Regan Grafton

Throwback Thursday: Auckland Transport – Distracted Drivers. We had bugger all budget to stop Aucklanders staring at their phones while driving. But as Ernest Rutherford said, "We’ve got no money, so we’ve got to think." Which seems to apply to creative as well as nuclear physics. Having no media spend to hide behind is actually a blessing sometimes. You're forced to hunt for earned attention. If you can generate noise that outstrips what the client spent, that’s real effectiveness. On this idea the budget almost went entirely on stunt legend Zoe Bell and a tow rig. Hiring Zoe gave our PR team something meaty to pitch, rather than just another public service announcement people instantly tune out of. I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m a big believer in the emotional handbrake turn. Pull the rug out at the last second and the message really lands. For this idea we set up a classic ‘bait and switch’. Zoe chats casually to her phone, barely watching the road, making you really angry at her recklessness. Then we pull back to reveal her car is on a trailer. You judge her, then realise you sometimes do the exact same thing. It didn't look or feel like an ad, which is why it worked. That moment of self hypocrisy beats a typical road safety crash scene. Proof you don't need a million bucks to land a point, just a good idea that gets the audience to convict themselves. Top work from Rupert Hancock and Cece Chu Chu on this one. And the many other talented brains that helped bring this into the world: Claire Dixon, Mark Sharman, Kelly H., Kim Modlin, Lisa Fedyszyn, Jonathan McMahon, Danny Carlsen, Nathan C., James O’Connor, Erin Joyce, Siobhan Burke, Matt McPhail, Chris Hotchin, Ben Fielding, Huia Ngapo, Helen Breckon, Darryl Ward, Zoë Bell, Sage Haggart, Martin Spencer, Ben Marshall, Anna Bittle, Gonzalo Deza Santiago, Keegan Meiring

Throwback Thursday: Lotto – Wilson. Lucky Dog It was late at DDB. Natalie Knight, Gavin Siakimotu, Brett Colliver, and I were burning the midnight oil on Instant Kiwi when an idea popped up - a dog diving overboard to rescue a winning ticket. It was a funny thought, but we all knew it wasn't right for a scratchies brief. So we parked it. When the next Lotto brief landed, Nat, Gav, and I pulled the thought back out, wrote the script, and Lucinda Sherborne gave us a proper strategy to sell it in. Steve Ayson directed and insisted on a Wire haired fox terrier because it was a breed that hadn’t been used in ads - also as it turns out, a breed notoriously tough to train. Trainers Caroline Girdlestone Hero Animals and James Delaney pulled off a miracle, and overnight every kid in New Zealand wanted a "Lotto dog". One Fox terrier fan Rebecca Baird, is in the process of writing a book about this ad! The real fight, though, was the track. Music is 50% of any spot, get it wrong and it falls flat. Nothing worked against the animatic until I was sitting on a hotel room floor in Singapore trawling YouTube. I stumbled across an obscure track by Nick Cave - To be by your side. It was perfect. Problem: Nick Cave doesn't licence his music for ads. Ever. Solution: My motto, “Grafton’s never give up”. Refusing to take no for an answer from the record label, I walked up Newton Gully to Neil Finn's Roundhead Studios. I didn't know Neil, but I knew he probably knew Nick. Someone punched in the security keypad at the door, I snuck in behind them, cornered a lady (she might’ve been Niel’s wife), and showed her the cut, she liked it. She took pity on me and asked Neil for Nick’s  manager's contact. I sent a grovelling email begging Nick to watch it. Miraculously, he loved it and agreed. Then came the nightmare chain of permissions - the French co-composer he co-wrote it with also had to agree… then the film director needed to sign it off! We literally went to air on a verbal agreement from the director before the final ink dried the next day. Nerve-shredding, but we got it. To launch, Aimee McCammon and Wendy Rayner championed to get a one off 2.30-minute epic on air, and PHD media orchestrated a full-nation roadblock so every channel played it at the exact same moment. Sure it won some awards, but taking out the 'Fair Go Ad of the Year' was the real win. You can be as weird or edgy as you like to get attention, but proper emotional storytelling is what actually sticks. If the average person on the street doesn't love your ads and talk about them, then really, what's the point. A special shout out to all these epic humans that played a massive hand in bringing this special piece of film to life. Todd McLeay Warren Salisbury, Wendy Rayner, Natalie Kennerley, Aroha Fuggle, Toby Talbot, Jenny Travers, Judy Thompson, Tania Jeram, The Sweetshop, Claire Kelly, Geoffrey Simpson, Jack Hutchings, Jon Cooper, Liquid Studios, James Davidson

Throwback Thursday: Prime TV’s 'Secret diary of a call girl' - Warning. Contains sexual content. In the year we scored 15 Cannes Lions, this was an absolute cracker that contributed to the haul. It redefined radio globally by refusing to be a radio ad. Our client, Kate Whittle, loved putting a bit of spare cash on a punt. We had bugger all budget to launch Secret diary of a call girl, so we hatched a plan. The team drove around Auckland hunting for a radio studio facing residential houses. More FM on Ponsonby Road was dead on, the studio looked directly into an upstairs bedroom. We knocked on the owner’s door, pitched the idea, paid some cash, and hijacked their bedroom. We roped in an FCB staffer’s husband to play the ‘client’ and hired a game actress. We tipped off the station’s producer so he wouldn't pull the plug, then set the scene and let the show begin. As the drive show went live, our actors put on a very active shadow play. The DJs looked out, lost their minds, and gave their entire audience a twenty minute play by play. Award shows had a total meltdown, it was the first video case study entered into radio. The One Show threw a fit and wouldn’t allow a video to be submitted. D&AD and Cannes were less uptight. I was on the Cannes Lion radio jury that year with Ralph van Dijk and I had to wait outside while they deliberated. The purists hated a video in their audio category - the rest saw us pushing the medium forward. It narrowly missed the Grand Prix, taking Gold instead in both radio and media. Beyond Cannes, it bagged D&AD Yellow Pencils, a Grand Clio, the Spikes Asia Grand Prix, and the Grand AXIS back home, becoming the most awarded radio ad in the world that year. Would you do a raunchy ad idea like this today? Probably not. But it punched well above its weight, cost next to nothing, and proved the best radio ad doesn't have to be a traditional radio ad at all. Shout out to these clever brains who also made this a reality. Tony Clewett, Kelly Lovelock, Hywell James, Simon Teagle, Kelly Gillard, Peter Mayo, Toby Sellers, Sally Hooper, Jess Speir , Nicole Earnshaw, MediaWorks NZ

Throwback Thursday: The BP Thank you button Every Thursday, I dig into the archives for work that actually moved the dial. This one was a complete nightmare. My apologies to Luke Rive, BP’s Head of Marketing at the time. The insight was solid: 70% of Kiwis had copped road rage, yet 89% claimed they were courteous drivers. A massive disconnect. People wanted to say cheers on the road, but hazard lights feel aggressive and a wave gets lost through a tinted window. So, Peter Wujkowski, Gaelyn Churchill and I came up with a genuinely great fix, a digital green thumbs up button for your back window. The idea was easy. Making the bloody thing was a disaster. Having never built a physical product from scratch, we hired a local outfit because they’d won a design award. Rule number 1. Never hire a supplier based on shiny trophies 🙃. Get a referral from someone who’s actually used them and survived. We didn’t, and it bit us squarely in the arse. They promised delivery in four months. Four turned into seven, followed by a parade of increasingly creative excuses. Luke’s media plan was ruined, launch dates were scrapped, and we spent 18 months having soul crushing meetings with an understandably frustrated client. A client trusts you to have reliable third party suppliers. This time, we clearly didn’t. The lesson? Ideas are easy, production will break your heart. If you're stepping outside your lane, find someone who’s built the thing before, not just someone with a nice cabinet full of perspex awards. Miraculously, when the gadgets finally turned up, the campaign exploded. Seven Sharp covered it, BP handed them out with $60 fills, and road rage took a temporary hit. I still spot those little green thumbs glowing in back windows today. The process nearly killed us, but at least the plastic held up. Shout out to the our awesome designers Danny Carlsen, and Nathan C. who did a amazing job. And to Lisa Fedyszyn and Jonathan McMahon, Lindsay Paton, Jen Murphy, Maggie Antone who also battled away bringing this project to life.

Throwback Thursday: The time a bloke tattooed our ad on his leg. Every Thursday, I dig into the archives for work that actually moved the dial, not the glossy fluff. This week: Lotto New Zealand - Instant Kiwi’s "Mexi Doug". I was Creative Director on Lotto at the time, and some brilliant junior teams, Simon Vicars, James Tucker, Damian Galvin and Carlos Savage came up with a completely nutty idea centred around listening to your alter ego so you can live a little. We knew the 'Get a perm' script was the crown jewel. We felt it on the storyboard, we felt it in casting, and we felt it on set. Then we turned up to the edit suite. Director Steve Ayson walked out, looking like his dog had died. "Guys, it’s not working," he said. "It’s just not funny." We sat down, and bloody hell, he was right. Cut strictly to the script, the joke flatlined. We were gutted. Steve asked for 24 hours. We came back the next day, and he’d cracked it. He ripped up the original pacing, grabbed every single alternative take of Doug saying "get a perm," and stitched them together into a chaotic, rapid fire sequence. It went from a dead dog to pure comedy gold. That’s why top tier directors cost proper money. It’s not just their eye on set, it’s their ability to stare down a creative dead end in the edit and turn it into something iconic. The campaign completely broke into the culture. "Get a perm!" became a national catchphrase across New Zealand, heard everywhere from street corners to TV broadcasts. One bloke even got a tattoo of Mexi Doug and "Get a perm" covering his entire calf. God knows if he still likes it, but it’s a decent reminder of what happens when people stop ignoring your ad and start adopting it into their lives. Shout out to these incredible humans who also brought this work to life Bridget Taylor, Liquid Studios, The Sweetshop, Jon Cooper, Toby Talbot, Kim Baldwinson, Andrew Stephenson

Throwback Thursday. Each week I've been digging into my archives for work that actually moved the needle. This week - Paradise Hill - Family violence is not ok.  Back when I was running FCB’s creative with Tony, we tackled a family violence campaign with a grim reality attached. 65% of Kiwis assumed domestic abuse only happened in lower socio-economic homes. The reality? One in four women in high-income homes were suffering too. But when abuse wears a designer label and hides behind a security gate, nobody talks about it. I’ve always believed the best advertising takes an audience down a path they think they recognise, then pulls the rug out. Finger wagging gets you ignored, misdirection makes the message stick. Our then intermediate team, Matt Williams and Freddie Coltart took that brief and ran with it. They created a concept called "Paradise Hill"- a multi page property spread inside HOME Magazine. It looked like standard architectural porn, sprawling square footage, sleek lines, aspiration on glossy paper, but not all was as it seemed. Budget wise, we were scraping the barrel. So I hit up my brother Darrin Grafton to let us shoot in his very nice house. We used his furniture, threw in some stock models, and made it look like a new architectural masterpiece. But as you read through this story, the gloss peeled off. A knocked over chair, a scuffed stairwell, a smashed vase, a caved-in coffee table. Look closer and the dream dissolved. It caught people off guard. Readers walked right into it before they realised what they were looking at. What happened next? It reached 10 times the readership of HOME magazine. Being picked up in mainstream media, TV, and radio, blowing past the magazine's normal footprint. A 15% direct spike in traffic to the It's Not OK helpline. It picked up tons of global awards. Cannes Lions, D&AD Yellow Pencil and many more, becoming the second most awarded print campaign in the world that year. Quite good for a cheap shoot in my brother's lounge, really. Proof that you don't need a bloated budget to make a significant positive impact, just a clever idea and the good sense not to preach. Also, shout out to these clever humans that helped make this happen: Nick Smith, Mike Braid, Jane Wardlaw, Chanelle McDonald

Pretty happy to see our hyper localised campaign for NZ Post up for some metal at the Best Awards. Special shout out to Harry Brook, Lindsay Paton, Lisa Chen, Bex Taylor-Haskel, Jacqui Hurdley. Best Awards, Thinkerbell Aotearoa NZ

Throwback Thursday - Steinlager White Can One of those rare moments in advertising where everything clicked. Back in my DDB days, I was in charge of bringing in the Steinlager account. The briefing had one small catch - tie the brand to the Rugby World Cup without getting sued into oblivion by Heineken, who had paid millions for official sponsorship. A tricky task. But two fresh-faced juniors, Rory McKechnie and Damian Galvin, struck gold. Looking back through the archives, they noticed that when the All Blacks won the inaugural World Cup in 1987, there, glimmering in the background of the iconic win photos was a white can of Steinlager. Was this the missing lucky charm? Our idea was to bring back the white can through a story of pure Kiwi optimism -  a bloke who saved a single 1987 White Can, keeping it in his fridge for 24 years in the blind belief he’d get to crack it open when we finally won again. I presented it to the LION team. Todd Gordon, the client, got it instantly. The beauty was that the product was the story. Unlike most ads where you can slap any logo at the end, this couldn't belong to anyone else. To kick things off, we needed an original 1987 can for filming. We found a guy on TradeMe selling his collection and bought it for a pittance. I felt a bit guilty, he had no idea we were about to make the entire nation obsess over the very thing he'd just sold us. Naturally, advertising is built on paranoia. What if the All Blacks choked again? So, we shot two endings. Option A: he cracks the can, the nation weeps tears of joy. Option B: he solemnly puts the warm, quarter century old beer back in the fridge, muttering, "You'll keep." Thankfully, Option B never saw the light of day. What am I most proud of? We hijacked the biggest sporting event on earth without paying a cent in sponsorship fees. Heineken unleashed a battalion of lawyers, but we’d lined everything up so carefully there wasn't a damn thing they could do. Bars across the country ended up pouring White Cans like water, making it the country's top selling beer. Nostalgia is a powerful weapon - especially when served cold.

Throwback Thursday: The time we were too effective for our own good. Every Thursday, I dig into the archives for work that actually moved the dial, not the glossy fluff made to inflate a showreel. Remember that NZ Police video I shared a while back? It generated a month’s worth of applications in 24 hours and a 600% spike in diverse applicants. Lovely. Except the Police recruitment team was tiny, and we’d completely overwhelmed them. What they actually needed was a steady, sustained pipeline, not a stampede. So, back to the drawing board. Rather than sitting in the agency, @Wendy Schrijvers, Ben Fielding and I got off our bums and drove out to a North Shore station to talk to actual recruits to find a new insight. Sitting around the table, a proper insight emerged - every single recruit had a relative or mate on the force. They could pick up the phone, ask the dumb questions, and figure out if they’d fit in before applying. The problem? If you were Māori, Pasifika, or female, you were far less likely to know a cop like you. To reduce this barrier, we created Chat Cops, an interactive platform on the New Cops site that connected potential recruits with real officers from similar backgrounds. No corporate fluff. Just honest, unfiltered answers. We launched with another viral film, packed it with charm, and threw in a few dogs (if it works, keep doing it). We were on a shoestring budget, trying to cram a ton of setup into two manic shoot days. If you watch the scene with the police negotiator, you’ll notice it’s bloody dark. That wasn't a creative choice, we’d literally run out of daylight and were running out of time! Brought to life by Lisa, Jonno, director Damien Shatford, and EP Ben Dailey, the campaign smashed records once again, delivering a sustainable pipeline for the Police without overloading their systems. Shout out to all the clever humans that helped make this happen (sorry if I missed someone) Cinematographer: Andrew Stroud Composer: Peter Van der fluit, Sound Design: Craig Matuschka, Client team: Deputy Chief Executive Public Affairs: Karen Jones Strategic Communications Manager: Jane Archibald Senior Marketing Advisor: Helen Flannery Agency team: Creative Team: Sam Henderson, Kent Briggs Agency Producer: Steen Bech Account Director: Cristina Opferkuch Editors: Ben Marshalll, Martin Spencer,