AdFest’s final awards were the Of The Year Awards, Lotus Grande for Humanity and Lotus Legend. Australia’s Ant Keogh became this year’s Lotus Legend.

Lotus Legend

Ant Keogh, chief creative officer of The Monkeys Melbourne has been named Lotus Legend at Adfest: Transform 2018. He is ranked #7 creative in the world by BestAds. In the 2017 Big Won Report he was ranked #1 chief creative officer in the World. As a copywriter, his most famous work is the on-going Carlton Draught Made from Beer campaign featuring Big Ad. As executive creative director, he guided Gold Lion winning campaigns such as TAC Meet Graham, Snickers Hungerithm, Bonds The Boys, Victoria Tourism’s Remote Control Tourist, National Australia Bank’s Break Up, Four ‘n’ Twenty’s Magic Salad Plate, Australian Guide Dogs’ Support Scent and Carlton Draught’s Slo Mo and Beer Chase.

He has previously served on the Cannes Lions Print Jury in 2010, Film & TV Jury in 2013 and the Titanium Jury in 2015.

Jimmy Lam, President of AdFest, commented, “Ant creates the kind of ads that are remembered and talked about for years afterwards. His work is funny, provocative, memorable and effective, which makes him a worthy winner of this year’s Lotus Legend accolade.”

Keogh is currently filming in New Zealand but accepted the accolade remotely. “It’s an awfully big honour to win something like this. It’s impossible to thank everyone that’s involved in an award like this – this is really about hundreds of people who have been involved in the work I’ve made. But I should quickly thank James McGrath [creative chairman at Clemenger BBDO] and all the people who have worked at Clemenger BBDO in Melbourne for the last 10 years that I was there, Y&R Melbourne before that and Mojo in the dark ages,” he said.

Lotus Legend is nominated by all 56 judges of this year’s Lotus Awards. Each is asked to put forward one creative contender, either previously or currently active in the advertising and communication industry of Asia Pacific or Middle East region. He or she must have achieved creative excellence while working in those regions, as well as being a role model to new creative generations.

Of the Year Awards

• TBWA\Hakuhodo, Tokyo, won Agency of the Year 2018.
• Choojai & Friends, Bangkok won Independent Agency of the Year.
• Dentsu won Network of the Year. The group of fifteen offices that entered the ADFEST Lotus Awards includes its network agencies from Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Melbourne, Mumbai, Osaka, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei and Tokyo,
• R/GA Sydney won Digital Agency of the Year.
• McCann Worldgroup India, Mumbai won Direct & Promo Agency of the Year.
• Tohokushinsha Film Corporation, Tokyo won Production Company of the Year.
• Ministry of Public Health, Afghanistan won Advertiser of the Year.

Lotus Grande For Humanity

Work submitted for public services & cause appeals in the Lotus Awards is not eligible to win a Grande Lotus in the main Lotus Award categories. Instead, Adfest has created The Lotus Grande for Humanity to applaud creative excellence in this sector.

This special award can be given out to work winning Gold Lotus for public services & cause appeals in the Film, Press, Outdoor, Radio, Interactive, Mobile, Direct, Promo, Design and Media Lotus Categories and to winners in the Public Services and Cause Appeals category for Branded Content & Entertainment, Effective, Integrated and Innova Lotus,

This year, the Lotus Grande for Humanity was won by Dentsu Inc., Tokyo for Disaster Prevention Emergency Collectibles in the Press Lotus, Best Use of Print, category.

Grand Jury President, Joyce King Thomas, chairman and chief creative officer of McCann XBC, New York summed up the jury’s thinking, “This [piece of print] was beautifully done, but the most interesting thing about it was how it provoked a conversation and got families to sit down and talk about what they would pack for an emergency. It’s a very important issue in Japan, where earthquakes can be felt in Tokyo every month.”