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A GALLERY OF GRAND PRIX OF THE YEAR WINNERS SINCE 2008

This week, we celebrate over a decade’s worth of AD STARS Grand Prix of the Year winners, which each won US$10,000 at the annual AD STARS Awards.

When the first AD STARS Awards were held in 2018, the festival set out to create a new paradigm in the creative industries: a show that’s free to enter and supports creators with two $10,000 cash prizes every year. We want creators all over the world – whether they’re students or start-ups or agencies with limited award budgets – to have a forum where they can share their work, and inspire the world.

As Suthisak Sucharittanonta, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer at BBDO Bangkok explained while judging AD STARS 2017: “To win Grand Prix of the Year, the standard has to be very, very outstanding. It not only takes the brand to another level but also takes our ad industry to new heights.”

We hope you enjoy our gallery of previous AD STARS Grand Prix of the Year winners:

2010 - BBDO/Proximity (Malaysia) 2011 - Tokyu Agency Inc. (Japan) 2012 - Hakuhodo Inc. (Japan) 2013 – Cheil Worldwide (Korea) 2014 – Dentsu (Japan) and Forsman & Bodenfors (Sweden) 2015 - Leo Burnett (North America) 2016 - Y&R (New Zealand) 2017 - Colenso BBDO (New Zealand) 2018 - Fitzco//McCann (USA) 2019 - FCB New York (USA)

2019

Agency: FCB New York Client: Burger King Campaign: ‘The Whopper Detour’

The Whopper Detour campaign is an audacious idea that drove burger lovers to McDonald’s, where they could purchase Whoppers for only a penny thanks to an ingenious app with in-built geo-fencing. The campaign led to 1.5 million Burger King app downloads along with global media acclaim.

“When you can’t outspend your biggest competitor, you have to outsmart them,” explained Ted Lim, former Regional Chief Creative Officer at Dentsu Asia Pacific, who was an Executive Judge at AD STARS 2019.

Robin Fitzgerald, Chief Creative Officer at BBDO Atlanta and an Executive Judge at AD STARS 2019, added: “This was basically a brief to offer coupons for one-penny Whoppers, but the agency went above and beyond to make something much more culturally provocative.”

2018

Agency: Fitzco//McCann and Casanova//McCann (USA) Client: Coca-Cola Campaign: Share a Coke 1,000 Name Celebration

It took 30 songwriters, 45 musicians and over 2,625 hours to create 1,000 songs inspired by people’s names, which people could seek out online, hear on the radio and share on social channels.

Ari Halper, Creative Partner at FCB North America and Executive Judge at AD STARS 2018, said: “One of the biggest trends our industry is facing is that it’s hard to reach consumers with ‘push’ advertising, which means we need to find ways to get people to seek out our ideas. This campaign pulled people to seek it out. I also think there’s a tendency to always want to try something new, yet there’s great value in building on ideas. Coca-Cola’s latest campaign takes ‘Share a coke’ to another level. To me, that is a dying art. I think it’s important that our industry is mindful of not reinventing the wheel every time – once you’re onto something great, you can sometimes keep building upon it forever.”

Executive Judge Anna Qvennerstedt, Copywriter and Chairman at Forsman & Bodenfors in Sweden, says: “One of the things I really admire about this Coca-Cola campaign is the high ambition of the craft. I hope it will be an inspiration for agencies and clients to go that extra mile. It took a lot of working hours, blood, sweat and tears to make this idea – and it pays off.”

2017

Agency: Colenso BBDO, Auckland (New Zealand) Client: Pedigree Campaign: Pedigree Child Replacement Programme

This cheeky campaign encouraged empty nesters to replace their children with adopted dogs.

Helen Pak, who is now Creative SVP Creative at The Walt Disney Company, was an Executive Judge at AD STARS 2017. She said: “The Pedigree Child Replacement Challenge is a fantastic integrated campaign – each element was individually strong, delightfully crafted with great insight and humour. It was such an interesting, humorous new way to approach an age-old dilemma of increasing animal adoption rates.”

James Keng Lim, Creative Director at Hakuhodo Sinagpore, said: “What stood out was the brevity of thought, the audacity to think big, and a true desire to make a positive change.”

2016

Agency: Y&R New Zealand Client: Burger King + Peace One Day Campaign: McWhopper

To celebrate Peace Day, Burger King came up with a cheeky proposition for McDonald’s under the guise of a one-day truce. It invited McDonald’s to combine Big Mac and Whopper ingredients to create one mega burger. The proposal was rejected by McDonald’s but adored by the world.

Tim Doherty, Chief Creative Officer at Isobar China and an Executive Judge at AD STARS 2018 said: “The idea of giving two battling brands the chance to make peace on Peace Day is a big, big idea.”

2015

Agency: Leo Burnett Client: Always (Procter & Gamble) Campaign: Like A Girl

When did doing something “like a girl” become an insult? This pivotal campaign “won kudos all over the Internet for changing the conversation about what it means to run, throw and do pretty much any activity ‘like a girl,’” according to Huffington Post. With over 68 million views on YouTube, the ad was a collaboration between three Leo Burnett offices led by Judy John (who is now Global Chief Creative Officer at Edelman).

2014

* There were two Grand Prix of the Year trophies awarded in 2014.

Agency: Dentsu Tokyo Client: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. Campaign: Sound of Honda / Ayrton Senna 1989

To bring to life its car navigation system, Internavi, Honda re-enacted the world’s fastest lap by racing driver Ayrton Senna in the qualifying for the 1989 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix. It did this by collecting data from the car’s accelerator and engine to ingeniously recreate the lap using sound and light.

Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors (Sweden) Client: Volvo Trucks Campaign: The Chase 360

Forsman & Bodenfors set a herd of bulls free on the new Volvo FL in a rather extreme demonstration of the performance of Volvo Trucks. The interactive experience was filmed using 28 cameras so that users can switch between five different views.

2013

Agency: Cheil, Seoul Client: Samsung Life Insurance Campaign: Bridge of Life

Mapo Bridge in Seoul has become a popular spot for suicide attempts as it is accessible to pedestrians. Samsung worked with Cheil to display positive, empowering messages as people walk along the bridge to encourage them to keep walking across its entire length. The campaign contributed to a decline in suicides on Seoul’s bridges, and was acclaimed around the world.

2012

Agency: Hakuhodo Inc. Client: Google Chrome / Google Japan Campaign: Hatsune Miku

To showcase the creative power of Chrome, Google Japan created a campaign featuring virtual singer Hatsune Miku, tapping into the “vocaloid” phenomenon by using singing voice synthesizer software. When people searched for ‘Hatsune Miku’ on Google Chrome, they were invited to make their own songs and videos – and thousands of people around the world did just that.

2011 – Grand Prix

Agency: Tokyu Agency Inc. Client: Japan Racing and Livestock Promotion Foundation Campaign: Japan World Cup

This integrated campaign for the Japan Racing and Livestock Promotion Foundation set out to raise the appeal of horse racing to the youth of Japan.

2010 – Grand Prix

Agency: Special Group Client: Orcon Campaign: Together Incredible

Special Group connected 9 Kiwi's to Iggy Pop’s Miami studio using Orcon Broadband, and together they re-recorded 'The Passenger'. It’s a remix like you’ve never seen before, and it won our 2010 Grand Prix.

2009

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Hong Kong Client: Match Box Campaign: Chase

Ogilvy & Mather wanted to highlight the true-to-life realness of Matchbox cars, so they created footage of live driving situations to a soundtrack of kids making the noises of engines revving, changing gears, skidding around corners, sirens, and crashes.

2008

Agency: BBDO/Proximity Malaysia Client: Jeep (Chrysler Korea) Campaign: Husky & Camel

This visually simple campaign is part of a bigger ‘Two Worlds’ campaign that shows the enduring power of print. Two shapes – a husky and camel – overlap to reveal a Jeep, a clever way of showing that the Jeep is designed for any kind of weather conditions, from snow to desert.

The AD STARS 2020 Awards are open for entries until 15th May. Enter via adstars.org, or enjoy a showcase of our Grand Prix of the Year - Public Service Advertising winners here.

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WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM AMERICA’S MULTICULTURAL MARKETING BOOM?

AAAZA’s Jay Kim spoke to LBB’s Laura Swinton at AD STARS 2019 about the effectiveness of in-culture marketing – here’s an excerpt of the article, republished courtesy of Little Black Book.

Jay Kim is president at AAAZA (the All American A to Z Agency) and is also the serving president of the Asian American Advertising Federation. He reckons that there are endless opportunities both within the US and globally for brands that appreciate cultural nuance and the immigrant experience.

“In 2010 I joined AAAZA, doing multicultural. I was sort of going backwards, going from a general market agency to multicultural. Going from digital to more traditional,” recalls Jay. “People were saying, ‘why would you do that, it’s so small…’, but I realised that while, yeah, we’re [Asian Americans] only 20 million people here in US but we’re very closely attached to a three billion ‘general market’ area of the world.”

The agency now sees itself as a bridge. On the one hand it speaks to a multitude of cultures within America, including the group of Asian American cultures. On the other it can help brands reach Asia. On top of that, the experience of being part of a diaspora is a very specific one in itself and requires research and data to truly get under the skin of it.

When it comes to multicultural marketing in the US, the biggest mistake that brands can make is to assume that integration means that specific cultures fade into the background. For one thing, it’s an assumption that somewhat arrogantly assumes that the white, anglophone experience is the default and the one that all other groups are moving towards or aspire to. For another, AAAZA have found in their own research that while young people who are second or third generation Americans do tend to want to fit into the dominant culture as teenagers, when they come to have families of their own they seek to revisit their heritage. And finally, there’s something viscerally delightful about been spoken to within your own culture and language.

“Someone who speaks your native tongue and understands your culture, you will trust more. They speak to your heart. That’s the biggest, most common mistake the US makes,” says Jay. “They say, ‘well they speak English’? I say, imagine you’ve been in China for ten years, you speak Mandarin fluently. But imagine you then saw one restaurant celebrating Thanksgiving, having turkey and speaking English to you, you’d be like ‘I’m there’. And it’s the same.”

In fact, although he’s using the example of the American worker in China to underline his point, Jay also thinks that the mobile 21st century workforce means that there many markets outside the US ripe for the multicultural approach.

Jay says that AAAZA is already doing work with Australian market, pointing out the historical and contextual similarities with America. Both countries are relatively young and, aside from indigenous people, both can be said to be melting pots of immigrant cultures. AAAZA has been working on a money transfer campaign for the Australian market that sees them creating targeted executions for 50 different ethnicities, including Filipino, Caribbean, South Indian, Samoan, Nigerian and Ghanian communities.

Sitting in South Korea at the AD STARS festival in Busan, Jay says that even the traditionally monocultural country may see a growth in multicultural marketing in future. Korea is also seeing an influx of migrants, working in agriculture, care and manufacturing. It’s been a difficult transition and economic migrants to the country face more hostility than more cosmopolitan Asian hubs like Hong Kong and Singapore – which in turn could make an understanding, culturally-relevant content an even more welcome sight.

While the effectiveness of the multicultural approach is impressive – what it lacks in reach it makes up for in conversion rates – it’s also a part of the industry that has to juggle an extra layer of complexity and practical challenges. Simply put, they’ve got to create a greater number of ads for a tiny fraction of the budget.

“The budget is low but they [clients] expect Cannes quality production values. We’ll have one day to shoot and we’ll have to cover four or five markets so we have to figure out what the commonalities are while maintaining the main communication strategy from general market while we have the same deadline,” explains Kim. “We have to work fast!”

Necessity, though, is the mother of ingeniously creative production solutions. The team is able to use their nuanced appreciation of universalities and cultural specificities to create a campaign that can talk specifically and directly to individual cultural groups while also being efficient to produce.

With AT&T, for example, they created a campaign around the phenomenon of Saturday language schools, which was especially resonant with Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans and French Americans who are keen for their children to learn their own language. With tweaks to script, set design and of course cast, they were able to produce three targeted ads from the same location and idea.

Paradoxically, the deeper you dive into multicultural marketing, the more slippery the term becomes too. One’s heritage, culture and ethnicity are formative and important parts of one’s identity and being. But ‘multicultural marketing’ isn’t a monolith. AAAZA works with cultures as diverse as Vietnamese, Korean, Russian. Middle Eastern, Indian and French.

On top of that the experience of recent immigrants differs vastly from 2nd generation Americans (or even 1.5th generation, which is how Jay, who moved to the US as a child describes himself) – and those experiences differ from international students too. Add to that one’s life stage, and personal interests. It’s complicated.

Read the original article via Little Black Book

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LEGO BUILDS FOR THE FUTURE AND BOOSTS KOREAN CREATIVITY

LEGO Korea General Manager Michael Ebbensen talks challenges and lights up the room at Ad Stars 2019, writes Laura Swinton, who travelled to Busan for Little Black Book.

If you’ve ever been unsure about your position on the debate of long-term brand building versus short term tactical bumps and ROI-bound digital campaigns, try sitting in on a Lego presentation.

The biggest smiles at AD STARS 2019 were to be seen when Lego’s Korea general manager, Michael Ebbesen, took to the stage. Never mind the audience, even the volunteers were unrestrained in their glee. Even before Michael had started his talk, he’d been accosted by at least four people keen to share their own childhood memories with the brand. Imagine seeing people’s faces light up every time you tell them where you work.

But despite Lego’s legacy – the company has been making toys ever since the financial crash in 1932 drove a Danish furniture company to seek out a new business model, and the iconic brick celebrated its 60th birthday last year – the company is not immune from the pressures of changing tastes and digital disruption.

“It’s not like it’s all jolly, happy days – it’s not like we go to work and play every day! I wish it was!” jokes Michael.

In Korea specifically, the big marketing challenge is to persuade parents about the importance of play. Creativity and the educational merits of free play is a cornerstone of Lego’s pitch to parents, but according to the company’s research, Korea’s culture of hardcore studying allows little time to develop imagination and creative skills.

“In Korea, we believe kids play too little and we believe they could benefit from more play… this is where we see the Lego group closing the gap,” says Michael. “Kids and adults alike are so busy they don’t have time to reflect on their life.”

Fortunately, when it comes to adult fans, the Lego team in Korea benefit from a vast fanbase. “Korea’s actually the place where we have more fans relative to the population,” enthuses Michael.

And that’s good news for the regional team – one of Lego’s core strategies for thriving in the future is to specifically target the ‘kidult’ market. With shrinking birth rates across the developed world, Lego can’t count on its traditional demographic for growth. Having cultivated that strong brand love among fans over decades, Lego has a willing and enthusiastic market of grown-up hobbyists. Platforms like Lego Ideas, whereby fans can submit concepts for new sets and stand to earn 1% of net sales if their idea is picked up, are proving to be popular. Thus far Lego Ideas has garnered 35,156 submissions.

Another challenge that Lego faces is how to stay relevant for digitally-native children, whilst staying true to the essence of who they are as a brand. It’s a tricky balance to strike – it’s easy to get so caught up in innovation and novelty that you lose sight of your overall goal. Lego learned that lesson the hard way, back in 2003 and 2004 when the brand was $800m in debt and very nearly went bankrupt. The company identified the root cause as being an attempt to stray too far from its core business, launching toy lines that were unidentifiable as ‘Lego’ products. This ‘non-brick innovation’ was a flop.

That’s why now, while the company recognises the need to evolve for children who have grown up swiping their parents’ smartphones, they need to do so in a way that makes sense for the brand. Michael cites the Lego Life platform, a walled social media platform for children, as one such innovation. In 2017 they also launched a range called ‘Boost’ that combines traditional Lego building with coding, allowing children to experiment with creating and programming their own little robots and inventions. It’s a product that stays close to Lego’s educational remit. The latest innovation is the Hidden Side augmented reality app, which lets children bring their physical creations to life by adding a layer of animation.

One area where Lego is world-class is their consistent application of brand both externally and internally. Lego knows what it is. Back in the early noughties when it flirted with bankruptcy, one of the strategies that it used to heave itself back on its feet was to identify its ‘brand promises’ and the values that would determine the decisions it made in the future. These promises are so core that they even determine promotion within the company – candidates are assessed on their ability to embody and uphold the promises and values that click Lego together. These promises are: Play Promise (joy of building. Pride of creation); Partner Promise (mutual value creation); Planet Promise (Positive impact); People Promise (Succeed together).

Those values have also seen Lego own up to and confront its more harmful side. In recent years, Lego has come under fire for its use of plastics created from crude oil – in 2014 Greenpeace parodied the Lego Movie theme tune Everything Is Awesome with its own video ‘Everything is NOT Awesome’.

Now Lego is committed to being entirely reliant on plant-based plastics by 2030 – it already produces 200 elements from sustainable materials. In 2017, Lego reached its target of using 100% renewable energy ahead of schedule.

While there are undoubtedly challenges ahead, Lego is readying itself for coming challenges. Some things, however, remain unsolvable as one astute Ad Stars audience member observes. “Is there any way Lego can make a brick that doesn’t hurt when you stand on it in bare feet?”

* This article is republished courtesy of Little Black Book. Michael Ebbesen, General Manager, Lego Korea, was a Keynote Speaker at AD STARS 2019. His session, ‘The Power of Influence in Play’, took place on 24th August 2019.

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AD STARS – A MELTING POT & AN EQUALIZER

The 12th year of AD STARS, the first global advertising festival from North Asia, was a melting pot of Eastern and Western culture, writes Neeta Nair, who attended AD STARS 2019 to report for exchange4media and Impact magazine in India.

When you enter South Korea, be ready to get out of your digital comfort zone. If you thought the world was on Whatsapp, then think again: KaKao Talk is literally the talk of town as the most popular messaging app in South Korea. If you want to use Google Maps to navigate, you are just about going to keep waiting forever for the routes to show up, so move over Google Maps and enter Kakao Maps. A majority of South Koreans do not even use Google, because they have Naver, their own search engine.

So the digital marketing exercise in South Korea is about 360-degrees different from that across the world, and global marketers have to use an altogether different rulebook to reach out to the population.

Having said that, at a time when advertising markets in other Asian countries are aiming to be digital-first, South Korea has already achieved that. As per recent data released by Cheil, for the very first time, advertising expenditure on digital platforms rose to over 4 trillion won ($3.55 billion) in 2018, surpassing the amount spent on broadcast ads in South Korea.

Impact magazine spoke to Zhang Qian, National GM of Creative Centre, Ad and Sales, Xiaomi at AD STARS, which celebrates creativity in advertising. He said, “About 50% of our marketing spends today are devoted to Digital in South Korea. While we use global platforms like Twitter and Facebook for big announcements, the budget dedicated to it is bare minimum, we prefer focussing on other platforms for engagement like the MI band.”

Another aspect which is very peculiar to South Korea is its dependence on in-house ad agencies. Unlike India, most big brands in Korea have their own in-house ad agencies like Cheil for Samsung, Innocean for Hyundai Motors and HS Ad for LG. These in-house agencies that also accept business from other brands figure among the top five ad agencies in South Korea. For years, networks like WPP, Publicis and Dentsu have been trying to break into this market effectively. Despite having a presence in this market, agencies like Ogilvy, Leo Burnett and Dentsu, that have proven their mettle the world over, have not been able to show their creative influence by ranking in the South Korean market based on billings.

Ted Lim, APAC CCO, Dentsu Aegis Network, says: “Dentsu has a presence in South Korea but I won’t say it’s massive because in South Korea, the advertising business is run by ‘chaebols’. All the big conglomerates have their own agencies. So, the business environment in Korea is unlike that in other countries. It is quite hard for multinational agencies to get a piece of the pie.”

Yehoon Lee, Vice President and Executive Creative Director, Cheil Worldwide (pictured above), says: “After all, advertising and marketing mainly depend on human resource and a well-maintained system. In-house agencies, due to comparatively stable billings, are able to invest in searching for talented individuals, which allows the company to design its work comprehensively and effectively. This offers in-house agencies the possibility of attempting new marketing communication approaches for their leading clients.”

* Read the full article in Impact’s September 2019 issue, Volume 16, Issue 12 via Impactonnet.com. This excerpt is republished courtesy of exchange4media and Impactonnet.com

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SRINIVASAN SWAMY RECEIVES INTERNATIONAL HONORARY AWARD

At the recently concluded 12th edition of AD STARS held in Busan, Korea, Srinivasan Swamy was recognized with Korea’s highest honour for his significant contribution to the advertising industry, reports Campaign Brief Asia.

AD STARS is considered as one of the largest advertising festivals since it receives over 20,000 entries of creative work from nearly 60 countries, with Jury members from as many countries evaluating and awarding excellence in creativity.

Swamy is the Chairman and Managing Director of R K SWAMY BBDO, one the reputed advertising agencies in India. He also is the Chairman of the R K SWAMY HANSA Group, which has units like Hansa Customer Equity, Hansa Research, Hansa Vision, Hansa Events, Hansa Medcell, Hansa PR, Hansa Outdoor, Hansa Consulting etc. The group employs nearly 3000 people and has revenues in excess of US$ 100 Million, serving over 100 clients.

He currently serves as the Chairman and World President of International Advertising Association (IAA), the industry body headquartered in New York, USA, with a presence in 56 countries around the world. He is also the Vice Chairman of Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA). He is an industry veteran having functioned as Chairman of Confederation of Asian Advertising Agency Associations (CAAAA), Presidents of Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), Advertising Standards Council of India and the India Chapter of IAA.

On receiving the award, Swamy said “I am humbled and honoured to receive the award on behalf of all my industry colleagues who helped me make a difference to the various tasks we addressed together. The industry is at a transitional phase with issues of enhanced data privacy regulations that could change the way we communicate with our various target audiences. We will do our bit to provide the direction we need to take, over the next couple of years”.

Swamy has been earlier recognized in various forums for his outstanding contributions. He has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from both AAAI and Rotary Club of Guindy, the Distinguished Service Award from Advertising Club Madras, and was recognized as IAA Global Champion at the inaugural Inspire Awards in London, by IAA Global. He was inducted into the IAA Hall of Fame instituted by the India Chapter. Japan Advertising Agencies Association recognized him with their Merit Honour for his singular contribution to the formation of CAAAA and thought leadership.

This article is republished courtesy of Campaign Brief Asia.

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DIRECT, MEDIA, PROMO & PR WINNERS

‘The Whopper Detour’ by FCB New York won Direct Grand Prix and a Gold in Direct.

“There is no mistaking the intent of this campaign: it is designed to get the brand noticed and to drive profits. They could have simply handed out Burger King coupons, but instead they found a way to generate eyeballs and start a conversation. When you can’t outspend your competition, you have to outsmart them,” says Ted Lim, Regional Chief Creative Officer at Dentsu Asia Pacific, who led these categories as Executive Judge.

There were 3 more Gold winners in Direct: - The Brand Agency, Australia, ‘Hungry Puffs’ (Foodbank WA) - Impact BBDO, United Arab Emirates for ‘The Blank Edition’ (An-Nahar) - Casanova/McCann, USA, ‘Second Chances’ (Donate Life California)

In Media, Impact BBDO, United Arab Emirates won Grand Prix and a Gold trophy for ‘The Blank Edition’ (An-Nahar). ADK Japan also won Gold for ‘Make it a runway’ (PVH Japan).

“The political context in which ‘The Blank Edition’ was published made it a very brave decision. One act of bravery brought about political and social change,” says Lim. “In the context of what we do as an industry: I believe we are in the business previously known as advertising. Whether we are selling shampoo or bringing about social change, we have to bring purpose to whatever we are working on.”

In the Promotion category, there were also two Gold winners: FCB New York’s ‘The Whopper Detour’ (Burger King) and Casanova/McCann, USA, ‘Second Chances’ (Donate Life California).

The PR Grand Prix was awarded to Impact BBDO, United Arab Emirates for ‘The Blank Edition’ (An-Nahar), which also won Gold.

There were two more Gold winners in the PR category: - DDB Sydney, Australia’s ‘Grave of Thrones’ (Foxtel) - FCB New York’s ‘Whopper Detour’ (Burger King).

AD STARS will return in 2020 for its 13th annual festival and awards show.

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