The 15th Creative Excellence Festival ADWARDS Awards in Riga, Latvia received 253 works, most of them in the category “Printing Art and Design”, and a total of 15 gold prizes were awarded in 28 categories.
This time there was Grand Prix, but double gold has been awarded to the campaign “Be our Soros” (Alise Zariņa, Dana Jurkjāne, client – Satori).
“Be our Soros” is a cheeky fundraising campaign for Latvia’s leading online culture magazine “Satori” which aims to promote civic engagement and popularize donations to independent media. It also pokes fun at the popular conspiracy theory that George Soros is backing liberal media to push personal agendas.
All the campaign materials played on the conspiracy look and feel and were widely shared on social media. The main driving force of the campaign were the more than a dozen unscripted interview videos we set up with real “Satori” supporters and two actors playing conspiracy journalists.
The goal was to show that the only people independent media depends on are their readers and supporters. With that, the public took matters into their own hands by becoming an army of tiny Soroses and helping to secure the fundraising goal in just 5 days. At the end of the 2-week campaign, we got almost double the donations expected, making it a record-breaking fundraising campaign for “Satori”.
The works were judged by 20 jury members from 12 countries. As last year, this time the work of the jury took place remotely, allowing to bring together outstanding industry professionals from all over the world. The jury president was Claudia Cristovao from Google Studios.
In the category “Integrated Campaigns” / “Corporate Social Responsibility, Charity and Social Advertising” gold prizes were awarded to NORD DDB RIGA for the campaign “Help get out of domestic violence!” (client – Latvian Radio).
The story goes like this: “On Latvian Radio 95th anniversary, we wanted to look back at the most significant events and brightest personalities of this period. This website gives you the opportunity to watch the stories of radio fans, learn about the rich history of Latvian Radio, but most importantly – create your own memory stories, which are read by the legendary narrator Sandra Glāzupa with the help of artificial intelligence in the form of a digitally synthesized voice. Voice is a core value of radio and the solution on this website allows people to hear Sandra’s legendary voice again, which has been alongside many nationally significant events. The site also serves as a data base of historical events, as we have restored and compiled hundreds of significant events in the history of Latvian Radio since 1924. During the campaign, people actively shared their digitized stories on the website itself, on social networks, as well as by calling the radio and expressing gratitude for the time spent together.”
In the same category the gold prizes went to Alise Zariņa and Dana Jurkjāne for the campaign “Be our Soros” (client – Satori) and WKND for the campaign “Nature has not canceled anything!” (client – Latvian Fund for Nature).
In the TV & Radio / Animation, VFX & 3D Design category, the Gold Prize was awarded to Overpriced for the We are NATO campaign .
The agency McCANN Riga received the gold award in the category “Interactive and digital solutions” and in “Interactive campaigns” with the campaign “Fake Fake News” (client – the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia).
As usual, there was strong competition in the category "Print Art and Design". The agency Not Perfect "Tele2 wireless home internet" has been recognized as a gold-worthy work in the category “Graphic communication” (client – Tele 2).
In the category “Press and outdoor advertising” with gold in the category “Outdoor advertising. Products, services, image ”awarded the advertisement of the VELUX campaign “Let your home breathe”, created by the agency McCANN Riga.
In the category “Events and sponsorship”, gold was won by Skudras Metropole with a mirror house above the Amata River (client – Paulig Coffee Latvia ).
In the recently introduced category “Export of Creative Excellence”, the agency Publicis Riga with #StillSpeakingUp DEEPTRUTH (client – Propuesta Civica ) has become the first gold winner.
A special prize “Customer Commentary” was awarded by a specially formed jury consisting of representatives of Latvian companies. This year it is received by three contestants: the agency Publicis Riga with #StillSpeakingUp DEEPTRUTH, WRONG Digital with “ Uzīdz tumsu ” (client – Latvijas Mobilais Telefons) and Dirty Deal Audio with the LAMPA audio branding project of the Conversation Festival.
The Agency of the Year was awarded to McCANN Riga.
The full list of winners can be found HERE
