Clemenger Melbourne’s Adam Barnes + James O’Sullivan named Professional YoungGuns OTY

| | 3 Comments

YoungGuns LHS - JOS RHS - AB.jpgClemenger BBDO Melbourne’s Adam Barnes and James O’Sullivan have been named YGA’s Professional YoungGuns of the Year for Origin Energy ‘Solar Stealers’.

Australia has scored four Golds, four Silver and three Bronze.Solar Stealers_Still1 YG-749e1791.jpg.showcase.jpg

Clemenger BBDO Melbourne took out three of only nine Gold Bullets awarded – the most awarded to any agency globally.

As well as taking out the top title, the pair won two of the Gold Bullets for their Origin ‘Solar Stealers’ and ‘Rate My Roof’ campaigns, and were highly praised by the judging panel for giving people a fresh perspective on solar energy.

O’Sullivan and Barnes joined Clemenger BBDO Melbourne from DDB New Zealand in 2014. The Origin brief was the first one to land on their desks after they moved to Australia.

Says O’Sullivan and Barnes who are overwhelmed by their win: “It’s a massive honour and a surprise to be named YoungGuns of the Year. YoungGuns is one of the toughest award shows around so it’s a mind-blowing result, although we can’t take all of the credit when so many people collaborated on these ideas to make them happen.”

Clemenger BBDO Melbourne’s third Gold Bullet was won by Hugh Gurney and Alex Metson for their Lazy Yak digital campaign.

Brothers Tom and George McQueen won a Silver Bullet for their simple but effective Captcha campaign for the TAC, as well as a Bronze Bullet for their Wonderful Hold Music for Myer.

Says Ant Keogh, executive creative director, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne: “I’m incredibly proud that six of our staff and the overall winners came from Clemenger BBDO Melbourne. It gives us ‘Old Guns’ inspiration.”

Havas Worldwide’s Ray Ali and Cameron Dowsett scored a Gold for Lastminute.com.au ‘Live Lastminute’.

The Student YoungGuns of the Year are Sudarshan Waghmare, Yoon Seong Oh & Joy Chakravorty from Miami Ad School Hamburg.

What the judges said:

Says Michael Canning, ECD, M&C Saatchi Australia: “‘Solar Stealers’ is a very smart and charming way to get people to not just think about their energy consumption, but act on it. But what I particularly loved was the ‘Rate My Roof’ feature created as part of the integrated campaign, which invited people to find their own roof in Google Maps and see what it would be worth in solar energy. I rated that highly.”

Says Dominic Al-Samerraie, CD, J. Walter Thompson, New York: “As a content piece, Solar Stealers stood out as smart, funny piece that addressed a fairly boring topic (solar energy) in an engaging way. They kept it simple and really milked the humour in a good way. The casting was perfect and the writing impeccable. It went from good to great the moment the Rate My Roof app was introduced, which fully rounded out the campaign. The simple app that used Google Maps to calculate the money you save by switching to solar was genius. Well done to the YoungGuns who made this work, it was the highlight of the show for me.”

Says Nick Bygraves, senior AD, R/GA London: “It’s safe to say that when you spend 4 days in a single room, a laugh is very well received. But Solar stealers is more than just entertaining, insightful and funny. It tackles a brief in an entirely fresh way, and through a brilliantly executed film and ingenious tool creates a thoroughly integrated campaign that works. I really want to meet Evon and Ray Anderson.”

Says Aj Musial, CD, R/GA Sydney: “We overwhelmingly lauded the YoungGun of the Year idea because of its well-rounded approach. The Solar Stealers campaign utilized brilliant branded content that drove to an incredibly powerful utility.”

Says Pola Sanchez, AD, Grey Mexico: “Lazy Yak was definitely one of my favourites and is the perfect example of well done work with a low budget, the kind of brief that some might consider boring. But the result of the hard and creative work was funny and an inspiration to always do the best. It shows that even when a brief may seem boring or common, there’s always a way to do a great job.

“Rate My Roof / Solar Sealers. Wow! I love it! Excellent work, great idea and beautiful production. I have to admit that I’m actually a little bit jealous that the idea is not mine. Congratulations, guys!”

Says Laura Jones, strategy director, Exposure Digital, London: “What a year! We saw leading creative thinking born out of even the smallest of briefs and budgets such as Lazy Yak – The Laziest Competition Ever. With community management in danger of becoming increasingly complicated and spam-like, Lazy Yak created a competition to fly in the face of excessive, crappy social contests. The idea proves there is still opportunity to be creative and engage loving fans around a core brand truth in a single social post.”

Says Khalid Osman, CD, DDB Singapore: “It’s true what they say about millennials. They are a lazy lot. They do very little. But they expect a lot. So heck, let’s give it to them. Gold.”

Says Ellie Jones, junior AD, DDB Sydney: “Lazy Yak – The Laziest Competition Ever – As a junior creative, you get handed briefs like this all the time: a Facebook giveaway, with zero budget. To get something this fun and interesting out of a single image post is really impressive. It’s the perfect use of social media: people want to participate not just because of the prize, but because showing off how funny they are is reward in itself.”