Jung von Matt/Limmat wins bronze twice at the Epica Awards 2018

Representatives of advertising and marketing media from all over the world have once again gathered in Amsterdam to evaluate campaigns from all over the world. This year, "from all over the world" means, for example, the USA, Argentina, the UK, Colombia, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Turkey, Norway, Finland, Italy, Kazakhstan, France, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Bosnia, etc. - and of course Switzerland, represented as every year by the Advertising Week.

After the first day of judging, it is clear that the standard is high and the categories are strong across the board. And: the journalists judge differently to the conventional award juries. This can be seen, for example, in the fact that campaigns in Cannes sometimes received the higher award than at the Epica Awards. And vice versa. However, this is intentional and the Epica USP - judging is done from the (well-informed) outside perspective. This is also expressed by the Epica claim "A different Angle on Creativity".

Jung von Matt/Limmat, for example, is feeling the effects of this: on the same day that ADC Europe Gold for the Samsung Newspaper Design Edition communicates was "only" enough for bronze at the Epica Awards, despite a good rating. In the "Branded Content: Product & Brand Integration" category, for example, the campaign had to compete with the heavyweight "Football Decoded" by McCann London - the gold-winning Microsoft campaign displayed the controller button combinations that could have been used to score the goal on the Xbox in real time on the advertising boards immediately after goals were scored in the Premier League.

Jung von Matt/Limmat can celebrate a second time: the grandparent pre-sale on behalf of Graubünden Ferien was also awarded bronze. Gold in the same "Promotions & Incentives" category went to both the Burger King campaign "Scary Clown Night" and the Xbox campaign "Xbox Design Lab Originals: The Fanchise Model". The former was a kick in the shins for McDonald's: anyone who entered a Burger King branch dressed as a clown on Halloween 2017 received a free Whopper. The claim "Come as a clown, eat like a king" was a direct reference to McDonald's mascot Ronald McDonald.

McCann London's "fanchise model" involved customers who designed their own individual Xbox controller (i.e. chose the color of all the individual parts) being able to recoup the extra charge by offering their creation for sale to other customers in the Xbox store. The average revenue was around 90 dollars, with the best-selling controller earning the "designer" a four-figure sum.

In the "Media Innovation - Traditional Media" category, Ruf Lanz faced remarkably strong competition with its Swiss Life campaign "Customer for 100 years". As the evaluation also takes into account how the campaign performed in comparison to the other campaigns, it remained on the shortlist. However, the campaign still has another chance to win a pyramid on Tuesday. Akestam Holst NoA secured gold with the Ikea campaign "Irresistible pointless trueview ads". The Swedish agency underlined its claim to depict real life (and furnish it with furniture) with YouTube prerolls showing people doing boring, tedious tasks. Instead of skipping, viewers watched the ads for over three minutes on average.

Havas Geneva also remains on the shortlist with "Engraved Memories" for Action Innocence. The campaign mobilized against bullying and engraved the stories of victims designed by artists into school desks. This entry also failed to beat the competition - despite a score of 6.01, easily worthy of bronze in other constellations. Gold was won by the Polish Ben&Jerrys campaign "The Unbreakable Rainbow". The agencies 180heartbeats and Jung von Matt projected an LGBT rainbow statue in Warsaw, which was set on fire (and rebuilt) a total of seven times out of anger, as an indestructible statement in an artificial water mist.

There are still many Swiss final places to go - the rest will be judged on Tuesday. Cavalcade, Jung von Matt/Limmat, Ruf Lanz and Serviceplan are still very much in the running for further full successes. (hae)