MDS Creative Advertising teams have eight ideas shortlisted for Student Axis; three teams announced as Grand Finalists for Student ORCAs

October 3 2025, 2:08 pm | BY Ricki Green | No Comments
MDS Creative Advertising teams have eight ideas shortlisted for Student Axis; three teams announced as Grand Finalists for Student ORCAs

Media Design School’s Creative Advertising students are making a strong showing on the awards circuit, with eight ideas shortlisted at the 2026 Student Axis and three teams named Grand Finalists in the Student ORCAs. The recognition highlights the breadth of emerging talent across the programme, with MDS students now in the running for some of the country’s top student advertising honours alongside peers from AUT.

 

Kate Humphries, Programme Director for the Creative Advertising programme at Media Design School at Strayer has congratulated students on a strong awards run: “By way of an update before the next round of judging, we’d like to congratulate all our finalist teams, as well as thank the industry judges, the Radio Bureau and the Comms Council for all the mahi they put into both competitions.

“So, a huge congratulations firstly to our Student ORCA Grand Finalists; Tab Eady & Lola Key for Raunchy Regions, Aiden McNeillage & Liza Plyshevsky for Playing You and to the spectacularly surnamed, Tea-Maria Riihimäki & Chanel Poomphuang for Onosexopoeia. All six MDS finalists will be at the upcoming Orca Award lunch, where the final winner will be announced. Congrats also to AUT for scoring their Grand Finalist nod.

“A resounding thank you to the Student ORCA judges, Ashwin Gopal from TBWA, Matt Watts from Chemistry and Kristal Knight, for their two rounds of judging so far. And a very grateful thank you to Alistar Jamieson from Radio Broadcasters Association and the tireless Fleur Herscott from The Radio Bureau for organising the competition, the clients, the briefs, the briefings, the judges and the judging.

“Three cheers also to Boxcutter and Milon Williams for generously donating their studio and their invaluable time to recording our finalists’ scripts. It was great to see Milon once again adding his magic to our students’ ideas, particularly as when he was at DDB, he was the sound god behind several of our previous Student ORCA wins.

“Nail-biting it currently,  are several of our MDS creative teams, who  have had 8 ideas of theirs picked as finalists for the 2026 Student Axis: Aiden McNeillage (again) & Gab Gillespie for Cogniscan, The Insurance Worm and Blueprint; Chanel Poomphuang (again) & Po Khoo for ADHD Pass & Slurred Lines; Josephine Tahapehi  & Alyssa Henderson for IwiMoji, Mykala Lewis & Bella Baille for Giant Ginger Gene; and lastly, Tab Eady (again) & Kevin Kit for PinkUntax. Congratulations to our teams for those 8 ideas, and AUT for its 5 finalists.

“A standing ovation to the Student Axis judges Hayden Kerr (DDB), Milana Fiolitakis (Motion Sickness), Ashwin Gopal (TBWA), Gaylene Churchill (DDB), Tom Paine (Pitchblack) and Lee Sunter (Saatchi & Saatchi) for judging and providing written feedback on all the students’ ideas.  Haydn, Melina, Ashwin and Gaylene also spent several hours at the Comms Council, giving in-person feedback to all the finalists from MDS & AUT – and that, given how busy you all are, is nothing short of epic.

“Three cheers to Laua Bunting from the Communication Council for organising the brief, the competition, the briefing with Haydn Kerr,  the star line-up of judges, the written feedback and the priceless in-person feedback session for the students.

“Whilst we’re on the subject of competitions, long overdue are some loud cheers for Lola Key & Josephine Tahapehi for their international wins of a Mad Stars Crystal Award for Razer Siren, and to Tab Eady (yet again) & Kevin Kit for their Bronze Mad Star Award for Coke Labelvore.

“Some great news just in, Liza Plyshevsky & Jae Kim have just been awarded the  Anthem Scholarship, which means the Anthem Awards (‘sister of the Webby Awards’) will cover their US$800 entry fee for KathScan (Kathmandu) to be entered into the AI & Sustainability category.

“And lastly, some hearty back slaps and raucous cheers for David Allen-Gillard, the always awesome Kola Ogundipe, and the inestimable Andy Bood, for their skilful creative direction, without which, all of the above would not have been possible.”