Whether slumping back into your premium reclining cinema seat at Hoyts Lux with a Merlot in hand, laying out on your tartan picnic rug at Moonlight Cinema with a beer, or perched on a chair ducking bat droppings at Sydney's St George OpenAir Cinema, one thing for sure is that Aussies love a good movie at the cinema.
Val Morgan says 2015 is already on track to be a record breaking year with blockbusters hitting cinemas week after week and with such great content in the ultimate environment, naturally, cinema gives a media strategy unrivalled impact and cut through – where distractions of second screening are left behind and the eyeballs are firmly fixed on the task at hand.
With such a popular medium comes a whole host of top-note creative advertising masterpieces.
The Australian Creative Excellence Showcase (ACES) are held twice a year, celebrating outstanding creative advertising and is bought to you by Val Morgan in conjunction with AdNews and AdStream.
Damian Keogh, Hoyts Group CEO said the calibre of the ads entered into this round of the competition was “exceptional.”
“It’s a fantastic time for movies. At our upfronts we promised the boggiest year for cinema ever and already seeing a 17% year on year increase in box office this year,” said Keogh at the Awards presentation.
His sentiment was echoed by Grant Rutherford, national executive creative director at Publicis Mojo, one of the judging panel. “Storytelling in cinema is alive and well and living. The competition was fierce. What makes a good cinema ad, is they all have to be really single-minded and have a fantastic insight at the heart – and all these ads do that.
“They are all stories that are beautifully told, there's nothing extraneous about them. They are single-minded and crafted for the idea – not to look pretty. They really engage the reader. Any good advertising should make you do something and feel something and these ads made us feel great, but they are also great pieces of communication as well. You can watch them over and over again, and see the beautiful craft coming through.,” said Rutherford.
A raft of advertisers from across both the big and small screen entered the awards, but only 11 made the shortlist and one took home the Grand Ace. See here for the shortlist.
The list features brands such as Meat and Livestock Australia, Qantas, Toyota, Seek, Aldi, Bingle, Honda, Tigerair, Budget Direct and Ergon Energy.
Creative brains behind the work rose from the likes of BMF, Leo Burnett Melbourne, McCann Melbourne, The Monkeys, Saatchi & Saatchi, Lawrence Creative, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, Goodoil Films, 303Lowe and Clemenger BBDO Brisbane.
Y&R Group MD Andrew Dowling, chaired the judging this time around, wit a panel including by a panel of creative industry experts including Publicis Mojo ECD Grant Rutherford, Ogilvy ECD Derek Green, GPY&R ECD David Joubert, Aldi Australia advertising director Sam Viney and AdNews editor-in-chief Rosie Baker.
While it was The Monkeys that scooped the top honour, for their work with Meat and Livestock Australia the judges said the calibre of the entries made the decision that much harder.
“Dowling said: “I think the quality of the work is better and the age of film, that we once thought was gone, is seeing a significant resurgence.”
The winning ad also helped drive a 38% sales uplift for Australian lamb, said Andrew Howie, MLA brand manager on accepting the award. He added: “Of all the problems to have as marketer – trying to do even better work than you’ve fone before is probably one of the best problems you can have. It's important that we all champion great work and we need to keep doing that.”
With figures released by the Motion Picture Associate of America (MPAA), confirming global box office sales reached an all-time record of $36.4bn in 2014, combined with blockbuster cinema releases such as Avengers: Age of Ultron, Entourage, Jurassic World, Ted 2 and Minions set of 2015, the outlook of content - and of course ads, is certainly going to be one to watch.
WINNING VIDEO:
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