‘Adoptable’ and ‘Play it Safe’ Win AUNZ’s First-Ever Immortal Awards

Australia and New Zealand have won the region’s first-ever Immortal Awards: Sydney Opera House’s ‘Play it Safe’ becomes Australia’s inaugural winner, and Pedigree’s ‘Adoptable’ the first Immortal winner from New Zealand. 

Just four Immortal Awards were handed out globally this year, meaning the AUNZ region took home half of the highly-coveted and notoriously hard-to-win trophies. Since The Immortal Awards’ inception in 2018, only 27 projects have been deemed ‘immortal’ worldwide.

This year, New Zealand’s ‘Adoptable’ and Australia’s ‘Play it Safe’ are joined by Coca Cola’s ‘Recycle Me’, and Coors Light’s ‘Coors Light’s Out’.

‘Adoptable’ was submitted by Colenso BBDO and Nexus, while the ‘Play it Safe’ was submitted by The Monkeys (now Droga5), Trim, ARC, Somesuch, and Revolver.

Tara Ford, a global Immortals juror and chief creative officer of Accenture Song APAC and LATAM, plus chief creative officer of Droga5, said, “Notoriously hard to win, it’s an honour to join some seriously iconic work in winning an Immortal award. Such brilliant news.”

Director Kim Gehrig said ‘Play it Safe’ becoming 'immortal' is “such an honour.”

“This is a piece of work about creativity and being as brave as the creators of our iconic Opera House - a building that is a constant reminder about taking risks and sticking to your vision no matter what,” she continued. 

“We are thrilled to be the first Australian project to receive this award and hope it is the first of many more Aussie projects to do so.”

ARC executive producer, commercials, Daniel Bradford-Fry, added the epic film was a true collaboration between Kim, songwriter Tim Minchin, Revolver, Somesuch, The Monkeys, and more.

“Being recognised with Australia’s first-ever Immortal Award is truly extraordinary,” he said. “Both Elise and Tom [from ARC] wove decades of archival footage together with Tim's musical brilliance and dynamic performances from a host of Australian artists. 

“The film stands as a powerful testament to creative bravery and a vibrant celebration of the Sydney Opera House, honouring its profound cultural significance here in Australia.”

‘Adoptable’, meanwhile, is the first New Zealand campaign to ever win an Immortal Award.

“Colenso always aims to turn up uninvited next to the best agencies and the best work in the world,” the agency’s chief creative officer Simon Vicars said. 

“This win for 'Adoptable' is a really proud moment. And to be the first New Zealand agency to ever win an Immortal Award makes it extra special.”

The AI-led campaign “being one of just four projects” globally to receive an Immortal is a “true testament” to the team behind the work for Pedigree, co-founder and CCO of Nexus Studios, Chris O’Reilly, noted. 

The studio partnered with Colenso to combine cutting-edge machine learning with storytelling to create hyper-local ads, each starring a dog available for adoption in that area.

“By proving how AI can deliver scalable, heartfelt content that truly resonates, we believe ‘Adoptable’ charts a path for more meaningful, relevant and one-to-one brand experiences in the future,” Chris added.

The four Immortal-winning projects came from three regional rounds of judging – AUNZ, LATAM, and North America – and represent four countries: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and USA. 

“We’re absolutely thrilled to reveal the winners of this year’s competition and cannot wait to kick off our global showcase tour and take this winning work on the road,” said Paul Monan, awards director of The Immortal Awards. 

“Across 17 jury days, we’ve seen almost 140 jurors from around the world really delve into what makes work ‘immortal’. Our global shortlist was our longest ever in terms of the number of projects and also their duration, with plenty of longer form content succeeding this year, so it was a daunting task for our global group to identify their winners. They’ve chosen to champion some outstanding projects across a truly global body of work; with four regions and 10 countries featuring in the 15 projects. 

“Congratulations to anyone involved in bringing our winners to life and a huge thank you to our partners worldwide for their continued support in our mission to celebrate creative excellence.”

The global jury who chose the four Immortal Award winners, and a further 11 commendations, consisted of: Tara Ford, chief creative officer of Accenture Song APAC and LATAM, and chief creative officer of Droga5; Jessica Apellaniz, executive creative director of Wieden+Kennedy Mexico; Chris Beresford-Hill, worldwide chief creative officer of BBDO; Susan Credle, global chair of FCB, IPG creative advisor; Susan Irving, chief marketing officer of Kruger Products; Sergio Lopez, chief executive officer of Omnicom Production; Joel Simon, chief creative officer and founder of JSM Music; Pelle Sjoenell, worldwide chief creative officer of Droga5; Chaka Sobhani, president and worldwide chief creative officer of DDB; Aaron Starkman, global chief creative officer of Rethink; and Liz Taylor, global chief creative officer at Ogilvy.

The full list of winners and commendations includes:

Coca Cola - Recycle Me (submitted by Ogilvy NA and Lobo)

Coors Light - Coors Light's Out (submitted by Rethink)

Pedigree - Adoptable (submitted by Colenso BBDO and Nexus)

Sydney Opera House - Play it Safe (submitted by The Monkeys, Trim, ARC, Somesuch and Revolver)

Apple - Fuzzy Feelings (submitted by TBWA\Media Arts Lab LA)

CANAL+ - Super (submitted by BETC)

Coca-Cola - Thanks for Coke-Creating (submitted by VML Worldwide)

Coordown - Assume That I Can (submitted by Indiana Production and Laconic)

DoorDash - DoorDash-All-the-Ads (submitted by W+K Portland)

Dramamine - The Last Barf Bag (submitted by FCB Chicago)

Filsa | Baylor International | Cruz Roja Colombiana - Filter Caps (submitted by Ogilvy Colombia)

Heineken - Pub Museums (submitted by Publicis Dublin and LePub)

Kraft Heinz - Heinz Ketchup & Seemingly Ranch (submitted by Rethink)

Reporters Without Borders - The First Speech (submitted by Innocean Berlin and Stink Berlin)

Telefonica Movistar - This is Not a Game (submitted by VML Mexico and Landia Mexico)