Seen and noted

BEST TV
This is the fourth time I've judged Bestads and I'm beginning to think there's some kind of conspiracy afoot. Last week's work was great. Next week's work will no doubt be great. This week? Not exactly vintage. It happens every time I judge.

Of course this week It doesn't help that every brand on earth is doing something in the whole post-COVID-life-will-never-be-the-same space.

And that, judging by this week's contenders, is not an easy brief to get right. Especially as right now, no one can film live action spots. We're all limited to 3D/2D animation, existing footage, stock imagery or user generated stuff. So this week, I judged the work through the 'innovative execution' filter.

Hate to sound like a cold bastard, but I'm getting a little over the whole-user-gen vignettes of frontline people set to a syrupy manifesto voiceover. And is it me or does it feel like all the instruments in the world have been put in quarantine except Lang Lang's bloody piano.

Thus the unusual winner in that, technically speaking, it is no more than a cut-down of a supremely good Super Bowl ad, is Jeep. Best use of existing footage for sure. It had me in its first five seconds when I heard the first chords of "You got me babe" and Bill Murray opens his eyes in bed. Cut to titles. Lovely economy of edit and strong message. I like Jeep for this. No voice. No piano. Job done.

Runner up: Helsinki Missio. We see Helsinki bereft of people (cynically, I imagine it's like that most of the time). Natural eerie natural sounds of the street. Title: For some, this is how the world has always felt. Simple. No voiceover. Not a piano too, tempting though it might have been here.

BEST PRINT
Back to COVID once more and maybe because funny works right now, I am drawn to Baking Bread because AMC, the content channel had a nice go at mashing up their content with a PSA message.

Runner up: World Vision. We won't keep 1 metre apart. Yep it works.

BEST OUTDOOR
Winner: Mumbai Police. The Punishing Signal. Maybe it stood out because it wasn't COVID related. Or maybe it stood out because it's such a wonderful way to shut up honking motorists in Mumbai. It could be incredibly effective. Or it could incite a riot. Knowing the patience of Indian drivers, probably the latter.

BEST INTERACTIVE
Winner: Scrubhub. Unusual media idea but I guess the amount of people who might need to wash their hands directly after visiting PornHub, it kind of makes complete sense. Funny. And again more proof that if you want to get a message across right now, maybe dial down on found footage and dial up an idea instead.




This week's guest judge is Toby Talbot, newly appointed chief creative officer of DDB's bespoke agency, C14torce, in Barcelona. The agency was built to service the global Seat and Cupra car brands that are manufactured locally.

C14torce (pronounced ca-TOR-say which is the number 14 in Spanish) is home to a talent pool spanning 30 nationalities with the importance of staying connected to European culture emanating from the beating heart of one of the most amazing cities in the world, Barcelona.

Prior to his European switch, Toby has been a prominent member of the New Zealand and Australian advertising community for the last twenty years
He most recently held the role of CCO at Saatchi & Saatchi NZ for the last three years. He did an eight year tour of duty at Colenso back in the day, but his main agency of record in New Zealand, Australia and now Spain, has been DDB.

At DDB Sydney, Toby was behind the most awarded mobile campaign in the world, #comeonin for Sydney Opera House, and before then at DDB New Zealand, he took home the coveted title of Campaign Asia Magazine's Creative of the Year.

Talbot is currently the No. 2 ECD in the world on the global Bestadsontv Creative Rankings over the last 17 years.