The 2016 International ANDY Awards took place in New York on Tuesday night, April 12th, and we have the lowdown on all the big winners, who were recognised at the prestigious awards for their bravery and creativity in the advertising and marketing industry. From Seville, Spain, Colleen DeCourcy, Global Executive Creative Director of Wieden + Kennedy, led the global jury for the second year in a row to recognise the bravest creative work from around the world this year.
ANDY Awards 2016 Jury
The ANDY Awards is organised by the ADVERTISING Club of New York, and represents the vision and mission of a vibrant international advertising community across crafts. As the first advertising award show of the season, They tend to act as a litmus test for the industry, predicting how the work places in subsequent awards shows throughout the year. So in essence, it's a little like The Golden Globes, to the Cannes Lions' Academy Awards. The 2016 ANDY Awards Show and Party took place on April 12th at NYC's High Line Hotel, where the industry celebrated and honoured each award recipient. Sponsors of this year's show included: Amazon Media Group, AOL, Columbia Records, and Post Factory NY.
The McWhopper
This year, the ANDY Awards' best in show nod, known as “The GRANDY,” was given to Y&R New Zealand, who were awarded the honour and accompanying $50,000 cash prize for the Burger King's “McWhopper” event campaign in the Corporate Responsibility category. GPY&R Australia also won the distinguished Richard T. O'Reilly Award for Outstanding Public Service, known as the “GRANDY FOR GOOD” for Melanoma Patients Australia's “Melanoma Likes Me" campaign, which includes a $10,000 donation, which will be given directly to the charity. This marks an unprecedented double win for Y&R, and is also the first time Y&R Group ANZ have won Best in Show at the ANDY Awards and the first time an ANZ-based group, or any network, has won both major prizes. Y&R ANZ also won 2 Golds and 1 Silver, one of very few agencies from Australasia to win at the show.
The victorious Y&R Group
The McWhopper campaign was created to raise awareness of United Nations Peace Day. Burger King published an open letter calling for a burger wars ceasefire with corporate rival McDonald's. Burger King proposed the two restaurants join forces to create a symbolic hybrid burger, known as the McWhopper. The letter invited McDonald's to learn more at the bespoke McWhopper web portal; a hub of shareable content. When McDonald's contentiously turned down the offer, tens of thousands of people created and shared DIY McWhoppers online, further spreading the message. Meanwhile, four other restaurants got onboard, and together, the historic “Peace Day Burger” was created and served on Peace Day 2015. The campaign ultimately achieved +8.9 billion impressions and increased Peace Day awareness by 40%.
Melanoma Likes Me
Melanoma Likes Me, meanwhile, aimed to advertise the fact that melanoma is the most lethal cancer for those aged between 15 and 30. Melanoma Patients Australia and GPY&R Brisbane & Melbourne created an online persona for the disease to track who 'liked', 'followed', and commented on young Australians' social media activities, in real time. The application aggregated these posts and notified the social media team in real-time so they could respond with creepy messages from Melanoma. Unique Visits to the “Skincheck” mobile site during the 4-week campaign increased by 1371%.
“It’s great to see Australia and New Zealand take out the two top gongs, especially when you consider the calibre of work from all over the world competing here tonight. ANDY’s is a famously tough show, they hand out very few prizes. A big thanks to our brave clients for pushing the boundaries with us, and to all the talented folk back home who worked so hard on these campaigns” - Ben Coulson
Whilst Y&R were the big surprise winners of the night, the top dogs were Leo Burnett, who came out on top for the seventh consecutive year, winning 16 awards, the most by any network. The network received nine Gold, five Silver and two Bronze for work from its Buenos Aires, Chicago, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Jakarta, Madrid, Paris, Sao Paulo, Sydney and Toronto offices. Leo Burnett Paris won three Gold for the Atlantic Heaters “37 Days” campaign in the categories Branded Content: Environmental Design; Long Format Video Ads/Web Film: Household Consumer Products & Services; and Cinematography.
Safety Truck
Samsung's “Safety Truck,” a groundbreaking innovation by Leo Burnett Buenos Aires, also received two Gold, in Out of Home Advertising: Creative Technology and Reset: Corporate Responsibility. Leo Burnett Sydney's “Just” for WWF took home two Gold, for Out of Home Advertising: Public Service/Non-Profit Organisations and Printed Materials: Package Design. The remaining two Gold were awarded to Leo Burnett Toronto's rebranding campaign for House-Maison in the Printed Materials: Graphic Design category; and Leo Burnett Jakarta's “Beef Broccoli, Chicken Risotto, Fruit Salad” campaign for GoMart Delivery Service in Radio: Retail Foods.
“The ANDYs is the first major show for the calendar year that sets the bar for the industry's most outstanding creative work. I'm proud of the winning teams at Leo Burnett who have shown bravery in pushing the boundaries of advertising to create impactful work for our clients” - Mark Tutssel
In other news, the Best in Show student winner, and recipient of the Glenn C. Smith Award and Scholarship, was director Djawid Hakimyar from Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg in Germany for “Wet Dream” in the TV & Film category. Wet Dream shows that everyone has wild dreams, but it takes the support of others to make those dreams a reality.
Wet Dream
Meanwhile, the Bravery Award winner was REI for the #OptOutside campaign, a standout in the Retail category, created by San Francisco agency Venables Bell & Partners. The Bravery Award was introduced during the ANDYs 50th anniversary, and honours the world's bravest marketers.
“This campaign shows how REI operates on empathy for its staff and for its customers, using it to drive all business decisions, including execution of the brand's message, actions, products and services” - Colleen DeCourcy
As for the student winners, four of the five pieces of winning work were created within the Unconventional Advertising course, founded 10 years ago by Frank Anselmo. Student winners included the School of Visual Arts, with half of the student wins and a total of 5 awards (2 Silver, 3 Bronze); Miami Ad School Madrid, with 1 Gold and the first student to ever be awarded within the ANDY professional category of RESET; Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttermberg, with 2 awards (2 Gold); and Miami Ad School Europe with 2 awards (1 Gold, 1 Bronze).
“As an industry, we need to keep pushing the boundaries of creativity and honour those leading the way. Colleen and our jury have set the bar high by honouring those who are daring and who are not afraid to support ideas and projects they care about” Gina Grillo
The 2016 ANDY Awards Jury was a collection of the greatest creative talent in the world, who came together in Seville, Spain to deliberate over the best and bravest ideas from the past year. Of the 23 judges this year, 26% were women, and 61% were from outside the US. They brought diverse backgrounds and perspectives to the forefront of the judging process in support of determining the bravery and creativity of all the entrants. Other notable winners this year included: BBH New York (1 Gold), Cheil London (1 Gold), Crispin Porter + Bogusky (1 Gold), Fallon (1 Gold), Mori Inc. (1 Gold), RPA (1 Gold), Shiseido (1 Gold), Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (1 Gold), Venables Bell & Partners (1 Silver), BETC (1 Silver), Passion Pictures (1 Silver), 72andSunny (2 Bronze), ROSAPARK (1 Bronze), and CHI&Partners (1 Bronze).
The Top Winners
Leo Burnett, with a total of 16 awards (9 Gold, 5 Silver, 2 Bronze) for Paris, Sydney, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Toronto, Istanbul, Chicago, Frankfurt, Sao Paulo and Jakarta.
adam&eveDDB, with a total of 15 awards (8 Gold, 7 Silver) for London.
Wieden + Kennedy, with a total of 11 awards (4 Gold, 4 Silver, 3 Bronze) for Portland and New York.
McCann & The Martin Agency with a total of 10 awards (4 Gold, 2 Silver, 4 Bronze) for New York, London, Bucharest, India, Dubai, and Richmond, Virginia.
FCB, with a total of 8 awards (7 Gold, 1 Bronze) for Brazil, London, and New Zealand.
Marcel, with a total of 6 awards (6 Gold) for Paris.
TBWA\Media Arts Lab, with a total of 5 awards (5 Gold) for Los Angeles.
Forsman & Bodenfors, with a total of 4 awards (3 Gold, 1 Bronze) for Gothenburg.
Deutsch, with a total of 4 awards (1 Gold, 3 Silver) for Los Angeles and New York.
Biscuit Filmworks, with a total of 3 awards (2 Gold, 1 Silver) for Los Angeles.
The community, with a total of 3 awards (1 Gold, 2 Silver) for Miami.
Y&R & Red Fuse, with a total of 4 awards (2 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze) for New Zealand, Australia, and Malaysia.
Saatchi & Saatchi, with a total of 4 awards (2 Golds, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze) for London & Buenos Aires.
AKQA, with a total of 2 awards (1 Gold, 1 Bronze) for San Francisco, Sao Paulo and London.
R/GA, with a total of 2 awards (1 Gold, 1 Silver) for New York.
BBDO, with a total of 2 awards (1 Silver, 1 Bronze) for New York.
J. Walter Thompson, with a total of 2 awards (1 Silver, 1 Bronze) for Shanghai.
