Zoarne and Matt Agar, from emerging Melbourne-based digital agency, August, were yesterday
announced as one of six Australian finalists in the Cannes Young Lions Competition in the `cyber'
category.
As first-time entrants the team is delighted with the news. In a field heavily dominated by larger
agencies, August is feeling like `David against Goliath', as the only smaller agency to be represented in
the category.
There were over 220 entrants in both the print and cyber competitions, which involved the creation
of a campaign for Surf Life Saving Australia, designed to persuade Australians to swim between the
flags.
The successful entrants (to be announced in Sydney on Wednesday, May 14) will represent Australia
at the prestigious Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. All airfares, accommodation and
registration will be paid for by News Limited.
"We are just over the moon about this", says ZoYoung Lions finalist and co-director of August. "As
a smaller agency, there often just isn't the time to commit to these `non-billable' activities, but I think
that it is important to keep pushing yourself creatively, beyond client-based projects."
Zontered the competition with fellow team member Matt Agar, who contributed the technical
prowess. "As a digital agency, people often think about our offering as being restricted to technical;
however I think that this shows that August is first and foremost about ideas and creative.
Technology is just one tool we use to get across a message", explains Matt.
"It should also be noted we were supported by our small, and highly talented team, who pitched in
to help manage our workload, leaving us free to work on our submission, which was largely after-
hours. In a smaller agency, it's very `hands-on', so if we did not have our great team to fall back on,
then we would not have entered, so we are enormously thankful for their support", adds Zo/span>
Media Release
May 8, 2008
MEDIA CONTACT
& FURTHER INFORMATION
Rebecca Camilleri
Email: rebecca.camilleri@august.com.au
Telephone: 03 9445 0325
Mobile: 0407 832 093
High resolution logos and imagery available on
request.
`SMALL FISH' FINALIST IN YOUNG LIONS
(CYBER) COMPETITION
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about august
August is a Melbourne-based digital agency, where creativity and technology are used intelligently to
generate business innovation and success. However, as much as we dig technology, August cannot
be defined by technology alone.
August is first and foremost about ideas and bringing them to life. Whether it's creating a large scale,
ecommerce-enabled website or developing a targeted, online product launch to integrate with an
existing offline campaign, we've got the strategy, tactics and nous to make it work.
August was formed by three switched-on, future-focussed individuals; Daniel Banik, Zoarne and
Matthew Agar. Zond Daniel contributing their business consulting experience and Matthew
bringing the technical wizardry required. Together they dared to carve out their niche agency from
the ashes of an industry still recovering from the dot-com crash.
August remains proudly independent, in a landscape that is increasingly populated and
homongenised by mergers and acquisitions. We have created a vibrant team of young guns and
whiz kids, and the right culture for retaining them no revolving doors or corporate restructures
here! Not surprisingly, we are well placed to ensure our growing stable of clients are `loved and cared
for', so they are here for the long-haul. August's growing list includes Fosters Group, Sustainability
Victoria and Dairy Australia.
In addition we work in collaboration with traditional advertising agencies and PR firms, providing
digital enterprise and strategy.
And as for innovation, if it doesn't exist, we build it. Not quite right? We improve it. In just over three
years, August has created a suite of awesome web-based applications representing `best of breed'
technology; including Minotaur, August's `kick-ass' CMS that today powers large, ecommerce-enabled
websites like Snowgum and Bad Backs.
Media Release
May 8, 2008
Page 2 of 2
