The U.K.'s most prestigious awards show, D&AD, handed out a record number of top prizes and recognized mobile marketing for the first time at the awards ceremony held today in London. In another first, the jury president, Simon Waterfall, was chosen from the digital marketing world rather than a traditional agency. Mr. Waterfall is the founder of U.K. digital agency Poke.
D&AD is regarded as a good indicator of what might do well at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival next month. It could be a bountiful year--the Design & Art Direction jury awarded six Black Pencils, the top award, for the first time in its 45-year history. Some years, no Black Pencils are handed out; often, there are two or three. The criteria is "A piece of work or campaign that is truly groundbreaking; the kind of work that redefines a medium."
Black Pencils went to "
Get the Glass" for California Milk Processors by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners; Cadbury's "
Gorilla" spot by Fallon London and the "
Uniqlock" online campaign for Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo by Projector Inc, which uses a fusion of dance and sound to create an everlasting, ever-changing online clock.
Apple's
iMac and
iPhone also took home Black Pencils, confirming them as hot contenders to win the new Design Lions, which will be presented for the first time at Cannes this year.
A sixth Black Pencil went to "
The National Gallery Grand Tour," a series of posters of paintings in London's National Gallery that were placed around the city and developed into an interactive experience mirroring the extended "Grand Tours" which culture-hungry nineteenth-century Brits used to take around Europe. The agency was The Partners, and there were two clients--The National Gallery and Hewlett Packard.
View a full list of D&AD Pencil winnersD&AD also gave out the first awards for mobile marketing. Yellow Pencils went to Unilever's Lynx/Axe and Japanese snack food company Tohato.
"It's an industry that's still coming of age," Mr. Waterfall said, "and these campaigns are a good sign that it's finally arriving."
For Unilever's Lynx male body spray (known as Axe in the rest of the world), Bartle Bogle Hegarty tried to figure out how to apply the Lynx effect for seducing women to the digital world. The solution, according to BBH, was to "turn mobile phones into pulling machines." Sound effects were added to the mobile phone to make it an ice breaker for geeky guys. As part of the "
Get In There" campaign, cell phones provided serenades, a door-unlocking noise so it sounds like that nearby Porsche is yours, romantic music to propose by, and much more.
The other mobile winner, "
World's Worst War," was an online war game between Tohato's two new spicy snack products, created by Japanese agency Hakuhodo. Recruits joined either the Habanero or the Satan Jorquia evil armies (named after the snacks) and fought daily battles. Players used their phones to win higher rank by recruiting friends, text message war reports, and strategize.
Mr. Waterfall said, "Making me [jury] president says so much about where our industry is going, but we have had some brilliant work in all media this year. 'Gorilla' is a perfect guilty pleasure; it says everything there is to say about eating chocolate, and 'Get the Glass' is charming, fun and beautifully crafted.
"U.S. wins included Yellow Pencils for Mars' Skittles "
Touch" spot by TBWA Chiat Day, New York and two integrated campaigns – Coke Zero's "
Coke vs Coke Zero" by Crispin Porter and Microsoft's X-Box "
Believe" by T.A.G., S.F./McCann Worldgroup, S.F. The HBO "
Voyeur" work by BBDO, New York won in the broadcast innovation and integrated categories.
