The 22nd ADFEST concluded with the second Lotus Awards presentation at PEACH, Royal Cliff Hotels Group in Pattaya, Thailand. Over the past four days, the festival has welcomed over 1,120 delegates from 63 cities and 34 countries enjoying a huge exhibition of 2,539 entries across 19 awards categories.
“The quality of work this year was very good. What I enjoyed the most was the diversity of thinking. The entries came from everywhere throughout Asia Pacific, and each idea was rich in human understanding and had their own unique cultural flair. It was a joy to judge the 2019 Lotus Awards,” says Mark Tutssel, ADFEST 2019’s Grand Jury President, and Executive Chairman and Global Chief Creative Officer at Leo Burnett Worldwide, Chicago.
AUDIO LOTUS
There were 45 entries in the Audio Lotus category (formerly called the Radio Lotus category) with 1 Bronze, 1 Silver and 2 Golds awarded, but no Grande Lotus. One Gold Lotus award was presented to McCann Worldgroup Philippines, Manila for Fully Booked ‘Fully Booked Lives – Ed’. Another Gold was presented to BWM Dentsu, Sydney for The ALS Association, ‘Project Revoice’.
Audio and Film Jury President Prasoon Joshi, CEO and Chief Creative Officer of McCann Worldgroup India and Chairman of McCann Worldgroup Asia Pacific, said: “Project Revoice provides an innovation to help people who will lose their voice preserve their original voice. We also loved the Fully Booked campaign. It’s a beautiful idea that creates excitement around books and makes you inquisitive to read. Overall, we saw lots of innovation in Audio – creatives are redefining the category itself.”
Rebecca Carrasco, Executive Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney also judged the Audio and Film Lotus categories. She said: “The Gold winners in Audio both stood out for quite different reasons. One was a beautiful radio idea, where you’re unwittingly led down the garden-path into the life of a madman, for an online bookstore. And the other was a beautiful audio idea, where the manipulation of sound gave back a voice that was a symbol of hope to so many ASL sufferers, before it was finally silenced by ASL disease.”
FILM LOTUS
From 310 entries, there were 9 Bronze, 4 Silver and 3 Gold awards, but no Grande Lotus winner in this category.
The three Gold Lotus trophies were awarded to:
• GREYnJ United, Bangkok for K Plus ‘Friendshit’
• TBWA\Santiago Mangada Puno, Manila for Bahay Tuluyan Philippines (Shelter House) ‘Disgusting Stories’
• Leo Burnett Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur for Voice of the Children ‘Speak up’.
“‘Friendshit’ stood out because the direction, casting and writing are fantastically done. ‘Disgusting Stories’ was a timeless idea, while ‘Speak Up’ is of the moment – it encourages people to do more than watch, share or like a video but to take action,” said Audio and Film Jury President Prasoon Joshi, CEO and Chief Creative Officer of McCann Worldgroup India and Chairman of McCann Worldgroup Asia Pacific.
In terms of emerging trends, Joshi says: “If we were awarding pure craft only, we would have had a lot more winners. I would like to encourage younger generations to pay equal attention to idea and execution. Not many entries married both. There was a time when our industry felt Public Service Announcements for charity work should not win Grande awards. The time has come to reconsider this. A lot of brands are partnering more with charities. What we need to understand is that this work is brand related. We are living in a world where people do care about what their favorite brands are doing for humanity at large – they are not just consuming their products but also their brand philosophies.”
Rebecca Carrasco, Executive Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney also judged the Audio and Film Lotus categories. She adds: “Disgusting Stories was a particularly powerful idea. Using the actual illustrations that sexually abused children have drawn to communicate what happened to them, to communicate how profoundly wrong this whole issue is, creates an incredibly confronting message, which stays with you. Actually, it just rips your heart out. Had we been able to award a Grande to a PSA in this category, I don’t think we would have stopped at Gold.”
BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT LOTUS
From a total of 141 entries, there were 11 Bronze, 3 Silver, 3 Gold plus 1 Grande Lotus awards. The Grande Lotus for Branded Entertainment was awarded to GREYnJ United, Bangkok for K PLUS ‘Friendshit’, which also won 1 Gold.
“The jury was looking for work that was brilliant in its thinking and innovative in its execution. We wanted to shine a light on the bravest, most transformative creative ideas in the region,” explains Mark Tutssel, Executive Chairman and Global Chief Creative Officer at Leo Burnett Worldwide, Chicago. Tutssel led the Branded Entertainment, Effective and Integrated Lotus as Jury President.
“We found one supreme example in ‘Friendshit’. It connected the brand, Kasikorn Bank’s K PLUS app, to people in a unique and engaging way. A brilliant and highly entertaining idea that created human value and rewarded people for their time.”
The two other Gold awards were awarded to:
• Publicis Singapore for Vicks India ‘One in a Million’
• J. Walter Thompson, Bangkok for Sunsilk ‘Hair Talk’.
EFFECTIVE LOTUS
There were 63 entries to this category with 3 Bronze, 1 Silver and 1 Gold trophies awarded, but no Grande. The Sour Bangkok won Gold for GMM Grammy ‘Girl From Nowhere’. The series tells the story of Nanno, a mysterious schoolgirl who takes the audience on an extraordinary tale of revenge. Powered by women to empower women, the IP is co-owned by the agency and client.
“The agency created a new business model by turning themselves, ‘the creative agency for women’, into an insightful content creator. The series created incredible social impact,” says Branded Entertainment, Effective and Integrated Lotus Jury President, Mark Tutssel, who is Executive Chairman and Global Chief Creative Officer at Leo Burnett Worldwide, Chicago.
INTEGRATED LOTUS
From 16 entries, there were 2 Bronze and 1 Silver Lotuses awarded, but no Grande in this category.
The standout idea in the Integrated category was created by Leo Burnett, Melbourne for Goulburn Valley ‘Goulburn Valley Food Tours’, which won Silver. The brand is pushing for full transparency by creating a labeling system that leverages GPS to show consumers the exact location where food is grown.
“Now more than ever people want to know where the food that fuels them comes from. People are smart, they want to know more. This innovative idea created human value, empowering consumers like never before, and integrated the brand into the fabric of life,” said Tutssel, this year’s Branded Entertainment, Effective and Integrated Lotus Jury President.
INNOVA LOTUS
This year’s INNOVA finalists presented their work live to an audience of ADFEST delegates, and were questioned on-stage by our panel of eight Jury Presidents. There were 40 entries to the INNOVA Lotus category with 4 INNOVA Lotus winners and 3 finalists.
INNOVA Lotus winners:
• Grey Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur for Tesco Malaysia ‘Unforgettable Bag’
• BWM Dentsu, Sydney for The ALS Association ‘Project Revoice’
• Leo Burnett Colombo / Leo Burnett Toronto for JAT Paints ‘Petal Paint’
• FP7 McCann Dubai for Babyshop ‘Al Umobuwah: Putting ‘mum’ into ‘parenthood’.
“Creativity is a deep understanding of human behaviour that we translate into transformative solutions for our clients. We solve business problems by creating human value through creativity. The level of creativity in this future-facing category was outstanding. Highly innovative ideas that challenged the status quo and moved the industry forward,” says Mark Tutssel, Grand Jury President and Executive Chairman and Global Chief Creative Officer at Leo Burnett Worldwide, Chicago.
“The four winners of this prestigious award were all outstanding examples of the alchemy of creativity, data and technology creating remarkable Human Value.”
LOTUS ROOTS WINNERS
The Lotus Roots category represents the heart of ADFEST and is inspired by work that draws on the different histories and cultures of the countries and people of Asia Pacific and MENA regions. The category recognizes and encourages great ideas inspired by the diversity of cultures represented at ADFEST every year. From 146 entries, there was 1 Grande Lotus Roots winner: FP7 McCann Dubai for Babyshop ‘Al Umobuwah: Putting ‘Mum’ into ‘Parenthood’. Babyshop became the first brand to create a new Arabic word, giving mothers across the Middle East an equal place in the Arabic word for “Parenthood”, challenging deep-rooted biases and conventions.
“This brave new word champions Mums, and has woven itself into the vernacular, and is on the verge of being included in the Arabic dictionary,” explains Tutssel, Grand Jury President and Executive Chairman and Global Chief Creative Officer at Leo Burnett Worldwide, Chicago.
“The future will be one where fortune favours the curious, the change agents, the new creative thinkers and most importantly, those who best understand HumanKind. Advertising today doesn’t compete with advertising: advertising competes with popular culture. Our work has to be irresistible and more interesting and immersive than anything else people are searching for. The Lotus Roots exist to reward that level, and quality, of thinking.”
Six Lotus Roots winners :
• Colenso BBDO, Auckland for Spark New Zealand ‘Kupu’
• Hakuhodo Kettle Inc., Tokyo for Takasaki City ‘Red Restaurants List’
• Dentsu Inc., Tokyo for Kobe Newspaper ‘Since 1995’
• Leo Burnett Colombo / Leo Burnett Toronto for JAT Paints ‘Petal Paint’
• R/GA Tokyo / Shiseido Co. Ltd., Tokyo for Shiseido ‘My Crayon Project’
• Rabbit Digital Group Company Limited, Bangkok for Siam Commercial Bank ‘Mae-ma-nee Money Solution’.
eCOMMERCE LOTUS
ADFEST introduced a new eCommerce Lotus category this year, recognizing the rise of retail innovators and brand campaigns. From 18 entries, there were 2 Bronze and 3 Silver Lotuses awarded. “It’s an honour to be judging this new category, especially with the eCommerce boom in this region. The judges were delighted to see works where eCommerce isn’t just playing a supporting role, but is at the heart of the consumer experience. Ideas that found insightful ways to put consumers at the centre of the creative solution and the user experience shined in this category,” said eCommerce and Media Jury President Mitsuyuki Nakamura, Global President, dentsu X, London.
“Although we couldn’t identify an entry that clearly stood out above the rest, we were still encouraged by the submissions that clearly found insightful ways to connect through this thriving medium. We’re confident that we’ll see more amazing eCommerce works in the future, as it becomes ubiquitous in this region.”
Silver awards were awarded to:
• Hakuhodo Inc., Tokyo for Vegi-Bus ‘Vegi-Bus’
• AKQA Shanghai for Nike ‘Never Done Shop’
• TenCent, Hong Kong for TenCent ‘We Remit’.
MEDIA LOTUS
From 178 entries, there were 14 Bronze, 8 Silver and 3 Gold Lotus awards, but no Grande Lotus was awarded.
“The diversity and complexity of media made this an exciting yet challenging category to judge. The judges were looking for ideas that clearly took advantage of a human insight, and understood the role of their respective media in connecting the dots to solve a business challenge,” said eCommerce and Media Jury President Mitsuyuki Nakamura, Global President, dentsu X, London.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the work seemed to showcase the use of media for the sake of it, rather than using real insights to make a meaningful, sustainable contribution to business results. Perhaps this is a sign that we need do more to keep up with the complexities and opportunities of media. And to ultimately dig deeper to understand the consumer we hope our media would connect with.”
The Gold awards were awarded to:
• BWM Dentsu, Sydney for The ALS Association, ‘Project Revoice’
• The Brand Agency, Perth for Foodbank WA ‘Hungry Puffs’
• CHE Proximity, Melbourne for Carsales.com.au ‘AutoAds’.
