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Seen and noted

Guest Judge: Toby Talbot, chief creative office, DDB Sydney

 GUEST JUDGE /BEST AD OF THE WEEK   WORLDWIDE    March 10, 2015 19:20 (Edited: February 17, 2023 05:19)
BEST TV
Orange Babies: Borrowed Time is my pick. Yep, I know it's in that ever-growing category 'charity web film', but it is a harrowing execution. It manages to take you from optimism to despair in 90 seconds. Her performance really stayed with me.

Runner up: Canal Digital: Clowns. Granted it wouldn't be half as good if it wasn't in Swedish (gives it that whole Henning Menkell noir feel). And although 'Watching TV is important' may have got lost in translation as a line, the bank teller's performance doesn't. It's brilliant.

BEST PRINT
I find 'best print' impossible to find this week. 'Worst print' much easier sadly. I said this last time when I judged Bestads, what the hell's happened to good print?

BEST OUTDOOR
Yep, must be awards season because there's more 'charidee'. That said, there's some excellent work here.

My favourite outdoor is Women's Aid: Look at me. I'm old enough to remember that great NSPCC press ad (back when there were great press ads) where you were encouraged to use a 50 pence piece to cover the bruises on a child's face. This takes it to another level. Ignore the bruises on the girl as you pass the billboard and she gets more bruises. Funny how we usually measure the success of outdoor by how much attention we give it as we walk past. This idea preys off the truth that nobody gives ads any attention any more. A great insight from a sad truth. Wish, for once, there was a case study video to look at here.

Runner up: Homes for Britain: Tiles. Clever use of real estate to talk about real estate. Elegant art direction. Top media idea in the Underground. From an agency that knows a thing or two about great art direction.

BEST INTERACTIVE
Some pretty random stuff here. For instance, my favourite idea is sort of interactive in that you switch it on or off, but mainly it's about great design. (Guess they don't have a Best Product Design section yet.) Ikea: Wireless charging furniture. Got to get me one of those lamps.

Hard pushed to find a runner up. Good to see they are building on Always: Like a girl. I like it when great ideas are extended beyond a years' awards cycle. This idea deserves to live on.




https://www.bestadsontv.com/news/upload/Toby Talbot Smaller[1].jpg
This week's guest judge is Toby Talbot, chief creative officer, DDB Sydney.

Toby studied Graphic Design at Chelsea School of Art in London in the late 80's. He was a truly terrible designer but an okay writer so did a D&AD Advertising 'Failures' course with Dave Trott and joined the industry just as the recession hit. He worked at a bunch of small agencies that no longer exist. Disillusioned by the industry in London (McCann London being the real low point) he fled to New Zealand where his career took off.

He joined Colenso BBDO in 1996 and over the course of the next eight years the agency went from nowhere to a serious contender in the Gunn Report. Countless Agency of the Year titles and multiple Lions later, Toby joined Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland as creative director. Another transformation in the agency's fortunes followed, more Agency of the Year titles and more shiny Lions.

Two years later Toby joined DDB New Zealand as group ECD. He took the agency from a respectable third to number 1 in New Zealand, garnering 4 out of 5 Campaign Brief Agency of the Year titles between 2007 and 2011. He was Campaign Asia Creative of the Year in 2011. Talbot's extracurricular activities at the time included sitting on DDB's Global Creative Board and being founder and chair of DDB Asia Pacific Creative Council's 'Bullseye', driving the quality of work of 21 offices across 14 countries in the region. In that time, DDB Asia Pacific won Spikes Network (and NZ Agency of the Year) and Adfest Network of the Year two years running.

In 2012, Toby returned to the UK for family reasons and was ECD of RKCR Y&R London on the BBC business, before returning to New Zealand a year later for a brief spell as CCO of Whybin TBWA Auckland.

Toby returned to the DDB fold in July 2014 as chief creative officer of the Sydney office. He is a passionate believer in integrated creative departments where lines are blurred and generalists involve themselves in the co-creation of one idea together. The kind of work Toby loves to do is anything from big budget, big brand ideas that explode across all touchpoints to sticking a bottle of Big Mac sauce on eBay for $10 and watching it get 2.1 billion media impressions in two days.


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