A look at the political billboards that Ogilvy have designed.
Billboards with politicians' grinning faces and graffiti are a sight Kiwis are used to every election year as those wanting to get into government compete for our votes.
But are political parties marketing themselves the best way possible?
The Herald on Sunday asked the experts - five creatives from advertising giant Ogilvy & Mather New Zealand - how they'd use hoardings to promote National, Labour, New Zealand First, the Greens and ACT.
Group creative directors Jonathan McMahon and Lisa Fedyszyn - who recently joined the agency after spending two years at Droga5 New York, where they worked on Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential election campaign - along with executive creative director Regan Grafton, art director Sam Henderson and creative Kent Briggs, redesigned the parties' current billboards and revamped their slogans.
Fedyszyn said the team liked the slogan "Let's do this" and would stick with it if they were in charge.
"It's a real strong call to action and I think it builds off the energy of their new leader. I think there's definitely a different feeling about it with that message compared to the rest of the parties as well."
Over the years Labour had eroded its traditional supporter base of the working classes, so the campaign should be about reminding voters what the party stands for and going back to such issues as healthcare, education and housing.
The party could use its old billboards featuring ex-leader Andrew Little, who stood down two weeks ago, to communicate messages about its policies in an innovative way, she told the Herald on Sunday.
"We don't actually think they should take them down. We think they should use this as an example of ways that they would save money."
"[With a billboard in front of a school] you could patch it and say, 'Instead of re-skinning this billboard, we spent the money to buy 100 books for the school'."
A Labour Party billboard re-imagined by Ogilvy & Mather creatives. Photo / Supplied by Ogilvy & Mather
Another way to promote the party, Fedyszyn suggested, could be to erect a billboard over Auckland's heavily congested Dominion Rd with the messaging: "From here to the city in 15 minutes, $15 billion for better transport", to remind commuters stuck in traffic of one of the reasons to vote Labour.
An Ogilvy & Mather artist's impression of a Labour billboard on heavily congested Dominion Rd in Auckland. Image / Ogilvy & Mather NZ
The National Party
The tagline, "delivering for New Zealand", spoke directly to National Party voters but the party's billboards didn't explain how the party had delivered for Kiwis, Grafton said.
"They should be talking up all the great things they have done because there are lots of great proof points none of the other parties can talk about."
How the National Party could remind people of it achievements during the last nine years in power. Image / Ogilvy & Mather NZ
National could put up a billboard for Transport Minister Simon Bridge by the entrance to the Waterview Tunnel.
"Talking up the fact that 'we delivered this tunnel, vote for Simon Bridges' would be more inspiring than just having his name and a tick," Grafton said.
The Nats could remind people of how they'd reduced unemployment during the last nine years in power by strategically putting a billboard near a building site. Image / Ogilvy & Mather
As the incumbent, the party had the advantage of being able to reference positive changes the Nats had made during the past nine years in power.
The Green Party
Grafton said he would advise the Greens to change their initial slogan "great together" because it might be seen as ironic in light of the turmoil within the party after co-leader Metiria Turei's recent admission of benefit fraud - and her eventual stepping down.
A solar power billboard could get conservative voters onboard by showing how a Green economy would work. Image / Ogilvy & Mather
He suggested "Green: Tomorrow starts today" might be a better fit.
"That's talking to a green future, a green technology future but it can also talk environmental issues."
Conservative voters often saw the party's economic policies as lacking credibility, but in fact the future was green.
"In the next 50 years we're going to be driving electric cars and it's all about clean fuels, which actually does tie back into them so they should own that and gain some credibility in those areas," Grafton said.
The party could illustrate this by incorporating green technology in its billboards.
Last week the Greens relaunched its campaign with the slogan "Love New Zealand" - the same buzz words they used at the 2014 election.
Winston Peter 's twitter feed appears on digital billboard. Image / Ogilvy & Mather NZ
New Zealand First
New Zealand First's slogan - "stand with us" - was somewhat inward-facing, Fedyszyn said,
"They were asking you to join them, New Zealand First, but they weren't telling you what they were going to do to improve New Zealand, which I think is really important if you're going to actually vote for them.
"Their ideology is really nationalistic. It's all about keeping the money in New Zealand, New Zealand owned. They're really positive things to talk about.
"Even though they can seem Right [wing], they are really more centre and so they can really attract a younger, more rational audience if they put themselves as putting New Zealand First."
Instead of using traditional manual billboards, Fedyszyn said she'd advise New Zealand First to use digital adshels and billboards that could automatically display leader Winston Peters' tweets.
"He's their mouth piece. He tweets every single day and so our idea really became about what if we use that and he actually becomes the campaign copywriter and we make him the voice of all their communications."
A party that's about giving you choice, has billboards that do the same - David Seymour for Act. Image / Ogilvy & Mather NZ
Act
Act's philosophy was about Kiwis keeping their money in their pocket rather than it going to the Government, McMahon said.
Although it was often seen as being a very conservative party, the creatives believed Act could potentially position itself as being more centre and capture despondent National and Labour voters.
"The idea is to show people that Act's beliefs are practical and they have a choice of how they run the country and putting the power back in people's hands."
But the party's current tagline - "Own your future" - lent itself to privatisation, which could put off centre voters, McMahon said.
"We've come up with this line: 'It's your choice'. Basically, it's talking about they should have the choice of what they do with their money. We thought that's a more apt line - it's about Act's belief structure, which is based on personal choice."
Ogilvy & Mather's revamped Act hoardings resembled a traditional political billboard with a check box and photo of the party's leader David Seymour, playing on the idea of choice, but giving the voter two options - such as: "Is it more justice, or more crime? It's your choice".
