After three action packed days, Spikes Asia 2015 festival of creativity concluded last Friday evening (11 September) with a packed Awards Ceremony at the Ritz Carlton in Singapore. Addressing the audience at the event, Lions Festivals CEO Philip Thomas thanked the 93 judges from across APAC region who'd spent the week reviewing, debating and narrowing down 4,351 entries over 18 categories. He described the resulting group of 421 winners as setting a new creative benchmark for both the Festival and the region.
The Spikes Asia 2015 festival of creativity concluded last Friday evening (11 September) with a packed Awards Ceremony at the Ritz Carlton in Singapore
A dot that transfers much needed medicine to women in rural India and an app that helps autistic children identify facial expressions were the big creative winners on the night. “Life Saving Dot” took the Grand Prix in both the innovation and outdoor, while the “Look at Me” campaign claimed both the Mobile Grand Prix and the PR Grand Prix. The awards marked the climax of an exciting week at the Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity, where advertising industry professionals from the APAC region and beyond (our own Michael Tomes included) met to discuss the pressing issues of the day, including talent, gender equality in the industry and innovation.
Creativepool's founder, Michael Tomes, was in attendance this year - interviewing the top jury members, judges and speakers in a Singapore edition of our own Black Cab Interviews.
Notable agency winners included M&C Saatchi Sydney, whose “The Game of Balls” campaign took two Gold, two Silver and three Bronze Spikes
Notable agency winners included M&C Saatchi Sydney, whose “The Game of Balls” campaign took two Gold, two Silver and three Bronze Spikes across all five categories it was shortlisted for. The agency’s “The One Who Will End Cancer” work for ACRF also took home Gold, Silver and Bronze across the design and healthcare two categories. Meanwhile, CJ Worx in Bangkok was named independent agency of the year, Starcom Australia took home media agency of the year and the Spikes Palm for best production company went to Morimori in Tokyo. Starcom MediaVest Australia Sydney office won the coveted Media Agency of the Year award, marking the second major Agency of the Year honour to be awarded to SMG Australia this year following the 2015 Festival of Media Asia Awards in February. SMG Australia was also recognised at for campaigns from clients, Samsung, Virgin Mobile and Mars. Saatchi & Saatchi Greater China also had a great awards, claiming a Grand Prix and two Gold in the Film for the “Playing Can Not Be Bad” campaign for Changyou, a leading Chinese online game developer.
BBDO was named network of the year, while Colenso BBDO in Auckland won the accolade for agency of the year
BBDO was named network of the year, while Colenso BBDO in Auckland won the accolade for agency of the year. Altogether Colenso picked up awards for six different clients - BNZ, Burger King, Mars, New Zealand Book Council, New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation, and Volkswagen. Indeed, Omnicom agencies in general made out like bandits. In total, over 40 Omnicom agencies in 12 countries contributed to nearly 150 Spike awards, more than any other holding company. Omnicom agencies won 4 Grand Prix awards in Design, Digital, Direct, and Promo and Activation, as well as 3 Creative Effectiveness awards. Colenso BBDO's "Reduce Speed Dial" innovative campaign for Volkswagen was a multiple award-winner taking the top prize in Digital and Direct. Whybin\TBWA won a Grand Prix and two Golds for their "It's Your Call" campaign for 3AW. DDB Group New Zealand was among the top three agencies and won two Grand Prix awards, the highest honour, in Design, Promo and Activation.
In total, over 40 Omnicom agencies in 12 countries contributed to nearly 150 Spike awards, more than any other holding company
During the ceremony, winners of the Young Spikes competitions were also announced. The winning team for the Integrated Competition were David HK Tan and Simon Dall of Leo Burnett, Malaysia. In the Digital Competition, Simon Horn and Cassandra Tse won while the Media Competition went to hometown-duo Jazreel Koh and Karen Tay of PHD, Singapore. Concluding the event were the Special Awards. Lions Festival's Chairman, Terry Savage, presented the Advertiser of the Year Award, sponsored by MediaCorp, to Unilever. The award was collected by Rahul Welde, Vice President of Media for Asia, Africa, Middle East, Turkey and Russia who earlier in the evening had seen a further two Grands Prix added to the three already claimed by Unilever over the last five years of the Festival.
Special Award Winners
Network of the Year
1. BBDO
2. Leo Burnett
3. DDB
Agency of the Year
1. Colenso BBDO, Auckland
2. Dentsu, Tokyo
3. DDB Group New Zealand, Auckland
Independent Agency of the Year
1. CJ Worx, Bangkok
2. Mori, Toyko
3. Fred & Farid, Shanghai
Media Agency of the Year
1. Starcom Australia, Sydney
2. ZenithOptimedia, Auckland
3. OMD China, Shanghai
Spikes Palm
1. Morimori, Tokyo
2. AOI Pro, Tokyo
3. Primo, Buenos Aires
Grand Prix Award Winners
(Note that there was no Grand Prix awarded in the Radio category)
Branded Content & Entertainment - “House of Little Moments” for Uni-President from ADK Taiwan
Creative Effectiveness - “Kan Khajura Station; From Dark to Connectivity” for Unilever India by Lowe Lintas and Partners
Design - “The Unforgotten Soldiers” for the Sky History Channel by DDB Group New Zealand
Digital - “Reduce Speed Dial” for VW by Colenso BBDO Auckland
Direct - “It’s Your Call” for 3AW Sports Radio by Whybin\TBWA Group Melbourne
Film Craft - “I am Mumbai” for Mumbai Mirror by Taproot Dentsu in Mumbai
Film - “Mother” for Changyou Online Game Developer by Saatchi & Saatchi
Innovation - “Life Saving Dot” for Talwar Bindi by Grey Group Singapore
Media - “Infrequent Flyers Club” for TigerAir by McCann Melbourne
Mobile - “Look at Me” for Samsung by Cheil Worldwide
Outdoors - “Life Saving Dot” for Talwar Bindi by Grey Group Singapore
PR - “Look at Me” for Samsung by Cheil Worldwide
Print & Poster Craft - 3M Singapore’s campaign for Scotchguard Carpet & Rug Protector by Lowe Singapore
Print - “Rural” and “Urban” for Unilever Indonesia by Pureit Lowe Indonesia
Promo/Activation - BMW’s “Reverse April Fools” Stunt by DDB Group New Zealand
If you’ve not had enough Spikes news, click HERE to see our special Black Cab (white in this rare instance) Interview with DDB Sydney CCO Toby Talbot in which he discusses his own least favourite work, how agencies are pre-programmed to fuck each other over, and how the industry is buggered if we don’t sort it out.
