The second half of the AdFest winners were announced in Pattaya on Saturday night, March 22.
No Grande Lotus was awarded in Audio, Film, Effective or Integrated. No Gold was awarded in the new eCommerce category.
Australia won all three Gold Lotus Awards in Media:
- BWM Dentsu for Project Revoice for the ALS Association
- The Brand Agency for Hungry Puffs for Foodbank
- CHE Proximity for AutoAds for Calesales.com.au
BWM Dentsu also won Gold in Audio and an Innova Award for Project Revoice for the ALS Association.
Leo Burnett Melbourne won Silver in Integrated (the highest award given) for Goulburn Valley Food Tours.
Colenso BBDO won a Lotus Root for Spark, Kupu.
Here are the top performers:
AUDIO LOTUS
1 Bronze, 1 Silver and 2 Golds were awarded in Audio Lotus, but no Grande Lotus.
- McCann Worldgroup Philippines, Manila won 1 Gold for Fully Booked ‘Fully Booked Lives – Ed’.
- BWM Dentsu, Sydney, won 1 Gold for The ALS Association, ‘Project Revoice’.
Audio and film jury president, Prasoon Joshi, chairman, Asia Pacific, CEO & chief creative officer India, McCann Worldgroup, Mumbai, commented, “Project Revoice provides an innovation to help people who will lose their voice preserve their original voice. We also loved the Fully Booked campaign. It’s a beautiful idea that creates excitement around books and makes you inquisitive to read. Overall, we saw lots of innovation in Audio – creatives are redefining the category itself.”
Audio judge, Rebecca Carrasco, executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney, stated, “The Gold winners in Audio both stood out for quite different reasons. One was a beautiful radio idea, where you’re unwittingly led down the garden-path into the life of a madman, for an online bookstore. And the other was a beautiful audio idea, where the manipulation of sound gave back a voice that was a symbol of hope to so many ASL sufferers, before it was finally silenced by ASL disease.”
FILM LOTUS
9 Bronze, 4 Silver and 3 Gold awards were awarded, but no Grande Lotus. Gold awards were awarded to:
- GREYnJ UNITED, Bangkok for K Plus ‘Friendshit’
- TBWA\Santiago Mangada Puno, Manila for Bahay Tuluyan Philippines (Shelter House) ‘Disgusting Stories’
- Leo Burnett Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur for Voice of the Children ‘Speak up’.
“Friendshit stood out because the direction, casting and writing are fantastically done. ‘Disgusting Stories’ was a timeless idea, while ‘Speak Up’ is of the moment – it encourages people to do more than watch, share or like a video but to take action,” Jury president, Prasson Joshi commented.
In terms of emerging trends he noted, “If we were awarding pure craft only, we would have had a lot more winners. I would like to encourage younger generations to pay equal attention to idea and execution. Not many entries married both. There was a time when our industry felt Public Service Announcements for charity work should not win Grande awards. The time has come to reconsider this. A lot of brands are partnering more with charities. What we need to understand is that this work is brand related. We are living in a world where people do care about what their favorite brands are doing for humanity at large – they are not just consuming their products but also their brand philosophies.”
Film judge, Rebecca Carrasco, added, “Disgusting Stories was a particularly powerful idea. Using the actual illustrations that sexually abused children have drawn to communicate what happened to them, to communicate how profoundly wrong this whole issue is, creates an incredibly confronting message, which stays with you. Actually, it just rips your heart out. Had we been able to award a Grande to a PSA in this category, I don’t think we would have stopped at Gold.”
BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT LOTUS
11 Bronze, 3 Silver, 3 Gold plus 1 Grande Lotus awards were awarded.
The Grande Lotus for Branded Entertainment was awarded to:
- GREYnJ UNITED, Bangkok for K PLUS ‘Friendshit’, which also won 1 Gold.
“The jury was looking for work that was brilliant in its thinking and innovative in its execution. We wanted to shine a light on the bravest, most transformative creative ideas in the region,” explained Jury President, Mark Tutssel, Executive Chairman and Global Chief Creative Officer at Leo Burnett Worldwide, Chicago.
“We found one supreme example in ‘Friendshit’. It connected the brand, Kasikorn Bank’s K PLUS app, to people in a unique and engaging way. A brilliant and highly entertaining idea that created human value and rewarded people for their time.”
The two other Gold awards were awarded to:
- Publicis Singapore for Vicks India ‘One in a Million’
- J. Walter Thompson, Bangkok for Sunsilk ‘Hair Talk’.
EFFECTIVE LOTUS
3 Bronze, 1 Silver and 1 Gold trophy were awarded, but no Grande.
Sour Bangkok won Gold for GMM Grammy ‘Girl From Nowhere’. The series tells the story of Nanno, a mysterious schoolgirl who takes the audience on an extraordinary tale of revenge. Powered by women to empower women, the IP is co-owned by the agency and client.
“The agency created a new business model by turning themselves, ‘the creative agency for women’, into an insightful content creator. The series created incredible social impact,” stated Jury President, Mark Tutssel.
INTEGRATED LOTUS
2 Bronze and 1 Silver Lotuses were awarded, but no Grande in this category.
The standout idea in the Integrated category was created by Leo Burnett, Melbourne for Goulburn Valley. ‘Goulburn Valley Food Tours’ won Silver. The brand is pushing for full transparency by creating a labeling system that uses GPS to show consumers the exact location where food is grown.
https://youtu.be/JmuF9DJ5QDU
“Now more than ever people want to know where the food that fuels them comes from. People are smart, they want to know more. This innovative idea created human value, empowering consumers like never before, and integrated the brand into the fabric of life,” commented Jury President, Mark Tutssel, Executive Chairman and Global Chief Creative Officer at Leo Burnett Worldwide, Chicago.
INNOVA LOTUS
This year’s INNOVA finalists presented their work live to an audience of ADFEST delegates and were questioned on-stage by a panel of eight Jury Presidents. There were 40 entries to the INNOVA Lotus category with 4 INNOVA Lotus winners and 3 finalists.
This year’s INNOVA Lotus winners are:
Grey Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur for Tesco Malaysia ‘Unforgettable Bag’
BWM Dentsu, Sydney for The ALS Association ‘Project Revoice’
Leo Burnett Colombo / Leo Burnett Toronto for JAT Paints ‘Petal Paint’
FP7 McCann Dubai for Babyshop ‘Al Umobuwah: Putting ‘mum’ into ‘parenthood’.
“Creativity is a deep understanding of human behaviour that we translate into transformative solutions for our clients. We solve business problems by creating human value through creativity. The level of creativity in this future-facing category was outstanding. Highly innovative ideas that challenged the status quo and moved the industry forward,” stated Jury President Mark Tutssel.
“The four winners of this prestigious award were all outstanding examples of the alchemy of creativity, data and technology creating remarkable Human Value.”
LOTUS ROOTS
The Lotus Roots category represents the heart of ADFEST and is inspired by work that draws on the different histories and cultures of the countries and people of Asia Pacific and MENA regions. The category recognises and encourages great ideas inspired by the diversity of cultures represented at ADFEST every year.
From 146 entries, there was 1 Grande Lotus Roots winner:
FP7 McCann Dubai for Babyshop ‘Al Umobuwah: Putting ‘Mum’ into ‘Parenthood’. Babyshop became the first brand to create a new Arabic word, giving mothers across the Middle East an equal place in the Arabic word for “Parenthood”, challenging deep-rooted biases and conventions.
“This brave new word champions Mums, and has woven itself into the vernacular, and is on the verge of being included in the Arabic dictionary,” explained Grand Jury President, Mark Tutssel.
“The future will be one where fortune favours the curious, the change agents, the new creative thinkers and most importantly, those who best understand humankind. Advertising today doesn’t compete with advertising: advertising competes with popular culture. Our work has to be irresistible and more interesting and immersive than anything else people are searching for. The Lotus Roots exist to reward that level, and quality, of thinking.”
This year’s six Lotus Roots winners presented breakthrough ideas that demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of human behavior and local culture:
- Colenso BBDO, Auckland for Spark New Zealand ‘Kupu’
- Hakuhodo Kettle Inc., Tokyo for Takasaki City ‘Red Restaurants List’
- Dentsu Inc., Tokyo for Kobe Newspaper ‘Since 1995’
- Leo Burnett Colombo / Leo Burnett Toronto for JAT Paints ‘Petal Paint’
- R/GA Tokyo / Shiseido Co. Ltd., Tokyo for Shiseido ‘My Crayon Project’
- Rabbit Digital Group Company Limited, Bangkok for Siam Commercial Bank ‘Mae-ma-nee Money Solution’.
eCOMMERCE LOTUS
ADFEST introduced a new eCommerce Lotus category this year, recogniSing the rise of retail innovators and brand campaigns. 2 Bronze and 3 Silver Lotuses were awarded.
“It’s an honour to be judging this new category, especially with the eCommerce boom in this region. The judges were delighted to see works where eCommerce isn’t just playing a supporting role, but is at the heart of the consumer experience. Ideas that found insightful ways to put consumers at the centre of the creative solution and the user experience shined in this category,” said Jury President, Mitsuyuki Nakamura, Global President, dentsu X, London.
“Although we couldn’t identify an entry that clearly stood out above the rest, we were still encouraged by the submissions that clearly found insightful ways to connect through this thriving medium. We’re confident that we’ll see more amazing eCommerce works in the future, as it becomes ubiquitous in this region.”
Silver awards were awarded to:
- Hakuhodo Inc., Tokyo for Vegi-Bus ‘Vegi-Bus’
- AKQA Shanghai for Nike ‘Never Done Shop’
TenCent, Hong Kong for TenCent ‘We Remit’.
MEDIA LOTUS
14 Bronze, 8 Silver and 3 Gold Lotus awards were awarded, but no Grande Lotus.
“The diversity and complexity of media made this an exciting yet challenging category to judge. The judges were looking for ideas that clearly took advantage of a human insight, and understood the role of their respective media in connecting the dots to solve a business challenge,” said Jury President, Mitsuyuki Nakamura.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the work seemed to showcase the use of media for the sake of it, rather than using real insights to make a meaningful, sustainable contribution to business results. Perhaps this is a sign that we need do more to keep up with the complexities and opportunities of media. And to ultimately dig deeper to understand the consumer we hope our media would connect with.”
The Gold awards were awarded to:
BWM Dentsu, Sydney for The ALS Association, ‘Project Revoice’
The Brand Agency, Perth for Foodbank WA ‘Hungry Puffs’
CHE Proximity, Melbourne for Carsales.com.au ‘AutoAds’.
Download the full winners lists here.
