LOPEZ FIRST AUSTRALIAN WINNER OF GLOBAL OPENAD.NET PITCH

OpenAd.net saw its first outright pitch win by an Australian this week when Melbourne based creative Steve Lopez cracked their ‘holiday in your own country’ brief.
Creatives worldwide were asked to convince people that they don’t have to go abroad to have a good holiday by creating ads that focused on the forgotten wonders of their homelands.
Lopez won $US1000 for his campaign ‘Hidden Gems’ that used print and digital activity to remind holidaymakers what their countries have to offer.
Lopez has most recently worked as an art director at Clemenger Proximity and
Leo Burnett and is currently freelancing. He has won two golds at the Australasian Promotion Marketing Association awards, a silver and bronze at the ADMA Awards and recently a finalist at the John Caples International Awards.
Jo Smith, OpenAd UK general manager said: “We were looking for ideas to persuade tourists that the most exciting destinations are often to be
found in their own backyards. Steve’s concept did just that and was versatile enough to apply to all sorts of countries, not just Australia. He
also worked really hard to extend the idea. A very worthy winner.
“This is also a sign that word is spreading about OpenAd.net in Australia. Last year, London-based Australian creative Simon Briscoe and his British partner Orlando Warner won our generic competitions for ‘supermarkets’, ‘corporate mailings’ and ‘best pitched idea’ - a category judged from all the work submitted to OpenAd pitches up to Jan 2006. But this is the first time we have had an Australian based at home winning a pitch independently.”
OpenAd.net members can view and buy Lopez’s winning work – and many of the other ideas from the pitch – on

OpenAd.net

.