Epica Gleanings

The 2018 Epica Awards were celebrated in beautiful ceremony at the Royal Tropic Institute in Amsterdam last week. Last Friday I wrote about the Grand Prix winners, today I'd like to highlight some of my favourite Gold winners in the Film and Digital categories that I saw for the first time in Amsterdam – either because the agencies had not submitted the work to Archive magazine or it had just passed us by. I hasten to add that, of course some 95% of award-winning work in Film and Print was showcased – in some cases much earlier in the year -- in the pages of Archive magazine but with this inflation of trophies (such as the Alternative Grand Prix, which went to Diesel "Go with the fake") there is always something among them that slips past our attention.

Generally speaking, this year Epica received 4.020 entries from 69 countries, a 20% increase on the previous year despite difficult market conditions. This was driven by the return of the Publicis Groupe networks, plus an enthusiastic response from Germany and Latin America. Indeed, the highest number of entries came from Germany, followed by the United States and France. New countries this year included Iran and Morocco. In terms of networks, BBDO and McCann Worldgroup were particularly well represented.

But here is some of the work awarded with Gold Epicas that stood out from the rest and that I don't want to go unnoticed here:

"Ahmed" Client: Mars Chocolate North America, Snickers. Ad Agency: BBDO, New York. Creative Directors: Gianfranco Arena, Peter Kain, Greg Hahn, Peter Kain, David Lubars. Art Director: Dan Oliva. Copywriter: Scott Mahoney. Director: Steve Miller. 

"Unmissable" Client: Heineken, Ad Agency: Publicis Italy, Milan. Creative Directors: Luca Cinquepalmi, Marco Venturelli, Eddy Guimaraes, Vinicius Dalvi. Copywriter: James Andrews. Director: Lasse Frank. Production Company: Iconoclast.

"Caster Semenya" Client: Nike. Ad Agency: Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam. Creative Directors: Eric Quennoy, Mark Bernath. Evgeny Primachenko, Hannah Smit, Craig Williams. Art Directors: Teresa Montenegro. Copywriter: Christopher Cryer. Director: AG Rojas. Production Company: Park Pictures. 

New Hyundai Tucson - "El Magico" Client": Hyundai Motor Europe. Ad Agency: Innocean Worldwide Europe, Berlin. Creative Directors: Jeremy Craigen, Andreas Cordt, Gabriel Mattar. Ricardo Wolff, The V-Man. Copywriter: Reinier Gorissen. Art Director: Marlon von Franquemont. Directors: Charles Guard, Thomas Guard. Production Company: Tempomedia Filmproduktion

"Silent Olympic Games" Client: France Télévisions. Ad Agency: Publicis Conseil, Paris. Creative Director: Olivier Desmettre. Copywriter: Antoine Colin. Art Director: Jordan Lemarchand. Director: Wilfried Brimo. Production Company: Carnibird. 

"Maîtriser ses dépenses énergétiques avec Flexom" Client: Bouygues Immobilier. Ad Agency: Gyro, Paris. Creative Director: Sebastien Zanini. Copywriters: Marc Sinègre, Remy Hadjadj. Art Directors: Rudy Bamberg, Agathe Rattel. Production Company: QUAD (Clichy - France). Director: Alexandre Coffre. 

"Shut up death" Client: Doctors of the world. Ad Agency: DDB Paris. Creative Directors: Alexander Kalchev, Alexis Benbehe, Pierre Mathona. Production Company: Frenzy, Saïgon, NASH Production. Director: Felipe Vellas 

"Better Together" Client: France Télévisions. Ad Agency: Publicis Conseil, Paris. Creative Director: Fabrice Delacourt. Copywriters: Benjamin Sanial. Art Director: Raphaël Halin.  Directors: Benjamin Sanial, Raphaël Halin. Production Company: La Pac.

"Go with the Fake" Client: Diesel. Ad Agency: Publicis, New York and Milan. Creative Director: Andy Bird, Luca Pannese, Luca Lorenzini, Bruno Bertelli, Cristiana Boccassini. Copywriter: Bryce Hooton. Art Director: Kristen Koop. Production Company: Rival School Pictures. Director: Andrew Lane

Ben&Jerry's "The Unbreakable Rainbow" Client: Unilever. Ad Agency: 180heartbeats + Jung von Matt, Warsaw. Creative Director: Martin Winther. Art Director: Pablo Dominguez Agregan. Copywriter: Mateusz Gaca. Graphic Designer: Marek Kaleta. Photographer: Michał Murawski.