Asia Pacific region nets 171 of the 848 Pencils awarded at this year’s D&AD Awards judging
Agencies in Asia Pacific have performed extremely well at D&AD this year with a haul of 171 Pencils of the 848 Pencils awarded. Japan and Australia are the best performing countries from Asia Pacific with 44 and 39 Pencils each. New Zealand has 22 Pencils followed by China (20), India (19), Hong Kong (14), Malaysia (6), Singapore and Thailand (5 each), Pakistan and The Philippines (3 each) and Sri Lanka (1).
The UK and the USA are the top awarded countries with a total of 240 pencils and 145 Pencils respectively.
Asian agencies have picked up 110 Pencils with the winners having to wait until the London awards ceremony on 21st May to find out which colour Pencil (Wood, Graphite, Yellow, White or Black) they’ve won. The “Wood Pencil” was introduced this year and it is equal to the previous “In-Book” D&AD level.
Over 22,000 pieces of work from 85 countries were judged by 197 of the world’s top creatives this week. AMV BBDO London is the top awarded agency with 21 pencils.
Other top agency performers were R/GA (18 Pencils), BBDO New York (13 Pencils), adam&eveDDB and Grey London (11 Pencils), Leo Burnett Toronto (11 Pencils), Droga5 New York, Kolle Rebbe and Wieden+Kennedy London (9 Pencils), followed by AlmapBBDO Brasil and Leo Burnett London (8 Pencils). The Dentsu Japan and Hakuhodo Japan groups also scored 8 Pencils each.
Asia’s best performing agency was Red Fuse Communications Hong Kong with 7 Pencils – all for Colgate-Palmolive’s “Turning Packaging into Education” campaign that ran in the Myanmar market. Red Fuse is the Colgate-Palmolive arm of the Y&R Group. Also Pencil winners from Hong Kong were Ogilvy & Mather with 3, and Geometry Global, Leo Burnett and Cheil with 1 each.
McCann Worldgroup India and JWT India also performed very well with their Perfetti Van Melle Big Babol “Fruits” campaign and Nike “Make Every Yard Count” campaign scoring 6 Pencils each. Ogilvy & Mather India has 3 pencils and DDB Mudra 1.
In China both Lowe Shanghai and Y&R Beijing have both picked up 5 Pencils each with Ogilvy Beijing and Publicis Shanghai getting 3 Pencils each. Lowe’s Pencils are all for their “Human Traffic Sign” campaign for Shanghai General Motors and Y&R’s are for the Penguin Audiobooks “Mic” print campaign.
BBDO Proximity Malaysia scored half of that country’s 6 pencils, with Y&R and McCann chipping in with 2 and 1 respectively.
Singapore’s 5 Pencils were lead by Ogilvy & Mather with 2 and singles to BBH, Work and Kinetic.
Ogilvy & Mather Bangkok has 4 of Thailand’s total of 5 Pencils – 3 of them for “Return of the Ashes”. Lowe Bangkok was also a Pencil winner.
The Philippines total of 3 Pencils was lead by TBWA\Santiago Mangada Puno with 2 and DDB DM9JaymeSyfu with 1.
Impact BBDO Lahore scored all of Pakistan’s 3 Pencils for their “Not a Bug Splat” campaign. Leo Burnett Solutions was Sri Lanka’s only Pencil winner.
There are no quotas for awards at D&AD. Therefore the number of awarded entries fluctuates year to year. Some years no Black Pencils are awarded: the record currently stands at just six.
D&AD CEO Tim Lindsay commented: “It’s been a very special year for D&AD Judging. We’ve flung open the doors of our new home at the Truman Brewery in East London so members of the public can come and see how D&AD makes its decisions. A Pencil is the toughest creative award on Earth to win, and we’re proud of the rigour the judges apply to their decisions. After all, their names end up in The Book along with the winners.”
“I’m pleased that the White Pencil has had a record number of entries this year. Creative people have the resources at their disposal to engender major changes to the way we behave – and applied to good causes there can be no better way to use our industry’s talents.”
“With our new Pencils (Wood and Graphite in addition to Yellow, Black and White) we have simplified the Awards system this year. Entrants can find out if they’ve won a Pencil by logging on to the D&AD website, but they’ll have to wait until the Ceremony on the 21st May to find out which one.”
DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE LIST OF PENCIL WINNERS: FINAL D&AD results_2015.xlsx
3 Comments
D&AD used to be the one to win, due to the scarcity of pencils awarded. The new format, in which everyone seems to have won, simply cheapens the process. “In-book” and “nomination” were the close-but-not-quite-brilliant accolades that drove creatives on to bigger and better things – hopefully a silver or gold in future years. But they are not pencils. My Linkedin is currently full of agencies congratulating themselves on “winning 3 or 4 pencils” when perhaps they haven’t really won any yellow or black. While the everyone’s-a-winner format may suit entry numbers and therefore profits at D&AD, it was the rarity of a pencil that made it so covetable
@GoodOldDays
I agree.
Awards in the past were less scamy and harder to win.
They were also probably judged by veterans who knew better.
Today, even Cannes Lions are as common as a 1990s New York Fest and LIAA.
We had a name for the later two:The ‘hamburger helper’ of awards.
Nobody wins when everyone wins.
Especially the award organisers.
Agreed @Where’s the beef?
D&AD has sold out and is trying to be Cannes. Look at the stuff from Asia that is in the book. Most of it is very scamy. D&AD used to have higher standards and much better juries. Not as bad as Cannes where anyone can judge but D&AD is heading that way. People need to remember that a wood pencil, a ridiculous name to adopt, is just an in book finalist.