Indian agencies bring home 64 metals at Spikes Asia Awards 2019

The theme for this year’s recently concluded Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity held at Singapore is reflective of the transformational shift that the Asian creative industry is going through. Spikes Asia 2019 will showcase the most exceptional work in the region and deconstruct APAC’s creative ecosystem. Indian agencies won big at the awards this year, bringing home a total of 64 metals. This includes six Grand Prix Spikes, 8 Gold Spikes, 25 Silver Spikes and 25 Bronze Spikes. Agencies also won 3 awards in the Creative Effectiveness category - this category at Spikes Asia does not have a metal specification, i.e., no gold/silver/bronze.)

Dentsu Webchutney, the creatively-led digital agency from the house of Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN), has emerged as the most awarded Indian agency at Spikes Asia 2019. The agency has bagged a total of 20 metals - seven Bronze, seven Silver, five Gold and one Grand Prix.

In the Brand Experience and Activation category, Dentsu Webchutney’s work for Flipkart on Hagglebot won them a Gold Spike and a Silver Spike. In the same category, Webchutney’s work on Swiggy’s Voice of Hunger also won them a Bronze Spike. Webchutney also won a Grand Prix in the Creative eCommerce Winner category for their work on Hagglebot.

In the Direct category, Webchutney brought home 3 Silver Spikes for their work on Flipkart’s Hagglebot and Wunderman Thompson Mumbai picked up a Bronze Spike for Jimmy Nelson Foundation’s ‘Blink Test’. In the Entertainment category, Webchutney won 2 Gold Spikes and 1 Silver Spike. Their work for Trigger Happy Entertainment on ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’ earned them a Gold Spike and a Silver Spike. ‘Voice of Hunger’ also won a Gold Spike in this category, in addition to winning a Silver Spike in the Mobile category and a Silver Spike in the PR category. Code Name: Uri also won a Gold and a Bronze Spike in the PR category.

Hagglebot and Uri also won Dentsu Webchutney a Bronze Spike each respectively in the Media category. Code Name: Uri also won a Silver Spike in this category; Webchutney’s work ‘Chai-Fi’ for Keo Food Products won them two Bronze Spikes as well. Mullen Lowe Lintas also won two Silver spike in this category for their work for Unilever titled ‘Lifebuoy – Germ Nashini.’

Ashish Bhasin, CEO APAC and Chairman India – Dentsu Aegis Network says, “Goafest, Cannes, Kyoorius and now Spikes! Dentsu Webchutney has surfaced as leaders across all. What an incredible performance this has been and thus, a culmination of our focus on creative. This is a new benchmark and also signals the beginning of the end of legacy creative agencies that are struggling to adapt to the changing environment.”

Sidharth Rao, co-founder and CEO, Dentsu Webchutney said, “I am absolutely elated. We have said this before, awards or not, digital will force traditional advertising to be transformed into a more capable service provider. We've been watching from the sidelines all this while and in a way, it's our time. I'm just glad that it happened to be Dentsu Webchutney showing the way."

In the Digital category, Dentsu Webchutney won a Gold Spike for Swiggy’s ‘Voice of Hunger.’ Grey India won a Bronze Spike for their work on ‘Breast Buffer’ for their client Alt Balaji. Publicis Singapore also won a Bronze Spike for their work on ‘One in a Million’ for Vicks India. The Digital category also saw Leo Burnett pick up a Bronze Spike for the work that they did on #StopMithani for HDFC Bank. Publicis Singapore’s work on Vicks India’s ‘One in a Million’ campaign also helped them bag a Gold Spike and three Silver Spikes in the Film category.

Leo Burnett India has picked up a Grand Prix for the HDFC Bank #StopMithani campaign in Healthcare and a Silver for the same campaign in PR and Healthcare category at the Spikes Asia 2019 Festival of creativity. The total tally of wins for Leo Burnett was 6 awards with 4 bronze; 1 Silver and a Grand Prix. Leo Burnett won 4 Bronze for - the Spotify ‘Beat of a Billion’ in Design; the HDFC Bank #Stop Mithani in Digital; the HDFC Bank #StopMithani in Direct and for the P&G Shiksha ‘Bittu: the 75-year old student’ campaign. The Design category also saw WUNDERMAN THOMPSON, Mumbai / J. WALTER THOMPSON INDIA, Mumbai / J. WALTER THOMPSON AMSTERDAM winning one Gold Spike and one Silver Spike for their entry 'Blink Test' for the Jimmy Nelson Foundation. TBWA\India also won a Bronze Spike in Design for 'One Mindful Mind.'

Speaking about the win Rajdeepak Das, MD India and Chief Creative Officer Leo Burnett South Asia said “This is a great win for our team and we can’t thank the HDFC Bank team enough for believing in our ideas. This is the story of Mr. Mithani who has donated blood 151 times and has just turned 65 – an age post which donating blood could be fatal. We got the entire nation to save him by donating blood in his place - 3,500,000 people pledged to donate blood to stop him. Congratulations to both the HDFC Bank and Leo Burnett teams on winning the Grand Prix.”

Current Global Mumbai also won a Silver Spike in the Healthcare category for their entry ‘Can Yoga Sell Lubricants?'. This entry also won them a Bronze Spike in the PR category. TBWA\India won a Bronze Spike in the Healthcare category for their entry ‘One Mindful Mind’ for Neurogen Brain & Spine Institute. TBWA\India also won a Grand Prix in the Print and Publishing category for this entry.

DDB Mudra Group’s entry titled 'Project Free Period' (for Stayfree India) was awarded a Grand Prix in the Creative Effectiveness category. Along with the Grand Prix, the Project Free Period was also awarded the Creative Effectiveness Spike in the Creative Effectiveness for Good category. Apart from Project Free Period, the agency’s work with Hotstar- the ‘Superheroes’ film was awarded a Silver in the Film category; and ‘#MakeYourChoice’ for McDonald’s was awarded a Bronze in the media category.

Grey India’s work on Gillette’s ‘Barbershop Girls’ campaign won them a Silver Spike in the Film category and a Gold Spike in the Music category. In the Film category, Leo Burnett India won a Bronze Spike for their work on ‘Bittu – the 75 Year Old Student’ for P&G Shiksha. J. Walter Thompson India also won a Silver Spike for ‘Blink Test’ for their client the Jimmy Nelson Foundation. Wunderman Thompson Mumbai also won three Silver Spikes and a Bronze Spike for ‘Blink Test’ in the Film Craft category. BBDO India for Sons #ShareTheLoad won a Grand Prix in the Glass: The Award for Change category.

FCB India won the Grand Prix and the Effectiveness Spike at Spikes Asia 2019. The Open door Project for the Millennium Schools won the Grand Prix for Brand Experience and Activation in the Sponsorship and Brand Partnership category and the Sindoor Khela campaign for the Times of India won the Effectiveness Spike in the Creative Effectiveness for Good category.

McCann India brought home metals in the Outdoor category. Their work for the Parinaam Foundation titled ‘Touch Me Not’ won a Bronze Spike. McCann’s work titled ‘Cure 1’ and ‘Cure 2’ also brought them two Bronze Spike Campaign metals. Akzonobel India won two Bronze Spike Campaign metals this year for their work on Dulux Paint titled ‘Painted by Paint 2’ and ‘Painted by Paint 4’.

In the Print and Publishing category, TBWA\India won a Grand Prix for their entry ‘One Mindful Mind’ for the Neurogen Institute. Famous Innovations also won two Silver Spike Campaigns in this category for their entries titled ‘Deceit’ and ‘Rage’ for the Tadoba Wildlife Sanctuary and Irai Safari.

In the Radio and Audio category, McCann India won a Silver Spike for their work for Reckitt Benckiser's Moov Pain Relief titled ‘Mother.’