Hugh Munro, Lee Lowndes, And Jack Delmonte Pick AUNZ’s October Work of the Month
In partnership with AWARD, here is LBB AUNZ’s October Work of the Month, chosen by Hugh Munro, Lee Lowndes, Jack Delmonte, and Tess Connery-Britten.
Supermassive and Taco Bell: Hear Bells, Think Tacos
Hugh Munro – founder and chief strategy officer, Rick Barry
‘Hear Bells, Think Tacos’ chimes with so many of my pet loves in advertising, choosing it was as much of a no-brainer as the behavioural response the campaign aims to create.
First, who isn’t a sucker for the “everything can be media” mindset behind creative comms planning brilliance like this? But finding an untapped media moment with: 1. mass public reach, 2. enough frequency to embed and trigger behaviour, and 3. relevance to the brand… much easier said than done.
Then, there’s the irresistible simplicity of a campaign name that puts a tagline, call-to-action, branding and comms strategy all into a repeatable four-word phrase. It’s that kind of simplicity that makes you wonder why it was never done before -- all the more mindblowing for a brand that’s been around for 63 years.
Let’s put that in perspective. A bell tower that marks each hour during the daytime has chimed about 276,485 times since Taco Bell first opened in California in 1962. But it took the 276,486th ring before someone working on the brand, on the other side of the world, spotted the opportunity. If you've ever felt like all the best ideas have been done before, just remember what Supermassive did here.
The final kicker: as a Melburnian who grew up at a time when the dominant force in Mexican culinary culture was Taco Bill, establishing an annual ritual around the ‘Bell’ feels like exactly what’s needed to finally stake their territory.
Motion Sickness and Katmandu: Outside, Your Comfort Zone
Lee Lowndes – CEO, Daylight
I love the quiet confidence of this campaign. The kind that comes from knowing you don’t need to shout to be heard. There’s a real moment happening where brands are rediscovering the power of analogue craft, a very welcome antidote to the rubbish filling up our content feeds.
The use of 35mm film is delicious -- soft, unsaturated and pulls you straight into the scene; you can smell the cold air as she wakes up on the side of the riverbank. It celebrates the quiet calm that comes from being far away from anything digital -- a world I’d happily live in if I could. Indie magic again from the team at Motion Sickness. Ka pai.
Special and Uber: Can't Do That While You're Driving
Jack Delmonte – group creative director, VML
I hate musicals. Always have. 'Mamma Mia'? Just writing it makes me want to papercut my earlobes (It definitely has nothing to do with being robbed of the lead in the 2001 Gladstone Primary’s production of Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat). So why is my foot tapping? Why is my neck bobbing like a Bollywood back-up dancer? Because this Uber spot is a bonafide backseat banger, that’s why.
Special’s gone and proven yet again that advertising still has a pulse. Equal parts chaos and craft, Shania Twain and Tom Cardy shouldn’t work together, but they do. Every shot punches with personality, the camera jumps around like it’s had three too many espresso martinis to create a music video that lands a super smart product truth: let someone else wrestle the traffic while you sit in the backseat and practice the trombone.
Sure, having a budget and a celebrity is a cheat code. But plenty of campaigns have both and still flatline. This one’s got it all -- taste, timing, and a twisted sense of humour. It impresses me very much. Congrats to all involved.
Hellions and Typo: Serious About Silly Season
Tess Connery-Britten – news and features editor, LBB
The thought of having a very serious meeting about something as deeply silly as Christmas ornaments is very funny.
Mike Doman told LBB he and fellow Hellions partners Elle Bullen and Dan Sparkes loved playing with the juxtaposition between how seriously Typo treats the festive period, and how fun its products are.
It's beautiful, fun, and pared back -- removing the multi-coloured chaos of most Christmas work and treating nonsense very seriously.
The team wanted to "sell a mood rather than sell the stuff," and they nailed it.
