New Zealand is a remote Island on the other side of the world, with lots of sheep and a lot less people. But what it lacks in manpower it seems to make up for in creativity. Funnily enough, New Zealand with a population of just 5 million people, manages to punch severely above its weight in the creative rankings at advertising festivals. For example: NZ has won 31 yellow pencils at the prestigious D&AD festival – a competition that is famously difficult to win. Germany, with a population sixteen times bigger, has won 44. And last year at Cannes, New Zealand won 1.8 lions per million people of population. Whereas the most successful nation at the festival – the USA – won just 0,7 lions per million people of population. Being a kiwi myself, I thought I would try to hypothesize as to why a remote island in the south pacific has somehow managed to put itself on advertising’s creative map. Who knows, maybe we can all benefit a little from this island mentality?