Rory McKechnie

“Write a Speight’s ad, but for the 21st century”, they said.

We launched with this 120” spot, showing the lengths guys will go for each other, with a slightly more modern bent than previous ads.

Then we rolled out a promo that allowed mates to say thanks to each other with a box of personalised beers. The 5-week promo was 205% more successful than Lion hoped for, and the personalisation of beers has become a long term strategy for the brand, which will be rolled out for other special events like Father’s Day each year.

Cannes Lions - 1x Bronze

AWARD - 3x Gold, 1x Bronze

EFFIES - AOY, Grand Effie, 3xGold

Emerson’s believe in brewing the beer the right way. Taking their time and perfecting the craft. And they want people to drink it with the same respect. So when we were tasked with introducing them to the nation, we created The Tiny Pub - with everything you need to enjoy the perfect beer, and nothing more. It was the antidote to everything that’s crap about drinking beer in a crowded gastropub. No disco balls, no deconstructed tacos, no yelling into your mate’s ear to be heard above the DJ. Just you and a mate, character and charm, some stunning scenery, and plenty of beer.

The pub’s national tour led to Emerson’s highest ever brand awareness, turned a 14% supermarket sales decline into a 12% increase, and the highest sales in over a decade. Plans for the next tour are currently underway.

D&AD - Wood Pencil

CAPLES - Gold, 2 Silver

SPIKES ASIA - Gold

AWARD - Gold

AXIS - 8 Silver, 12 Bronze

Sometimes the best car for the planet is an old one.

D&AD Graphite pencil

D&AD Wood pencilx2

Cannes Lions Silverx2

Cannes Lions Bronze

Spikes Asia Silverx2

“The McMullet”, as those who have never incurred the wrath of McDonald’s global guidelines are calling it.

Original concept by Tom Lawrence and Sam Raftl.

Burger at the front, party in the back, and more media coverage that you’d imagine an extra piece of cheese could ever receive.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2026/05/01/mcdonalds-new-zealand-mullet-cheeseburger/89888894007/

Sky TV asked us to launch their new line, Life Needs More Sky. So we created a spot that demonstrates that we all have our favourite pieces of entertainment, no matter who (or what) we are.

Elite athletes drink pickle juice to treat their cramps. McDonald’s has many pickle juices left over from all the pickle they use. Auckland FC needed some help on their championship run, so we partnered with the team to provide them with the good stuff. In their semi final game alone they went through 40 bottles!

Next season we’ll be back bigger and better.

original concept by Jack Nunn

Many of the best athletes in the world are women. But due to human bias, search engines prioritise male athletes in their results. We launched with a film that pointed out the problem, then directed users to the tool we created to report inaccuracies in search engines. The film has over 50 million views across twitter, Tiktok and Youtube, and our website had millions of submissions. As of May 2023, both bing and google have made changes to their platform to address the biases.

correcttheinternet.com

Cannes Lions

Silver Direct

Silver Sustainable Development

Bronze Direct

For the season premiere of Fargo on NEON on Demand, we created Fargo Woollens, a line of clothing only befitting of the lovely, but slightly murderous residents of Minnesota. 
The range launched with its own fashion show, and was then available in limited numbers at leading retailers and via our website, if you subscribed to NEON. 
It goes without saying they all sold out and subscriptions increased 6 billion percent. 

D&AD
2xGraphite Pencils
1xWood Pencil

Mashies (Mashable Internet Awards)
Tumblr campaign of the year

Spikes Asia
1xGold
2xSilver

There’s always a certain point of a night out where the only thing on your mind is food. This OOH campaign was released in time for the silly season to remind people that Macca’s is open late. Shot in camera by Toaki Okano.

D&AD - 2x Wood pencils

Axis - 4 Gold, 6 Silver

One Show - Shortlist

To promote the season 4 premiere of Game Of Thrones, we made a statue of the universally hated King Joffrey, then invited people to pull him down via a winch that was activated by twitter. The whole thing was live streamed over 5 days, reaching 70 million people and drawing nearly a million tweets worldwide. It was the most stressful thing I've ever done and I very nearly cried when it was over. 
Fortunately it worked really well for the client and won us both lots of awards. 

The latest execution of Steinlager Pure's Keep It Pure campaign. For this one we focussed on two generations of defiance. 

In the 1960s Derek Lowe was one of the founders of Radio Hauraki, a pirate radio station that broadcast from international waters when the NZ government banned rock music. They faced a constant battle against the law and the elements, and even shipwrecked live on air. A generation later, his son Zane Lowe broadcasts to millions around the world as an international DJ.

Our new spot for L&P, showcasing two quintessential mates having the day of their, um, lives.

The All Blacks are basically NZ’s only professional sports team so you can imagine how much all the local brands overuse them. To set us apart from the rest during the 2019 World Cup we created the Black Laundry - a pop up laundromat where you could show your loyalty to the team by dyeing any item of clothing black, and have a cold beer while you wait. The first night we were open a former bride got her wedding dress dyed.

By the conclusion of the campaign we’d sold out every session, turned an ACDC crowd’s worth of clothes black, and reached 20 million people in a country of 4.5 million.

One Show - Bronze

D&AD - Shortlist

Award - 2xSilver, 3xBronze

Axis - 2xGold

As Kiwis got ready for one of their biggest sporting years ever, our idea for Steinlager was to bring back the iconic white Steinlager can that New Zealanders were drinking last time we won the Rugby World Cup, back in 1987. We positioned the can as a lucky charm for this year's campaign, as well as showing the rich history the brand has with the team and New Zealanders. Our messages made saving a can for the win a symbol of support for the team, and by the end of the campaign, we’d sold 4 million cans of beer. 

A print campaign highlighting that small businesses make some regrettable mistakes on the road to success. But at just $39,990, purchasing a Volkswagen Transporter van won't be one of them.

CAPLES - Silver

AXIS - 4 Silver

To show businesses the power of Chase Rewards Points, we got a doughnut company to create the latest food craze, using nothing but rewards points to fund it. 

GIRLS Break Up Ice Cream. The ice cream that stopped fans from breaking up with NEON. 

Cannes Lions - 1x Bronze

Axis Awards - 1x Gold

Hutchwilco are NZ’s oldest manufacturer of life jackets. 
The only problem is their customers keep dying, because recreational fishermen don’t tell anyone where they’re going when they go fishing. No matter how good their lifejackets are, if no one knows where fishermen go, the likelihood of finding them if they get in trouble is close to impossible.
To combat this, we came up with Secret Fishing Spots, an iPhone app that allows fishermen to log their secret spots, without giving them away to everyone. Then if they don’t come home, a loved one can log on and see where they like to go, and send the coordinates straight to emergency services. It also provides Hutchwilco with a database of boaties to provide more info about their products. 
 

There are a lot of Kiwi ads (and people) that beat their chests about how great we've got it here, present company included. 
Steinlager Pure decided that phase had passed and suggested to people that when things are this good, perhaps we should just enjoy them. We enlisted Taika Waititi (Boy, Hunt for The Wilderpeople, Thor: Ragnarok) to help us.