Hello again.
And thanks for the opportunity to share more of our work.
Before we do, we thought it was also a good chance to give you more background on our Creative Partner, Hamish.
Hamish is a copywriter by trade, and he still loves to write. He really cares about copy – every aspect of it. The meaning, the rhythm, and the flow of it. The details, too: spelling, punctuation, grammar.
He finds it’s a dying art. Good copywriters are hard to find. But in a world that’s all about brand experience, it’s more important than ever.
When we last met, we mentioned our backgrounds; Hamish’s covers pretty much every aspect of advertising.
Retail. Brand. CX. Digital.
Which means there aren’t many writing problems he hasn’t seen before.
Catalogues. Emails. Brochures. Social posts. Web copy. Radio. Print and outdoor. Videos. Big budget TVCs. Integrated campaigns.
Functional copy. Charming copy. Emotional copy.
His belief: it all matters. Every word is an expression of your brand.
Here’s what one of his clients has said:
"Hamish is one of the best writers I know, and one day when I die I want him to write my obituary. At least that way I know I would have approved it."
(A big responsibility, and hopefully one that won’t come too soon.)
And here’s what one of the young writers in his team, now a Creative Director at The New York Times, has said.
"After five years in the industry, my career highlight is still the first time I received a copy deck back from Hamish without a single trace of red pen. His ruthlessness with all aspects of advertising craft is legendary. He simply cares more… about the ideas, about the craft, and most of all… about the development of the creatives under his care."
That care has led to strong client relationships, strong work, and a number of awards, including 19 Cannes Lions, 9 D&AD Pencils, 9 One Show Pencils, 26 AWARD Pencils, and 21 Spikes. Most recently, with GHO, he and the team won B&T Awards for Best Use of Sponsorship and Best Equality Campaign.
Besides Hamish, of course, we have a number of writers, art directors and designers we can draw on, each with their own strengths.
Today, we thought you might like a taste of work from Hamish’s past. And a taste of the work we’ve done since he’s joined GHO.
Before GHO
NRMA Insurance
Safety Hub
This project started with a simple insight: People only notice insurance when they need it, so it’s no wonder they begrudge paying their premiums. As a result, when it’s time to renew each year, they’re often motivated to find the cheapest insurance instead of the best.
But because NRMA has over 90 years’ experience in managing risk, they know which risks are the most common, which are the most disruptive, and which are the most preventable. For example, a flooded home can cost $20,000 to repair, but the most common cause – a burst ‘flexi hose’ – costs about $8 to replace.
NRMA Safety Hub was an industry first: paying customers to take action to prevent disasters before they happened.
The copy here needed to be simple, clear and consistent, in line with the project itself. It was all about the detail.
The project went on to become one of the 10 most awarded campaigns in the world in 2020, the only Australian campaign to make the list, including winning Grand Prix in Mobile at Spikes Asia.
Google Voice Search
The Voice
Despite over 2 million downloads, Aussie millennials still didn’t understand the rich and diverse ways the Google App could help them discover the world around them. So we partnered with The Voice, one of Australia’s favourite TV shows, to showcase the power of voice.
The idea: take key moments from the show to demonstrate how the Google App could help our audience discover more. We worked hand-in-hand with the producers of the show to completely integrate our ads, commenting on events within the show as they happened – ultimately creating 29 unique spots, airing over 9 weeks. We used the Google App to go deeper into artists’ names, their clothing, their behaviour, and their songs, demonstrating in real time just how useful the app could be.
The copy here needed to drive a strong link between the show and the app, with a hint of Google charm, rewarding viewers for the entire season.
The campaign won Best Use of Media at the AdNews Awards, and was shortlisted for Best use of Sponsorship, Real-time Campaign of the Year, and TV Campaign of the Year at B&T.
Google Play Music
Through the Dark
Google Play Music was late to market in Australia, and needed to find a way to demonstrate their relevance to the local market. The idea: a series of innovative collaborations with leading artists, helping scale their work and embedding Google in Australian music culture.
Through The Dark was a collaboration with one of Australia’s biggest acts, Hilltop Hoods, based on the song of the same name. The interactive film follows the story of a father and son’s journey between two worlds, the light and dark, as they navigate the ups and downs of living with cancer. For every fan who listened, Google and Hilltop Hoods made a donation to leading youth charity CanTeen to support young people living with cancer.
The copy here lay beneath the surface, using an understanding of storytelling to create an experience with emotional power.
The project won over 60 global awards, including a D&AD Yellow Pencil, Gold Lion at Cannes, and Website of the Year at the FWA, the first Australian project in history to do so.
At GHO
CommBank
C'mon Aussie: Revisited
Since 1978, C’mon Aussie, C’mon has been Australia’s cricketing anthem – but only ever for men’s teams. With Australia set to host the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020, we set out to change that, reinventing the song, complete with original vocalist, for the women’s team for the first time. Prior to the campaign, the largest attendance at a women’s T20 match worldwide was 12,717. Attendance at the World Cup Final was 86,174, the second-highest for a women’s sporting event in history, with the CEO of the event acknowledging the campaign’s huge contribution in driving attendance.
The project was a copywriter’s dream, with new song lyrics, TV, outdoor, social and more.
The campaign recently won B&T Awards for Best Use of Sponsorship and Best Equality Campaign.
Case Study Video
Phase 1:
If anyone can, they can
60s TVC
Launch OOH
Social Videos
Full-length Song on Spotify
Phase 2:
It's time to show the world we can
Phase 2 OOH
Phase 2 Social Videos
Phase 3:
Here's to those who show the world they can
Adobe for Government
Just Imagine
To most people in government, Adobe is ‘the PDF company’. But they offer a complete suite of digital solutions, with global case studies to prove their impact. To help engage both State and Local Government, we created an inspiring B2B campaign that invited decision-makers to imagine what’s possible. Speaking to public servants, the copy needed to strike a balance between the pragmatic and inspiring. The engaging low-poly illustrations were created entirely in-house, and simple animations appeared in digital display and on LinkedIn.
Aviation / Aerospace Australia
No Other Career
The aviation and aerospace industry offers compelling career opportunities for young women, but with little knowledge and
few role models, applications are nowhere near what they could be. We partnered with Aviation and Aerospace Australia, the
industry body representing members like Qantas, Lockheed and Boeing, on an integrated campaign, including video, print and website, to show the inspiring role models, and inspiring careers, available for girls.
The copy task here was to get out of the way, providing a simple framework for these inspiring women to tell their stories.
CommBank
Benefits finder
We work closely with M&C Saatchi as part of CommBank’s agency village, often extending campaigns in digital and social. In mid-2020, as things were rapidly changing during COVID, we were asked to adapt an above-the-line TVC for the bank’s Benefits finder product. In less than a day, we went back with a digital and social campaign that addressed both Awareness and Consideration, leveraging the campaign but speaking more directly to specific audiences, then clearly demonstrating the app to drive click-through.
The campaign went on to win Best Marketing Campaign at the Australian Banking Innovation Awards.
Awareness
Consideration
Family Planning NSW
Planet Puberty
Caring for a child with an intellectual disability or Autism Spectrum Disorder is no small challenge. But that challenge only increases when they hit puberty, plunging the entire family into a time of mood swings, body changes, and awkward conversations. Family Planning NSW engaged us to a create an Australian-first resource, on a limited budget. Research told us that parents and carers needed help, but were tired of overly-serious public service messages. To demonstrate our empathy, and lighten the mood, we created Planet Puberty, a one-stop resource for talking to your child about this strange new world.
The copy challenge here was to empathise and connect, pairing with our light-hearted illustrations that recognised the inherent strangeness of this stage of life. The website and digital campaign launches soon.
CommBank Business
Foresight
We’ve been working with CommBank Business to brand their content hub. The new name, Foresight, refers to the promise of the platform: insights that help your business embrace the future. In this soft launch, we used the new CommBank ‘beacon’ as a spotlight turning toward the future, while we introduced the theme with an element of playful wit that’s unusual in business.