1. 'The World's Best Exchange Rate' was a brilliant travel activation that gave anyone the chance to trade their leftover foreign currency for an opportunity to win holiday prizes and do good by donating to meaningful causes. The target audience for this campaign was very diverse (leisure travellers aged 25-65). How did you go about finding an insight that resonated with everyone in this group?

Daniel Wood and Melissa Hawkett: The most powerful insights are often universal. We dug deep into holiday and travel truths for a good while before we hit our ‘cha-ching’ moment (sorry). It is a universal experience to return from an overseas trip with leftover foreign cash that’s ‘useless’ in your home country. But often we hold on to it as a souvenir, or to maybe use again, or because it’s not worth exchanging. The bonus was having this truth validated by our research, which confirmed that travellers across ANZ are sitting on a combined $1.6+ billion in foreign currency laying idle.

2. This is a very novel idea. How did you convince your client that this would work?

Daniel Wood and Melissa Hawkett: From the outset, we and the team at ALL.com (Accor) wanted to make something non-traditional that felt truly distinctive and impactful in a hugely competitive category. When we shared the idea, it felt brutally simple and yet hardworking as it pulled on a lot of levers for the brand around value, rewards and providing amazing experiences for every kind of traveller. Best of all, it had the scale and surprise-factor we were after. Everyone was quickly on board and from there we worked together to put in the care and make it as good as it could be.

3. What were the biggest challenges in bringing this project to life and how did you overcome them? Any learnings you can take on to future projects?

Daniel Wood and Melissa Hawkett: From the ALL.com team to our amazing production and PR partners at Banter and Edelman, everyone worked collaboratively with us to solve problems and make this happen. The biggest challenge was probably creating the custom-built algorithm in order to randomise the exchange rates for every currency in the world with our pool of $250K+ prizes – all in real time. A lot of CX, digital and physical build went in to making it work seamlessly at every destination the store travelled to. One could say the team deserve a holiday after that.

4. Why did you prioritise entering 'The World's Best Exchange Rate' into Spikes Asia 2025?

Daniel Wood and Melissa Hawkett: Spikes Asia is a powerhouse in recognising the best creativity in APAC. Since our campaign resonated with so many across ANZ, we thought it was worth showcasing the value of that to more people in an even wider region. We hope it provided some inspiration to anyone who saw it at Spikes Asia, just as many of the campaigns we saw at the ceremony inspired us.

5. What does winning a Spike mean to you, as an agency who's succeeded on their first try?

Daniel Wood and Melissa Hawkett: We will pass over to our CD, Claire, for a grown-up answer to this.

Claire Stapleton: I’m not sure on the grown-up answer, but winning a Spike means a lot. We were only nine months in as a new name in the Australian ad industry and to pick up a bunch of finalists and then metal was epic.

frog is a really big name globally in the design space, but relatively unheard of in Australia. So we have this start-up feel to us, I guess with like a big older sister standing behind us, helping us along the way. I don't know how many times this year I’ve heard with an Aussie accent, “Who’s frog?!”

But all that said, it doesn’t matter if it’s your first time or your 100th - winning a Spike is wicked. And the whole team felt it.

6. How did your success at Spikes Asia impact the team, the business and yourself on a personal level?

Daniel Wood and Melissa Hawkett: For us it was great piece of validation that what was achieved resonated on an even wider level with the most creative and strategic minds in APAC. It also gave us hope that the campaign could continue running each year to turn more idle currency into more holidays and charitable donations. Again, Claire probably has some more grown-up input to add here.

Claire Stapleton: That was pretty grown up. But I’ll just add that the team worked really hard to bring this to life. As we all know, big ideas like this take a team of talented people all caring 110%. You can see it in the work – from the incredible insight to the logo lock up – nothing was left to chance. What’s also great is that it fuels an appetite for more great work – yes, we intend to be back for the 2026 Spikes.

From a business POV, it puts frog on the map for creativity in APAC. Spikes aren’t an easy win. We were lucky to have an incredible partner in ALL.com who understood creativity and what builds brand love. Plus, it has grown our expertise in the travel marketing industry. Not a small feat.

7. Any advice for other agencies entering Spikes Asia for the first time?

Daniel Wood and Melissa Hawkett: Do it! The trophy is equally delightful and dangerous. It makes getting through airport security a good laugh. Sorry, over to Claire…

Claire Stapleton: eye roll I don’t know when I became the serious one, but here goes. Do it. My advice is always the same with awards: make sure your idea is unique, make sure it answers a real business problem, and then make sure you read the fine print. Often the category you think you should be in isn’t the one you really should be in. I’m a big believer in crafting individual responses for each category. And keep your case study short. If you have one or two banging results, then only add those. Just like any audience you talk to: keep it single-minded, simple, factual and blow their mind on the idea.