Winners of 2010 ADFEST Lotus Awards are known

ADFEST was originally scheduled to take place in Pattaya, Thailand from 18-20 March 2010. However, it relocated to Tokyo as a result of uncertain political circumstances in Thailand.

“When it was not possible to hold the ADFEST Lotus Award judging in Pattaya, the ADFEST Working Committee asked JAF for our support and cooperation in organizing the ADFEST Lotus judging in Tokyo. With the cooperation of so many organizations in Japan, we have been able to respond to this request, and it is a great pleasure for us to be able to hold the judging session in Tokyo,” said Mr Yasuhiro Satoh, Chairman of the Japan Advertising Federation.

This year, seven Jury panels scrutinized almost 3,000 entries to the ADFEST 2010 Lotus Awards, and only a small percentage of cutting-edge entries were shortlisted to win.

“This year, our Jurists worked incredibly hard to make sure that the work that wins at ADFEST is truly representative of the Asia Pacific region. Unlike any other festival, ADFEST is specifically focused on raising the bar for Asian creativity. It’s a unique point of difference, and our Jurists were very tough critics this year. We’d like to congratulate all the agencies and production companies that won Gold, Silver or Bronze Lotuses in 2010 – you are the people who are leading the industry forward into 2011,” says Jimmy Lam, ADFEST President.

CYBER

Japan once again dominated the Cyber category, winning 9 of 17 Lotuses awarded. Best of Cyber went to Uniqlo Lucky Switch by Dentsu Inc (which also won this year’s Grande INNOVA), while 2 Gold Lotuses were awarded to Uniqlo’s ‘Collection Tokyo 2009’ campaign by Dentsu Inc and ‘Uniqlo Calendar’ by Projector Inc. Japanese agencies also won 5 Silvers and 1 Bronze in Cyber.

BBDO Singapore won 3 Silver Lotuses, and the other Silver Lotus went to Bartle Bogle Hegarty China in Shanghai.  Ogilvy One Shanghai won 2 Bronze, with Droga5 Sydney, Wieden + Kennedy Tokyo and JWT Melbourne winning 1 Bronze each.

“In order to win Gold, you have to create work that makes you go, ‘Wow, that’s amazing, I wish I’d thought of that or done that”. This year’s Gold Lotus winners are all singularly unique and new ideas,” says Brett Mitchell, Digital Director at Droga5 Sydney and Jury President of Cyber.

Mitchell admits this year’s Cyber Jurists were difficult to impress. “We saw many fantastic bits of work that didn’t get up for a bronze, and I thought perhaps they deserved to. But although our Jury was quite tough, this means that even the Bronze Lotus winning campaigns are great pieces of work. We’ve set a very high level.”

PRESS & POSTER

More than 800 entries were received into this year’s Press Lotus and Poster Lotus categories, but only a handful of Gold, Silver and Bronze winners made the cut this year. “Less is more,” says Ted Lim, who is Jury President of the 2010 Press Lotus and Poster Lotus judging panels. “This year, we’ve tried to only award the best pieces, so if you win a Lotus this year, it’s very valuable.”       

The Best of Press Lotus went to Ace Saatchi & Saatchi Manila for Vespa ‘Our Ride She hated’, thanks to its charming use of copywriting. “If you look at what’s happening in Asia Pacific, there’s a lot of spectacular craft and execution, but here the proposition is expressed in a very tongue-in-cheek, funny way. It’s really, really charming and from a guys’ point of view, it says, ‘Even if I’m a born loser, I want a Vespa’. It’s fresh because it stands out from the rest of the work that’s won, and for that reason we felt that it deserved Best of Show,” says Lim.

Fan Ng, Executive Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi Great Wall, Guangzhou, was also impressed by the two campaigns that won Gold Press Lotuses: JWT India’s ‘Funeral’ for Fujifilm Finepix Cameras; and Creative Juice\Bangkok’s (TBWA) ‘Marble’ for 3M.

Overall, there were 1 Best of Press, 2 Gold, 7 Silver and 12 Bronze Lotuses in the Press Lotus category.

In Poster, there were even fewer Lotuses awarded: 1 Best of Poster, 1 Gold, 5 Silver and 10 Bronze. Creative Juice\Bangkok’s (TBWA) ‘Marble’ for 3M won Best of Poster; while JWT India’s ‘Funeral’ for Fujifilm Finepix Cameras won the only Gold Lotus in the Poster category. Three agencies in Mumbai picked up 3 Silver Lotuses in Poster: JWT India (Fujifilm Finepix Cameras); Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai (The Economist); and Taproot India (Conqueror paper). The remaining 2 Silver Lotuses both went to Creative Juice\Bangkok (TBWA) for the 3M Cushion Wrap campaign.

PRINT CRAFT & DESIGN

From a total 195 entries in the Print Craft Lotus category, just 3 Gold Lotuses, 7 Silver Lotuses and 4 Bronzes were awarded.
Ogilvy Shanghai won Gold for Art Direction for ‘Weave’ Garmin GPS; and Remix Studio Bangkok won 2 Golds – one for its Retouching/Image Manipulation for ‘Lung’ Madhop; and another for its ‘Intestine/Heart/Lung’ campaign for Madhop.

In the Design Lotus category, there was just 1 Best of Design, 3 Gold, 2 Silver and 4 Bronze were awarded from a total of 164 Design Lotus entries. 

“The quality of winners in Print Craft and Design sets a very high standard not just in Asia but internationally, it was a world-class level. Our shortlists were not very big, but the campaigns we gave metal to were very strong,” says Thirasak Tanapatanakul, Worldwide Chairman at Creative Juice Bangkok, who is Jury President of the Print Craft & Design Juries.

Dentsu Inc Tokyo won Best of Design for OLFA Cutter; it also won a Gold Design Lotus for its Thunder Night fever Campaign. SenseTeam in Shenzhen, China, won Gold for SGDA & LOOOK, while Creative Juice\Bangkok won Gold for Tamiya Model Kits Shop.

OUTDOOR

The Outdoor Lotus Jury awarded 1 Best of Outdoor, 2 Gold, 8 Silver and 7 Bronze.

“The Outdoor category is growing by leaps and bounds,” says Jury President Victor Ng, Chief Creative Officer at Euro RSCG South East Asia & Singapore. “We are seeing a true evolution of great outdoor ideas thanks to the growth of technology. Agencies are really being a lot more mindful of the strategic insights that inspire an idea, so it’s no longer about ‘Hey let’s vandalize this street’. It’s more about asking, ‘Why are we doing what we’re doing in terms of results and effectiveness?’ It just shows how quicly this industry is maturing, and I think that’s really encouraging.”

GT Tokyo won Best of Outdoor for Hills Post 2009 (Japanese New Year Cards), while the 2 Gold Lotuses were awarded to McCann Worldgroup Mumbai (Onida Washing Machines) and Grey Hong Kong (Umbrella Bag / Bucket).

DIRECT

From a total 158 entries, there was 1 Best of Direct, 2 Gold, 14 Silver and 8 Bronze Lotuses awarded in the Direct Lotus category.

“Normally you get a lot of trash entered at award shows, and you have to weed out the best entries from there. But this year, there wasn’t much trash entered. The work definitely had a high standard to it, I think the entries were of good quality, and the few that made it right to the top were truly disruptive in their thinking, not to mention well-executed,” says Ravi Deshpande, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer at Contract Advertising Mumbai, and Jury President of Direct this year.

“Typically you see a lot of work that is typical of Direct as a category. This year, we saw winners that were very unlike ‘Direct’ – the whole ballgame has shifted towards digital, field marketing and integrated campaigns, and that diversity was refreshing,” says Deshpande.

Contract Advertising Mumbai won Best of Direct for ‘Donkey Thrashes Tiger’ / Sanctuary Asia Magazine, which also won a 360 Lotus. The 2 Gold Direct Lotuses were awarded to Leo Burnett Sydney (Canon EOS ‘Photo5’) and Phoenix Colombo (Iodex ‘Little People’).

ADFEST has also unveiled this year’s Special Award winners:

•  Advertising Agency of the Year: JWT India, Mumbai
•  Interactive Agency of the Year: Dentsu Inc, Tokyo
• Direct Agency of the Year: McCann Worldgroup, Hong Kong
• Network Agency of the Year: Ogilvy & Mather
• Film Production Company of the Year: Phenomena Co Ltd, Bangkok
• Advertiser of the Year: UNIQLO Co., Ltd.