Graphic

Motion Sickness 44 Road By Karangahape

Finalist
2023 Design Craft
Credits
  • Pou Auaha / Creative Director
    Sam Stuchbury
  • Ringatoi Matua / Design Director
    Hamish Steptoe
  • Kaituhi Matua / Copywriter Lead
    Freddy Riddiford
  • Ngā Kaimahi / Team Member
    Will Macdonald
  • Kaitautoko / Contributors
    Nathan Taare, Hone Naera Scott, Kayle Lawson, Helen Young Loveridge
  • Client
    Karangahape Road Business Association
Description:

Karangahape Road is a unique place. A melting pot of culture, fashion, art and food, there’s something for everyone, and a little extra after that. Communicating the myriad of reasons to visit presented us with a special challenge because a traditional tourism campaign wouldn’t cut it.

We experience life through our senses. That’s why Karangahape is the ultimate experience — it’s a sensory overload.

Enter ‘ROAD by Karangahape.’ Everything people love about Karangahape Road, bottled.

Working with fume-ologist OF BODY (Nathan Taare), we created a limited edition fragrance that captures the heady rush of Aotearoa’s most iconic strip.

Wet pavement, pre-loved garment musk, green heat and fresh dancefloor perspiration were some of the key scents sniffed out to become the base notes of ROAD.

Well familiar with the vacant stares and existential monologues of the luxury perfume world, we knew ROAD needed its own ostentatious, blue steel laden, Calvin Klein clad campaign to be birthed into the world.

Collaborating with local fashion photographers, we shot a high end campaign featuring the local celebrities behind the Karangahape businesses people know and love.

We knew the importance of the images looking and feeling like the real thing. Shot on black and white film stock we closely emulated contemporary fashion aesthetic, with Brad Pitt subbed out for local pharmacist Suresh Rama.

Only available for purchase on Karangahape, with absolutely no online orders, ROAD moved from business to business over the course of 30 days - beginning a month-long public treasure hunt.

A tourism campaign inside a perfume bottle, Road served as the proverbial carrot on a stick to get people in the doors of local business. Retailing at $100.00, all profit from the 150 bottles sold went to local charity Lifewise.

The month-long campaign concluded with an in person auction at Karangahape institution Coco’s Cantina and a week long Trade Me auction that fetched an additional four figure sum for Lifewise.

ROAD by Karangahape is an unashamed celebration of the iconic businesses, people, and energy of Aotearoa's most infamous and idiosyncratic strip.