The Waiting Room

The New Surgeon

2008-07-01T22:29:00.000-07:00

What do you get when you cross a dirty hipster with a room full of surgeons? Lobotomies. Really painful ones. This is exactly the type of thrash and squirm The Surgery's newest team member wants to release unto the agency and greater Fitzroy. Coming to us from the hallowed ground of the 6th floor, Curtin House, where he worked on Right Angle Publishing's ThreeThousand and myriad of other titles, Tait is determined to bring back some integrity to ad-land. "The marketing and advertising industries are full of coked-up twerps and dweebs who wouldn't know cool if it ripped off its skinny-legs and blew smoke in their face." With a host of new clients, Tait's role as Culture Director will bring a much needed injection of sincerity and focus to the agency's exciting future. "As a creative collective, The Surgery doesn't want or need art directors, copywriters, account directors or executives; the set-up has progressively changed to involve editors, photographers, illustrators, stylists, creative strategists, planners and hipsters - making the usual agency hierarchy obsolete. That's the way I want to work. It's intuitive." The Surgery is making giant leaps in its recent evolution, with this the first major step in a commitment to developing interesting new work in the coming months.

Complicated Decisions? Maybe not so complicated..

2008-04-07T20:41:00.000-07:00

Yes it’s that time of the year again. A time when random strangers can bond over their hatred for the stuck up members who are guaranteed some of the best seats despite not even being a fan of who they are there to see. Or a time when the same strangers can become mortal enemies, muttering or more often yelling obscenities at each other over the different colours of their scarves. Yes, AFL Football season has well and truly begun.

Our anticipation for the beginning of the season began a little earlier this year with Leaseplan strengthening their sponsorship of the Western Bulldogs through the release of a series of print, TVC and online advertisements featuring team players themselves.

So far the advertisements, featuring Jason Akermanis, Daniel Giansiracusa, Brad Johnson and Nathan Eagleton have received great feedback and a write-up in this weeks B&T Magazine With the two TVC Advertisements featuring at every game played at the MCG and the Telstra Dome, they are guaranteed wide exposure all year long..just another reason to head to the footy..if the men running around in tiny shorts wasn’t enough of a reason alone.

Welcome to the Waiting Room

2008-03-24T17:13:00.000-07:00

Some may say it’s a little self-indulgent to have a blog about your own company. Yes, we are called The Surgery, and surgeons are the best in their field and therefore are prone to large egos. And, yes we secretly like to think of ourselves as being akin to the coolness Christian Troy in Nip/Tuck though perhaps with a slightly tighter grasp on our moral code.

Still, as we have said time and time again, we really detest the whole ‘our agency is the greatest and here’s why’ attitude, however we found that we always had current or prospective clients and people in the business wanting to know what we were up to and where we were heading.
So, we thought what better way to keep everyone up to date with the goings on of The Surgery than with a weekly blog?

For those of you who know us here at The Surgery will know that we are never afraid of expressing our opinions freely. So, it’s no wonder that Simon’s face pops up every now and then doing just that on such occasions as in AdNews August 2007 and in ‘Mouth Off’ in the November 2007 issue.

The recreation of our website last year was a very important step for us as an agency. In this industry, it is very easy to say you are different or that you have different things to offer. It is a completely different thing to actually be different and our website had to represent this philosophy. Since the re-vamp of this website last year we have featured in some great coverage in February’s Desktop Magazine.

All Stitched Up

2008-03-16T21:33:00.000-07:00

As many of you might know, after months of preparation, collaboration and dare we say it frustration, last year we released our very own credentials magazine called ‘Reception Copy’.

Although we didn’t really know what to expect from its release, we were happily surprised by the reaction we received. To celebrate the launch of ‘Reception Copy,’ a party was held at our office, and a photo of the night featured in AdNews.

Coverage in Desktop Magazine

2008-03-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

Since its release in September, we have received some encouraging and inspiring feedback from the people we sent it to as well as some great coverage.

Desktop did a feature on the magazine in its October 2007 issue.

We also featured in a fantastic 7-page spread in the November issue of Desktop Magazine.

The feature discusses how The Surgery faced the '7 Year Itch' of turning seven and gave the Surgeons a chance to say what the agency is about, what we stand for and show off some of our work.

Marketing Magazine commented on the ‘Reception Copy’ and it’s unique and ‘retro approach to establishing (our) brand,’ in December 2007.

Creative Magazine Cover Story

2008-03-12T22:55:00.000-07:00

Marketing Magazine commented on the ‘Reception Copy’ and it’s unique and ‘retro approach to establishing (our) brand,’ in December 2007. Our cover story in Australian Creative Magazine’s January 2008 issue also created buzz. The article talks about 'Reception Copy' Magazine and the overall positive response to its release including an "overwhelming interest coming from overseas."

Media Coverage of Work

2008-03-12T21:45:00.000-07:00

We have also been lucky to have some of our client work and own work praised in several publications.

After entering a competition with B&T back in June 2007 concerning the much needed education of society on the traps of credit cards and debts, The Surgery came in second judges praising our ‘simple but effective methods’ in getting the message across.

Our ‘Who’s For Cats?’ campaign with the Bureau of Animal Welfare got some great reception and write ups featured in both B&T and Creative Magazine.

The campaign was very well received..if only people knew how hard it was to get this shot!

Our work with Meyer cookware received some great feedback and exposure when featured in B&T in August 2007.

The ‘every window is a window of opportunity’ campaign we ran last year with Designed Blinds also featured in Creative Magazine in September 2007. The campaign featured blinds on tram stop windows, in a church and as you can see here, in one of Barbie's friend's chill out pad.