Issue 88 of NZ Marketing magazine is a special one for two reasons: firstly, we tell the stories behind all the winners in the YouTube NZ Marketing Awards 2026, and secondly… we made 34 different versions of the cover!
Why 34? There are 34 awards given out on the night, each recognising different aspects of the marketing discipline – from AI innovation to FMCG, sponsorship and everything in between.
The theme of this year’s event is ‘celebrating marketing from every angle’, so we reckoned we’d show the awards trophy from 34 different aspects – including two black versions, to represent the black trophies awarded to the Supreme Marketing Excellence and Best Overall Marketing Campaign winners.
Having the idea is all very well, but the next step is figuring out how to make it happen.
We could have photographed a physical trophy, of course, but the red triangle background doesn’t exist in real life. Enter SCG‘s Rajeev Nedumaran, a digital specialist for our parent company, who made a 3D render of both trophy and background. Then it was just a case of taking digital ‘snapshots’ of the trophy from different vantage points.
Choose your favourites
Selecting the 34 we liked best involved laying out all the versions on our boardroom table and tweaking the composition – zoom in a little here, darken or lighten a little there.
Design manager Karl Moss took the lead on art direction, with the final result coming out just like designer Tal Gerassi’s original drawing.
Days away from our print deadline came another idea: wouldn’t it be cool if we made covers with black trophies to represent the excellence and campaign champions? So we did. They’re pretty rare – less than 6% of the covers for this issue. So if you have one, feel special!
This story is about NZ Marketing magazine issue 88, Sept-Nov 2026. Why not subscribe? Get four issues a year for just $50 (including delivery) if you autorenew.
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