The winners in AdFest’s first ten categories have been announced. Australia has done well.

CHE Proximity won the Grande Lotus Award in Direct for Carsales.com.au AutoAds. It also won two Gold Lotus Awards in the Direct Lotus category.

Other Gold Lotus Award winners from Australia are:

• The Brand Agency Perth (x2) with Gold in each of Design and Direct for Foodbank WA, Hungry Puffs
• BWM Dentsu Sydney (x2) with Gold in each of Interactive and Direct for The AIS Association Project Revoice
• The Monkeys Melbourne and Level Two Music (x1) with Gold in Print Craft for Holden ‘Not to be Outdone’.

https://youtu.be/1a0wbjDIoAQ

INTERACTIVE LOTUS

6 Bronze, 4 Silver and 2 Gold awards were handed out. There was no Grande awarded. Two Gold Lotuses in Interactive were awarded to:

• Dentsu Inc., Tokyo for Gatsby Perfect Skin Lotion, “The Kawaii Tweak Hazard Song’
• BWM Dentsu, Sydney for The AIS Association ‘Project Revoice’.

Interactive and Mobile Jury president and International Executive Creative Director, Google New York, Natalie Lam, noted, “What we liked about ‘The Kawaii Tweak Hazard Song’ is it has high entertainment value while also making us question our addiction to social media and why we spend so much time on it. It’s fun; it made us laugh. We also loved Project Revoice, which is not only an impressive piece of technology but it serves a bigger human purpose. We really could see how giving back someone’s voice is such a magical, moving thing.”

MOBILE LOTUS

3 Bronze, 5 Silver and 1 Gold Lotus awards were awared. There was no Grande awarded. Hakuhodo Inc., Tokyo won Gold for Panasonic Hearing Instruments ‘Bird Hearing Test’.

“This is a very charming piece of work. When people lose their hearing, they can no longer hear certain birdcalls. So Hakuhodo created an app encouraging people to test their hearing in the forest by listening for different birds. It’s essentially a hearing diagnostic tool, but it makes the experience fun, and uses a lot of data to turn a dry subject into a very charming experience,” stated Interactive and Mobile Jury president Natalie Lam.

“Overall, I’m really amazed at the number of non-tech brands in Asia, particularly Japan and Korea, that are using AI and data in really interesting ways,” says Lam.

DESIGN LOTUS

12 Bronze, 10 Silver, 6 Gold and 1 Grande Lotus awards were given. The Grande Design Lotus was awarded to Innocean Worldwide, Seoul for Hyundai Motor Company ‘2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic, Paralympic Hyundai Pavilion’.

“Innocean’s campaign for Hyundai is a really fantastic piece of design, executed at a huge scale. We were very impressed with this category overall – one thing I love about Asian award shows is that you see different local cultures embedded in the work. In some sub-categories in particular, such as Posters, we saw incredible amounts of excellent, very diverse work,” said Design and Print Craft Jury president Ali Rez, Regional Creative Director, Impact BBDO Middle East & Pakistan, Dubai & Lahore.

Barbara Humphries, Creative Director at The Monkeys, Sydney also judged the Design and Print Craft Lotus categories. She said: “I thought the quality of the work overall was of a really high standard, and there were many outstanding pieces. Print is a wonderfully tactile medium and that plays a huge role in how we view and experience the design itself. Continually seeing design and communication online, it’s easy to forget how fundamental our senses are in appreciating craft on a physical and human level.”

She added, “For us it came down to the integration of the idea through the physical experience of the work, the chosen visual language, and the impact of the design itself. It was a really moving piece of work.”

Six Gold awards in Design were awarded to:

• TBWA\Hakuhodo Inc., Tokyo for AIG Japan Holdings ‘Pride Jersey’

https://youtu.be/r_8QaYRfSQE

• TBWA\India, Mumbai for Neurogen Brain and Spine Institute ‘Blink to Speak’

• Dentsu Inc., Tokyo for Kanazawa High School Sumo Wrestling Tournament ‘72 Posters for School Teams participating in the High School Sumo Tournament – Project to increase Sumo Wrestlers’
• Dentsu Inc., Tokyo/ Que Corporation for Ofurobu ‘Find a new face of ‘Ofuro’’
• The Brand Agency, Perth for Foodbank WA ‘Hungry Puffs’
• TBWA\Santiago Mangada Puno, Manila for Pacific Paint (Boysen) Philippines Inc. ‘This is a tree’.

PRINT CRAFT LOTUS

4 Bronze, 7 Silver, 4 Gold and 1 Grande Lotus awards. The Grande Lotus for Print Craft was awarded to Ogilvy Hong Kong for KFC Hong Kong ‘Hot & Spicy campaign’.

“This is fantastic work from its conceptual design to the craft, which is awesome – but it’s also a client’s dream because the product is so large. They did it so well, it’s just a really beautiful piece of work,” said Design and Print Craft Jury President Ali Rez, Regional Creative Director, Impact BBDO Middle East & Pakistan, Dubai & Lahore.

Print Craft judge, Barbara Humphries, added, “This one was a bit of a no brainer, as it was so strong in so many of the sub-categories. A very humbling example of a simple idea executed faultlessly.”

Gold awards in Print Craft were also awarded to:

• Ogilvy Hong Kong for KFC Hong Kong ‘Dragster’
• Ogilvy Hong Kongfor KFC Hong Kong ‘Hot & Spicy Campaign’
• Illusion Co., Ltd., Bangkok and Ogilvy Group Thailand, Bangkok for Freeland ‘Kill one, Kill all’

• Cheil Worldwide, Hong Kong for JBL (ITECT Ltd) ‘Block out the Chaos Campaign’.

BRAND EXPERIENCE & ENGAGEMENT LOTUS

The Brand Experience & Engagement Lotus was formerly called the Promo Lotus category. From 230 entries, there were 6 Bronze, 9 Silver, 5 Gold and 1 Grande Lotus awards. The Grande Lotus was awarded to Dentsu Inc., Tokyo for Chicken Ramen ‘Akuma No Kimura (Demonically Spicy Ramen)’.

“The Grande winner is full of fun and happy energy. This devilish campaign showed the boldness of transforming Chicken Ramen’s lovely character Hiyoko-chan into a monster chicken full of evil energy. It’s a great idea to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the world’s oldest ramen, and it’s a powerful animation and witty story that’s going to spread through social networks. It completely captivated the judges, and most of all, it was a perfect fit for the category,” commented Kate Hyewon Oh, Chief Creative Officer at Cheil Worldwide, Seoul and this year’s Brand Experience & Engagement and Direct Jury president.

“The overall level of entries in this category was very high. We laughed or cried during the judging because there was a lot of empathy shown in the ideas, which actually drive the market and create a lot of repercussions at a fraction of the cost,” she added.

The Gold winners were:

• Dentsu Inc., Tokyo for SOH ‘Play with your food’
• TBWA\Hakuhodo Inc., Tokyo for AIG Japan Holdings, ‘Pride Jersey’
• BBDO Bangkok for Mercedes-Benz Vans ‘The Universal Language of Pain’

• Hakuhodo Kettle Inc., Tokyo for Y!Mobile ‘720 Hours of Youth’

• Hakuhodo Kettle Inc., Tokyo for Takasaki City ‘Red Restaurants List’

DIRECT LOTUS

4 Bronze, 3 Silver, 8 Gold and 1 Grande Lotus trophies were awarded. The Grande Lotus for Direct was awarded to CHE Proximity, Melbourne for Carsales.com.au ‘AutoAds’, which also won two Gold Lotuses.

“Auto Ads was unanimously chosen by all of us. It’s a really smart campaign that tailors the business of selling used cars directly to consumer’s needs. Consumers have a wonderful experience with their uploaded cars and even their names appearing on TV and online in cool advertisements. It is a perfect campaign in terms of scale and outcome,” said Brand Experience & Engagement and Direct Jury president, Kate Hyewon Oh.

She added, “We are seeing more and more consumer involvement in the creative process, and creating results together. Consumers are no longer audiences, but colleagues and competitors on the creative stage. Sometimes I’m afraid of those changes as a creator, but if we accept that creative is not a one-way show, but a journey that’s being made together with consumers, we’ll find many possibilities in this trend.”

The Gold winners were:

• Hakuhodo Kettle Inc., Tokyo for Takasaki City ‘Red Restaurants List’, which won two Golds
• The Brand Agency, Perth for Foodbank WA ‘Hungry Puffs’
• Cheil Worldwide, Seoul for Firevase ‘Firevase’

• CHE Proximity, Melbourne for Cochlear ‘Hearprint’
• BWM Dentsu, Sydneyfor The ALS Association ‘Project Revoice’.

OUTDOOR LOTUS

6 Bronze, 5 Silver, 4 Gold and 1 Grande Lotuses were awarded. The Grande Lotus for Outdoor was awarded to J. Walter Thompson, Bangkok for Netflix ‘Narcos The Censor’s Cut’.

“The quantity of finalists might have gone down in the Outdoor and Press categories, but the quality of the winners retains its high standards,” said Outdoor and Press Jury president Yang Yeo, Asia Pacific ‘Creative Kaiju’ at Hakuhodo Inc., Tokyo.

“Reflective of the current media landscape, Print as a medium continues to dwindle, but Outdoor on the other hand is getting more exciting – especially when mobile, tech and social are incorporated seamlessly into the idea and the execution,” says Yeo.

This year’s Gold Outdoor winners are:

• Wieden+Kennedy, Shanghaifor Nike China, ‘Nike React Stunt’

• Innored, Seoul for The North Face ‘Super Air Down Drone Attack’
• Ogilvy Hong Kong for KFC Hong Kong ‘Hot & Spicy Campaign’
• TBWA\Thailand, Bangkok for McDonald’s ‘The All Nighters Campaign’.

PRESS LOTUS

4 Bronze, 1 Silver, 1 Gold and 1 Grande Lotus trophies were given. The Grande Lotus for Press was awarded to Ogilvy Hong Kong for the KFC Hong Kong ‘Hot & Spicy’ campaign. One Gold trophy was also awarded to TBWA\Thailand, Bangkok for McDonald’s ‘The All Nighters’ campaign.

“Both Grande winners in Press and Outdoor are big ideas, creating big impact, for big brands,” Yang Yeo commented.

FILM CRAFT LOTUS

11 Bronze, 7 Silver, 6 Gold and 1 Grande Lotus awards were given out. The Grande Lotus was awarded to Shiseido Co. Ltd., Tokyo for Shiseido ‘The Party Bus’, directed by Towerfilm Tokyo, which also won 1 Gold Lotus.

https://youtu.be/vvW75yBFvbk

“Overall there was some really strong work. I think what made the winners worthy was that we found ourselves wanting to award them in multiple categories – even ones they hadn’t submitted for! It’s a true testament to their overall quality of craft that their excellence wasn’t limited to just one area but we saw excellence throughout these pieces,” said Film Craft and New Director Jury president Ali Brown, Partner and Executive Producer at Prettybird, Los Angeles.

She added, “There seemed to be a return to classicism of sorts. Rather than seeing work that sort of challenged the category or showed real innovation, the work overall felt much more traditional. The craft was still quite good but in a classically cinematic way versus anything that felt really progressive or groundbreaking. There are of course always exceptions, but in general this was the trend we sensed when looking across the landscape of entries.”

The Gold winners were:

• GREYnJ United, Bangkokfor K Plus ‘Friendshit’ (x4)

• The Monkeys, Melbourneand Level Two Music, Melbourne for Holden ‘Not to be Outdone’.

 NEW DIRECTOR LOTUS

From 18 entries, there were 2 Bronze and 1 Gold awards, but no Grande Lotus in this category. The Gold Lotus was awarded to Linkfilms, Shanghai for WABC ‘The Role’.

“Having judged New Director categories in other shows in the past, I will say that this year’s winner is one of the best pieces of work I’ve ever seen in that category in any festival worldwide. It is a real achievement in filmmaking for a new director, or any director, and I hope it goes on to win many awards,” stated Ali Brown.

FABULOUS FIVE

ADFEST’s Fabulous Five program is one of the world’s most respected platforms for kick-starting the careers of commercial directors. Five directors with less than two years’ experience were invited to direct 5-minute short films inspired by the theme of ADFEST 2019, TMRRW.TDAY.

Mai Murata, Assistant Director from Dentsu Creative X Inc., Tokyo who was awarded a Commendation for her short film, “My Jellyfish”.

Film Craft and New Director Jury president, Ali Brown, noted, “We were blown away by the quality of these films. We ended up with films that for the majority far exceeded our expectation of what would be delivered and that was a really inspiring surprise. I’m personally very passionate about supporting emerging directors and I could see that these Fabulous Five not only were all truly gifted, but had incredible support systems in place that really helped them bring their vision to life at the highest level. That fusion of great young talent with strong production support is really what’s needed to bring forth the best next generation of filmmakers and it’s quite rare to have that combination.

“As for the winner, it was very close but ultimately one film rose to the top for its excellence across so many facets of production.  For an emerging filmmaker it was a great testament that you cannot solely have a cool concept or a great actor, but need to make sure that every element of your filmmaking is strong.”

The other finalists are: Jo Motoyo, Director from Tokyo/Taiyo Kikaku Co., Ltd., Tokyo; Naoto Mitake, Director from AOI Pro. Inc., Tokyo & Directors Think Tank, Kuala Lumpur; Rin Soejima, Director from AOI Pro. Inc., Tokyo; and Tomu Yamaguchi, Director from AOI Pro. Inc., Tokyo.