amazon Prime, having fun with binge series watchers. There is a series of ads to check out if you like them, but my favourite is this spot 'Vikings'. In this spot an office workers' personal actions turn into a character from the show more and more after she watches a new episode every night.

To keep the product being used and watched on different devices throughout and keeping it creative is done very well.


Last year 'Meet Graham' was a multi award winning campaign from Australia, the man designed to survive a car crash (he wasn't pretty).

MADC (Melbourne Advertising and Design Club) have created this parody called 'Meet Grant' the only man to survive a career in advertising. It's one of the best parodys I've ever seen and it's a fantastic way to target it's audience (us). I'm sure it will get shared a lot too.


The last spot this month is for New Zealand, having fun whilst telling people who are allowed to apply to become a NZ police officer.

It's 3 minutes long, but it's got so many fun moments to keep you hooked and very well informed. It even has cameo from the cop from 'Hunt for the Wilderpeople' (if you haven't seen it, it's one of the best films from 2016).


I hope you enjoyed these 3 spots as much as I have this month and as always if there's a spot that you've loved this month, please share it below.

NEW WORK - TRANSPERTH

16 Oct 2018

A new outdoor campaign for Transperth. 

By law, buses have right of way on the road, but some drivers tend to forget or ignore this. To bring awareness to this road rule, we got a little helping hand from Transperth staff members and their families. 

Rather than telling people what to do, we took on a friendly approach in order to grab the attention of drivers and create safer roads for everyone.


Credits
Agency: Gatecrasher
Client: Transperth


SEPT AD PICKS

30 Sept 2018

Welcome to September's Ad Picks. I've got 3 spots to share with you this month.

The first one is a fantastic use of social media, using Facebook's facial recognition software. Facebook have recently updated it, so it now shows you photos you may be in, that friends or mutual friends have uploaded.

This Missing Persons group have created profiles for missing people, so if you add the profiles or if your friend has and one of the people have been snapped in the background somewhere in the world, it shares it. It could help save someone.


This is what Amazon Alexa doesn't show you. This smart house video shows exactly
what can go wrong with the cool tech. How often would this happen, I'm not sure, but it's a very fun watch.


The New York public library have transformed some of the greatest stories ever told into fun Insta Novels. The illustrations and even the case study are very well crafted. They would be a fantastic read for the people on the go and I hope the library keep creating them.



I hope you enjoyed reading this month's Ad Picks. See you next month.

NEW WORK - PERTH ZOO

29 Sept 2018

I've recently been working on this new campaign created at Gatecrasher for Perth Zoo to help promote there Dinosaur exhibition (which is now open).

15 second teaser cinema


Outdoor


Canning Bridge Outdoor.
This piece was also selected as runner up to the best outdoor work on BestAds - check it out here



Credits
Agency: Gatecrasher Advertising
Client: Perth Zoo
CGI: Cameron Aitkenhead
Retoucher: Jade Foo

AUG AD PICKS

29 Aug 2018

It's that time again for August's Ad Picks. This month I've got 3 TVC spots to share with you.

The first spot is this 90 second film about calming down people's anger. It's extremely well acted with this guy mouthing the script, as if he is shouting. It's all based around 90 seconds (how long it takes to calm down). They created a 90 second mediation track to help, check it out here and print ads that take 90 seconds to read.

I hope this will stop fights and save lives. It's more than just an ad.


The next spot is the most fun football spot for the new premiership season I've seen this year. It's for BT sport (like Optus Sport for Aus readers). It's got this little girl who uses her imagination to nutmeg Bale and beat other sports stars too.

It uses the sports stars in a way that doesn't make them lead the ad that I like, some sports brands seem to cram in loads of stars forgetting about the idea.

It's also got a great human truth that kids love imagining playing against the best. I remember imagining this sort of thing when I was a kid, what about you?


The last ad this month is this fast paced fun spot for the DIY brand Mitre 10 in New Zealand. Having fun with this DIY project that keeps failing (it sounds like me with my DIY projects at the moment). He keeps heading back into the DIY store to get more than the products, to get their advice to keep his donkey from escaping with a fun ending too.


I hope you enjoyed reading this month's Ad Picks. If there's any ads that you loved this month, please share below.

JULY AD PICKS

30 Jul 2018

Welcome to July's Ad Picks. This month I'm sharing with you two very strong stats brought to life really well and I'm ending this months post with a funny spot.

The first one is a shocking statistic about domestic violence around football matches and in this case particularly in England. It's a clever way to bring awareness to this stat in outdoor. I saw this ad got a lot of exposure worldwide, so I hope that by raising awareness of domestic violence, it will be stopped.



This next one is an interesting F1 fact brought to life in a beautiful way. Relating the G Force in an F1 car to something people can relate to with boxers is clever. It feels quite arty the way it's shot which I love.


What can Julian Dennison (Hunt for the Wilderpeople) do wrong? Lynx New Zealand follow up their ad from earlier this year with Humphrey switching to Lynx NZ from Lynx Australia and he now has an Aussie rival.

It's a very funny spot and it pokes fun at the recent ball tampering scandal. I hope Lynx NZ continue this series with Julian Dennison, as they're on to a winner here.


I hope you enjoyed this month's blog post. I hope you have an awesome August.

JUNE AD PICKS

30 Jun 2018

Welcome to June's Ad Picks. This month I've got a couple of humorous spots for you to enjoy.

The first is for TED x Sydney called 'Meet Sara." When you ask Siri a question where is the answer coming from? Well BMF have had a lot of fun with this well written short film answering that question.



VAR has been a big talking point over the world cup, with some soft penalties given (I don't want to go into it). Paddy Power (a UK based gambling company) have come up with this spot, what if VAR was used in our everyday lives? I love the thought and it's executed really well with some real gems in there.


This next spot is a case study for a VW film that changes depending on how you like to watch videos on your phone; landscape or portrait. It's a clever way to get around the question, do you make your ad portrait, landscape or square?


I don't know if you've seen this fantastic print ad floating around, but I wanted to share it so we can all be in awe at the craft in it. Created by Illusion (a CGI studio in Bangkok) who have just won an amazing amount of Cannes awards for their work.


LUERZERS ARCHIVE VOL 1-2018

5 Jun 2018

A print campaign we did for Perth Zoo last year has been selected in the international advertising magazine Lürzer's Archive. It only comes out every couple of months, selecting the best work from around the world. See the full page below:




MAY AD PICKS

31 May 2018

Welcome back to May's Ad Picks. There were a lot of great ads this month, so the ones I've decided to share really stuck with me.

Instagram stories seem to be getting more and more popular. This piece for Burger King uses Instagram polls in stories to create your order. It's a nice use of the technology, that I haven't seen used in this way before.

The case study is a good length too, with an engaging start that caught my attention.


This is the 2nd football ad I'm sharing this month, as the world cup nears. I was weighing up which one to share, it was between this ad for the FA Cup or a video announcing the England world cup squad in a different way, check out the second one here (I wish all of England's future squad announcements were like this).

But I decided to share this case study for these radio spots for the FA Cup. The FA Cup is the world's longest running football competition and there are many fond memories of the tournament over the years. They created 90 different radio spots, 1 for each minute of the match, each one telling a story of a different minute in the tournament's history.

These spots really get across the vast history in a intresting way and creating 90 spots is impressive, each one standing alone and as part of the bigger campaign too.


The last piece this month is a print ad for a budget airline. This is a great way to show the human truth, that beaches on holidays are always packed around weekends. Even the busy scenes have been really thought out.

It will make people think again about booking their next holiday around weekends. I can see Air Asia really capitalising on this as they have a lot of cheap flights mid week.


I hope you've enjoyed reading this month's Ad Picks and if there are any other ads that stood out for you this month please share below.

APR AD PICKS

30 Apr 2018

Welcome back to April's Ad Picks.

Tesco in Malaysia have released this new reusable bag that helps keep less rubbish out of the sea. With illustrated sea animals on the bags, that are created out of barcodes. Shoppers received a discount off their shop every time it was used. It's a nice way to get people to reuse there bags more often and the bags are well illustrated too.

It has a lovely animated case study video too.


You might have to look twice, is it fire or fried chicken? But KFC has replaced fire with spicy chicken in these 3 clever print ads. My favourite is the race car, what about yourself?




I hope you enjoyed this month's post (sorry it was a little late).

NEW WORK - PERTH ZOO

20 Apr 2018

Here's a new campaign for Perth Zoo, I worked on at Gatecrasher, promoting the amazing wildlife conservation work that goes on at the Zoo - Saving Wildlife Together.

The first piece of the campaign is this bus wrap (below), which made it onto 'Best Ads' 5 best outdoor ads of this week.



Bus Credits
Agency: Gatecrasher
Client: Perth Zoo
CGI: Cameron Aitkenhead

There was also a 15 second TVC, featuring an animal that the zoo does a lot of conversation work for.



TVC Credits
Agency: Gatecrasher
Client: Perth Zoo
Director: Anouk Ratnawibhushana
Tiger DOP: Allan Myles

MAR AD PICKS

30 Mar 2018

Welcome to March's Ad Picks.

This month I'm starting with this outdoor campaign for McDonald's, using cropped in sections of the famous golden arches to make up direction signs to the nearest restaurant. It is beautifully simple and a clever use of the logo.



More brands are creating products rather than ads these days and now Lacoste have joined in. Known for it's famous Crocodile logo, they have swapped the croc for 10 threatened species, so you can help save them and get a trendy polo at the same time. It's great to see a brand like Lacoste support this growing issue.


This entertaining spot for iPhone X uses the one single benefit - Face ID and exaggerates it to the extreme with this lady who discovers she can unlock anything.



The last ad I'm sharing this month is a print ad for WWF, showing what can get lost in forest fires in this extremely well crafted ad. I can see this doing well in awards shows.

Let me know how long it takes for you to spot the elephant.


I hope you've enjoyed reading this month's Ad Picks and Happy Easter.

NEW WORK - RADIO LOLLIPOP

19 Mar 2018

One day each year Transperth staff dress up to raise funds for Radio Lollipop, a kid's charity that provides comfort, care and play for children in hospital. Leading up to this year's event we created this fun decal on buses around Perth.



Credits
Agency: Gatecrasher
Client: Transperth
Photographer/CGI: Luke Carter Wilton

FEB AD PICKS

26 Feb 2018

Welcome to February's Ad Picks.

The size of the first two ad budgets are huge, which puts pressure on it to be good work. Following them is a French ad, then a brand apolgising in an interesting way.

One of my favourite Super Bowl Ads this year was Amazon's Alexa ad (I loved the Crocodile Dundee one too, but it's been shared so much already online).

Alexa loses her voice and they need some stand ins. The talent and their lines is what makes this ad so amusing. Getting stars like Gordon Ramsey shouting at your cooking to Anthony Hopkins putting on his famous creepy voice is fantastic, it's worth watching a couple of times and sharing it with your friends.



This second campaign this month is from Nike 'Nothing beats a Londoner,' a 3 minute online video that's got style, pace, comedy and great CGI in an entertaining and fast paced video.


I love the humour in this next ad for the French TV channel CANAL+ sports, with a fan controlling the opposition fans with a voodoo doll. Imagine if somewhere someone has got a voodoo doll of every footballer. That's who they can blame when they fall over and miss an open goal.


KFC had a nightmare last week running out of chicken in the UK. Most other brands keep quiet until it's fixed, but not KFC, who came out with the bold and brave print ad.



I hope you enjoyed this month's Ad Picks and I hope to see you next month.

JAN AD PICKS

30 Jan 2018

Happy New Year and welcome back to January Ad Picks.

Jumping straight in, IKEA have done some fantastic pregnancy ads in the past and they've created another cracker with this pee ad. They've created these print ads that are also a free pregnancy test, which you pee on to reveal a discount and to find out if you're pregnant. I've not seen anything like it before and it's a fun use of the medium.





This next ad is very moving video about an Uber driver, who lost her daughter to a drink driver. It's a very personal, powerful story and you really feel the emotion whilst watching it. I hope this video reaches people who will take an Uber home next time on a night out.


The last one this month is for Audi who have created the safety code. This is a code to add to your website, so drivers visiting your site whilst driving over 20km will be blocked from your site. I like sharing ads that have a bigger purpose to save people's lives and I hope it's something people do.


I hope you've enjoyed reading this month's Ad Picks and I'll see you next month. If there's any ads that you've loved this month, please share in the comment section below.