PATTAYA – The 20th ADFEST wrapped up this year’s four-day Festival with an Awards Presentation at PEACH, Royal Cliff Hotels Group in Pattaya, Thailand on Saturday, 25th March 2017.
Close to 1200 delegates from 69 cities in total attended the advertising creativity festival, and soaked up after international speaker sessions, breakout workshops, networking events and the huge exhibition of 3,011 entries across 18 awards categories.
Jimmy Lam, President of ADFEST summed up, “We are very fortunate this year to have an extremely diligent group of Juries judging the ADFEST Lotus Awards. Every individual, but especially the Super Eight panel of Jury Presidents committed their time and really went the extra mile to ensure that the award results were fair and the outcome was something they could be proud of. We truly appreciate their efforts and their commitment to making ADFEST a respected festival of note on the world stage.”
LOTUS AWARDS
The final awards presentation was held at PEACH on Saturday, 25th March 2017 to announce Young Lotus, Radio, Film, Media, Effective, Branded Content & Entertainment, Integrated, INNOVA Lotus, Lotus Roots and Special awards before delegates were treated to a festive After Party held at the atmospheric Infini Pool at the Royal Cliff Beach Resort, Royal Cliff Hotels Group.
RADIO LOTUS
This year there were 76 entries for Radio Lotus. Film & Radio Lotus Jury President Wain Choi, Senior Vice President & Chief Creative Officer of Cheil Worldwide, Inc., Seoul said, “Ten or 15 years ago, everyone thought radio would be obsolete, but it’s still alive. Not enough agencies and advertisers are creating radio campaigns. My advice to creative directors is that as an industry, we should do more radio because there’s so much potential in this category.”
6 awards were announced, including 4 Bronze, 1 Silver and 1 Gold Lotus.
The Radio Gold Lotus award was won by McCann Worldgroup India, Mumbai for Nescafe “The Dead Hour By Nescafe” in the Retail, Travel, Entertainment & Communication Media category.
FILM LOTUS
There were 366 entries submitted for Film Lotus, the largest awards category at ADFEST this year.
Film & Radio Lotus Jury President Wain Choi, Senior Vice President & Chief Creative Officer of Cheil Worldwide, Inc., Seoul said “There is a transformation occurring within the Film category, which is moving away from 30-second TV commercials towards longer formats – but we haven’t got it right yet. We as creators need to edit ourselves, we should still have discipline and make our stories tight. I think we need to get back to the purity of film, and get back to the basics: originality, relevance to the product or brand, and execution. None of the basics have changed.”
25 Film Lotus awards were announced, including 15 Bronze, 7 Silver and 3 Gold. No Grande Lotus was awarded in Film Lotus this year.
“The Gold winners were all very good, including a music video made especially for a vertical mobile format. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that, it’s very original and groundbreaking. We also loved an Australian campaign raising awareness of Parkinson’s – the way it is filmed is very shocking. It gets to you, and it’s an interesting way of seeing a public service. We also awarded Miso Soup Kawaii because the delivery is so original and the execution is designed to make a younger crowd see the product in a different way,” says Choi.
The 3 Gold awards were won by:
Dentsu Inc./ Tohokushinsha Film Corporation, Tokyo for The World’s First Kawaii (Cute) Miso Soup, “The World’s First Kawaii (Cute) Miso Soup” in the Food category;
J Walter Thompson Sydney for Parkinson’s NSW “The Lucky Ones” in Internet Film: Public Services & Cause Appeals category and finally,
TBWA\Hakuhodo Inc., Tokyo for Lyrical School “Native Mobile Music Video” in the Viral Film category.
EFFECTIVE LOTUS
The Effective Lotus had increased to gain popularity and attracted 54 entries for ADFEST 2017. Entries must show results achieved against the strategy as well as the creative work and are judged on all three criteria.
7 new trophies were given out in total, which included 6 Effective and 1 Grande Lotus awards. One Effective Lotus awards was given in the Effective Lotus – Campaign Success category:
DO (Dentsu & Beacon)/Leo Burnett and Beacon Communications KK, Tokyo for McDonald’s “Name It Burger”;
The other five Effective Lotus awards were given to work in the Effective Lotus: Small budget category. The winners were:
Publicis China, Guangzhou for Tencent Charity/Xihan Action “Pocket with Love”;
McCann Melbourne for Seeing Eye Dogs Australia “Free Puppies Forever”
I&S BBDO, Tokyo for Hiroshima Tourism “Cat Street View”
Dentsu Inc., Tokyo for Organ Transplant “Second Life Toys” and
The Leo Burnett Group Thailand, Bangkok for Uhmpang Hospital Foundation “Forward the Cure”
Jury President of Media Lotus and Effective Lotus Victor Manggunio, Chief Creative Officer from Leo Burnett China, Shanghai, said: “We felt this category had the least understanding amongst the entrants. More often than not, the results didn’t match the setup of the campaigns. From objective to strategy to results, Effective Lotus entries need to be much better packaged.”
“However, it was a unanimous vote for the Grande Lotus: a Japanese popsicle brand where the company CEO and staff apologized and bowed in a very Japanese way for increasing the price by 10 cents. In the end, it actually improved sales! It was savvy to do this because normally, the CEO was apologizing for something that almost no one would apologize for. There was a cleverness to it.”
The Grande Effective Lotus was presented to Dentsu Inc. Osaka and Garigarikun Production Co.Ltd., Tokyo for Ice Pops ‘Garigarikun’ “Ojigi” work in Effective Lotus – Campaign Success category.
MEDIA LOTUS
Media Lotus received 250 entries. There were 35 awards given in the category, including 1 Grande, 10 Gold, 15 Silver and 9 Bronze.
The Grande Lotus was presented to CJ WORX, Bangkok for AP (Thailand) Public Company Limited ‘The Unusual Football Field’ in Best Use of Ambient: Large Scale.
Jury President of Media Lotus and Effective Lotus Victor Manggunio, Chief Creative Officer from Leo Burnett China, Shanghai said “In Media, we saw more brave work coming out of regions. Some regions seemed to be much more comfortable with their ideas. A good majority of the Japanese work felt very strong in advertising.”
The ten Gold awards were presented to:
Cheil India, Gurgaon for Samsung Televisions “Spread the Joy” in the Best Use of Screens & Displays category;
J Walter Thompson Japan, Tokyo for New Music Promotion for Shinichi Osawa “Singing Nature” in Best Use of Audio category;
Tokyu Agency Inc., Tokyo for Services for Travelers “Toilet Paper for Smart Phones” in Best Use of Outdoor & Transit category;
Cheil Worldwide, Seoul for Heat Tech “Heat Tech Window” in Best Use of Ambient: Small Scale category;
McCann Erickson Japan, Tokyo for End ALS “Still Life” in Best Use of Events category;
McCann Worldgroup India, Mumbai for Dettol “Dettol Germbusters” in Best Use of Guerilla Marketing category;
Colenso BBDO, Auckland for World Day Against Cyber Censorship “Amnesty Unblocker” in Best Use of Digital category;
Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney for Toyota “Landcruiser Emergency Network” in Best Use of Mobile category;
Leo Burnett Melbourne for Reword “Reword” in Best Use of Technology category and
BBDO Bangkok for Missing Person Center “The Missing Look-Alike” in Best Integrated Media Campaign category.
BRANDED CONTENT & ENTERTAINMENT LOTUS
Branded Content and Entertainment Lotus had a growth year and counted 154 entries for 2017. There were 11 awards in the category, including ten Branded Content Lotus awards and one Grande Branded Content Lotus that were presented to winners.
The Grande Branded Content Lotus went to Dentsu Taiwan Inc., Taipei for The Glenlivet “Single Belief” in the Best Use of Non-Fiction Film.
Branded Content and Entertainment Lotus and Grand Jury president, Ted Royer, Chief Creative Officer of Droga5, New York stated: “It was a nearly unanimous vote for the Grande Lotus winner. Our industry begs for attention: we make deals, offer giveaways, repeat ourselves over again. It’s pretty desperate. This film for [The Glenlivet] is so brave and uncomfortable, I think a lot of people aren’t going to like it. It shows the brand’s confidence, and reminds us to move at our own pace. We hadn’t seen anything like it before.”
INTEGRATED LOTUS
Work submitted for Integrated Lotus Awards must work across at least three different media and take advantage of each medium’s strengths to enhance the core creative idea.
From 24 entries in the Integrated category, one Integrated Lotus trophy was awarded and seven pieces of work were finalists.
Grand Jury President, Ted Royer, Chief Creative Officer of Droga5, New York explained, “We didn’t award a Grande Lotus in this category. There weren’t a lot of ideas that held together as a great campaign consisting of dozens of separate elements, although perhaps these campaigns are harder to create in markets that may have smaller advertising budgets.”
The Integrated Lotus award went to Taproot Dentsu, Mumbai for Adidas “Adidas Odds”.
INNOVA LOTUS
ADFEST’s INNOVA Lotus Award is given for world-class concepts that have made a dramatic impact on the marketplace and are judged on their level of genuine innovation, talk-value and results. The category received 36 entries this year. There were three awards given out, including the Grande Innova Lotus, which was presented to Dentsu Inc. Tokyo for Toyota I-Road “Smile Lock Outlet”.
Grand Jury President, Ted Royer, says: “We judged a lot of fun work in this category, but there were two or three clear leaders. Reword is a great idea for kids who haven’t yet developed a sense of empathy. We loved Toyota Landcruiser’s idea of turning Landcruisers into Wi-Fi hotspots in the Australian outback, and [Toyota I-Road]’s solution for recharging electric cars. These are all ideas that we’re really happy exist in the world now.”
The two INNOVA Lotus awards were presented to:
Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney for Toyota “Landcruiser Emergency Network”
Leo Burnett Melbourne for Reword “Reword”
LOTUS ROOTS
The Lotus Roots category represents the heart of ADFEST and is the inspiration for this year’s theme, “20 Years of Diversity”. The category recognizes and encourages great ideas inspired by local beliefs and values and by the diversity of cultures represented at ADFEST every year.
From 162 entries, there was 1 Grande and 3 Lotus Roots awards.
Ted Royer, Grand Jury President and Jury President of Integrated Lotus, INNOVA Lotus and Lotus Roots was particularly pleased with this year’s Lotus Roots entries and said, “I love the intention behind this category and it’s a really fun one to judge. I love ideas that emerge from local conditions that we might see everyday, but although these ideas are local they can be appreciated all over the world. We saw a uniquely Chinese idea that allows fathers to experience the heartbeats of newborns, and a campaign from the Philippines to raise awareness of the Marcos regime among millennials, which floored some of the judges.”
TBWA\Santiago Mangada Puno, Manila picked up the Grande Lotus Roots ADFEST 2017 for its work on the Campaign Against The Return of the Marcoses to Malacañang (CARMMA), entitled “Correcting History”. This was submitted as Best Use of Social in the Direct Lotus category.
The three Lotus Roots Awards were won by:
J Walter Thompson Shanghai for Elevit “Heart to Heart: All for that First Hello” in the Innova Lotus category
Leo Burnett Beirut for KAFA Woman’s Rights NGO “Legally Bride” in the Branded Content & Entertainment Lotus category and
BBDO Hong Kong for Society for Community Organisation “Wardrobe Apartment” in the Media Lotus category.
ADFEST 2017 “20 Years of Diversity” takes place from 22nd – 25th March 2017 at PEACH, Royal Cliff Hotels Group, Pattaya, Thailand.
Join us in celebrating the rich diversity in creativity by following #ADFEST2017 #20YEARSOFDIVERSITY on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram now!
Access ADFEST Connect online at www.adfest.com/adfest_connect.php or through the ADFEST App (iOS, Android).
