At Malaysia’s Kancil Awards night on Nov. 28th, an international panel of judges, many from independent agencies, awarded BBDO Proximity the 2008 Golden Kancil for its Anti-Drink & Drive Campaign, “Wheelchair”.
While BBDO Proximity won the most awards that night, it was Saatchi & Saatchi that was named Agency of the Year, based on total points at six international shows in addition to the Kancils. It was the second consecutive year that Saatchi received the honor.
The awards night was only the culmination of this year’s 30th anniversary Kancils, which spanned almost a month of events. With everything from student competitions to an international judges’ talk (balanced with a speaker series highlighting Malaysian creativity), the Kancils were comprehensive without being crammed, balancing local pride with international star power.
Special mention among the events goes to Kyoorius Designyatra, which kicked off the Kancils on Nov. 13-14. The prestigious design conference based in Goa, India debuted in Kuala Lumpur this year, drawing big-ticket design gurus like Neville Brody and Vince Frost.
The jury awarded more prizes this year, which suggests rising creative standards across Malaysian advertising. A total of 22 gold, 46 silver, 52 bronze and 90 merit awards were given, to the Kancils’ top 30 agencies. “Judging this year was extremely tough. But the standard of work has remained the high level that it has in the last few years. A small percentage of work was truly world-class,” said Jury Chairman Ronald Ng, also Executive Creative Director of BBDO Proximity.
Top performers included the campaigns shown here. Another highlight was independent shop Immerse Communications’ Volvo C30 campaign, which beat two other agencies to the Gold in internet and interactive media,. Y&R Malaysia’s popular Colgate 360 campaign “Brushing” won Best of Radio. The Young Creative Award went to BBDO Proximity’s Gary Lim and Willeon Leong.
The Kancils were unanimously decided by the local and international jury. Reflecting the “Change the Game” theme, many of the judges were from independent agencies: Jon Dranger (farfar), Iain Tait (Poke), Flo Heiss (Dare), Sean Lam (Kinetic), Alex Burnard (Crispin Porter + Bogusky), Matty Burton (droga5), Thirasak Tanapatanakul (Creative Juice), Pann Lim (Kinetic), and Sonal Dabral (Bates), among others.
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