BBDO regained its firm grip on the Network of the Year in Cresta Awards special awards this year. Serviceplan repeated its stellar performance as Independent Network of the Year.
The BBDO win was secured by a strong performance from AMV BBDO, which returned to glory as Agency of the Year at Cresta, a position it has held before but not in recent years. The London agency’s haul of one Grand Prix, for the film, RESPECT, for animal protection group, RSPCA, plus three Gold, five Silver and five Bronze awards helped to create its network success, with extensive support from around the group, notably BBBDO New York, Impact BBDO Dubai, BBDO LA, BBDO Italy and BBDO Nordics.
Chris Beresford-Hill, BBDO worldwide chief creative officer, commented, “We’re especially proud of winning for making real work for real clients. Thank you to the folks at Cresta for honouring big ideas in both big and small spaces.”
Serviceplan also doubled its haul of special honours, adding a Jury Chair prize to its independent network title. This was for the Space Trash Signs project, an app that visualises and alarmingly explains the consequences of 160m pieces of ‘space trash’ orbiting earth, made for start-up tech company Privateer Inc.
Alex Schill, CCO of Serviceplan Group, commented, “We are incredibly proud that we’ve retained the title of Independent Network of the Year, and honored to see the Space Trash Signs project recognised on such a prestigious stage. These accolades prove how powerful creativity can be in driving awareness and change.”
Jury chair, Yasu Sasaki, global CCO of Dentsu, stated, “This is a great example of how, as a creative, we can use technology to make social issues that were previously invisible more beautifully visible, so that everyone can become aware of them.”
Sasaki also gave a special honour to Edelman for its Code My Crown project created for Dove. The integrated campaign challenged the lack of diversity in computer games, enabling the creation and celebration of Black Hair within games. He stated, ‘‘It is wonderful that they are not only raising awareness about DEI in gaming, but also developing solutions and distributing them as open source so that they can be used widely in society.”
Jamie Cordwell, Edelman global executive creative director, commented, “We’d like to extend our thanks to Yasu Sasaki and the jury, who have taken their time to consider Code My Crown for this honour. We are excited to announce that we’re working with three leading gaming studios to adopt the guide and upskill their developers.”
Sasaki and Dentsu also had something to celebrate in its own right as Dentsu was named Runner-Up Network of the Year.
Riff Raff took back the Cresta Awards Production Company of the Year title, following a strong performance for its John Lewis & Partners’ Christmas film, Snapper: the Perfect Tree, as well as the music video, Angry, for the Rolling Stones.
The Cresta Awards, run by the organisation Creative Standards International, is a global competition that is unique in its jury format and process, which aims to avoid ‘groupthink’ and focuses on developing more fair and consistent judging standards.
