Dumb Ways To Die continues to sweep all before it, adding the Val Morgan ACE of Excellence award to an already considerable haul for McCann Melbourne's creative team.
The ad, for Metro Trains, has clocked up over 45 million views on Youtube in just four months. Its success in large-screen format was recognised at the Australian Creative Excellence Showcase (ACES) in Sydney yesterday, edging ahead of high calibre finalists BWM, Finch, Engine, DDB, FSM, Clemenger BBDO, The Monkeys and BMF.
The final round of three campaigns featured another train ad, Clemenger BBDO’s Time To See Australia campaign for client Great Southern Rail. The other runner up was DDB’s Reward Saver – Wedding campaign for client Westpac.
“It was great to see so many more people enter the ACES” said ACES jury chairman and BWM’s Executive Creative Director Rob Belgiovane. “But while most entries were of a very high standard, Dumb Ways To Die was clearly well ahead of the pack. So often "safety" messages are based on graphic footage of bad accidents, so a sweet song with child like animation is such a fresh approach for a serious issue that it was impossible to ignore. Congratulations to all the finalists.”
McCann communications director Andrea Sophocleous said, bravery of client Metro Trains enabled “out of the box thinking” helping to create a “big idea that we knew would cut through”. Receiving the award from the jury chairman, the McCann representatives politely declined Belgiovani's job offer.
Val Morgan CEO Damian Keogh thanked the creative agencies for supporting the awards. He told guests at the final that cinema's unique appeal, with engaged audiences also enabled odd length and longer length content, the best of which “sells product.”
Technology was now such that ads “could be converted to cinema as quickly as they are on TV”, he added.
List of Finalists:
Finalist: BMF
Client: Aldi
Campaign: Surfin Santas
Finalist: Engine
Client: Evocca College
Campaign: The Best Thing Since Games Were Invented
Finalist: DDB
Client: Westpac
Campaign: Rewards Saver - Wedding
Finalist: BWM
Client: Tabcorp
Campaign: How's Your Form?
Finalist: The Monkeys
Client: Yellowglen
Campaign: House Of Sparkling
Finalist: Clemenger BBDO
Client: Great Southern Rail
Campaign: Time To See Australia
Finalist: FSM
Client: Animals Australia
Campaign: Somewhere
Finalist: Finch
Client: Sensis
Campaign: Tick
Finalist: BMF
Client: Aldi
Campaign: Mamia Baby Faces
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