Quickly becoming one of the most coveted accolades in the creative industry’s award calendar, the 2016 Creativepool Annual’s were announced at an exclusive launch party at Covent Garden’s LIBRARY club last Thursday, March 10th.
The Annual, a 140-page book of creative work which this year saw eight times as many projects submitted compared to 2015’s, represents the best in twenty-one distinct creative disciplines including out-of-home advertising, mobile apps, branding, experiential work and broadcast advertising.
“The quality of work from 2016’s winners is nothing short of incredible and is an amazing reflection of the global creative community found on Creativepool” Says Michael Tomes, Founder of Creativepool. Unlike other awards, the Annual sees increased community engagement and interest as the world’s only creative award with a People's Choice community voting system - Creativepool users themselves had a say in who won a place in each of the twenty-one creative categories. The response this year far exceeded Creativepool’s expectations, with more than 12,000 people casting their votes.
Also deciding winners was an all-star judging panel, featuring Peace for Paris Illustrator Jean Jullien, Google Creative Lab’s Creative Lead Tom Seymour, Havas Worldwide’s Head of Technology & Innovation Michael Olaye, and Nick Bell, Executive Creative Director at Fallon.
Like everything that Creativepool does, and unlike a traditional award that sits on a shelf, the Annual gives the work of its winners unparalleled exposure that stands the test of time: the book, which is made to be read and enjoyed repeatedly as a representation of the year’s best creative work, is the award itself.
And new this year, Creativepool presented limited edition case-bound golden books to each category’s winners. Additionally, 15,000 more copies were printed to be distributed across the globe, to top brands and leading agencies, as well as to such amazing events as Cannes Lions and Advertising Week in New York, London and Tokyo.
The most awarded in this year’s Annual were VCCP with three wins, Bloomberg with four People’s Choice wins, Blair Barnette with four wins and AKQA with two wins. But jones knowles ritchie took home six golden Annuals, with two for Best of Branding with both Young's: Signs with Stories and their work on Wheaties, one win in Best of Graphic, two wins in Best of Packaging with both the limited edition Budweiser Liberty packaging and the Budweiser brand refresh, and one win as People’s Choice for Agency of the Year.
Following are a few comments from judges across various categories from this year’s Creativepool Annual:
Wave
Conor Brady, Chief Creative Officer at Critical Mass
“It was nice to see a blend of all types of work, some of the older formats of film and photography mixed with some digital platforms. The quality of execution and thinking was really good, and there were obviously some true masters of their craft. It's not always easy to give as much time to these competitions as we would want, so how it is set up is incredibly important. This was seamless and easy. All I had to do was focus on the quality of the work.”
Branding
Christopher Nurko, Global Chairman, FutureBrand
“It has been great to be part of the judging for Creativepool 2016. There was such a breadth of work on show, all of which came in at a very high standard! Judging was a challenge, due to the high level of work submitted, but the method of judging remotely and the system we used made for a great experience! There was a range of talent from independent creatives to more established agencies, which is a testament to the creativity of our industry. I’m looking forward to seeing the results!”
Digital
Carl Uminski, Co-founder & CCO at Somo Global
“The diverse pieces of work submitted for the Creativepool 2016 awards were truly impressive in all aspects of the key judging criteria from execution to results. I was most struck by the high level of creativity and uniqueness put forth by the entrants. It's a very exciting time for our industry right now, and seeing what the best of the best have to offer was a lot of fun! It's been an honour to judge these awards and I look forward to taking part again in the future.”
Application
Michael Olaye, Head of Technology & Innovation at Havas Worldwide
“I was honoured to be involved in this year’s Creativepool awards. The quality of the work submitted was of very high standards. I found myself struggling to make my favourite choice from the entries. There’s truly some great talent in our industry and the work submitted shows this through the wide spectrum of entries. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the results.”
OOH
Matthew Dearden, President EU at Clear Channel Outdoor
“I loved the quality and breadth of work. It showed truly creative thinking expressed in many different ways, delivered with great impact through top quality execution. The best work combined powerful creative with thoughtful media planning in a way that was true to the core of the brand, really showing the power of out of home media. It’s a pleasure to judge such high quality entries, especially when the process was so intuitive and focused on the work itself.”
