AdFest 2018 Lotus Award Winners: Interactive, Mobile, Design, Print Craft, Direct, Promo, Press, Outdoor, New Director and Film Craft Lotus; CHE Proximity Australia wins Interactive Grande Lotus

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MakingTheListCHE.jpgThe winners of this year’s Interactive, Mobile, Design, Print Craft, Direct, Promo, Press, Outdoor, New Director and Film Craft Lotus were revealed tonight at the 21st ADFEST, held in Pattaya, Thailand. Also announced at the Awards ceremony were the results for the Fabulous Four and the straight8 competition.

Says Grand jury president Joyce King Thomas, chairman and CCO, McCann XBC : “The opportunity to see and debate Asia’s best work alongside talented people from all over the world at a beach town in Thailand was irresistible. The theme of the show–Transformation–is perfect, and I look forward to seeing how this diverse and culturally rich region is reinventing what we do. I also can’t wait to meet the people behind that reinvention.”

Interactive Lotus

In the Interactive Lotus category CHE Proximity Australia snapped up the Grande Lotus as well as a Gold Award in the Web Banner/Display Ad/Rich Media sub-category for Lego ‘Making The List‘. R/GA Sydney has scored two Silvers for Google Play Music ‘Through The Dark‘. This year there were 167 entries for Interactive Lotus. 20 awards were announced, including 7 Bronze, 9 Silver, 3 Gold and 1 Grande Lotus awards.

Interactive and Mobile Jury President Kitty Lun, Head of Creative Shop, Greater China from Facebook, Hong Kong said In the Interactive category: “I’m happy that the industry is using data and technology very well in their creative ideas. We saw ideas that were not just about technology, but they were a good marriage between technology and creativity.”

Google-ThroughTheDark-StaticLightDark1 (1)-thumb-400x225-257937.jpgMobile Lotus

Mobile Lotus received 83 entries. There were 10 awards given in the category, including 5 Bronze, 2 Silver, 2 Gold and 1 Grande Lotus awards. R/GA Sydney has scored two Silver Awards for Google Play Music ‘Through The Dark’, BWM Dentsu has picked up two Bronze – one for Victorian Government ‘Alert Ad‘ and one for Queensland Police ‘Disappearing Persons‘. McCann Sydney has scored a Bronze for Friskies ‘Cat Critic’ and J. Walter Thompson Sydney has scored a Bronze for Vodafone ‘DreamLab‘. The Grande Lotus for Mobile was awarded to work for Pedigree entitled, ‘Pedigree Selfiestix‘ by Colenso BBDO, Auckland in the Mobile Campaign category.

“Mobile has come a long way – we definitely saw a lot of original ideas that are mobile-centric, inspired by good, relevant insights”, said Interactive and Mobile Jury President Kitty Lun, Head of Creative Shop, Greater China from Facebook, Hong Kong.

Print Craft

Australia had no winners in the Print Craft category. The category attracted 156 entries in 2018. 14 awards were given out in total, which included 5 Bronze, 5 Silver and 3 Gold Lotus awards as well the Grande Lotus. The Grande award in the Print Craft category was awarded to Dentsu Inc., Tokyo for its work for The 101st Kanazawa High School Sumo Wrestling Tournament, Entitled, “Sumo Girls” in the Art Direction sub-category.

MelbModel-thumb-400x224-267873.jpgDesign Lotus

In the Design Lotus category R/GA Sydney scored a Gold for Google Play Music ‘Through The Dark’ and McCann Melbourne scored a Silver for University of Melbourne ‘Infinite Future Film‘. Design Lotus received 230 entries. There were 30 awards given in the category, including 13 Bronze, 11 Silver, 5 Gold and 1 Grande.

Design & Print Craft Jury President, Melvin Mangada, Chief Creative Officer of TBWA\Santiago Mangada Puno, Manila said, “We were really pleased to see a very diverse approach to design beyond flat, formatted pieces. We spent a lot of time discussing entries in sub-categories like product design, innovation and sustainable product design, and it was great to see entries that pushed design forward.”

The Grande Lotus was presented to ‘Cogy Wheelchair‘ for Cogy by TBWA\Hakuhodo Inc., Tokyo in the Production Design: Consumer Products sub-category.

“For us, the Grande should be awarded to an entry that’s above and beyond the category. And this Grande winner truly did that. It pushed design forward, with an innovation that combined form and function to solve a real problem,” says Mangada.

Cochlear-in-disguise-sml_670 (1)-thumb-400x257-262355-thumb-400x257-267181-thumb-400x257-271289.jpgDirect Lotus

The Direct category saw CHE Proximity Australia score three Silvers for Cochlear ‘The Hearing Test in Disguise‘ and a Silver and a Bronze for Swann Insurance ‘Inconvenience Stores‘. BWM Dentsu scored a Silver for Victorian Government ‘Alert Ad’, a Silver for Queensland Police ‘Disappearing Persons’ and a Bronze for Babylove ‘Premmie Proud‘. McCann Sydney scored a Bronze for MasterCard Contactless ‘Tap For Your Town’. Direct Lotus received 195 entries. There were 20 awards given in this category, including 11 Bronze, 7 Silver and 2 Gold.

Direct & Promo Lotus Jury President and Managing Director & Creative & Partner for CJ WORX, Bangkok is Saharath Sawadatikom. He expressed his view of the overall quality of work for the Direct Lotus category, when he explained, “The Direct category today is not the category it should be – in 99% of entries, the Direct Marketing component was very small and wasn’t key to the campaign. That’s why we awarded two Golds.”

swann_TVC 2 (1).jpgPromo Lotus

In Promo, CHE Proximity Australia scored a Bronze for Swann Insurance ‘Inconvenience Stores’ and a Bronze for Velocity Frequent Flyer ‘The Billion Point Giveaway‘. McCann Sydney has scored two Bronze Awards for MasterCard Contactless ‘Tap For Your Town’. Promo Lotus received 212 entries. There were 13 awards given in this category, including 7 Bronze, 5 Silver and 1 Gold. There was no Grande given in this category.

Saharath Sawadatikom, Direct & Promo Lotus Jury President and Managing Director & Creative & Partner for CJ WORX, Bangkok summed up the overall view of the Promo Lotus Awards, when he said, “In this category, the judges were looking for campaigns that were all about the offer – it could be a discount, or anything that makes people act right now, within a certain time, or you’re going to miss out. Timing is key. We found that very few entries met these criteria, and I think it’s because few agencies do promotional campaigns anymore – they are more focused on building digital awareness, or launching brand activations, for example. Most entries were about awareness, not the offer.”

Press Lotus

From 114 entries in the Press category, there were 6 Press Lotus trophies awarded including 2 Bronze, 2 Silver and 2 Gold. There was no Grande Lotus given out in this category for ADFEST 2018 and Australia did not have any winners in the category.

Outdoor Lotus

CHE Proximity Australia picked up Australia’s only Silver in the Outdoor category for Swann Insurance ‘Inconvenience Stores’. 236 entries were judged in the Outdoor category at ADFEST 2018. There were 23 Outdoor Lotus trophies awarded including 7 Bronze, 10 Silver, 5 Gold and 1 Grande.

TBWA\Hakuhodo Inc., Tokyo won the Outdoor Grande for the second year in succession, this time for i
ts work for Pure Boost “Green Light Run” in the Ambient: Large Scale category.

New Director Lotus

There were 23 entries received for New Director Lotus including Fabulous Four this year.

AmandaLynn (1)-thumb-300x300-243879.jpgJury President of Film Craft Lotus & New Director Lotus, Timo Mitsuaki Otsuki, Founder & CEO from Connection, Tokyo explained the Jury’s decision and why there was no Grande or Golds given in the New Director category: “While the entries from new directors was good, they were not amazing. New talent is what pushes film craft forward. Which is why I’m hoping that more new directors step up to the challenge next year.”

Two Silver and two Bronze New Director Lotus Awards were given out. The Silver awards were presented to:

• Kyra Bartley at Heckler, Sydney for Love is Love “Love is Love” in the Portfolio Spot sub-category

• Sezan Iseda at AOI Pro. Inc., Tokyo for A Drop of Freshness “A Transfer Student” in the Portfolio Spot sub-category

panda_snow.jpgFilm Craft Lotus

For the Film Craft Lotus Awards, there were 358 entries, with 40 winners in the category, including 16 Bronze, 15 Silver, 8 Gold Lotus Awards and 1 Grande. Alt.vfx has scored a Gold and a Silver for Tile ‘Lost Panda‘ via Deutsch LA. CHE Proximity has picked up a Gold and Silver for Cochlear ‘The Hearing Test in Disguise’. Heckler Sydney has been awarded a Silver for its Byron Bay Film Festival film created with Marcel Sydney. The Equality Campaign - Leo Burnett Melbourne - HERO-thumb-400x230-264727.jpgAIRBAG has scored a Silver for Australian Marriage Equality ‘Bachelors & Bachelorettes‘ created with Leo Burnett Melbourne. McCann Melbourne has picked up a Bronze for University of Melbourne ‘Infinite Futures’. FINCH’s Rat’s Tale‘ spot for NZ Transport Agency, created with Clemenger BBDO Wellington has scored a Bronze.

A Grande Lotus was awarded this year in the Film Craft category. The winning recipient was Hakuhodo Inc., Tokyo for Gravity Daze 2 “Gravity Cat” in the Directing sub-category.

Jury President of Film Craft Lotus & New Director Lotus, Timo Mitsuaki Otsuki, Founder & CEO from Connection, Tokyo explains the reasoning behind choosing the work awarded for the Grande, “We’ve not seen this level of craft in Asia for a long time. The work was clearly the result of everyone, from the client, to the agency and production team, collaborating to push the envelope. It’s proof that Asia still can produce amazing film craft. Hopefully, we’ll see more work like this in the coming years.”

Tohokushinsha Film Corporation, Tokyo won 3 Film Craft Golds: one for Iyemon “Kyoto’s Fukujuen’s 227th Year of Innovation” – Cinematography sub-category and two for Gravity Daze 2 “Gravity Cat” in Special Effects: Digital Visual Effects and Production Design sub-categories.

Timo Mitsuaki Otsuki, Founder & CEO of Connection Tokyo and Film Craft Lotus & New Director Lotus Jury President summarized the Jury’s view on this year’s Film Craft work: “We were very happy with the quality of entries. While there were not many new approaches, the quality of craft with tried-and-tested techniques went up compared to last year. Some of the best were pieces that we initially saw on the internet and were already jealous of, wishing we were the ones who had the chance to make them.”

Fabulous Four

Script entries to Fabulous Four must be from directors or assistant directors with less than two years’ experience based in Asia and the Pacific, including Australia, New Zealand, and Middle East and their submission must be one of their first seven pieces of work.

The Fabulous Four finalists were selected from submitted scripts and are based in Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne and Tokyo this year.

Huixin Law from Reservoir World Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur was awarded a Commendation for ADFEST 2018 “Bird on a Wire”.

The other three finalists were Shuhei Murata, from Pyramid Film Quadra Inc., Tokyo; Thuy Vy from The Directors Group, Melbourne and Haruna Kaizuka from AOI Pro Inc., Tokyo.

Scripts are judged by the Film Craft Lotus & New Director Lotus Jury and four short films are selected to go into production to debut at ADFEST 2018 in front of its delegate audience. This year reflected the theme for ADFEST 2018, “TRANSFORM”.

Jimmy Lam, President of ADFEST says, “Fabulous Four is one of the jewels in the ADFEST crown. We are proud of the Fabulous Four program for new directors. In a way, we’re helping to nourish our production partners to bring new blood into the market.”

Winners of straight 8 Competition

Six companies took part in the first-ever straight 8 industry shootout @ ADFEST 2018, a “one-super-8-cartridge-no-editing” film competition. Ogilvy X Sydney won this year’s inaugural short film competition for its film ‘Keynote’.

Says Ed Sayers, founder of the straight 8 film competition: “The straight 8 industry shootout format has been going since 2016 and we were excited to bring it to ADFEST for the first time this year. It takes courage to create a film with no editing or grading, and see it for the first time with your industry peers, so we’d like to thank all the companies that took part. Big congratulations go to the winner: Ogilvy X Sydney for their film ‘Keynote’. They’ve chosen mental health charity, Beyond Blue, to be the recipient of the prize pot.”