Matthew Grainger

Client: ACC

Agency: VMLY&R

ACC sees almost two million injury claims every year, and around 90% of these injuries could have been prevented. Research showed that people take more care when they understand that an injury won’t just impact them – it’ll also impact the people who depend on them.

We encouraged people to consider the impact of their injury on others via a pair of humorous TV ads, featuring Neil Fins the goldfish, a dancer in desperate need of a wingman, a particularly perilous game of paper-scissors-rock and a most unwelcome sponge-bath.

Client: Tertiary Education Commission

Agency: VMLY&R

Tertiary Education Commission wanted to change the conversation around vocational education and training, making sure the trades were seen as an aspirational option for people embarking on a new career.

But up-front, we realised that not everyone understood the word ‘vocational’, especially in the context of tertiary education.

To give the word new meaning – and begin to create a new narrative around vocational education and training as a pathway worth pursuing – we created The Choice is Yours, an integrated campaign featuring real tradies doing all kinds of incredible stuff, all over New Zealand.

Client: Electoral Commission

Agency: VMLY&R

To get more young people to vote in the 2020 General Election, we created a number of different campaigns, each with a specific goal in mind. The ‘Straightforward’ campaign set out to show people that voting was easier than they might have thought.

To deliver our message, we chose ‘Master Voters’ – people who have voted time and time again, and have their voting skills down. With D’Angelo Martin to deliver our message and some engaging amateur talent as our ‘Master Voters’, the result was a series of informational videos with a ton of energy and lo-fi charm – all translated into multiple languages for maximum reach.

A particular highlight: getting to record our Master Voter radio ad with the legendary Kate Harcourt. Listen at SoundCloud: EasyVote 30s Radio Ad

Client: Electoral Commission/Te Kaitiaki Take Kōwhiri

Agency: VMLY&R

We created this campaign to let New Zealanders know how their electorates were being redefined ahead of the 2020 General Election. Art director Renee Williams and I discussed finding a visual way to bring the concept to life. The solution: an art installation made from translucent panels, that would come together to project a map of New Zealand when a light was shone through them at the right angle.

We partnered with the team at Storybox to create the installation, then achieved the photo and video shoot for the campaign in-camera with no retouching.

My job? Make sure my words didn’t clutter up this beautiful piece of visual design.

Client: Ministry of Education

Agency: Assignment Group

To promote TeachNZ’s teacher training scholarships, we created a series of videos featuring actual teachers telling their own stories in their own words – and being given the spotlight in a way the teaching profession seldom is. Initially intended as social videos, these compelling pieces soon took flight – with a showcase at the Te Matatini Kapa Haka Aotearoa festival and TV spots on Māori Television.

Client: Summerset

Agency: FCB

For Summerset’s 2018 brand refresh, we wanted to show retirement living as it hadn’t been seen before: vital, active, and energetic, just as many of Summerset’s residents live it. Director Chris Clark rose to the challenge with some beautiful images that capture ageing in a way that felt unflinching, vibrant and fun.

Client: ANZ

Agency: RAPP Tribal

2012 NZDM AWARDS - CRM & DATA MANAGEMENT NEXUS GOLD

2012 NZDM AWARDS - STRATEGIC VISION NEXUS BRONZE

Nothing to see here – but a bit to read about. And it’s actually the biggest marketing-related project I’ve ever worked on.

Bringing ANZ and The National Bank together presented a unique direct comms challenge: writing to ANZ’s entire 1.2 million-strong customer base to let them know what was going on with their banking. We had to tell them how these changes would impact the specific combination of ANZ products and services they held.

The mailing in October 2012 was the result of over 12 months’ work to create modular copy that could communicate a daunting set of variables clearly, concisely and seamlessly.

It’s the single largest DM project I’ve ever been involved with and with over 25,000 unique letter variants generated as part of the mailing, by far the most complex.

Client: TeachNZ

Agency: FCB

We created this piece of improvised comedy with Wellington actor and comic Cohen Holloway, aimed at teachers who had left New Zealand and moved to the UK. Avoiding traditional ‘Kiwiana’ triggers, we instead used the idea that the way we speak and interact is a big part of who we are – and what we stand to lose if we move away. Our video content emphasised the differences between the Kiwi vernacular and the regional UK accents they might be hearing every day.

Feature film - 2009

Writer/Producer

BRUSSELS INTERNATIONAL FANTASTIC FILM FESTIVAL - OFFICIAL SELECTION

PUCHON INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - OFFICIAL SELECTION

TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - OFFICIAL SELECTION

FANTASTIC FEST - OFFICIAL SELECTION

Jonathan King directed this movie, which he and I wrote together based on Maurice Gee’s novel. We also produced it under our Index Films banner, along with Richard Fletcher of Liberty Films. Sam Neill starred as Mr. Jones, and the movie features creature and makeup effects by Weta Workshop.

Under the Mountain was released worldwide in 2010 including in the U.S. via Lionsgate and the U.K. via EntertainmentOne.

Nominated for 7 Qantas Film and Television Awards, including Best Film, Best Supporting Actor (Sam Neill), Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design, Best Original Music, Best Makeup and Best Sound.

Client: Fire and Emergency NZ

Agency: FCB

For National Volunteer Week 2018, we wanted to set up a loop that would feed Kiwis’ appreciation for fire and emergency volunteers – who comprise the vast majority of our emergency responders – back to the volunteers themselves.

We created #LetsHearIt, an invitation on social media to share gratitude and anecdotes about volunteers. Executions were led by quotes from real volunteers, emphasising the selflessness with which they protect their communities.

Responses from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter were aggregated and fed back into digital AdShels, which displayed a selection of the best comments as the campaign moved into a second phase.

This gave the National Volunteer Week activity an additional burst – and increased the likelihood that the volunteers themselves would get the message. And with over 700 Kiwis (and counting) taking the time to leave a message, our volunteers have really been feeling the love.

Feature film – 2007

Script Consultant

I consulted on the script for this movie, written and directed by Jonathan King. A couple of my gags found their way into the finished product, but my main role was to help Jonathan navigate the structural demands of what could have been a throwaway movie – but which we felt could also have dramatic integrity, too.

The highlight was that I got to dress up in a rubber sheep suit with a zip running up the back and lope across a field in the middle of the night, before getting my head blown off with a shotgun. Good times.

Client: ANZ

Agency: FCB

ANZ were looking for a solution that would allow them to dynamically generating rolling comms for cross-sell purposes. We came up with More For You, a solution that allowed ANZ to generate multiple product offerings with tailored offers, all complementary to a customer’s individual product selection, in both direct and digital channels.

They may not have been especially pretty to look at, and DMs and eDMs sure were longer a few years back. But this comprehensive set of copy templates and intricate variables made it a breeze to get the right offers in front of the right customers at the right time.

Client: Reserve Bank of New Zealand

Agency: FCB

BEST DESIGN AWARDS – FINALIST

For the launch of New Zealand’s new banknotes, Reserve Bank needed to let the public know what was happening – and most importantly, why.

I came up with the phrase ‘Brighter Money’ as a way of encapsulating the notes’ smart security technology and brighter colours. From there, we told stories in press, digital, social and radio that presented the historical figures from our banknotes in the context of modern innovation.

The Brighter Money website allowed visitors to explore the intricacies of banknote design in unprecedented detail and an online video showcased the safety features of the new notes. This was a deceptively complex undertaking: because our client wanted to ensure we showed a real note held in real hands, and we were keen to achieve the short video without cuts, multiple VFX shots were required to keep everything both real and seamless.

Client: TeachNZ

Agency: FCB

Many of our new teaching graduates head overseas, particularly to the UK. But now we have a teacher shortage – and we need them to come back.

I teamed up with director Jason Stutter to find some great local kids. We then created several pieces of content in which our Little Recruiters let Kiwis teaching overseas know why it’s time to come home. We shot all the videos in two days on a very tight budget and thankfully, all adages pertaining to working with children proved false in this case.

Feature Film – 2008

Writer

Jonathan King and I wrote this movie, and our friend Peter Burger directed it. We wrote a hardcore horror film; the powers that be ultimately chose to go in a different direction.

Such is the way of being writers for hire – but this remains one of the greatest learning experiences of my writing career, and led directly to the decision to produce our next movie, Under the Mountain, ourselves.

Client: Housing New Zealand

Agency: FCB

Housing NZ were looking for an engaging way to find the right owners for properties in a new Auckland housing development.

We realised that actual McLennan residents also have a vested interest in great people moving into their neighbourhood. So with Sam, Vimahl and the rest of the real locals as our spokespeople, we created a digital and outdoor campaign with a handcrafted feel and loads of charm.

We shot the video with director Jason Stutter in a single day. With no prep, the residents really got into the spirit of it – and we hope they found some great new neighbours as a result.

Client: TeachNZ

Agency: FCB

This intricate targeted campaign rolled out over a number of months to address our critical shortage of teachers in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

To try and entice graduates in these areas into teaching, we proposed to radically reframe the way the teaching profession positions itself to STEM grads by presenting it as a stepping stone to a job in their chosen scientific field.

The campaign was digital-led, with significant social and online activity directing interested grads to the Accelerate STEM website. There, they could watch the accelerators discuss the teaching skillset and how it allowed them to excel in their STEM field.

Client: Housing New Zealand

Agency: FCB

To raise awareness about KiwiSaver HomeStart, which provides grants to help first home buyers, we went for an emotive approach. This meant balancing our client’s copy requirements with close-up photography that brought to life the moment when the bank says “Yes”. Sure, there’s a lot of copy – it’s a complex product for the uninitiated – but hey, look at those smiles.

Client: Bonus Bonds

Agency: FCB

Traditionally active in the DM and in-branch spaces, Bonus Bonds wanted to entice a younger demographic over the Christmas 2014 period.

So we pulled out all the stops, leveraging the conga line element of their core brand to create an online campaign that invited visitors to join an online conga line to make the Christmas bonus prize even bigger.

But we didn’t stop there – to keep new customers engaged throughout the campaign, we also created a mobile-optimised game they could play every day to win even more stuff. It was simple, and addictive – probably the reason why over 200,000 game sessions were played during the campaign period.

Client: adidas

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi

AXIS AWARDS - BEST IN SHOW (2003)

BEST AWARDS - WINNER (2002)

CANNES LIONS - CYBER LIONS BRONZE (2002)

For the worldwide site for adidas’ FIFA World Cup 2002 campaign, Saatchi & Saatchi created a fictitious organisation where fans could explore their football mania.

For the online component, we created the Institute for the Study of Footballitis, an online community that included auctions where players could bid on autographed merchandise using points they accumulated playing Football Fever, a 3D football game created by Sidhe Interactive.

At the time, the site was adidas’s most successful online campaign: traffic at adidas.com/football increased 906% and the community attracted over 200,000 members, almost doubling their database of registered users.

This handful of black and white images is all that remains. I’ll leave it to you to imagine them in glorious colour.

Client: Tourism New Zealand

Agency: Assignment Group

The lovely people at Assignment Group created this global online film competition to generate international awareness of New Zealand as a tourism and filmmaking destination.

Five first-time filmmakers were flown out to make a series of short films. Peter Jackson picked the winning entry and Lord of the Rings producer Barrie Osborne oversaw the finalists’ productions.

I blogged daily during the competition, offering advice on filmmaking and screenwriting and help for the competition’s online community. I also managed the YBB Facebook and Twitter feeds to ensure consistent tone and manner across all interaction between entrants, community members and the competition.

This was a rare opportunity to bring filmmaking, film criticism, my digital work and my copywriting skills to bear on a single project. And I met some amazing aspiring filmmakers along the way – some of whom have even gone on to have filmmaking careers.

Client: Anchor Dairy Products

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi

AXIS AWARDS - SILVER, ONLINE CAMPAIGN (2003)

AXIS AWARDS - SILVER, WEBSITE DESIGN (2003)

At anchorville.co.nz, kids could use Anchorville Points from milk bottles as currency to unlock games and features on the site.

From memory, we created six games for the site, as well as countless tiny interactions and Easter eggs. It’s also the most pun-filled thing I’ve ever written – to this day, I think there’s a corner of my brain that’s still churning out dairy puns.

Many years later, Anchorville was still proudly strutting its (slightly dated) stuff – but Tim The Mare was, of course, eventually put out to pasture.

Client: TeachNZ

Agency: FCB

TeachNZ were looking to refresh their Maori and Pasifika High Achievers scholarships. We proposed creating a prestige brand that would achieve status in the Māori and Pasifika communities over the long term and become something truly aspirational.

Working with our Māori and Pasifika cultural team, we started with a shorter, more memorable name: Kupe Scholarships. From here, we created iconography involving water and celestial navigation.

We defined a new tone and manner for the Scholarships, emphasising prestige and scarcity.

But we felt like there needed to be more – a token of achievement that every Kupe Scholar would receive. We came up with the idea of the Kupe keepsake, enlisting two prominent NZ artists – Ioane ‘John’ Ioane and Toi Te Rangiuaia (Paora) – to create these taonga for us.

The resulting pieces are breathtaking, and it’s been wonderful to know that each year, they’re finding their way into the homes of high achieving Māori and Pasifika students from across New Zealand.

Client: Prime TV

Agency: FCB

To promote Ambitious but Rubbish, a compilation of Top Gear’s biggest failures, we created an epic failure of an outdoor campaign.

One thing we learned: it’s surprisingly difficult to get Phantom Billstickers to paste stuff upside down on purpose.

Client: Saatchi & Saatchi Australia

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi

SpeedBlitz Cricket wins the prize for Weirdest Brief Ever: a tie-in between a police blitz on speeding motorists and a cricket team, necessitating a cricket game where you had to score runs by keeping to the speed limit.

Art director Erik Hay and I both found cricket a bit boring, so we decided to have triggered gameplay events like UFOs crashing into the pitch. Not sure how this was received by the purists, but we thought it was just what the sport needed.

Client: Westpac

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi

EFFIES - GOLD, INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN (2005)

This interactive game was the result of incorporating the “hand-drawn” aesthetic of Westpac’s branding into a Flash game that taught kids about the importance of saving money.

In addition to in-game and tutorial copy, there was a hefty game design and gameplay balancing component. I remember playing this one for hours – not because we were testing it, but because we made it super-fun for grownups, too.

Client: Toyota

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi

CANNES LIONS - CYBER LIONS FINALIST (2004)

BEST AWARDS - HIGHLY COMMENDED (2004) 

Erik Hay and I made this ‘Model of the Moment’ minisite for the Prius launch in New Zealand - an interesting brief given that this essentially represented a hybrid vehicle being pitched to the NZ mainstream for the first time.

Erik’s 8-bit inspired design was both retro and way ahead of its time, and was jam-packed with hidden interactive elements.

Client: Foundation for the Blind

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi

CANNES LIONS - CYBER-LIONS FINALIST 2005

An idea I’d incubated for a couple of years - a game played solely using audio cues.

It ended up coming together for the Foundation for the Blind account, which was a perfect fit – there were little to no visuals, but a series of cues against a persistent soundscape allowed you to navigate from your front door, down the street to the shops. Users were encouraged to play with their eyes closed.

The good: it was a Cannes Lions finalist. The bad: it no longer exists anywhere, apart from these images. A shame; I’d love to play it again.

Client: Griffin’s

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi

Online games and pun-de-doos were the order of the day for this online community for Griffin’s, in which kids could collect ‘Cookie Points’ to unlock new site features or buy merchandise.

In addition to in-game and navigational copy, the site featured material aimed at parents, letting them know how their kids could take part in the site, and what information was collected about them.

Games included Chocolate Chippie Skateboarding and my personal favourite, Shrewsbury High Dive. Who doesn’t dream of jumping out of a tree into the middle of a giant Shrewsbury every now and then?

Client: New Zealand Army

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi

ONE SHOW - MERIT x3 (BANNER CAMPAIGN) (2005)

Our mission was to create the online component of the Army’s ‘quiz’-based TVCs, including a number of interactive banners and a massive online game, Force9.

Working with experienced soldiers to ensure authenticity, we outlined dozens of gameplay missions, after which every stage had to be designed and copywritten. Tone and manner needed to feel true to life, while still appealing to the gamer demographic.

It was a unique thing, and I wish I’d grabbed some screen caps at the time. Such is the beautiful impermanence of digital.

Client: Telecom

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi

AXIS AWARDS - GOLD, RICH MEDIA ADS (2003)

Tiny Movies

Every element in Telecom’s ‘Totally Mobile’ campaign had to consist of two words starting with T and M.

With Tiny Movies, the idea was to put an AVID-inspired interface into a web banner and allow people to create and submit their own Tiny Movies, complete with dialogue and scenes, which then appeared online in a Tiny Movies Film Festival.

I think we decided as soon as we enthusiastically pitched this that it couldn’t be done within the 16k size limit - but thanks to some neolithic Flash voodoo, it worked.

We also made a version for internal use that didn’t filter expletives or NSFW content, which funnily enough was even more popular.

AXIS AWARDS - GOLD, RICH MEDIA ADS (2004)

Pass the Parcel

Telecom’s Pass The Parcel TVC brought the wonders of the Internet to life through musicians who could collaborate on a track – despite being located in different parts of the world.

For the online banner component of the campaign, we created an execution that featured a tiny audio mixer right there in the banner.

You could mix your own track from the samples provided, then email it to a friend, all from inside the banner – no mean feat to achieve in a 15k file size.

The copy had to provide enough info to get people underway, in a tiny bite-size experience – a situation where I was just delighted to be along for the ride in one of art director Erik Hay’s coolest pieces of design.

Short Film (2014)

CANNES FILM FESTIVAL – SHORT FILM CORNER 2014

I was Script Consultant on this wonderful short film by David Strong, working with him over a number of months to help shape the motivation and character journeys and crack a couple of the script’s more challenging turning points. He did a masterful job with the film, and I’m proud to have been involved.

Check out the trailer or watch the whole film.