Iggy Pop and Dirty Water are the stars of the night and big cash winners at the Ad Stars Festival

New Zealand based agency Special Group and the New York agency Casanova Pendrill picked up US$10,000 cash each last night at the AdStars gala awards ceremony, held in Busan, Korea. Both agencies were behind AdStars’ two Grand Prix winners – Orcon Broadband “Orcon + Iggy Pop” and “Dirty Water” for the Tap Project.

Despite offering faster broadband and superior customer service, Orcon was relatively unknown in a New Zealand market dominated by the huge corporates. Orcon actually used its broadband to enable a world-first technical feat – connecting nine Kiwis from their homes across New Zealand to Iggy’s studio in Miami, and re-recording the classic track ‘The Passenger’.

This award follows the campaigns stunning success at Cannes, where it took home both a Gold Lion and the Direct Grand Prix, and at the New Zealand Axis award where it won Best in Show and took home the most Gold Axis in the competitions 30 history.

The Dirty Water idea is a vending machine created for World Water Week. New Yorkers in the Union Square Park area were able to enjoy the benefits of “Dirty Water”. It was available in a wide variety of choices like Malaria, Cholera or even Typhoid.

Neither agency was there on the night so their awards were collected for them by Craft judge Stephen Douglas (DigiPost, Auckland) and Outdoor jury head Ross Chowles (The Jupiter Drawing Room, Cape Town). More coverage of AdStars tomorrow.