Cultural campaigns take home metals at ADFEST 2016, BBDO is Network of the Year

PATTAYA – ADFEST 2016 announced on Saturday the second and last round of this year’s winners.

A majority of the campaigns that the jury awarded with the coveted Grande Lotus address cultural issues using creative ideas and execution. Clearly, the theme “Creative Intelligence” is in play not just in the line up of seminars and workshops but as well as the winning works that the 2016 jury looked for.

In an interview with adobo magazine, Global Chief Creative Officer of Innocean Worldwide, Seoul Jeremy Craigen shared the direction that he wanted to take as the Grand Jury President, “The thing I really wanted to do was to bring out the culture of this region. There’s a danger in the world with global awards that’s like a global voice and it doesn’t really speak to the people. It speaks to awards juries. I really wanted to see work and promote work that spoke of the culture.”

For the three categories that the jury presidents judged, the Lotus Roots, Innova Lotus and Integrated Lotus, BBDO agencies scooped the three top awards. Whisper ’Touch the Pickle’ by BBDO India won the Grande for Lotus Roots, Colenso BBDO’s Brewtroleum took the Grande Innova Lotus while BBDO Bangkok’s ‘Moto Repellent’ campaign was awarded with the Grande for Humanity–a huge contribution to BBDO being named as the Network of the Year.

‘Touch the Pickle’ is a campaign that aim to shatter the ancient myth in India that consider women’s menstruation as taboo while ‘Brewtroleum’ encourages motorists to lessen their carbon footprint by using beer as fuel. ‘Moto Repellent’ was created to solve the widespread mosquito-borne diseases in Thailand using motorcycle exhaust fumes.

No winner, however, was selected for the Integrated Lotus category.

Watch Grand Jury President Jeremy Craigen’s comments about the winners:

The Grande Media Lotus winner, ‘Keep the Flame Alive’ for Johnnie Walker by Leo Burnett Beirut, was a campaign that helped the Lebanese to become resilient in the face of adversity by reminding them what they are capable of. Another Grande winner that aim to bring confidence to its country’s people was the SPC #MyFamilyCan by Leo Burnett Melbourne. This campaign promoted awareness about how Australians produce only the cleanest and safest food by putting the photos of the families themselves.

Some Grande campaigns like the Ocedel ’Firefly Man’ by Nitto Tokyo for Film Lotus and Radio Lotus top winner ‘Beer-Lingual Malts by McCann Worldgroup Japan are leaning on the lighter side but are equally brilliant campaigns as shared by the jury. Meanwhile, the Grande Promo Lotus was scooped by KT Life Saving TV by Cheil Worldwide.

Watch the jury comments for the mentioned categories:

Under the special awards, Dentsu Inc. Tokyo was named the Agency of the Year, Direct & Promo Agency of the Year, and Interactive Agency of the Year. The Production Company of the Year went to Illusion Bangkok and The Butcher Sydney while P&G was awarded the Advertiser of the Year.

“The strength of the BBDO Asia network is our ability to mine focused local insights, from them develop effective and creative platforms, deliver these across a wide geography and do this across multiple media efficiently,” said Jean Paul Burge, Chairman and CEO of BBDO Asia. “Doing this consistently for more clients in more places is what we aim to do every day. Winning Network of the Year at ADFEST while holding the Cannes, Spikes and AME’s crown confirms that we are doing the right thing every day.”