ASIA-PACIFIC – The winners of the ADFEST 2010 Lotus Awards were unveiled July 26, with SRC Inc in Tokyo picking up the Grande INNOVA Lotus for Uniqlo "Lucky Switch". The campaign ingeniously embeds a "Lucky Switch" widget onto blogs and websites, converting every image on any website into Uniqlo Lucky Tickets.
“’Lucky Switch’ is a unique integrated idea that enables Uniqlo to put their brand on other people’s sites, which is quite cheeky,” says Brett Mitchell, Digital Director at Droga5 Sydney, who was Jury President of this year’s Cyber Lotus jury, which also awarded the "Lucky Switch" campaign the Best of Cyber Lotus.
Grand Jury President Steve Henry said he feels inspired by the experimentation that is taking place in the Asia Pacific region. “It’s been a difficult time for creativity generally for various reasons thanks to weaker financial conditions and changes in the media marketplace. Certainly in London there seems to be low morale within advertising agencies at the moment, and yet here in Asia there seems to be more confidence and experimentation. There’s some real innovation and some great fresh thinking going on,” says Henry.
As co-founder of one of the world’s most respected agencies, HHCL in London, Henry oversaw the judging of the INNOVA, 360 and Lotus Roots categories in Tokyo last Friday, July 23, as well as the Film Lotus and Radio Lotus Jury on July 20 to 22. Overall, Henry was impressed by the quality of winners, but said the quantity of good ideas in the 360 category was underwhelming.
“To be honest, I’m slightly disappointed with ADFEST’s 360 entries. The winners are very, very good, but I wanted to see more of it. The quantity wasn’t necessarily very good, but the winners were very fresh, very brave, and very interesting,” says Henry
Three other agencies walked away with INNOVA Lotuses this year:
-Bartle Bogle Hegarty China for WWF "Fate’s in your hands"
-Projector Inc in Tokyo for Uniqlo Calendar
-Beacon Communications K.K. in Tokyo for Yubari City Project
Leo Burnett Sydney also won Finalist for its EOS Photochains campaign for Canon.
This year, New Zealand’s DDB Auckland walked away with the GRANDE 360 Lotus for its "4th Best" campaign for Moro in a very close battle with "New National Animal" for Sanctuary Magazine by Contract Advertising in Mumbai, which won a 360 Lotus instead.
The Moro "4th Best" campaign is inspired by Auckland’s recent ranking as the world’s 4th most livable city, while "New National Animal" highlights the alarming plight of the Indian tiger, which is fast becoming extinct.
“Using typical New Zealand humour, DDB built a campaign around the number four and coming fourth, which is quite a nice idea. The ‘New National Animal’ idea was possibly stronger, but from a 360 perspective, Moro just had more spokes in the wheel and a whole lot more elements to the campaign, so it won on that basis. I think the Jury made the right call on that,” says Mitchell.
777interactive also won a 360 Lotus for the Lupin Steal Japan Project, while there were two Finalists awarded in the 360 category: BBDO Guerrero/Proximity in Manila for "Lola Techie" Bayan DSL; and Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai for Vodafone "ZooZoos".
LOTUS ROOTS WINNERS
ADFEST’s newest award category, Lotus Roots, is uniquely designed to celebrate the rich diversity of cultures in the Asia Pacific. This year, seven agencies from six cities won Lotus Roots awards, while Beacon Communications K.K. in Tokyo walked away with the Grande Lotus Roots for its Yubari City Project campaign.
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In 2007, Yubari City was declared bankrupt and needed an advertising campaign that would help the city reverse its debt of $330 million. Beacon Communications devised a delightful campaign that repositioned Yubari as a city of lovebirds, because married couples enjoy the lowest divorce rate in Japan. Thanks to this campaign, more than 3,000 newlywed couples have traveled to Yubari to bless their marriages, with a 10% increase in annual visitors.
The other Lotus Roots winners are:
-Contract Advertising Mumbai for "New National Animal" and Sanctuary Magazine
-Dentsu Inc in Tokyo for "Toto Talk"
-chinaMMIA in Beijing for CCTV-Ink
-Ogilvy & Mather in Gurgaon for India Posts
-Taproot India in Mumbai for Conqueror Paper
-Leo Burnett/Arc Worldwide in Singapore for ‘the Ministry of Community Development, Youth & Sports
-Ogilvy Shanghai for Unicef
There were additionally 18 finalists awarded in the Lotus Roots category, which is proof that diversity in the Asia Pacific is alive and flourishing.
“I always enjoy judging awards like ADFEST because you get to see fresh work, you get to meet new people, and you see a lot of really interesting experimenting going on. I love that. It’s always nice to get people in the industry coming together and as much as possible putting their competitiveness away and just celebrating good work,” says Henry.
This year, there were 45 entries in the INNOVA Lotus category and 48 entries in the 360 Lotus category. The Lotus Roots finalists were nominated from all 2,708 Lotus entries by each of the Jury panels in Film, Radio, Film Craft, New Director, Press, Poster, Direct, Print Craft, Design, Outdoor and Cyber.
To download a PDF of this year’s INNOVA, 360 and LOTUS ROOTS winners and finalists, visit www.adfest.com.
