If you’re reading this in the blog view, you will find above a rather adorable picture of a dog wearing glasses.

If you’re not reading this in the blog view, you should really head on over – he truly is a dashing looking pooch.

The photo doesn’t really have anything to do with anything, but seeing as Grant Sputore is currently away in New York and was unable to be photographed at the PADC awards accepting his director of the year prize in person, a spectacle wearing dog photo seems as good a replacement as any.

Along with collecting the Director Of The Year Prize, The Penguin Empire was acknowledged for its involvement in handful of other spots that were listed as finalists or took home some metal on the evening.

Grant also took home a “Best Of Category” for his editing work on one the AA commercials.

We wanted to take this chance to send out a big thank you to everyone who helped out on any Penguin projects over the last twelve months and to the agency’s who gave us so many great opportunities to make great ads.

Thanks again.

The Penguins… and a spectacle wearing dog.

So we’d seen the commercials and we had our suspicions, but working with him for ad agency 303 confirmed our theory – Dale Alcock is a really nice guy.

He’s the kinda guy that, if he really likes the ad you’ve made him, he’ll go out of his way to courier you a carton of beer with a hand written card.

The card was touching, the beer was tasty and the courier must have been expensive – so thanks Dale!

He also builds the best homes in WA and, now, thanks to some ingenious creative and strategy from 303, he may have the best homebuilding ad to go with it.

Thank you to everyone involved, in particular: the crew at DA Homes, the kids at 303, Last Pixel (for the ad’s seamless effects work), The Office Of John Cheese, Soundbyte and Nylon for the awesome music track.

Apologies in advance if the song gets stuck in your head.

Two magazine covers back to back.  Anyone would think we’re one of the stars of Twilight.

Sadly we can’t claim having a rock-hard six pack or a newsworthy on set romance but we can say we’ve been on the cover of Campaign Brief for two issues in a row.

Earlier this year Campaign Brief put The Penguin Empire on their cover following our Alcoholics Anonymous commercials winning Best Television Campaign at the Campaign Brief Awards.  The headline was “What Next For The Penguin Empire?”  Fortunately for us, what came next was a brilliant script by Guy Howlett and Nathan Teoh for rail safety in South Australia.  The finished commercial – Horsepower – has been incredibly well received nationally and is now getting some additional PR on the cover of Campaign Brief’s latest issue.

Thanks again to all involved and in particular Guy, Nathan and Marketforce for the opportunity.

Also we need to say a big thank you to the guys at Campaign Brief!

Watch this space for Horsepower news as it comes to hand… and any scandalous on set gossip (we’re still working on the six-pack).