The prestigious Asia Pacific Advertising Festival AdFest has announced its 2020 special award winners. The event was launched at an online ceremony. AdFest’s Special Awards are given to the creative businesses that win the highest number of Lotus Awards. For the fourth consecutive year, Dentsu has won the ‘Network of the Year’ award, while the ‘Agency of the Year’ award and the ‘Digital Agency of the Year’ award went to Dentsu Inc. Tokyo. The awards were originally set to take place in Thailand last year but were postponed due to the pandemic. Judging this year were 60 jurors led by Grand Jury President Judy John, Global Chief Creative Officer at Edelman, Toronto.
ADFEST WINNERS
For the 4th year in a row, Dentsu wins AdFest’s Network of the Year. The works from 7 offices across the region contributed to the win including:
Network of the Year
- Dentsu Inc., Tokyo
- Dentsu Creative X Inc. Tokyo
- Beijing Dentsu Advertising Co. Ltd., Beijing
- BWM Dentsu Melbourne, Melbourne
- Dentsu One (Bangkok), Bangkok
- Dentsu Webchutney Mumbai
- Taproot Dentsu, Mumbai
Agency of the Year
The Agency of the Year goes to Dentsu Inc., Tokyo from its various notable wins from:
- “Tuna Scope” for Sojitz Corporation
- “Mori Building Brand Movie Designing Tokyo” for Mori Building
- “The Last Day of Sushi” for Euglena
- “Creativity, Uncaged” for The One Show 2019 Exhibition In Japan
- “Get Back, Tohoku.” for Tohoku Shinkansen
- “We’re Hiring…Based On Looks!” for KissMe
- “Nikkei Blend” for Nikkei Inc.
- “Language Sanctuary—Ad Space For Protecting Endangered Language” for Okinawa Times 70th Anniversary
- “Stimulate Annual” for CCN Annual 2018
- “Song of Nok Campaign: The Person Inside/Smartphone” for Nok
- “Media Value-Switching” for “Your Name” Terrestrial Television Broadcast (Partner Company Toho Co., Ltd)
- “Green Screen Actress Mika+Rika” for Mika+Rika
- “The Most Wanted Job in Japan” for Indeed Ireland Operations Ltd.
Independent Agency of the Year
Loong, Beijing wins the Independent of the Year for its very impactful “Team of One” for Tencent Foundation’s China Organ Donation. Team of One won multiple Gold Lotus trophies across various categories as well as this year’s Grande for Humanity.
Digital Agency of the Year
Dentsu Inc., Tokyo also wins Digital Agency of the Year for its works in Digital Craft Lotus, Digital Lotus & Mobile Lotus including:
- “Tuna Scope” for Sojitz Corporation
- “Mori Building Brand Movie Designing Tokyo” for Mori Building
- “Nikkei Blend” for Nikkei Inc.
Media Agency of the Year
Hakuhodo DY Media Partners Tokyo wins ADFEST 2020 Media Agency of the Year for “Relief Drama” for RCC Broadcasting.
Production Company of the Year
The Production Company of the Year is awarded to Omnibus Japan Inc. Tokyo for:
- “Mori Building Brand Movie Designing Tokyo” for Mori Building
- “Mr. Oil” for Panasonic Corporation
- “Pocari The Blue Dance: Hear Our Voices” for Pocari Sweat
- “100 Years Train” for Sotetsu Holdings Inc.
- “BOUM!BOUM!BOUM!” for BOUM!BOUM!BOUM! Production Committee.
Advertiser of the Year
The Advertiser of the Year goes to Sojitz Corporation for its innovative work, “Tuna Scope”, by the agency Dentsu Inc. with production by Dentsu Live Inc. and Shindii LLC., Tokyo
From India, there were 14 winners:
- Leo Burnett India topped the list with six wins.
- The agency bagged two Gold and Silver each for HDFC Bank’s ‘#StopMithani’. It also won a Silver for Spotify’s ‘Beat of a Billion’ and a Bronze for the brand’s ‘There’s a playlist for that’.
- Taproot Dentsu was the other Gold winner. The agency’s ‘Free Initiatives’ campaign for Free Press Journal bagged Gold.
- Dentsu Webchutney bagged a total of three awards, all for ‘Code Name: Uri’ for Uri – The Surgical Strike. One of these was Silver while the other were Bronze wins.
- BBDO India (Ariel – #SonsShareTheLoad), Cheil WW India (Samsung – Now words aren’t just heard, but felt), Havas Worldwide (Durex – Orgasm Equality), and TBWA (Neurogen Brain and Spine Institute – One Mindful Mind) also won a Bronze each.
