Y&R NZ crowned Agency of the Year at D&AD; scores 6 Yellow Pencils for McWhopper; Yellow Pencils to Colenso BBDO, DDB, Saatchi and FCB; New Zealand ranked #5 Most Awarded country
Y&R NZ has made history by becoming the first New Zealand agency to be named Most Awarded Advertising Agency at the D&AD Professional Awards 2016 ceremony, which took place in London last night.
Y&R NZ walked away with 11 pencils across a range of categories including the coveted Black & Gold Pencil for Most Awarded Advertising Agency and a staggering eight Pencils, six of them Yellow, for its audacious ‘McWhopper’ campaign. The agency also picked up WoodPencils for its Actual Reality campaign for Jaguar NZ and for Brake Road Safety – Living Memories.
New Zealand is ranked #5 country – scoring a total of 11 Yellow Pencils. Colenso BBDO scored two Yellow Pencils for DB Breweries ‘Brewtroleum‘. Scoring one Yellow Pencil apiece is DDB for SKY TV ‘Unforgotten Soldiers‘, Saatchi & Saatchi for ASB Bank ‘Clever Kash‘ and FCB for Paradise Hill ‘It’s Not OK’.
Y&R New Zealand CEO and CCO Josh Moore [above far left, with Tom Paine and BK global team at the D&AD ceremony] told CB: “To win anything at D&AD is amazing, but to have three campaigns recognised that combine to win Agency of the year is truly outstanding. It recognises the very hard work from everyone at Y&RNZ. When we began this agency we said Let’s Not Die Wondering, we committed to that and here we are.”
The global success of the ‘McWhopper’ campaign saw Burger King Corporation recognised as the D&AD 2016 Most Awarded Client. Burger King Senior Vice President, Global Brand Management, Fernando Machado, was in London to collect the award.
Adds Moore, who is at the D&AD ceremony with Tom Paine, Y&R creative director: “To be named D&AD’s Most Awarded Agency is an outstanding achievement and huge recognition for the work accomplished by the talented Y&R NZ crew, our loyal partners and an enormous credit to the bravery, trust and faith shown by our clients over the past year.
“The fact that a number of these Yellow Pencils were awarded across a number of categories recognises the very skilled media practitioners in Y&R Media NZ. A huge round of applause to them for their massive achievement at a global level. Without media and without integration you simply can’t achieve ideas of this scale, anywhere.
“Every single person at Y&R NZ gives their all, every day, taking on challenges that others might walk away from. Each one of these iconic Pencils is recognition of that fierce determination and ‘never say die’ attitude and further proof that our integrated offer is world class,” said Moore.
D&AD CEO, Tim Lindsay (left), acknowledged Y&R NZ’s success by singling out the ‘McWhopper’ campaign’s success at aligning commercial and sustainability agendas.
“New Zealand as a country excels creatively on the world stage and this year is no exception! Huge congratulations to Y&R New Zealand and to Burger King for their incredible success with the ‘McWhopper’ campaign. We love it when the commercial agenda and the sustainability agenda begin to intersect!,” said Lindsay.
Tony Granger, Global Chief Creative Officer of Y&R, credited the Burger King client’s passion and belief in the ‘McWhopper’ idea.
“This is a truly special honor, and it would not have been possible without our client, Fernando Machado, Burger King’s SVP of Global Brand Management. His passion for our idea and his unflagging support helped make this idea come to life. I am, of course, so proud of Josh Moore and his team in New Zealand. It has been wonderful to see an idea resonate so strongly in every part of the globe,” said Granger.
Says Damon Stapleton, chief creative officer, DDB New Zealand, which scored eight Pencils: “Winning a D&AD Yellow Pencil is always special in a creative’s career. It is the pinnacle. From an agency perspective to get eight D&AD Pencils across three different campaigns is really pleasing. All in all a great night for DDB New Zealand.”
D&AD handed out two Black Pencils – the highest accolade in the creative industry as well as three White Pencils, which recognises work which demonstrates outstanding creativity for social good.
As well as being the most awarded design agency at the Ceremony, UK technology startup what3words claimed a Black Pencil for its pioneering method of communicating precise locations around the world ‘The World Addressed‘. iyamadesign also won a Black Pencil for its spatial design of the mt expo 2015 in Japan, on behalf of masking tape brand Kamoi Kakoshi.
Says Christian Davies, FITCH ECD Americas, foreman for Spatial and Experiential Design about the judging process: “We talked a lot about work that we viewed as game changing. We talked about the responsibility of sending a message to the design community to say this [a Black Pencil winner] will change the way we look at design. We also talked about the iconic work that had won in the past, and how you remember the impact it had.
“mt expo 2015 was beautiful in its simplicity. I thought it was a piece of work that inspired wonder in the people that experienced it.
“There was a common theme that was to discuss the backlash against ‘digital for digital’s sake’. So I voted for something that was beautifully simple.”
The three White Pencils were given to M&C Saatchi Sydney for Optus ‘Clever Buoy’, Ogilvy Brasil for Sport Clube do Recife ‘Security Moms‘ and seymourpowell for Fairphone ‘Fairphone 2‘.
The ‘Creativity for Good (White Pencil)’ category launched as a standalone awards show in April this year in partnership with Advertising Week parent company Stillwell Partners, under the new name, D&AD Impact.
In total, 747 Pencils were awarded during D&AD Judging 2016. The number of Pencils awarded by level are as follows:
Black Pencil – 2
White Pencil – 3
Yellow Pencil – 61
Graphite Pencil – 149
Wood Pencil – 532
Says Tim Lindsay, CEO, D&AD: “We’ve seen a record number of entries and some truly wonderful work, including stand-out pieces of creative thinking in our new Media and PR categories. Equally pleasing is that putting purpose alongside profit and seeking to ‘do well by doing good’ is driving increasing numbers of incredibly high quality work for some very big brands. We love it when the commercial agenda and the sustainability agenda begin to intersect.'”
Most awarded
Y&R New Zealand was crowned the Most Awarded Advertising Agency of 2016, winning 10 Pencils in total. The agency receives the Black & Gold Pencil (pictured middle left).
Technology startup what3words was the Most Awarded Design Agency, whilst DIVISION was recognised as Most Awarded Production Company and Burger King Corporation was the Most Awarded Client.
Most Awarded Advertising Agency:
1. Y&R New Zealand
2. = Droga5 and AMVBBDO
4. Grey London
Most Awarded Design Agency:
what3words
seymourpowell
= johnson banks and The Partners
Most Awarded Production Company:
DIVISION
The Mill
4Creative
Most Awarded Client:
Burger King
Sky
Volvo
Results by country
The United Kingdom topped the rankings again with a total of 217 Pencils, including 14 Yellow Pencils, 1 White Pencil and 1 Black Pencil. The US followed in second place, with 143 Pencils overall, of which 12 were Yellow, with France in third place, winning 6 Yellow Pencils and 48 Pencils in total.
Japan led the way in Asia, with 1 Black Pencil and 4 Yellow Pencils amongst their haul of 42 Pencils overall, whilst Brazil topped the table for Latin America, with a total of 30 Pencils, including 1 White Pencil.
New Zealand, which came in joint fifth position with Brazil (with 30 Pencils), claimed the third highest number of Yellow Pencils by country, with 11.
President’s Award
This year the President’s Award has gone to Steve Henry, co-founder of Decoded and one of the founders and creative partner of the world-renowned advertising agency HHCL. Working as part of the team that netted HHCL Campaign’s “Agency of the Decade”, Henry’s work is iconic. He is perhaps most renowned for his “You’ve Been Tango’d” commercials, alongside other well-known catchphrases such as Ronseal’s “does what it says on the tin”. His influence continues to be felt in the industry today.
Says Andy Sandoz, president, D&AD: “Steve Henry’s work and approach has inspired, shaken and awoken a generation of today’s creative directors. Populist TV, diversity, tech start-up, purpose and education – it’s all here. As engaged today as ever, he’s the person I most enjoy trying to reimagine the industry with over a cup of tea.”
Next Photographer and Next Director Awards
Winners for two awards, separate to the Professional Awards, were also announced at the Ceremony.
The Next Photographer Award, in partnership with Getty Images, sets out to find the best new photographers and promote them back to the creative industry. This year’s winner is Hong Kong-Chinese photographer Tam Hoi Ying.
Says James Day, foreman: “The overall standard of submissions for the Next Photographer award was very high but the Jury was unanimous in its decision to award the work of Tam Hoi Ying. We were all extremely impressed with the level of thought and execution which Tam brought to the subject matter and we all wish them the best of luck in what I’m sure will be a very successful career.”
The Next Director Award, which aims to unearth the best new directorial talent, was given to British animation director Daisy Jacobs.
Says director Dougal Wilson, one the Next Director judges: “A beautifully innovative animation technique that expressed the film’s story in a deeply emotional and affecting way.”
VIEW THE FULL LIST OF PENCIL WINNERS – D&AD Pencil Winners 2016.xlsx
19 Comments
Outstanding. A great moment in NZ advertising.
To win anything at D&AD is amazing, to win agency of the year from New Zealand is unheard of
SHOT!
Well done to all.
For years the battles waged on this blog between DDB and Colenso and the lack of quality agencies challenging the top dogs.
So refreshing to see others pushing each other, and the work stepping up as a result.
Great to be a kiwi.
Very proud of you husband and the team!
Unbelievable result for NZ, congrats to all but especially YRNZ. Well done!!!
Incredible result guys. History is made. Leaves all other NZ agencies in your wake.
But the real news is surely DDB and Special kicking arse at the Facebook Awards
Well done, hugely impressive, Y&R.
No need for the sour comment about the Facebook Awards-let’s be bigger than that by being just genuinely glad that a NZ agency won agency of the year.
McWhopper is lighting in a bottle. Awesome and one of those one off things that you cannot predict or repeat. All due credit to Y&R for all their success but to me, one of the most positive things is that, McWhopper aside, NZ won 5 other yellow pencils. Across 4 different agencies. That alone would be a record year for NZ (and compare that to 1 yellow pencil for the entirety of Aus).
Let’s all resist the tall poppy syndrome. Let’s all celebrate the work that puts all of us in the global spot light. McWhopper. Brewtroleum. Clever Kash. Paradise Hill. Unforgetten Soldiers. All world clas – all made in New Zealand.
Axis?
It’s ghost chips all over again.
This is just so great for New Zealand.
Huge congratulations to all.
If only CAANZ could acknowledge great local work to the same standard.
Nice work Y&R, and nice work NZ. It’s good to be part of this community.
Most awarded agency at D&AD! This is massive, I hope you got pirate drunk last night. You’ve done us all proud.
So good to see great, big, innovative ideas winning.
Well done Y&R, Colenso, DDB and Saatchi. A good year for Kiwi creativity.
Never heard of D&AD or the New York Festival.
Awesome result Josh and team Y&R.
Huge congrats to Y&R, great achievement. Plus DDB, Colenso & Saatchi. It’s reassuring to see the same ideas winning at D&AD as Axis – sure it’s with a different weighting but you have to accept some variance of judging across shows. Nicely done NZ.