“It is a fear all creatives should ignore”: Last year’s major AADC award winners on making and entering significant work

With the entry deadline for the 2023 AADC Awards looming, four major winners from last year reflect on their successful campaigns.

From trusting the creative process to listening to community, their answers provide yet more evidence that there’s no single way to make great work. Equally, they reflect the universal truth that the camaraderie generated by peer acknowledgement is invaluable.

Entries for this year’s awards close August 1.

Rory Kennett-Lister, for ‘See Me For Me’ via Showpony Adelaide

A campaign for the Department of Human Services SA that aimed to shift the narrative around what it means to live with disability was enlivened by genuine consultation with community.

AADC: Why did you choose to enter ‘See Me For Me’ in the AADC awards?

Rory: Pretty simple really. We always enter our best work in the AADC, and we thought this was some of our best. We’d had some previous success with it on BestAds and thought it was in with a shot.

AADC: What was one key decision or insight during the creation of the ‘See Me For Me’ campaign that you think is important to its success?

Rory: Consultation with lived experience groups. We knew we had the potential to do something pretty unexpected in the disability awareness space. But to do that, we needed to do it in a way that was sensitive and had complete buy in from people living with disability. We engaged these groups early, and in earnest, which allowed us to collectively shape an empowering, inclusive campaign.

AADC: What does it mean to you and your team to be acknowledged in an industry where the metrics for success are often either subjective or reductive?

Rory: For our team, it’s an acknowledgement of hard work and a chance to look back for a moment. Advertising is a pretty relentless industry where we‘re constantly looking forward. It’s an opportunity to look back at past work and celebrate it.

Sam Brown, for ‘Vigna Paci Wine Labels’ via University of South Australia

This identity for fictitious wine brand Vigna Paci blended the personal – with imagery and phrasing inspired by Sam’s family history – with a bold 1950s design aesthetic.

AADC: Why did you choose to enter 'Vigna Paci Labels' in the AADC awards?

Sam: The brand identity was based on my Nonno and his love of swearing, I featured imagery of him on the bottles and used his two favourite words (Merda - sh*t and Cazzo - f*ck). It was a comical tribute to Nonno, and probably the only uni project that I felt a strong personal connection toward - so, I am so glad this entry was chosen and won - having a personal connection to the winning project made it much more special.

AADC: What was one key decision or insight during the creation of the 'Vigna Paci' creative that you think is important to its success?

Sam: This project can be boiled down to two things I deeply love - family and bright packaging design from the '30s-'50s. When you’re enjoying the work you’re making, the results are always going to be great.

AADC: What does it mean to you, particularly in this early stage of your career, to be acknowledged in an industry where the metrics for success are often either subjective or reductive?

Sam: The aftermath of AADC was incredible. To have won student of the year, my name and my work was suddenly in a lot of places and a lot of opportunities were thrown my way. I had already found a home at Simple but for someone to have received that same amount of exposure whilst looking for a position, it would’ve been (and it was!) life changing. Trophies are great but I think the reminder that people like my work and that I was doing a good job was what I needed at that time and that was what AADC gave me.

David Ockenden, for ‘Future Jobs’ via Showpony Adelaide

An entry from the Craft – Film & Video Directing category

Fitting the story of the future of work in South Australia into one minute or less for the Department of Premier and Cabinet, director David Ockenden was faced with a series of non-negotiable elements, which he choose to view as creative challenges rather than obstacles.

See the video here.

AADC: Why did you choose to enter 'Future Jobs' in the AADC awards?

David: I chose to enter 'Future Jobs’ in the AADC awards as it was a great piece of agency creative that provided a very clear, but challenging blue print for the video campaign. The challenge is what made the campaign rewarding to enter as a director, because when you creatively and logistically overcome these challenges you become inherently proud of the work and the team that toiled so hard to bring it together. Conveying in the entry how those challenges applied to directing and letting the content speak for itself in terms of how the challenges were overcome has perhaps helped it as an entry.

AADC: What was one key decision or insight during the creation of the 'Future Jobs' campaign that you think is important to its success?

David: A key insight was being able to recognise the elements that were out of our control in terms of factual statistics, actual talent and prescribed locations that had to be included and then trusting that we could find creative ways to fit the creative to those parameters. Trusting that there was a creative and logistical solution to all problems was key to the success of this spot.

AADC: What does it mean to you and your team to be acknowledged in an industry where the metrics for success are often either subjective or reductive?

David: In any creative endeavour the fear of subjective approval constantly lurks in the shadows even though it is a fear all creatives should ignore. Whilst winning an award or acknowledgment is by no means a cure for that fear, it is important in that it allows a brief moment to say you are proud of the work you have done and more so thankful to all the people that helped get it made (assuming you can turn up on the night… guilty as charged). The subjectivity is what makes it so humbling and special when being acknowledged amongst your peers. Something to be embraced rather than feared.

Pat Parisi, for ‘Pairs Well With’ via Simple

For Penley’s 'Pairs Well With' campaign, Simple Studio Manger Taylor Martin said the team took the opportunity to refocus the conversation away from the winemaker and back on the relationship between the wine and the person drinking it.

AADC: Why did you choose to enter 'Pairs Well With' in the AADC awards?

Taylor: The answer is simple — because we were proud of what we had created. Our client came to us, trusted us, let us be brave and we were able to bring together Penley's bold new identity as a result. Like a lot of big projects that span different disciplines, many hands came together across the studio to play their own part in the project, and because of that, it always feels extra-special at the end.

AADC: What was one key decision or insight during the creation of the 'Pairs Well With' campaign that you think is important to its success?

There are so many rules and conventions within the world of wine. White with fish. Red with steak. Black labels with gold foiling to signify 'premium' — the list goes on. We made a conscious decision from day one to challenge everything a wine brand could be, and from there we were able to let Penley's (proverbial) hair down and have some fun.

AADC: What does it mean to you and your team to be acknowledged in an industry where the metrics for success are often either subjective or reductive?

We can't deny that it's always nice to be acknowledged for the work we do, particularly when it's from a Jury made up of top-of-their-craft people from right across the world, including many whose studios and agencies we often look to for inspiration.

Awards provide a platform to build confidence, unite teams and clients, and bring the industry together, but they also challenge us to go bigger and better in the years that follow. At the end of the day, the most 'tangible' part of the Awards —the trophy— just sits on a shelf, but the relationships we build both between our team and our clients, and the confidence we inspire within is a better measure of success.