BBDO Bangkok's Suthisak Sucharittanonta reflects on winning $10,000 at Ad Stars 2016

It is the only award show to offer a $10,000 prize to Grand Prix of the Year winners, so Campaign Brief Asia decided to catch up with BBDO Bangkok - one of two Grand Prix of the Year winners at Ad Stars 2016 - to find out how it feels to score $10K for their ideas.
BBDO Bangkok won Grand Prix of the Year for Motorepellant, a campaign created with The Duang Prateep Foundation, a non-profit charity dedicated to improving the lives of slum residents in Thailand.
The agency designed a light-weight device filled with non-toxic mosquito repelling oil, which could be magnetically attached to the end of a motorcycle's exhaust pipe, ridding slum areas of mosquitos.
Jeremy Craigen, Executive Judge at Ad Stars 2016 and Chief Creative
Officer of Innocean Worldwide, said: "This idea creates a motorbike that
repels mosquitos and tackles malaria, instead of creating pollution.
It's taking two wrongs, and making a right... our jury agreed it was a
brilliant use of the Outdoor medium."
We asked Suthisak
Sucharittanonta, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of BBDO Bangkok (pictured above),
what it's like to win Grand Prix of the Year at one of the world's
fastest growing creative festivals.
Motorepellant won Grand Prix of the Year at Ad Stars 2016 and won US$10,000 as a result. Congratulations! Can you tell us how it feels to win $10,000 for your ideas?
Great. In the ad world, Grand Prix of the Year winner is music to our ears... and to throw in $10,000, what team in the world wouldn't love that?
Don't worry though, we didn't party the $10k away (yet).
Can you tell us how the idea came about?
We had been tasked with finding a way to help fight mosquito infestation in the slums, and one team member had made the observation that in addition to mosquitos, the slums were infested with motorcycles. From there, it evolved into what you see today: MotoRepellent.
What were the challenges you faced in bringing this idea to life?
One of the biggest challenges didn't come from the development, it came in the ideation stage, where we really had to be smart in finding an effective and relevant way to fight the problem in a manner that wouldn't disrupt or impede on the daily lives and routines of the residents of the slum community.
We would love an update on MotoRepellant today. Has it been trialed in other mosquito-infested regions overseas?
MotoRepellent was just a step in the right direction in helping fight against mosquitos. It opened up a conversation and a new approach in fighting them and mosquito-borne illnesses.
Throughout the year, we've been contacted by people and organizations around the world, expressing their interest and intentions in developing a version of their own.
While we haven't worked directly with any of them, we offer our full support and encouragement in the continued fight against mosquito-borne diseases around the world.
Enter the Ad Stars 2017 Awards before 31st May here. Entries are free and open to professionals, students and non-professionals alike.

Motorepellant won Grand Prix of the Year at Ad Stars 2016 and won US$10,000 as a result. Congratulations! Can you tell us how it feels to win $10,000 for your ideas?
Great. In the ad world, Grand Prix of the Year winner is music to our ears... and to throw in $10,000, what team in the world wouldn't love that?
Don't worry though, we didn't party the $10k away (yet).
Can you tell us how the idea came about?
We had been tasked with finding a way to help fight mosquito infestation in the slums, and one team member had made the observation that in addition to mosquitos, the slums were infested with motorcycles. From there, it evolved into what you see today: MotoRepellent.
What were the challenges you faced in bringing this idea to life?
One of the biggest challenges didn't come from the development, it came in the ideation stage, where we really had to be smart in finding an effective and relevant way to fight the problem in a manner that wouldn't disrupt or impede on the daily lives and routines of the residents of the slum community.
We would love an update on MotoRepellant today. Has it been trialed in other mosquito-infested regions overseas?
MotoRepellent was just a step in the right direction in helping fight against mosquitos. It opened up a conversation and a new approach in fighting them and mosquito-borne illnesses.
Throughout the year, we've been contacted by people and organizations around the world, expressing their interest and intentions in developing a version of their own.
While we haven't worked directly with any of them, we offer our full support and encouragement in the continued fight against mosquito-borne diseases around the world.
Enter the Ad Stars 2017 Awards before 31st May here. Entries are free and open to professionals, students and non-professionals alike.
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