DDB Beijing’s former interns win New York Festival’s 2014 inaugural Torch Awards

The DDB Group Beijing team has won the New York Festival’s 2014 inaugural Torch Awards, beating four other finalist teams from around the world. The competition was held last week in New York as part of the New York Festivals.

The winning team consists of three former “Future Bernbachs”, who joined DDB through its global internship program last summer in the Beijing office. Lucia Qiu is now working with Tribal Worldwide Beijing, and the other two team members Rundong Liu and Soup Tang have stayed on as part of DDB Guoan. The young trio secured their spot on the Torch Awards shortlist as the only team from China and they are the first-ever grand winning team of New York Festival’s Torch Awards.

“Bill Bernbach, as one of DDB’s founders, has remained a legend in the advertising industry. The interns of DDB’s global internship program are called ‘Future Bernbachs’, not only as a nod to our founding forefather, but also as an extension of our hopes and expectations that they will someday help make a difference in the world,” said Jimmy Lam, Chief Creative Officer of DDB Group North China.

“The three young guns truly prove that DDB’s commitment to talent cultivation has been worth every moment. This honorable win is also an affirmation to DDB’s focus on prioritizing and cultivating its People and their creativity in the industry. Not only are we extremely proud of the team, but we are also proud to be part of an agency that pumps out such accomplished young talents,” he added.

The New York Festival’s Torch Awards is a competition designed for young creatives from around the world who are 25-and-under. This year, DDB dominated the shortlist — there were two teams from the DDB network among the five finalists — the other team was from RAPP Melbourne.