It has been another spectacular year for the Epica Awards, and as one of the jurors for this creative maelstrom of media, it has certainly been a hard slog choosing the winners, as so much amazing talent has been on display.
This year’s Grand Prix Gold for Film, “Mercedes-Benz – Bertha Benz” goes to Daimler AG, by agency antoni garage, and creative director, Alice Bottaro. The ad dramatically depicts the moment motoring history was made.
The Print Grand Prix Gold went to agency Åkestam Holst NoA, for “Without the whole picture” a powerful message for the Swedish newspaper Pressbyrån/Expressen.
The Grand Prix gold award in the Topical and Real Time section went to “No need to fly – Around the world in Germany“, a very clever marketing strategy for German Rail by Ogilvy.
The Daily Squib’s personal favourite for Humour in Advertising, TRY agency won gold for the second year running, with “Smartmill“, silver was a joint effort for 72andSunny with “Ice cream for adults” and “Bleep” by BETC, whilst the bronze went to “Metalheads” by Grabarz & Partner. We have to say all entrants were fantastic quality and voting was extremely hard this year.
In the 2019 Epica Awards there were Grand Prix winners from the US, Germany, France, Israel and Sweden.
• Network of the Year: McCann Worldgroup
• Agency of the Year: McCann New York
• Production Company of the Year: Moving Picture Company
GRAND PRIX
• RESPONSIBILITY: “Changing The Game”, Microsoft, McCann NY
• PR: “The Tampon Book”, The Female Company, Scholz & Friends Berlin
• ALTERNATIVE: “Parisian Rendezvous”, Le Drugstore Parisien, Wunderman Thompson Paris
• DESIGN: “ThisAbles”, Ikea, McCann Tel Aviv
• DIGITAL: “No Need to Fly – Around the World in Germany”, Deutsche Bahn, Ogilvy Germany
• PRINT: “Without the Whole Picture”, Pressbyrån/Expressen, Åkestam Holst
• FILM: “Mercedes Benz – Bertha Benz”, Daimler AG
Summing up the winners, jury President Fiona Rogers, COO of Magnum Photos, said: “Some complex issues were approached in an innovative and memorable way – from highlighting company heritage stories to raising awareness of public service initiatives, often using the medium as the message itself. The winners are a positive reinforcement of how brands are increasingly moving towards a sense of ‘purpose’ in their strategic thinking, and how their creative delivery can provide better representation, more impact and ultimately business uplift.”
Commenting on the Network of the Year prize, Rob Reilly, Global Creative Chairman, McCann Worldgroup, said: “This recognition would not have been possible without the hard work from our teams around the world and the trust that our clients have given us in representing their brands. To have the global media celebrate our work validates the impact that creativity can have on solving our clients’ biggest business issues.”
The Responsibility Grand Prix for cause-related work went to McCann New York for “Changing the Game”, its campaign for Microsoft’s Adaptive Controller for the Xbox, which enables disabled children to play video games.
The new PR Grand Prix was won by Scholz & Friends Berline for “The Tampon Book”. This highlighted the fact that tampons in Germany were taxed like luxury goods – at 19 per cent – while some genuine luxury goods were taxed at only 7%. The agency got around this by selling tampons inside books, which are taxed at the lower rate. Adding its voice to similar protests, the campaign was ultimately successful and the tax rate for tampons was changed.
The Alternative Grand Prix went to “Parisian Rendezvous” by Wunderman Thompson Paris, for a small concept store with an equally small budget. Dozens of the city’s popular app-located electric scooters were “borrowed” and parked outside the store, luring potential customers who often paused to shop. Creative director Thomas Derouault commented: “First of all, thank you very much to all the members of the jury who voted for us. This started out as a really small project. It pretty much was a case of ‘what can we do to attract the most attention to these shops with no money?’ It’s been a great ride to see our brave client follow us on this, the agency teams doing everything on their own, the public reacting so well to it, the police not fining us and the scooter rental companies not suing us. All of this makes us really proud to receive this award.”
The Design Grand Prix went to McCann Tel Aviv for its Ikea project “ThisAbles”, a remarkable series of 3D printable add-on adaptors for Ikea goods and furnishings, making them immediately more accessible or comfortable for disabled people.
Entrants & Entries by Country
This year Epica received 3410 entries from 61 countries. The highest number of entries came from Germany followed by France and the United States. We noticed an increase in entries from Georgia, Uzbekistan, Israel, Canada and China. New countries include Cyprus, Luxembourg, Armenia and Malta.
Results by Country
Germany was top in the country rankings with 64 awarded projects including three Grand Prix and 20 Golds, followed by France with 60 awarded projects including one Grand Prix and 9 Golds 22. You will find full details of all the winners on our website at https://winners.epica-awards.com/
Founded 32 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.
This year the Epica Awards were sponsored by ADOBE, THE CITY OF AMSTERDAM, EURONEWS, ONE YOUNG WORLD, SIZZER, ACT RESPONSIBLE and ADFORUM
