BRENDAN WILLENBERG

The BBL 2021/22 series will go down as the ‘Year of the Pit’ where Rexona owned the summer after unveiling a new form of advertising sponsorship – ‘Pitvertising’.

Unlike a standard sponsorship placement, ‘Pitvertising’ is hidden for the majority of the game, and only revealed during dramatic moments of the game, making its impact even stronger.

AWARDS:

Spikes GRAND PRIX
8 x AWARD Pencils (1 Gold, 4 Silver)
2 x Shortlists D&AD
1 x Gold One Show
1 x Bronze Cannes
4 x Shortlists One Show
4 x Shortlists Cannes
Mumbrella Media Campaign of the Year

Tech has an image problem. And that image is Lena.

Taken from a Playboy magazine in the 70’s, it is the most used and studied image in the world, and it is synonymous with the gender bias in tech.

Have you seen the image? Probably not. But, has every young female in a classroom looking to be a coder, mathematician or engineer seen it? Most definitely yes.

In late 2019, we created a documentary and activism campaign that seeks to remove this image from all universities, class rooms and tech companies.

So far over 30 universities have removed the image from their curriculum and facebook has instigated a companywide ban on the image.

Is it the silver bullet? No. Is it a giant leap towards it? I think most definitely yes.

Watch the doco here - https://www.facebook.com/codelikeagirlau/videos/985614161797010/

AWARDS:
2 x Shortlists D&AD
2 x Gold, 1 x Silver AWARD Awards
2 x Shortlists One Show
2 x Shortlists NYF

With limited transport options and policing, drink driving is on the rise for young men in Tasmania, we knew ANOTHER ad campaign wouldn’t work. 

Enter: The Bro Code -  a Government and Industry initiative that sees mates and bars, nightclubs and footy clubs trained to ensure that everyone gets home safely without driving. Stuck without a way to get home? Look for the sticker.

In the first two months of the campaign, over 300 venues are trained and enacting the code. That’s 80% of venues in Tasmania

In a first for Newscorp, we created a campaign integrated into the newsroom.

This data driven campaign used dynamic media to find trending stories based on location and instantly created our Digi OOH, TV and BVOD based on headlines from the day’s paper.

With a range of social, global and economic factors converging, this campaign reminded reminded readers there had never been a more important time to access high-quality, trusted journalism.

AWARDS

3 x acceptances into CAMPAIGN BRIEF THE WORK

Direct
Integrated
Out of Home

Fact: People hate pre-rolls

Another Fact: People love music

We partnered with YouTube and Universal Music to turn 17.2 million pre-roll ads into ‘Support Act’ slots for up-and-coming artists.

Metal:

AWARD (2 Silver, 1 Bronze)
SPIKES (Gold, Silver, Bronze)
D&AD (Shortlist)
CAPLES (2 Gold)
WEBBYS (Finalist)
CANNES (3 Shortlist)

With everyone on their phones at the checkout, gum sales have been in free fall for years. We needed an idea that busted people out of their autopilot behaviour when paying for things.

Enter: The Extra Reminder. A cash register hack that plays a different beep when buy something that causes bad breath. Working with BP, we rolled this out across their Petrol Station network creating a brand new media channel in the process

Metal

D&AD (Yellow Pencil)
Cannes (Silver, 2 Shortlist)
Spikes (Gold, Silver, Bronze)

Our most audacious campaign for V started small and ended big! We hacked one of the world’s biggest video games Fallout 4 and made the entire game ‘a bit better’. Based on Reddit users wishes, we created new characters, levels, maps, and quests all with the inimitable V twist.

Metal:

AWARD (Gold, 2 Silver, 3 Bronze)
NEW YORK FESTIVALS (Silver, 2 Bronze),
SPIKES (2 Silver, 2 Bronze, 3 Finalists)
CAPLES (Silver)
CLIO (2 Bronze)
ADNEWS (Branded Content Campaign of the Year)
IMMORTAL AWARDS (Commendation)
Other ones I’ve probably missed.

I’m incredibly proud of the work i’ve done on V, not just from a creative but from a commercial POV. On this, I would unashamedly call myself the Planner as well as the Creative Director.

’The Massive Hit that Improves You a Bit’ has been an enduring brand idea for V since 2013. Our positioning of ‘marginal self improvement’ has spawned scores of creative iterations but most importantly, has lead to enduring commercial success for the brand. Our GOLD EFFIE for Long Term Results (5+ years) is a testament to that.

Metal
APAC EFFIES (Gold)
EFFIES (2 Silver, 1 Bronze)
CANNES (Creative Effectiveness Bronze)
60+ Creative Awards Worldwide.

No matter what life throws at you, soup can fix it. This idea started by shooting an extra 10 seconds of footage on the back of a TV shoot and ended with a campaign that Google still use as one of the best examples of Pre-Roll advertising in the world.

We also created a data drive OOH campaign that served different creative based on weather/day/time.

Metal

CANNES (Silver, Bronze, Shortlist)
SPIKES (2 Bronze)
AWARD (Silver, Bronze)
NEW YORK FESTIVALS (3 Finalists)
EFFIE (Small Budget Campaign)
WEBBYS (3 Finalists)

Today, we picture Mardi Gras as a kaleidoscopic affair But for those that partied in the early years, pre-polychromatic film has meant their true colours are hidden.

Absolut asked us for an ad to go our during Sydney’s 2021’s Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras using the line “Show All Your Colours”. So we created this. An ongoing project -

The Absolut Colour Project - was created to bring the colour back to the photographs and documents made since 1978 by Sydney’s revolutionary LGBTQIA+ community. Using machine learning and collecting memories from those original protestors, we brought colour back to legendary photographer and 78er Geoff Friend’s iconic images of early protests

Did you know that dogs can donate blood?

No? Well neither do 90% of Australians.

That’s why we created Donate with a Mate, the world’s first human and canine blood donation service. To date, it’s saved the lives of hundreds of dogs and is launching in UK and US in 2020.

Metal

AWARD (2 Silvers)
ONE SHOW (2 Shortlists)
CANNES (2 Shortlist)
SPIKES (2 Silver)

Rivalry between gamers is notorious… sometimes, running decades deep.

To launch Maximus Game On, the first sport’s drink for Gamers, we helped the perennial losers get even. We let them rent out famous pro gamers who would assume their handle, and dominate their mates.

Boss Coffee is the number one coffee in a can from Japan.

We launched it in Australia about a year ago with the platform HOW JAPAN CAN positioning Boss as the secret sauce of the Japanese worker.

All comms feature real, bad ass Japanese workers.

Whether it’s using a Keep Cup or changing your super fund to one that doesn’t invest in Fossil Fuels, Aussies are becoming conscious consumers.

Gumtree believes that the better way to buy and sell is to do so with consideration to your wallet, your community and the planet. The problem is, they’ve never spoken about it.

Long Live Local was our response. A brand platform that shows that local beats global, that face to face beats faceless and that the right way to buy and sell is one where economic opportunity flows to the little guy. Not the big corporations.

Only a month or so old, Long Live Local begun as a comms campaign but has quickly permeated the entire Customer Experience of the platform including a new tab on the website to help people donate unwanted goods to bushfire effected communities.

For over 6 years, ‘The Massive Hit that Improves You a Bit’ has been V Energy Drink’s brand platform. In that time we’ve made some cracking work and won a crap load of awards but this little spot was the one that started it all.

Metal

AWARD (2 Bronze)
Cannes (Bronze)
Spikes (3 Bronze)
NYF (Silver, Bronze)

1 in 5 songs on the radio contain references to Alcohol or Drinking. Great when you’re partying… not so good when you are doing Dry July.

In 2017 we partnered with Austereo (Australia’s largest radio network) and removed all references to booze from the music the station broadcasted in July

Metal
SPIKES (1 Silver, 3 Bronze)
AWARD (2 Bronze)

Our 2015 V campaign was a tie in with the biggest movie franchise of the year, X-Men: Apocalypse. A one day shoot with Evan Peters necessitated two elaborate junkets. 7 days in LA to read the script followed by 6 in Toronto for the ‘shoot’. No complaints from me.

Metal
QANTAS A380

After indulging in the world of Vikings, Super Heroes and Hollywood we turned our sights to the world of Hip Hop. But we didn’t just make a TVC spot… we launched on MTV with a full track and film clip by rapper Lil Pup (and Lil Pup with a V)

Metal
SPIKES (Bronze)
AWARD (2 Bronze)
NEW YORK FESTIVALS (2 Bronze)

V Skills was V’s first truly integrated campaign. Starting on the can, we created 24 individual cans which made you a bit better at certain life skills that your parents probably should have taught you.

How to videos are some of the most viewed online but they are often boring. Our V take on them led to amazing success. To date, the content has been viewed over 80 million times and we sold over 8 million V Skills cans in the first 2 months.

On the right are 3 of the 24 content films (How to; fold a fitted sheet, Chuck a sickie, parallel park)

Metal
AWARD (2 SILVER, 5 BRONZE)
NEW YORK FESTIVALS (2 Bronze)
WEBBYS (5 Honorees)
CANNES (3 Shortlist)
SPIKES (Silver, 4 Bronze, 3 Shortlists)
ACES AWARDS (Gold)

This was a fun little TV spot we made to launch Foxtel’s new no lock-in contract offer.
Unlike the mob, you can leave Foxtel at any time.

Real Housewives of Sydney is a famously brutal iteration of the Housewives franchise.

To remind Australians of the show's unmissable viciousness, we developed a line of backstab-proof fashion to protect the housewives from each other.