A win for books at New Zealand advertising creative awards

Advertising agency Colenso BBDO’s award-winning creative for reading shows that the promotion of books can be as imaginative and subversive as its subject, says Book Council Chief Executive Noel Murphy.

Colenso BBDO’s work on Read a Book at Work for the Book Council won the top award of Grand AXIS at the 2009 CAANZ AXIS awards on Friday. The AXIS Awards honour the creative talents of the communications industry and are a celebration of the year’s most exciting and original ideas.

This caps a run of recognition for the campaign at advertising award shows around the world including two silver and one bronze Lion at the prestigious Cannes Festival, the Oscars of the advertising world.

Noel Murphy says the viral campaign, which can be viewed at http://www.readatwork.com/, innovatively and humorously connects with readers in a place they would be least likely to expect. In the guise of corporate computing, it offers a range of literature, from great New Zealand writing to classic works, for reading at work.

“Colenso have come up with a very clever and witty piece of work which is quite mischievous, but whose essential message is simple: books can rescue you from the mundane and the everyday and transport you to extraordinary destinations.“Obviously the New Zealand Book Council is not advocating people skive off at work and read War and Peace under the table but we wanted a way to wave books in the air without being preachy or instructive.“Book buying campaigns are often built around a single title or traditional present giving days. This whole project is a fun reminder that books are out there. They exist and not just for Christmas or Fathers Day but also as an essential part of everyday life.”

A second idea by Colenso BBDO for the New Zealand Book Council, won a Bronze Axis Award at Friday’s ceremony. This involved inserting reproductions of the first two chapters of the C.S. Lewis classic Prince Caspian into the rental DVD of the recently release movie, and asking the question, “is the book better than the movie?”

For further information, contact Book Council Communications Manager Susanna Andrew on 021 151 8826 or communications@bookcouncil.org.nz.