This week is good news week at Lowe Sydney. (And not just because we’re all off on holiday soon.) We’ve just heard that we’ve got four Finalist nominations at the global Caples Awards held in New York: two for our Socceroos viral campaign, one for our cutting-edge iamunique microsite for Foxtel, and one for our Google-mashup ‘Welcome’ Pack DM for Aussie.

Then we opened the B&T end-of-year roundup issue and saw that the Omo Dust Storm execution was #7 in B&T’s Top Ten print ads of the year. But best of all, new Lowe Digital CD Melissa Peters was #3 in B&T’s Who’s Hot And Who’s Cool rankings!

Melissa, it’s official: you are hot!

Our very own Tom Markham is one of only three Australians selected to judge the Innovative Advertising category at the New York Festivals. After a wild night celebrating at The Ivy, Tom was slightly crestfallen to discover that he would not be jetting across the Pacific in a shiny new Airbus A380. Instead, he will be judging online from his cramped living room in Abbotsford.

Tom is now eating pastrami on rye three times a day and playing old Lou Reed albums to psych himself up to watch 250 marketing case studies. Interesting factoid: although these entries are sent from the furthest-flung corners of the globe, most feature a female voiceover saying, “With limited money and no time, we needed to connect with consumers in a new and exciting way.”

Stocked and ready for Lowe and Rivet’s mid-year festivities!

Lowe Sydney has bolstered its creative ranks by appointing senior creative team Matt Cramp and Sesh Moodley to work across all communication channels, from traditional advertising to digital to experiential.
The pair was previously at Leo Burnett Sydney for four years, where they worked on high-profile campaigns for Virgin Credit Card, NRMA, Canon and Colonial First State.
“Now more than ever, we need big creative thinkers with a progressive and experimental outlook, and in Matt and Sesh, these qualities seem innate. As such as they are perfect fit for our team here and will no doubt be a fantastic asset to the agency’s evolution,” Lowe executive creative director Dave Johnson said.
Both Cramp and Moodley are multi-award winning creatives who have worked in agencies in the UK as well as Australia.
“Dave Johnson is one of the few world-class creative directors in this country – and a really good bloke! We jumped at the chance to work with him, and the agency that produced LynxJet and MTV ‘Snoop’ – some of the best multi-platform creative work in Australia,” said Cramp.

Nathan Lennon and Dave Gibson have recently returned from a two year stint in London, most notably at BBH, working on Vodafone and British Airways. Upon arriving back in Sydney they did a freelance spell at Publicis Mojo before making the trip down to The Rocks and delightedly joined Lowe and Rivet.

Copywriter Lennon enthuses “We’re incredibly happy to come in out of the rain, as it were, and nestle into a permanent role at Lowe Rivet, in what is an extremely exciting time for the agency. There’s a proper sense of opportunity here with a portfolio of great brands, a brilliant CD in Dave (Johnson), who has boundless creative energy and, refreshingly, an uncompromising shelter of support from the management right through to the account and strategic teams. There’s a heritage of brave, award-winning work in the Sydney office, and this is reflected in the confidence the (Lowe) network itself has in us to continue and build on this and we’d be immensely pleased if we can help make this happen.”

After a very busy first quarter the teams at Lowe and Rivet Sydney took to Sydney Harbour on two sailing boats.

Afterwards we all settled into a few cold ones at Walsh Bay Wharf.

Nathan will take a senior role (Group Account Director) handling the newly won Unilever Ice Cream Business which includes Magnum. He will also handle the Football Federation of Australia Account. Lowe CEO, Stephen Pearson said “Nathan is a top class suit who is already well respected by the highly successful Unilever Ice Cream team. He handled their business for a number of years at McCann. Nathan shares the Lowe passion for creating High Value Ideas to make clients successful. I have no doubt he will have significant opportunity to do that with both FFA and the ice cream business.

Rivet Australia’s recent Kiwi creative imports had a hugely successful night at the John Caples International Awards in New York, collecting four of the twelve trophies won by New Zealand agencies.

Between them, Rivet ECD Chris Hunter and Interactive CD Tom Markham scored a First for the Stella Artois Fight Club experiential campaign, two Seconds for Vodafone and nzdating.com and a Third for the Genesis Energy ElectroCity website. They also had three more campaigns listed as Finalists.

Last Friday, ElectroCity also won two first places at the NZ Direct and Interactive Marketing Awards, picking up the gongs for Best Interactive Creative and Best Interactive Strategy.

The Stella Artois Fight Club and the Vodafone v.box interactive work both won Silver in the Loyalty/Relationship Programme category, and v.box also collected a Bronze for Customer Retention.

Michael is Lowe Rivet’s IT guru and has some answers for you…

1) Which is the campaign that impressed you most this year?
The Silverjet (All business) airline ads in the UK

2) In your job, which is the most important thing you learnt this year?
Solutions are only solutions if they work for the client

3) As a marketer what’s on top of your agenda for 2008?
Redeveloping my site (digitalsalad.com.au) and having a go at blogging.

4) What, in your opinion, will be a killer application/key trend in marketing in 2008?
Killer Applications - more mobile tools for smart phones, PDA’s. Gone are the days of pulling out a street directory. Just pull out your blackberry and go to google maps

5) Which book would you give as a Christmas present to a colleague?
Change the world 9-5. 50 ways to change the world at work

With only a few posts to go, today we hear what Judi Lewis has to say in response to the advent calendar questions.

1) Which is the campaign that impressed you most this year?
Probably stating the obvious – but it’s hard to go past NY Tap. I wish I could say I was involved. Such a simple insight coupled with a big idea and executed brilliantly.

2) In your job, which is the most important thing you learnt this year?
The majority of agencies fail to do what they advise Clients – create a clear single-minded proposition that is substantiated and which differentiates from the competition.

3) As a marketer what’s on top of your agenda for 2008?
Based on question no.2, top on the agenda for next year is creating greater distinction as an agency. Not just for the sake of it, but to give greater value to our Clients and more opportunity for our people.

4) What, in your opinion, will be a killer application/key trend in marketing in 2008?
What I hope the trend will be; more marketers committing resources to deliver greater personalisation and customisation. Given all the technology available, there is absolutely no excuse for irrelevant marketing communications. The marketers who have applied this strategy are rightly enjoying the rewards. Look no further than the Apple IPOD and Nike collaboration (Nike+).

5) Which book would you give as a Christmas present to a colleague?
Chris Hunter beat me to the punch, my pick is also ‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy. It really is superb. Don’t be put off by the dark plot – it is an outstanding read.

Tony is our Head of Strategic Planning and today’s advent calendar man.

1) Which is the campaign that impressed you most this year?
The wind initiative: Nordpol in Hamburg. This is not really a campaign but still is such a compelling communication that takes the area of environmental energy and talks about it in a totally new, fresh way, that breaks from the usual more worthy comm’s on this topic. It stops you in your tracks and makes you think differently.

2) In your job, which is the most important thing you learnt this year?
Often the things you worry most about never amount to anything of any real consequence. But the things that become a problem could not have been forseen. So I have learnt to worry less and to be more accepting of unexpected surprises when they arrive.

3) As a marketer what’s on top of your agenda for 2008? 
Focus on delivering solutions that are about taking brands to where they need to be in 2 years time rather than 2 months time.

4) What, in your opinion, will be a killer application/key trend in marketing in 2008?
Application: The exponential use of social networking platforms (EG: FACEBOOK) in mobile devices
Trend: The rise and rise of brands that give technology a human face.

5) Which book would you give as a Christmas present to a colleague?
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: Deepak Chopra

Dave is busy… really busy. He’s also our ECD. What’s he got to say about our advent questions??

1) Which is the campaign that impressed you most this year?
Nike Run London ‘North V South’

2) In your job, which is the most important thing you learnt this year?
Learnt the virtues of surrounding yourself with great people, but also one’s you like.

3) As a marketer what’s on top of your agenda for 2008?
To create 2 or 3 smash hits on the world stage.

4) What, in your opinion, will be a killer application/key trend in marketing in 2008?
The blurring of Brand and content

5) Which book would you give as a Christmas present to a colleague?
That would have to be the one we ARE giving out to all colleagues - Whatever you think, think the opposite, by Paul Arden

Richard de Nys is our Executive Producer - Interactive. He’s had a stellar year pulling together some major site builds. Richard’s advent calendar answers are below.

1) Which is the campaign that impressed you most this year?
The GetUp campaigns! What a job they have done using different media to provoke and inspire people into political discussion and involvement — even raising enough money in donations in 3 days to air their Climate Change ad at the AFL Grand Final.

2) In your job, which is the most important thing you learnt this year?
Action is the enemy of thought. Actually I learnt that a while ago, but I re-learn it all the time.

3) As a marketer what’s on top of your agenda for 2008?
“Calendar - Microsoft Outlook” (same as 2007)

4) What, in your opinion, will be a killer application/key trend in marketing in 2008?
Increased creativity, imagination and innovation applied across digital media spaces.

5) Which book would you give as a Christmas present to a colleague?
Dr. Strangelove’s Game, A Brief History of Economic Genius. A riveting and entertaining read believe it or not — it’s fascinating to understand some of the assumptions and history behind day-to-day economics, that most of us take for granted.

Tom Markaham is our Interactive CD, a dead certain beaver lookalike and a damn fine bloke. He dishes up his Advent answers below.

1) Which is the campaign that impressed you most this year?
I enjoyed Droga5’s Win Nick’s Life.

2) In your job, which is the most important thing you learnt this year?
In Wii tennis, a little downward flick of the wrist is superior to a wild heave.

3) As a marketer what’s on top of your agenda for 2008?
Instigating the four-day working week.

4) What, in your opinion, will be a killer application/key trend in marketing in 2008?
Frenzic 

5) Which book would you give as a Christmas present to a colleague?
Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine: Made Easy for Piano (Paperback)

Just before we departed for our Christmas party we snapped this shot - the ghost on the right is all part of our office. She’s really nice…

L-R - Monique Unwin, Dave Johnson, Judi Lewis, Tony O’Halloran, Lyndon Brill, Han Lee, Mark Cole, Aleks Pawelek, Masami Iida, lauren Portelli, Mark Ashley-Wilson, Kris Rees, Richard de Nys, Jeremy Brook, Elain Liu, Simone Brandse, Tom Markham, Dave Graville, Ben Neill, Saul Betmead, Lionel Hunt, Sarah Hadfield, Joan Lind, Naser, Adam Leddin, Ella Horsfall, Darren Bailey, Guy Lovell.

Sitting - Stephen Pearson, Charna Henry, Rose-Anne Nasr, Hanna Kilada, Vi Ngyuen, Lisa Cordukes, Milanka Novakovic, Karen Smailes