Finch Sydney scores the Grand Prix in Crafts for NZTA ‘Mistakes’ at the 23rd Annual Cresta Awards

Australia has scored one Grand Prix, one Gold, one Silver and one Bronze at the 23rd annual Cresta International Advertising Awards, honoring creative excellence in twelve major competitions: TV/Cinema/Online Film; Integrated Campaigns; Press; Interactive; Outdoor; Design; Promotions & Incentives; Radio; Crafts;  Direct Marketing; Branded Entertainment and Ambient Media.

Finch Sydney scored the Crafts Grand Prix for New Zealand Transport Agency’s ‘Mistakes‘. Alt.vfx, Brisbane scored Gold for Honda HR-V ‘Dream Run’; Leo Burnett Melbourne scored silver for Honda HR-V ‘Dream Run’ and Havas Worldwide Australia scored Bronze for Virgin Mobile  ‘#MealforaMeal’.

The Cresta Awards, launched in 1993 by Creative Standards International, counted the participation of 52 countries in this year’s competition.  A total of 264 ads, campaigns and interactive entries were chosen by 100 plus top creatives for finalist honors.  The juries were held in 8 cities – Antwerp, Bangkok, Boston, Budapest, Düsseldorf, Helsinki, Montreal and Stockholm. In addition, a separate pre-selection jury (19 jury members from 9 countries) was conducted for Interactive entries. 

All winners were then chosen by Cresta’s International Grand Jury of 86 leading creative professionals from 44 countries.  Of those, 15 countries made the final cut with a total of 81 winning ads (13 TV/Cinema/Online Film; 7 Press; 6 Outdoor; 5 Integrated Campaigns; 7 Ambient Media; 3 Direct Marketing; 2 Radio; 5 Design; 17 Crafts; 5 Promotions & Incentives; 4 Branded Entertainment  and 7 Interactive entries – see attached winners’ list).  Selection criteria were originality of the creative idea and the quality of its execution.  In addition to the 8 Grand Prix’s awarded, the remaining breakdown of ‘Statue Levels’ include 12 Gold; 26 Silver and 35 Bronze Awards.

Says Ami Hasan, chairman of hasan & partners/ Perfect Fools, Helsinki, Stockholm, Amsterdam & President of Cresta’s Grand Jury: “Another year and another crop of best of the best in advertising, The Cresta Winners List.  A total of 81 pieces of work, out of which 8 are worthy a Grand Prix. Time for winners to celebrate. Cresta judging system is unique in its objectivity. These awards were voted by a huge jury of 86 top notch creative directors from 44 different countries. We voted from a distance and never physically gathered, so there was no way anybody could influence other jurors and their voting. No advertising awards winners list is ever the absolute truth, but I don’t think you can get much closer than this. And I say that even if my personal favorites were not among the Grand Prix winners. This is how we as a jury voted.”

To select the Agency and Network of the Year, Cresta uses a point system for all ‘Winning Statue Levels’ as well as points for finalist status. Point  breakdown:  Grand Prix: 10 points; Gold: 7 points; Silver: 5 points; Bronze: 3 points and Finalist: 1 point.  

The Agency of the Year for third year in a row, winning 6 awards (and 56 points) is Forsman & Bodenfors, Gothenburg. Its winning entries include 2 Grand Prix’s for their client, United Nations World Food Programme, titled, “805 Million Names”. Grand Prix distinctions are as follows:  Branded Entertainment and Integrated Campaigns. Two Gold awards were also won in the Television/Cinema/Online Film and Ambient Media competitions for “805 Million Names”.  The agency’s third Gold was received for their client IF Insurance, titled, “Watch Your Back” in the Direct Marketing competition.  To round off their tally, a Silver award was presented for Volvo, titled, “Made by Sweden, Winter’s Tale” in the Crafts competition for Best Direction.

Out of the twelve Cresta competitions, entries in eight competitions scored high enough to be awarded the Grand Prix. Continuing this list of Grand Prix winners is Lowe China, Shanghai, who won the Outdoor and TV/Cinema/Online Film Grand Prix for their client Shanghai General Motors/Buick, titled, “Human Traffic Sign”.  An additional Gold award was also captured for “Human Traffic Sign” in the Press competition.  

Kolle Rebbe, Hamburg won the Grand Prix in the Ambient Media competition for Misereor Charities, titled, “The Social Swipe”. To round off the agency’s tally, two awards were received in the Design Competition.  A Silver award for Rosenthal Porcelain, titled, “The Weddinglope” and a BRONZE award for Scotch Magic Tape, titled, “Magic Tape”.

Åkestam Holst, Stockholm won the Grand Prix in the Interactive competition for Audi.  The Mobile Application is titled, “The Swedish Snow Rescuer’s”.

Finch, Sydney won the Grand Prix in the Crafts competition (Best Direction) for New Zealand Transport Authority.  The TV spot is titled, “Mistakes”.

Impact & Echo BBDO, Kuwait City won the Grand Prix in the Press Competition for its client, Honda GPS. The Newspaper campaign is titled, “Confusing Indian”, “Confusing Iranian” and “Confusing Arab”. 

BBDO became Network of the Year.  In all, 7 agencies from the network combined to win a total of 88 points.  They represent the following cities:  Berlin, Dubai, Hamburg (Interone), Kuwait City, London, Manila and Stockholm.  Following 2nd was Havas Worldwide and TBWA who tied with a total of 46 points each.

On a single agency basis, winning six awards and scoring a solid 37 points is Publicis Conseil, Paris:  2 Crafts (Photography), 1 Press , 1 Outdoor for Parc Zoologique Paris, and 2 Branded Entertainment for Orange and APREC.  Scoring 34 points is IMPACT BBDO, Dubai:  1 TV/Cinema/Online Film, 1 Integrated Campaigns, 1 Direct Marketing, 1 Promotion & Incentives for UN Women;  1 Radio for Loto Libanais and 1 Design (Publication Design) for Mercedes-Benz.

Agencies with five awards are: BETC, Paris (1 TV/Cinema/Online Film, 2 Crafts (Direction and Cinematography), 1 Interactive and 1 Ambient Media); TBWA\Paris (3 Crafts (Animation and Interface/Navigation), 1 TV/Cinema/Online Film  and 1 Interactive).

Agencies with four awards are: BBDO, Berlin (1 TV/Cinema/Online Film, 1 Ambient Media, 1 Promotion & Incentives and 1 Branded Entertainment);  HEIMAT, Berlin(1 Crafts (Music), 1 TV/Cinema/Online Film, 1 Integrated Campaigns and 1 Promotions & Incentives) and Rosapark, Paris (1 TV/Cinema/Online Films, 1 Crafts (Editing), 1 Press and 1 Outdoor).                                                               

Cresta’s ‘winners gallery’ has been released in the form of a micro-site designed for all mobile devices via http://www.cresta-awards.com/2015.  All the winning entries, including film clips and still images, are included on the site along with full credits.

Download the full list of winners – 2015 CRESTA WINNERS .doc