The PHNX 2022 Grand Prix winners announced

The PHNX Awards announced four Grand Prix winners at its online ceremony at 6pm CET on June 16.

 

GRAND PRIX FILM

 

“Open Spaces” for Burberry by Riff Raff Films (UK)

 

GRAND PRIX PRINT

 

“Better With Pepsi” for Pepsi by alma DDB (US)

 

GRAND PRIX DIGITAL

 

“Did you mean Whopper?” for Burger King by Publicidad Commercial MullenLowe (Guatemala)

 

GRAND PRIX DESIGN

 

“Tough Turban” for Pfaff Harley-Davidson by Zulu Alpha Kilo (Canada)

 

There was no Grand Prix awarded in the Strategy & Technique category. The jury felt that the selection was too diverse to choose an overall winner and that each candidate stood on its own merits.

 There were 108 winners in the competition, including 25 Golds.

 The third edition of the PHNX Awards attracted 1050 entries and participation by more than 900 jurors voting online. The jury is one of the world’s most diverse, comprising not only creatives but also strategists, clients, industry leaders, consultants and journalists – in short, jurors from every corner of the industry.

PHNX Festival 2021 - entries open

And this year too - the PHNX awards are back!!! After last year and its inaugural edition, the AdForum PHNX tribute will fly again! Last year AdForum launched the PHNX awards as a way to celebrate creativity and lift the industry’s spirits during the crisis. The response was phenomenal: an incredibly diverse jury of more 450 jury members from 120 countries, and more than 4000 entries (do not I scored a combined total of 48 hours of judging had ahead than any other juror!).

In the words of the PHNX organizers: "Given that level of enthusiasm, we decided the story should continue. So the PHNX awards will rise again in 2021 with a new mission: TRANSFORMATION. This time around they will celebrate creativity that will impact tomorrow’s world. There will be just five categories. Transform A Brand; Transform An Industry; Transform Communications; Transform Working – and finally, Transform Lives. In order to cover some costs but to ensure wide accessibility, there will be a small fee of €50 per entry. We’re now open for entries until June 11."
Philippe Paget, who is the CEO of Daydream, which organizes both, the PHNX and the Epica Awards on which I am also a juror), says: "I am convinced more than ever that we need creative people to help us transform the old world for a better one!"

The PHNX festival winners are out!!

Three months later, the AdForum PHNX Tribute is a reality, with a list of Grand Prix, Gold, Silver and Bronze winners. They were announced during an online event in partnership with the UK Advertising Export Group (UKAEG) and the International Advertising Association (IAA).

The Grand Prix winners were:

Watch here

Film: Lacoste, “Crocodile Inside”, BETC, France

Explained here

Digital: Burger King, “Stevenage Challenge”, DAVID Madrid/DAVID Miami

Strategy: Burger King, Moldy Whopper, INGO Stockholm/DAVID Miami/Publicis

There were no clear Grand Prix winners in the Print and Design categories. Overall there were 41 Gold winners, 97 Silver and 191 Bronze, from a total of 4,000 entries. Out of the 35 countries that won awards, the United Arab Emirates came in third with 29 awards, while the most awarded agency was Impact BBDO Dubai with 10 Bronzes and 5 Silvers, but no Golds. The jury was a uniquely diverse gathering of creatives, strategists, consultants and journalists – a total of more than 430 people. Together, they gave over 270,000 scores, which amounted to more than 2,800 hours of voting – or 117 days. Surely an awards show record! My own clam to fame is that seems I clocked 44 hours of judging, more than any of the other jurors...

AdForum CEO Philippe Paget, said: “Congratulations to all the winners and of course a huge thank you to everyone who entered. You rose to the occasion. I’d also like to thank our jury, of course, and the Grand Prix panel. I’m hugely grateful to the UK Advertising Export Group, which became a valued partner in the event. As intended from the start, the AdForum PHNX Tribute showed that creativity grows even stronger in a crisis. Perhaps the PHNX will rise again one day in the future.”

On the joys of being a juror at an ad festival

The PHNX festival just closed its jury grading window. I must have graded more than 2500 ads.

The PHNX was a bit of an anomaly though: Being free to enter some people plugged their portfolios to the cringing reaction of the jurors, there was an incredible mismatch in the categories which also sent the jurors over the edge, and many entries were not eligible due to their broadcast date being earlier than was stipulated.

To be a juror means either you are a masochist or you have enormous dedication. Remember, you need to finish the category you started because either your vote will not be counted or you will skew the average if you do not fulfill the whole category. With around 250 entries per category on average this becomes a drudgery.

Yet, again, in my case not only passion but dedication is there. For the PHNX, I was given a full day head start in judging because I am incredibly fast at doing so (when I used to teach at university level I immediately knew if I liked the creative idea the student was presenting or not), and because I was able to pinpoint technical errors and immediately report them.

Just to clear though, the PHNX which was a one time only festival and the Epica Awards where I have been judging since 2016 are no walk in the park. Both online and as a physical juror. When you sit about 16 hours in the same room putting grade after grade, or when you do that at home doing the same amounts to pseudo-insanity. The problem? An ad which is a total disaster in the film category actually has a great use of sound, one with a horrible activation strategy is excellent in its branding, hence the need to be alert as to what category you are judging and to combat mental fatigue.

Another issue? Peer pressure.

Many ads fellow jurors fell in love with left me incredibly cold. At times I would throw another glance at the ad in question only to say - "nope it still leaves me cold". It really takes a lot to make me change my mind. But again, you need to really hang on to your opinion and not say "Oh so-and-so-head-of-agency-liked-it-so-must-I". You have your opinion and head-of--agency has theirs.

Of course, one also needs to be fair. Normally as a juror you are denied voting on work from your own country. But work for the Lebanese market is often presented from Dubai so I end up judging it - often poorly - without playing favoritism.

With all its folly, the excitement of finding the next great ad overcomes all the insanity and frustration. And this alone is a tremendous joy!

Let's get digital!

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

So, to misquote Olivia Newton John - let's get digital. I keep reading antagonistic data - book reading is on the up, but Amazon teamed up with American Vogue to sell designer clothes because traditional stores that would carry these designers are now closed. Apparently, the way we shop will forever change, then on the first day of lockdown easing in Paris there was a long queue in front of Zara. And so on and so forth. But, to me, going digital is something engrained in me (even if I am a bit of a Luddite who does not shop online and has no credit card).
But let us go back to the beginning.
I recently joined the PHNX tribute festival as a juror. Actually, the whole festival is digital and entry is free to replace all the shows that got cancelled this year. I am also, a part of a major international collective which was supposed to do events spanning from Montreal to Vienna to Amsterdam and Beirut. Realizing opportunities for travel are now quasi-non-existent, we now switched to discussing how to transport all the events to a digital realm. And the list continues.
I am sure we are not alone in this. As people now stand apart and minimize interaction, working from home has become a viable option when previously it was not. My own lockdwon started way before anyone else's in a bid to save money, but I am still incredibly productive, and still reach out to my limited number of friends via digital tools (something other people are learning to do now!).
Do I miss people? Rarely to be honest. I am not by the way, trying to extrapolate my modus operandi and apply it to everyone: I am totally aware that what works for me (introverted, driven, with a touch of OCD) does not work for more extroverted individuals with a more leisurely pace of work.
Still - with schools, universities and companies closed - either because of the Coronavirus, or due to the dire economic situation in Lebanon (or worldwide for that matter), perhaps the time has come to redefine how we work and live and spend our time and connect to one another as individuals.
Want it or not, it seems the digital realm is going to grow. And even Luddite credit cardless people like me need to take note.

Adforum PHNX tribute - a phoenix rises from the ashes!

Tarek Chemaly is now a PHNX juror!

AdForum launches a unique, free-to-enter online competition.

Over the past 20 years AdForum has existed to celebrate advertising creativity. One of its founding pillars is its partnership with agencies and awards shows around the world. It acts as both as a promoter of talent and an archive for creative excellence.

Despite the current crisis, AdForum believes that our industry still needs to celebrate creativity, and that as a symbol of resilience and respect for our community, the best work of the last 12 months deserves to be seen and recognized.That’s why we’re launching the AdForum PHNX Tribute (no points for guessing how it is pronounced): a one-off, entirely free-to-enter online competition. Entries will be open on May 18 and the jury will vote from June 12 to 26. Winners of Gold, Silver and Bronze phoenix feathers will be announced and honored on July 9 during an online event.The idea is to celebrate individual creatives and teams: the people behind the great work.We will ask agencies, freelancers, brands and production companies to enter their best work into a carefully distilled selection of 25 categories. 

A top-notch jury of creative leaders will vote on the entries in a spirit of unity and generosity. Philippe Paget, CEO of AdForum’s parent company Maydream, said: “Despite everything we felt that people would still enjoy celebrating great work this summer, so we decided to create a one-off platform for them to do that. I’d especially like to thank the design agency ADDIKT in Amsterdam, who created the PHNX identity in record time, as well as the content consultancy Fish Do It, based in India.”

The online celebration will be preceded by a series of free webinars devoted to creativity.The AdForum PHNX Tribute is designed to lift the spirits of the industry and put creativity back in the spotlight–where it belongs.