The Work 2023 Contenders: Howatson+Company
Campaign Brief recognises and showcases the great work that is being produced in the region with The Work 2023 Contenders…
Maurice Blackburn: EXHIBIT A-i
Howatson+Company
The most powerful evidence is visual. Yet for 10+ years, the Australian government has inhumanely detained refugees in offshore detention centres, banning cameras & journalists. Only by making injustice visible, can we provoke change. Introducing Exhibit A-i. Social justice law firm, Maurice Blackburn, conducted 300 hours of interviews with refugees, documenting the atrocities they faced in offshore detention. With AI technicians & photojournalists, survivors generated the first visual evidence of their experiences. This was submitted to parliament in a book and shared across PR, OOH & social.
Lord Nelson Brewery: 35+
Howatson+Company
Increasingly, young people aren’t appreciating well-crafted beer. They mix it with soft drink, garnish it or drink it out of beer bongs. Lord Nelson Brewery couldn’t let their flagship beer, Three Sheets Pale Ale, go unappreciated any more. So, we raised its drinking age to 35+. Using the visual language of classification stickers, 35+ labels were placed on products in pubs and bottle shops, and promoted in OOH, press and PR. All designed for the beer to get noticed at the point of purchase; appealing to the mature palates of older drinkers, while making younger ones want the beer even more.
10:PM: Bed-verts
Howatson+Company
Millions of mattresses are illegally dumped in Australia every year. Stained and soiled, they’re a gut-churning problem for the streets. But a game-changing way to launch a mattress brand. Lacking the budget to run billboards like our competitors, we created our own ‘Bed-verts’ from their products. Using roving street teams, we located discarded mattresses and wrote bespoke copy condemning them as rancid and suggesting a better alternative from 10:PM. Soon our mattresses received more attention than real billboards with +5 million impressions, reaching 75% of Sydney. All for a $0 media budget.
The Guardian: News needs a guardian
Howatson+Company
‘News needs a guardian’ highlights the need for independent and factual journalism at a moment when trust in Australian mainstream news media is waning. Using the most divisive and deep-rooted issues in the Australian news cycle (Indigenous affairs, equality, climate change, anti-Covid-19 riots, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine) we defined the role of The Guardian in Australia. A publication that delivers unwavering fact-based journalism and holds power to account to help society make progress in these issues.
UNSW: Mission for Earth Habitation
Howatson+Company
Billionaires want to settle Mars. But 76% of Gen Z want to save Earth. Knowing students value global progress over personal success, we gave them a new way of selecting a university — from picking a course, to choosing a cause. We identified the causes this generation wanted to see progress. We then worked with faculty to understand how different degrees could lead to solutions. At Open Day, we launched Mission for Earth Habitation — an interactive exhibition and film that analysed Earth’s habitability and compared it to Mars. Students then picked a cause, learned which courses could help, and began their application.
The deadline for Campaign Brief’s The Work 2023 is Friday May 5th. Entries are FREE with only an acceptance fee charged for those that make the cut. See full details and enter here… If your agency has entered The Work and would like to showcase your best work in our Contenders series email ricki@campaignbrief.com.