LONDON, UK — The prestigious D&AD Awards, a global celebration of excellence in design and advertising, witnessed an exhilarating edition this year with Ronald Ng, Global Chief Creative Officer of MRM Worldwide, at the helm as Jury President.
Last May 08 to 11, industry experts and creative luminaries gathered at the Truman Brewer in London to engage in an extensive four-day judging process, evaluating groundbreaking works across various categories. Ronald, an esteemed figure in the advertising world, offered his invaluable expertise and leadership as he led the distinguished panel of jurors in determining award-worthy work.
With a stellar career spanning decades and an impressive portfolio, Ronald was entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing this year’s D&AD judging process. In this exclusive article, adobo Magazine talked to Ronald about the trends, challenges, and triumphs he witnessed in the jury room.
Explore the remarkable world of the D&AD 2023 Awards, as seen through Ronald’s discerning eyes.
The toughest awards show on the planet, bar none. Yes, that’s the D&AD — the painfully elusive award that everyone wants to win but few get to. Here, you often hear judges saying, “But this is D&AD.” Translated, it means, “We need to be tougher.” Despite giving away a much lower percentage of awards compared to the others, D&AD received one of the highest numbers of entries this year.
I had the honor of being Jury President of D&AD Commerce, one of the show’s newer categories. Commerce has become a long-overdue obsession for marketers and creative agencies. I say long overdue because we are helping businesses and brands build relationships with people, with the ultimate goal of commercial success. It’s about the art and science of business. The creative industry is made up of artists but of the commercial kind.
A few years ago, I was one of the people invited to help create this category, and this year I suggested we make further adjustments as commerce continues to evolve so quickly. Apart from crafting the overall category definition and its sub-categories, we dropped the letter “e,” changing it from “ecommerce” to “Commerce.”
As you will see from the winning work here, Commerce has creatively expanded and is now omnipresent. Today, people don’t just plan to shop; they’re always shopping. Any moment is an opportunity to go from inspiration to action. You will see in the work, creativity in commerce could also mean driving sales by intercepting a competitor’s commerce moment, democratizing commerce for an underserved community, or simply being entertaining with content that inspires commerce.
Commerce is creatively limitless today, and I believe you will agree from the winners this year. You will see creative excellence for commerce in all forms: social, platform, entertainment, subscription, hacking, sustainable, and purposeful commerce. Extra love was given to work with big results and scale.
As the pencil winners are announced this week, hopefully, you’ll be inspired to submit your best pencil-winning commerce work next year.
Chow Kok Keong shares insights from D&AD 2023’s judging room for the Art Direction category
adobo Magazine is an official media partner of D&AD 2023.
