Anna Jackson, Loz Maneschi, and Lewis Clark Pick AUNZ’s March Work of the Month

In partnership with AWARD, here is LBB AUNZ’s March Work of the Month, chosen by Westpac head of brand Anna Jackson, Droga5 ANZ senior creatives Loz Maneschi and Lewis Clark, and LBB reporter Tom Loudon.

Bear Meets Eagle On Fire, +61, and Telstra: Wherever We Go 2

Anna Jackson -- head of brand, Westpac

Yes, a huge bias, I know; me choosing my old team’s work. Hear me out.

This piece shows commitment in spades. There’s the commitment to a distinctive asset, otherwise known as the ‘Telstrut’ -- a cultural phenomenon which took social media by storm.

Then there’s the commitment to craft. Each time I watch this spot, I’m rewarded with another tasty treat. You can see a lot of effort went into making this feel so effortless.

In a world of unrest and uncertainty, a piece this charming and light-hearted goes a long way to offset the mood of the news cycle.

Howatson+Company and Honda: How To Break A Honda

Loz Maneschi -- senior creative, Droga5 ANZ

There are lots of beautiful craft pieces making the rounds at the moment. What separates this one is that it’s backed by a genuinely rock-solid business insight: Honda’s mowers are so good, nobody needs a new one.

The destructive trio of films have an executional dignity that a more flippant hand could easily have killed, thanks to the direction of Glue Society’s Luke Nuto. Someone on the team also clearly thought very hard about concrete viscosity, and to that person, I salute you.

I love this detail from the creatives' Behind the Work interview --The mower bounced straight off the spikes on the first drop, unharmed. If that isn’t proof of product, I don’t know what is.

Petition to have that footage released.

SICKDOGWOLFMANand Maxibon: Go Full Cookie

Lewis Clark -- senior creative, Droga5 ANZ

This isn’t really about cookie-flavoured ice-cream sandwiches; it’s about the housemates that eat them.

I look back fondly on the days I would swing open my bedroom door with Kramer-level gusto to suss out whatever weirdness my housemates were up to in the living room. If one of them had turned into a giant human cookie, this wouldn’t even be the weirdest thing I walked in on.

This spot puts the product at the heart of what makes those 20-something sharehouse friendships so memorable -- weird people having weird problems and coming up with weirder solutions (like taking a bite out of your head), all within a metre of your second-maybe-third-hand sofa. This also taps into a life stage when it’s perfectly acceptable to park up with a Maxibon at 2pm on a Tuesday and take whatever your gloriously unscheduled arvo sends your way.

Okay, it’s a little bit about cookie-flavoured ice-cream sandwiches -- and prosthetics.

This level of craft is as tasty as the product itself. The simplicity of the idea allows this incredible costume design to do the heavy lifting, and I reckon this is a spot that would’ve stopped me on my way to the fridge at age 14, 18, 23, 28, and honestly probably still at 60. That’s hard to do.

Not to mention the extended crumbs cut that perfectly captures the essence of a couple of 20-something chaps arguing about something as ridiculous as becoming a cookie.

I’m a SICKDOGWOLFMAN-superfan in general, but this one shows their consistently great taste.

Droga5 ANZ and Australia Post: 2655 Postcards

Tom Loudon -- AUNZ reporter, Little Black Book

Getting under the skin of local communities in an era of increasing digital abstraction is no mean feat.

For Australia Post’s largest brand campaign to date, Droga5 transformed a simple, administrative tool -- four numbers in a box designed to sort mail efficiently -- into a powerful, tangible, and local asset.

The campaign recognises the simple digits of a postcode have taken on a deeper cultural resonance since their introduction, and signify belonging and a sense of place.

Rather than a single, unified message, the work fragments into 2,655 local stories, each capturing authentic moments of life in communities -- from remote outback towns to dense urban suburbs: reflecting the nation back to itself, one postcode at a time.