KUPU

Bronze Spike

Demo Film

Presentation Image

TitleKUPU
BrandSPARK
Product / ServiceSPARK
CategoryD02. Innovative Use of Technology
EntrantCOLENSO BBDO Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Idea Creation COLENSO BBDO Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Media Placement PHD Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
PR DRUM Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
PR 2 DRUM Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Production CREATURE Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Production 2 FRANKLIN RD Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Additional Company GOOGLE ZOO Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Additional Company 2 TE AKA MāORI DICTIONARY Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Additional Company 3 RUSH DIGITAL INTERACTIVE Auckland, NEW ZEALAND

Credits

Name Company Position
Nick Worthington Colenso BBDO Creative Chairman
Levi Slavin Colenso BBDO Chief Creative Officer
Dan Wright Colenso BBDO Executive Creative Director
Mike Davison Colenso BBDO Creative Director
Alex Polglase Colenso BBDO Art Director
Joel Francis Colenso BBDO Copywriter
Freddie Coltart Colenso BBDO Senior Art Director
Matt Williams Colenso BBDO Senior Copywriter
Dean Pomfrett Colenso BBDO Design Director
Steve Pountney Colenso BBDO Digital Services Director
Tennille Barnes Colenso BBDO Head of Digital Production
Claudio Varoli-Piazza Colenso BBDO Senior Digital Producer
Emma Tait Colenso BBDO Digital & Data Strategist
Michelle Hong Colenso BBDO Senior Integrated Producer
Ryan Butterfield Colenso BBDO Business Director
Charlotte Eddowes Colenso BBDO Project Manager
Nick Salter Colenso BBDO Strategy Director
Jacqui Copas Colenso BBDO Group Business Director
Vanessa Nicol Colenso BBDO Managing Partner
Cameron McColl Colenso BBDO Agency Editor
Sarah Williams Spark Brand Center of Excellence Lead
Hannah Bay Spark Brand Lead Partner
Lisa Paraku Spark Business Manager - Maori, Spark Digital
Ellie Cross Spark Corporate Relations Partner
Anaru Tuhi Spark Corporate Relations Partner
Georgina Maguire Spark Brand Partner - Social
Matty Burton Google ZOO Chief Creative Officer
Dave Bowman Google ZOO Chief Creative Officer
Iain Nealie Google ZOO Creative Director
Tara Mckenty Google ZOO Creative Director
Samuel Payne Google ZOO Strategist
Mathew Tizard Google ZOO Creative Technologist
Chris Rollings Google ZOO Executive Producer
Professor Tania Ka'ai Te Aka Maori Dictionary Professor of Maori Innovation and Development, AUT Director of Te Ipukarea - The National Maori Language Institute
Dr. Dean Mahuta Te Aka Maori Dictionary Senior Lecturer at AUT and Maori language researcher at Te Ipukarea - The National Maori Language Institute
Danushka Abeysuriya RUSH Technical Director
Trevor Gamon RUSH Project Manager
Trevor Gamon RUSH Project Manager
Olivia Dela Rosa RUSH Project Manager
Chris Skilton RUSH Account Manager
Logan Maire RUSH Technical Lead
Aaron Neugebauer RUSH Senior Developer
Adam Kent RUSH Developer
Rupert Ta'avao RUSH Developer
Harry Jackson RUSH Developer
Kit Chen RUSH Developer
Sugandha Narang RUSH Quality Assurance
Kim Baldwinson Creature Producer
Lakshman Anandanayagam Creature Visual Effects Artist
Tiki Taane Tikidub Productions Cultural Ambassador
Ninakaye Taanetinorau Tikidub Productions Manager

Describe the creative idea

One indigenous language dies every 14 days. While te reo Māori has seen an increase in revitalisation efforts here in New Zealand, learning opportunities remain limited. It is well known that language learning benefits greatly from the reinforcement of vocabulary and concepts through pictures, so image-based learning outputs are not only fun, but effective. This coupled with the convenience of smartphones becomes a powerful and versatile learning tool. Kupu, (the Māori translation for ‘word’), is an app that instantly translates the world around you into te reo Māori. Powered by Google Cloud Vision and Translate APIs, with knowledge from Te Aka Māori Dictionary, Kupu uses Machine Learning to understand objects in your photos and translate them into te reo Māori, in real time. It puts bite-sized language learning in the palm of every smartphone user in NZ.

Describe the execution

As a Kiwi company and leader in technology, Spark - New Zealand’s largest telco - was in a unique position to help deliver on their purpose: to help all of New Zealand win big in a digital world. Kupu’s complex tech has been pared back to surface its most simplified elements, ensuring that whoever picks it up can easily use it. If Kupu is a modern way to learn an indigenous language, we needed a visual language and design set that spoke to this. We used the theme of raranga, (traditional Māori weaving), as inspiration for all graphic elements in the app – a powerful metaphor for the galvanising effect of learning the language of another culture. We embraced black and red as synonymous with Māori culture, and licensed an image of a Māori girl with a traditional moko kauae on her chin – the perfect mix of modern and traditional. The app provides an effortless and fun way to explore translations for anything you can take a photo of. It also serves up the next most likely object it detects, along with audio pronunciation examples. During Māori Language Week, we blanketed Kiwis with contextually targeted translations of everyday objects wherever they turned, heroing Kupu’s camera viewfinder to transform every placement into a Kupu experience. The proposition was simple: Take a photo, learn a language.

Links

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