AdFest 2011: Results of the Direct, Promo, Print Craft and Design Lotus awards

At the end of the first afternoon of speaker sessions at the 14th Asia Pacific Advertising Festival (ADFEST), held at Mövenpick Resort & Spain Phuket, Thailand, the winners of the Direct, Promo, Print Craft and Design Lotus categories were revealed in the Grand Ballroom with a large audience in attendance.

DIRECT LOTUS

Out of 158 entries for the Direct Lotus, a total of 13 Lotus Awards were presented. These included 16 Bronze, 5 Silver, and 1 Gold, which was won by Hakuhodo Products Inc. from Tokyo for ‘Smash: Born to be Destroyed’. There was no Best of Show in this category.

Tan Kien Eng, Jury President of Direct and Promo Lotus and CEO of Leo Burnett Group in Singapore and Malaysia says, “One unifying theme we saw with the winners was that these campaigns attempted to engage with, rather than annoy the consumer. The Smash campaign by Hakuhodo Inc Tokyo was a good example. People were excited to engage with the piece, and told their friends about it. It got them to reconnect with the emotions of rock music, and thus reconnect with the brand.”

PROMO LOTUS

ADFEST introduced the Promo category to the Lotus Awards for the first time this year, and received 200 entries for the category. Overall, 16 Lotus Awards were awarded including Best of Show, which was won by Dentsu Inc Tokyo for ‘Uniqlo Lucky Line’.

Two Gold Awards were presented to The Marketing Store Sydney for the work entered for ‘Bundy Skycouch’, Bundaberg Rum in ‘Sponsorship/Partnership Campaign’ and ‘Event & Field Marketing’ categories. Two other Gold Lotus Awards were given out to George Patterson Y&R Melbourne for ‘Cottee’s Beach Blaster’ and Leo Burnett Hong Kong for ‘Supor Non-stick Pans’. ADFEST gave out 6 Bronze, 5 Silver and 4 Gold Lotus Awards for the inaugural Promo category.

Eng said the Direct and Promo Lotus Jury was impressed by the standard of entries this year, and felt the most innovative winners were pushing the industry beyond ‘traditional advertising’ into fresh territories.

“Agencies must work towards engaging with their clients as partners. Amongst the Direct and Promo Lotus winners, we saw many pieces which weren’t even creative communications in a traditional sense. In many of these cases, we clearly saw how the agencies worked with clients to develop new products and new business models. Which is, I feel, the way forward for our industry,” says Eng. “Remember: we’re not here just to create pretty ads. We’re also here to help our clients grow their business by aiding them in engaging with their consumers.”

PRINT CRAFT LOTUS

ADFEST Jury President of the Print Craft and Design categories this year is Andy Blood, Group Executive Creative Director and Partner at TBWA New Zealand. “Our jury spoke a lot about something we call ‘the new normal’ – everything we used to think was a Gold is now only worth a Finalist because standards in the industry are so high today. It’s now really hard to break beyond ‘good’ to ‘great’,” said Blood. “Despite the jury’s tough evaluation standards, there were many outstanding winners.”

In the Print Craft Lotus category, there were 3 Golds, 9 Silvers and 16 Bronzes from a total 136 entries. There was no award for Best of Show.

The three Gold Awards were won by SpicyH Co.,Ltd. from Bangkok for “Fingerprint: House/Office/Laboratory”, TimeWORKS; SenseTeam from Shenzhen for Social Energy_Typeface and DDB Singapore for “Coin Landscapes: Mountain/Landmarks/Road”, Rough Guide Budget Travel Guide.

DESIGN LOTUS

ADFEST introduced the Design Lotus category in 2008 and this year, out of a total of 184 entries, there were 2 Gold, 8 Silvers and 16 Bronze awarded, as well as Best of Show.

Best of Show was awarded to Masashi & Qanta & Saqoosha & Hiroki in Tokyo for Utsushi Kagami’ (Mirror) in the category for Broadcast/Motion and Digital Design. The two Gold Lotus Awards went to Creative Juice\Bangkok (TBWA) for its calendar for Tamiya Model Kits Shop; and Denstu Inc in Tokyo for its ‘Japan Bullet – Zing! Thunk!’ promotion for a London Office Opening Reception/Exhibition.

Overall, Blood felt the best Design work is emerging from Japan, which has a very strong design ethos: “I think Japanese ideas marry design and technology better than anyone else, which makes their designs amongst the best in the world. Good design is not just about decoration – it’s about creating a design experience.”

VIEW THE LIST OF WINNERS – Outdoor, Cyber, Direct, Promo, Design, Print Craft, Film Craft and New Director Lotus.