Kiwibank Wins Grand Effie at 2023 Effie Awards; Special Named Most Effective Advertising Agency

The agency walked away with a total of four golds, five silvers and four bronzes across advertising and PR, with strong representation from both its Auckland and Wellington offices.

Kiwibank was one of the strongest businesses of the night, winning the Grand Effie along with gold for brand revitalisation, gold for financial services, silver for new product or service, silver for insights and strategic thinking – and a bronze for its work with OMD for the business-to-business category.

Simon Hofmann, General Manager of Brand and Marketing at Kiwibank, commented: “We’ve had a clear ambition to transform the Kiwibank brand and help drive real growth. With a very competitive and well-resourced category, we need to be more creative and more effective to deliver. This recognition is testament to all our people across Kiwibank and our agencies, who have worked relentlessly towards our common goal of making Kiwi better off.”

“There were phenomenal results recognised last night, and its great to see the exceptionally high standard of work from the financial services celebration. A special congratulations to Astrud Burgess from ANZ who won Effective Marketer of the Year, an incredibly deserving recipient of that accolade and to ASB for their gold in sustained success.”

It was also a strong night for Colenso BBDO which won three golds, DDB which won two golds, and The Monkeys and Motion Sickness which each won one gold.

Rory Gallery, chief strategy officer at Special New Zealand, commented, “We firmly believe that the most creative work, is the most effective work, and are proud to see that belief reflected across six clients. This has been an incredible amount of effort from everyone at Special, and I’d like to thank our client partners for all their support. And of course, a particular shout out to Kiwibank who is seeing the impact of the This Is Kiwi work.”

Tony Bradbourne, CEO at Special New Zealand, added, “Last night was incredible, I’m so proud of the entire team and all of our clients & partners. We set Special on an incredible growth trajectory over the past three years, so to see it all come together, with all parts of our business play a key role in this success – from Special PR to Special Wellington, creative to design – is testament to our strength at every level.”