The 2018 Epica Awards saw Grand Prix winners from the United States, Italy, Ireland, Germany and Japan.
• Network of the Year: McCann Worldgroup
• Agency of the Year: Forsman & Bodenfors
• Production Company of the Year: Blur Films
Summing up the awards, jury President Tony Chambers, former editor-in-chief and creative director of Wallpaper*, who recently launched his own consultancy TC&Friends, said: “I was astonished by the overall quality of the work, as well as the innovation and wit on offer. There were strong contenders in each category and it was always hard to choose one clear winner.”
GRAND PRIX
The new Responsibility Grand Prixfor cause-related work went to “Price On Our Lives” from McCann Worldgroup in New York. The campaign allowed the students of America to protest against gun violence with a potent symbol: the price of their lives as calculated by the amount of money the NRA donates to politicians, divided by the total number of students. The price tag amounted to little more than a dollar. Commenting on the win – and its Network of the Year prize – Rob Reilly, Global Creative Chairman, McCann Worldgroup, said, “Winning awards is never the motivation, but rather, the by-product of doing the right thing for our client’s business. A big shout out to all of the MWG employees for always going for it, never giving up and making our brand partners wildly successful.”
RESPONSIBILITY GRAND PRIX: “Price On Our Lives”, March For Our Lives, McCann NY
The Alternative Grand Prix, also a new prize, went to Publicis Italy and Diesel for a campaign that struck back against counterfeit fashion. Diesel created its own rip-off brand, “DEISEL”, and sold it in a shabby New York pop-up store during fashion week, before revealing that, yes, the clothes really were authentic – only the label was wrong. Plus, this was a limited edition. Cue lines around the block and lots of buzz about Diesel.
ALTERNATIVE GRAND PRIX: “Go With the Fake”, Diesel, Publicis Italy
The Digital Grand Prixwas won by Rothco/Accenture Interactive for “JFK Unsilenced”, a project for The Times. It used digital technology to recreate the speech John F. Kennedy would have given at the Dallas Trade Mart had he not been killed by an assasin’s bullet on November 22 1963. The almost perfect voice of JFK, giving the speech he was never able to make, gives listeners chills. Jill Byrne, Director of Marketing for Rothco, said:“It's a huge endorsement for us that the journalists working for marketing and communications magazines around the world have recognised our work for The Times and awarded it the prestigious Grand Prix.”
DIGITAL GRAND PRIX: “JFK Unsilenced”,The Times News UK & Ireland, Rothco/Accenture Interactive
The Design Grand Prixwent to 72andSunny, which created a new and dynamic identity for the multifacted city of L.A. on behalf of the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles. 72andSunny's Executive Strategy Director and Partner Kelly Schoeffel said: “It was an honor to brand Los Angeles in the midst of a creative renaissance – from tech to entertainment to manufacturing. Our first-ever civic identity system celebrates the diverse community while supporting and funding local creativity.”
DESIGN GRAND PRIX: “LA Original”, Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, 72andSunny
DDB Germany won the Print Grand Prixwith “Highlight the Remarkable”. The campaign for Stabilo highlighter pens literally “highlighted” talented women who had been neglected by history and forced to stand in the shadow of their male counterparts. In a joint statement the agency commented:“The whole team is excited that this campaign has been recognised with an honor at Epica Awards! It truly adds a new facet to highlighting the remarkable.”
PRINT GRAND PRIX: “Highlight the Remarkable”, Stabilo, DDB Group Germany (Berlin)
The Film Grand Prixwas won by Shiseido in-house for its quirky and poetic film “The Party Bus”, which combines animation, special effects and drama to tell a contemporary fairy tale. The 3D animation required close to 2000 stop motion shots.
Shiseido creative director Masato Kosukegawa said:“I would like to thank Shou Yanagisawa, the director, and all the artists who worked with us, for their precise and inspired craft. ‘The Party Bus’ was made to expand Shiseido's reach to young people. We thought a lot about what we could do with makeup in this confused and divided world. In the end we arrived at the concept that makeup can be courageous, and that doing your makeup your own way brings self-confidence. This led us to touch on the topic of LGBT. In Japanese culture there is a strong conservative tendency, and stories of LGBT are not commonly told yet. I think this film was probably the first work by a major Japanese company to address LGBT in an advertisement.”
FILM GRAND PRIX: “The Party Bus”, Shiseido
Entrants & Entries by Country
This year Epica received 4020 entries from 69 countries, a 20% increase on the previous year despite difficult market conditions. This was driven by the return of the Publicis Groupe networks, plus an enthusiastic response from Germany and Latin America. Indeed, the highest number of entries came from Germany, followed by the United States and France. New countries this year included Iran and Morocco. In terms of networks, BBDO and McCann Worldgroup were particularly well represented.
Results by Country
France was top in the country rankings with 53 awards including 12 golds. You will find full details of all the winners on our website at www.epica-awards.com
Founded 31 years ago, Epica is the only worldwide creative award judged by journalists from the marketing, design and advertising press, as well as specialist reporters in fields ranging from production to VR and luxury branding.
See the full results here.