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WINNERS : eCOMMERCE LOTUS, MEDIA LOTUS, PRESS LOTUS, FILM CRAFT LOTUS, NEW DIRECTOR LOTUS & FABULOUS FIVE
THE WINNERS: eCOMMERCE LOTUS
ADFEST introduced a new eCommerce Lotus category this year, recogniSing the rise of retail innovators and brand campaigns. 2 Bronze and 3 Silver Lotuses were 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 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’ and TenCent, Hong Kong for TenCent ‘We Remit’.
THE WINNERS: MEDIA LOTUS
14 Bronze, 8 Silver and 3 Gold Lotus awards were awarded, but no Grande Lotus.
“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 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’ and CHE Proximity, Melbourne for Carsales.com.au ‘AutoAds’.
THE WINNERS: PRESS LOTUS
There were 4 Bronze, 1 Silver, 1 Gold and 1 Grande Lotus trophies awarded. The Grande Lotus for Press was awarded to Ogilvy Hong Kong for the KFC Hong Kong ‘Hot & Spicy’ campaign. One Gold trophy was also awarded to TBWA\Thailand, Bangkok for McDonald’s ‘The All Nighters’ campaign.
“Both Grande winners in Press and Outdoor are big ideas, creating big impact, for big brands,” said Outdoor and Press Jury President Yang Yeo, Asia Pacific ‘Creative Kaiju’ at Hakuhodo Inc., Tokyo.
THE WINNERS: FILM CRAFT LOTUS
There were 11 Bronze, 7 Silver, 6 Gold and 1 Grande Lotus awards given. The Grande Lotus was awarded to Shiseido Co. Ltd., Tokyo for Brand Shiseido ‘The Party Bus’, directed by Towerfilm Tokyo, which also won 1 Gold Lotus.
“Overall there was some really strong work. I think what made the winners worthy was that we found ourselves wanting to award them in multiple categories – even ones they hadn’t submitted for! It’s a true testament to their overall quality of craft that their excellence wasn’t limited to just one area but we saw excellence throughout these pieces,” said Film Craft and New Director Jury President Ali Brown, Partner and Executive Producer at Prettybird, Los Angeles.
She added, “There seemed to be a return to classicism of sorts. Rather than seeing work that sort of challenged the category or showed real innovation, the work overall felt much more traditional. The craft was still quite good but in a classically cinematic way versus anything that felt really progressive or groundbreaking. There are of course always exceptions, but in general this was the trend we sensed when looking across the landscape of entries.”
The Gold award winners were: GREYnJ United, Bangkok for K Plus ‘Friendshit’, which won four Gold Lotuses and The Monkeys, Melbourne and Level Two Music, Melbourne for Holden ‘Not to be Outdone’.
NEW DIRECTOR LOTUS
From 18 entries, there were 2 Bronze and 1 Gold awards, but no Grande Lotus in this category. The Gold Lotus was awarded to Linkfilms, Shanghai for WABC ‘The Role’.
“Having judged New Director categories in other shows in the past, I will say that this year’s winner is one of the best pieces of work I’ve ever seen in that category in any festival worldwide. It is a real achievement in filmmaking for a new director, or any director, and I hope it goes on to win many awards,” said Film Craft and New Director Jury President Ali Brown, Partner and Executive Producer at Prettybird, Los Angeles.
FABULOUS FIVE
ADFEST’s ‘Fabulous Five’ program is one of the world’s most respected platforms for kick-starting the careers of commercial directors. Five directors with less than two years’ experience were invited to direct 5-minute short films inspired by the theme of ADFEST 2019, “TMRRW.TDAY”.
Congratulations to Mai Murata, Assistant Director from Dentsu Creative X Inc., Tokyo who was awarded a Commendation for her short film, “My Jellyfish”.
Film Craft and New Director Jury President Ali Brown, Partner and Executive Producer at Prettybird, Los Angeles, noted, “We were blown away by the quality of these films. We ended up with films that for the majority far exceeded our expectation of what would be delivered and that was a really inspiring surprise. I’m personally very passionate about supporting emerging directors and I could see that these Fabulous Five not only were all truly gifted, but had incredible support systems in place that really helped them bring their vision to life at the highest level. That fusion of great young talent with strong production support is really what’s needed to bring forth the best next generation of filmmakers and it’s quite rare to have that combination.
“As for the winner, it was very close but ultimately one film rose to the top for its excellence across so many facets of production. For an emerging filmmaker it was a great testament that you cannot solely have a cool concept or a great actor, but need to make sure that every element of your filmmaking is strong.”
The other finalists are: Jo Motoyo, Director from Tokyo/Taiyo Kikaku Co., Ltd., Tokyo; Naoto Mitake, Director from AOI Pro. Inc., Tokyo & Directors Think Tank, Kuala Lumpur; Rin Soejima, Director from AOI Pro. Inc., Tokyo; and Tomu Yamaguchi, Director from AOI Pro. Inc., Tokyo.
Follow this year’s winners via #ADFEST2019 and #TMRRWTDAY on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn (linkedin.com/company/adfest-official).
24 March, 2019
