Barrel 51, Tourism New Zealand, and Adult Entertainment Ads: The Work That Made Rich Robson

Rich Robson is an ECD and co-founder of independent New Zealand advertising agency, Yarn. With a career that spans across both New Zealand and Australia, Rich is a multi-awarded creative with a track record for creating ideas that engage, entertain and inspire.

Alongside Matt Sellars and Heath Davy, Rich started Yarn with a shared mission to create work that gets people talking.

Marking five years in business this year, Yarn has grown a reputation for creativity that earns its way in the world. Partnering with the likes of Tourism New Zealand, Fonterra, Hell Pizza, My Food Bag, and Bargain Chemist, Yarn has quickly become one of the country’s hottest independent agencies.

LBB> The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…

Rich> Tricky one. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who grew up in the UK. and was a fan of the Milky Bar Kid, the chimpanzees in the PG Tips ads, and the crazed sausage from the Peperami ‘bit of an animal’ campaigns.

They’ve all ingrained a nostalgic imprint on my memory.

Same goes for Levi's ‘Flat Eric’ campaign -- that quirky yellow mascot became a true cultural icon in the U.K. At the time, I won my own Flat Eric soft toy from one of those claw machines. I treasured it to the point where it has now been passed down to my daughter like some kind of heirloom! She even has an illustration of the thing hanging on her bedroom wall! Guess that all shows the connection that our work can have on people.

But the one ad that stands out from my younger years has to be Blackcurrent Tango’s ‘St George’. It’s just so good. I love the ballsiness, the humour and the escalation into the ridiculousness. Plus I'm a sucker for the one continuous shot approach.

LBB> The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…

Rich> There’s a heap of red light district classified ads responsible for getting me into the industry. Not because of any clever ideas or how well anything was written, but because of a place I found myself in, that I desperately wanted to get out of… Please read on for context.

When I first arrived in New Zealand, I took a job that was sold to me as “working with existing clients to write, manage and create press ads”. Not knowing anything about how the ad industry actually worked, I was excited by the potential to flex my creative muscle.

It wasn’t until my first day that I discovered the job was actually in classified listings. Specifically classified listings for Auckland’s adult entertainment section. There were no opportunities to write or create ads. The job was to call up the (mostly) ladies who had listed the ads, asking how successful their campaign had been and discussing whether they wanted to list again -- or on some occasions, upselling them to an eye-catching, bold headline that would supposedly increase the attention they’d receive.

I lasted three months in that job. And in that time, it helped me realise that I wanted to get into ‘real’ advertising. To create the kind of ads that were positioned at the front of the newspaper before the classifieds. The ones that looked good, and actually had ideas.

Luckily for me, I happened to know a young Rory McKechnie (now ECD at DDB Aotearoa) who pointed me in the direction of ad school.

So I have a lot to thank Auckland’s sex workers for. And Rory, of course.

LBB> My first professional project…

Rich> Straight out of ad school, my creative partner at the time, Jon Austin (now co-founder of Supermassive) and I scored a placement at Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland.

We obviously wanted to make a name for ourselves and get attention, so we were stoked to be given the opportunity to work on a brief for a new Bourbon and Cola drink called Barrel 51.

The client wanted a campaign that could follow in the footsteps of the legendary Tui beer 'Yeah Right' billboards. They asked for controversy and attention. And back then, not knowing any better, we gave it to them without restraint.

The drink wasn’t as sweet as competing bourbon and colas, so we created a ‘would you rather’ campaign that offered ‘no sweet choices’. Billboards went up around the country asking people to choose between all kinds of obscenely controversial scenarios. No question was out of bounds.

Hopefully, some people found humour in it, but it’s hard to believe that back then, work like that could go out in the world without any questions being asked.

LBB> The piece of work that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…

Rich> There’s honestly not a single piece of work that I can think of that makes me angry.

I find getting angry about ads is a bit like getting angry at something a comedian has said.

Sure it might be distasteful, it might be delivered poorly, or it might not be that funny or interesting. But there’s no point getting angry about it. The comedian is just trying to do their job to entertain.

So when I see a piece of work that doesn’t hit the mark, it doesn’t make me mad. It just makes me think of all the people behind the work that have either been misguided, had a moment of bad judgement, or most likely have just gone through a tough time dealing with feedback, all while trying their best to do their jobs.

LBB> The piece of work that still makes me jealous…

Rich> One of the things I love about this industry is that you're constantly inspired, yet humbled, by the great ideas you didn’t have.

There have been so many great campaigns over the years that have made me jealous. 

But one piece of work that sticks out in my mind is Tourism Australia’s Dundee campaign.

Everything about it was brilliant.

I’m jealous of how unbelievably believable the trailer plot was.

I’m jealous of how good the casting was - Chris Hemsworth, Danny McBride, Hugh Jackman, and Margot bloody Robbie!

I’m jealous that it was all for the Super Bowl.

But my deep jealousy is also fuelled from the fact that I used to share an office pod with the two legends that came up with the idea (Jim Curtis and Ryan Fitzgerald) and can only wish I had come up with such genius.

LBB> The work that I’m proudest of…

Rich> There are a couple of projects we’ve created for Tourism New Zealand that rank amongst my faves.

The first was a campaign that aimed to encourage Kiwis to check out some of the less well-known domestic destinations.

We noticed that people were travelling to the same tourism hot spots just so they could recreate a photo they’d seen on social media. And once they recreated the photo they would then share it to inspire more people to go and do the same thing! It was this never ending cycle of cookie-cutter travel experiences, which meant some destinations and operators were getting overlooked.

We thought it was about time we called out this behaviour to encourage some more original experiences. So we created a tongue-in-cheek PSA pleading with the country to not ’Travel Under The Social Influence’. While it was aimed at a domestic audience, it struck a chord with social media users around the world, making headline news with the likes of the BBC and The New York Times.

The other Tourism New Zealand campaign I’m proud of is a campaign we created to #GetNZonTheMap. New Zealand was just being left off of so many maps that a whole Reddit thread was dedicated to it. From the Simpsons to Souvenirs, it was incredible (and hilarious) how many times a designer had decided the country was either too inconvenient or insignificant to fit onto the artwork.

So we turned this into an opportunity to theorise whether some kind of conspiracy might be behind what was going on. And whether other nations may have been jealous of everything New Zealand can offer the world.

After successfully attracting the attention of the world, we even created a sequel that attempted to solve the problem. This time with cameo performances from Sir Peter Jackson, Dame Jacinda Ardern and Ed Sheeran.

LBB> I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…

Rich> I would probably have to choose my first professional project mentioned above: Barrel 51.

LBB> The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…

Rich> Our work for Hell Pizza instantly comes to mind.

Creating work for such an iconic New Zealand brand is genuinely an honour.

We’ve just launched a new brand campaign highlighting that some things are ‘Worth Going To HELL For’. Centred around a mischievous ventriloquist doll named Clive, the platform gives us the ability to reposition HELL Pizza’s gourmet menu, as well as encourage our audience to reconsider the societal rules we’re all expected to follow.

There’s a lot of scope for where the brand platform can go and we’re excited about creating even more hijinks in the future. Campaigns just like ’AfterLife Pay’ from a couple of years ago, which was a pretty simple campaign that challenged Buy Now, Pay Later schemes.

We gave people the opportunity to add Hell Pizza to their ‘Last Will & Testament’ so they could place an order, and not have to worry about any repayment until they were dead.

It all sounds pretty morbid, but it’s the sort of irreverent, dark humour and controversy the Kiwi brand is loved for.

It’s also a great example of the sort of work that my co-founders, Matt Sellars and Heath Davy and I are passionate about creating here at Yarn.