Jake Siddall

I led the development of Petdirect's inaugural brand campaign, "We get pet," a project that not only defined our brand but also delivered exceptional results. Despite operating with a fraction of the budget, our campaign outperformed our closest competitor, who was outspending us at a 12:1 ratio. The success was driven by clever, creative thinking and a deep understanding of our audience, allowing us to secure more media placements and deliver significant impact.

Working closely with our creative agency partner, we developed the "We get pet" brand platform—a concept that captured the heart of what makes Petdirect special. From there, I assembled a team to bring this platform to life. I personally wrote the TV ads and led my in-house team in executing the creative, partnering with animators, editors, and external specialists where needed. By bringing on one of New Zealand’s most clever media agencies, we maximized our modest budget, proving that a smart, targeted approach can achieve incredible results.

At the heart of this campaign is our understanding of pets and pet parents alike. Petdirect isn’t just New Zealand’s leading online pet store because we offer the best range of products or advice—we succeed because we truly get pet. Whether it's recognising that a half-chewed slipper is a sign of love or knowing that cats disappear at the sight of a carrier, we connect with the little quirks that make pet ownership special.

By understanding pets on a deeper level, we’re able to help our customers care for them better—whether that means finding the best food for a shiny coat, choosing the right toy, or supporting the needs of an aging companion. Through the "We get pet" campaign, we invited pet parents across New Zealand to experience this connection, and the results speak for themselves.

Time. It’s quickly become one of the world’s rarest commodities. Even just a moment can feel impossible to find. So for the product launch of Comvita's limited release Mānuka Honey, Special Reserve, we gave people around the world a moment to pause and relax with a film that tells the story of nature’s harmony. Those lucky enough to secure a pot were invited to enjoy a world-first Mānuka Honey taste-along meditation – an immersive experience of the sights, sounds, smells and flavours of Aotearoa, New Zealand.

In just four short years, Petdirect has become New Zealand’s largest online pet supply retailer. After being recognised as one of NZ's top 5 startups, we knew it was time to expand into physical retail.

As the Brand Manager for Petdirect's first-ever store, I’ve been responsible for overseeing the brand’s vision and leading all brand decisions to bring it to life in a new, groundbreaking way. We’ve created a premium, welcoming shopping experience designed specifically for pet parents—something entirely new for New Zealand.

As the country's largest Kiwi-owned pet supply company, we understand New Zealand pets and their owners better than anyone. Our store provides a space where our knowledgeable team of pet professionals can offer expert advice and chat all things pets.

This is just the beginning! We have more stores planned across the country, so wherever you are in New Zealand, be sure to visit us—and bring your furry friend!

Spark is New Zealand’s biggest telco. Compared to all of their competitors in market, they are the most expensive. And by quite a lot.

In a very crowded telco market is a the battlefield layer – a price point led layer where the different telcos fight furiously for attention.

Yet, even with the challenge of having the most expensive offers, we were able to win this battle year on year.

How? With Spark you get more bang for your buck. It’s the extra services you get with Spark’s plans that make it worth your while. Free Netflix, Spotify Premium, Spark Sport, Spark Arena, and partnerships with companies like Xbox. In 2017, we were tasked to become the architects and leaders of Spark’s battleground layer. The work here is a snippet of how we brought the value added services and offers to life.

You couldn’t taste a food video. Until now.

To give New Zealanders a small taste of the Visa Wellington On a Plate culinary festival, we dissected and distilled a festival-inspired burger and cocktail and transformed the unique flavours into jelly bean form – creating Welly Beans.

We then created a multi-sensory taste-along video – designed to be accompanied with the Welly Beans. The experience added a whole new dimension to online food videos and imagery, literally giving people a taste of the festival.

Who can resist an invitation to play?

Play is the antidote to work.

Play time is free time, play time is fun time.

Play is the action that activates our brain’s pleasure centre 
and the mindstate that releases our creative self-expression.

So come on, Auckland. Let’s play.

The new Hop release from NZ Hops has been called bold, complex, punchy, insane. But it’s also been called smooth, crisp and versatile. With all these contradictions come endless possibilities, so we surrendered to the chaos and fed the tasting notes into an Ai engine. Our brewer’s tasting notes generated infinite artworks so we created infinite executions with no two ads being the same. Bringing to life the endless creative possibilities of this hop. Take a trip into the artistic depths of your imagination.

Now you can eat waffles like Eleven.
To bring attention to the partnership of telco Spark and streaming service Netflix, a series of iconic meals were created and delivered to broadband customers. For Netflix Dinner #3 we gave Stranger Things fans a box of Eleven’s favourites waffles – but with an extra ‘Upside Down’ twist.

Blis believe a little good can do wonders for us all. That’s why they pioneer advanced oral probiotics that increase the good bacteria in you, so you can increase the good in the world around you. Because when the good outweighs the bad, we all do better.

To launch the creative platform ‘Increase the good’, we enlisted the help of Kiwi illustrator, Ruby Jones - renowned for inspiring hope and kindness with her artwork ‘This is your home and you should have been safe here’ - to create artwork for an entirely new brand campaign, including a 45” animated film, which celebrates the good in all of us.

The best thing about the Samsung Galaxy S9+ is the ability to take photos in low light. To get night owls excited about this new device we employed professional photographer, Steven Boniface, to capture portraits of real people at night with the Galaxy S9+. The night shoot was filmed and turned into a social film and the portraits taken were then displayed as beautiful ‘Outdoor Posters’ transforming bus stops into mini galleries.

Drone strikes are meant to be a precise weapon in war. Yet vastly more civilians are killed from drone strikes than intended targets. This needs to stop. So to get this message to the right people, we indirectly hit the wrong people. Amnesty International sent politicians a strong message about the ineffective, civilian-killing drone strikes. And we delivered it in the exact ineffective way: by using a drone. The thing is, the drone missed the politicians. Targeting them on their morning drive to work the message indirectly hit the public instead.

As a result of the GFC, the number of Auckland families seeking help from the Mission had grown 65% in 2010. It was our job to use the Mission’s Christmas Appeal to raise the funds necessary to support such growth in need.

‘Become someone’s angel’ was the new Christmas Appeal for the Mission which we launched via a 30 second ad. The integrated campaign was activated through a user-generated platform that connected outdoor advertising with digital - inviting the Auckland public to take selfies with angel wings designed by a local street artist, and posting it to a Facebook microsite (which was new at the time). In doing so would result in a sponsored donation. Quickly enough, angels of Auckland spread on newsfeeds, boosting awareness and donations.

We launched Lawson’s Traditional Bread into the Australian market with a TV and radio campaign that celebrates their traditional country style loaf - generous in size and full of abundant goodness, just like it used to be.

To show everyone on social media what amazing things you could do with Spark’s Unlimited Mobile plan, we enlisted the help of small town Kiwi, Amber Jones.

With an epic 1-second-per-day style montage and breath-taking gifs, Amber gave us a taste of how an everyday life can turn into an exceptional unlimited life.

To help digital services company Spark get their customers excited for the new Samsung Galaxy S9+, we found a way to give them a small taste of their next unboxing.

Introducing the tiniest Galaxy unboxing experience, ever.

We sent customers a miniature S9+ box, roughly 1/6th the size of the original, small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Inside you’d find the minute details involved to give any device-lover their unboxing fix – as well as a unique offer, only redeemable instore with the box.

This special direct mail piece achieved double the sales of previous cross-sell campaigns.

In 2019 we were given the opportunity to update BMW’s CLM comms. Taking a fresh approach on the current mantra of ‘the joy of driving’, we developed a complete digital suite of direct comms that spoke to the idea of for drivers that appreciate the drive.

Winter 2011 was a chilling prospect for the Auckland City Mission.

Times were tough. And more Aucklanders than ever before were asking for help. Donations were desperately needed and the Mission needed a hero, a superhero.

Introducing Kenneth. The Auckland City Mission’s smallest ever fundraiser. A small, fragile robotic bird, on a mission to help others that are in vulnerable situations.

Kenneth helped the Mission raise $288,055 from a city of just over 1 million people. Enough to help those in need through winter. And enough to prove that Aucklanders don’t need a superhero – just something to remind them that we all need a little help.