Hakuhodo is Agency of the Year at Kancil Awards 2018.

Hakuhodo took centre stage when it bagged the Agency of the Year award with three Gold, two Silver, 10 Bronze and 10 Merit awards for a total of 150 points at the recent Kancil Awards 2018, Malaysia’s most celebrated creative excellence awards competition.

Leo Burnett Kuala Lumpur placed 2nd with five Silver, 13 Bronze, 13 Merit awards and 141 points, followed by Naga DDB Tribal in 3rd place with three Silver, 12 Bronze, 21 Merit awards and 132 points.

QSR Stores Sdn Bhd was named the Advertiser of the Year, while Reprise took home the Golden Kancil for their “The Other Sanders” campaign.

Led by Jury Chairperson Gigi Lee, Chief Creative Officer, TBWA\Group Malaysia, and Deputy Chairperson Emir Shafri, Executive Creative Director, Y&R, the Chief Juries this year comprise some of the most celebrated creatives and seasoned judges in Asia.

They include David Guerrero, Creative Chairman, BBDO Guerrero Philippines; Kazoo Sato, Chief Creative Officer, TBWA\Hakuhodo Tokyo; Daniel Kee, Executive Creative Director, MullenLowe Singapore; Pann Lim, Co-founder and Creative Director, Kinetic Singapore; and Woon Siew Hoh, Chief Creative Officer, Hakuhodo Asia Pacific.

Themed ‘Celebrating Humanity in Creativity, Technology, and Culture,’ the re-fashioned Kancil Awards have been simplified into channel-based categories, with special awards introduced this year to reward impact, public service work, cultural insights and innovation.

The Kancil for Good, a new award which focuses on purpose-driven creative ideas that has a positive impact on community, was awarded to Grey KL for their outstanding work on the “Unforgettable Bag” ad for Tesco.

Production House of the Year, another new category, was awarded to Directors Think Tank (picture).

Chevie Law emerged the winner of “The 666 Young Director’s Challenge” with a script called “In Memories”.

A new initiative introduced this year, the challenge saw aspiring film directors submitting scripts for a 6-minute film, with a chance to have their work produced for free by one of 6 production houses.

The Young Kancils 24-Hour Challenge named Carolyn Chow, Shrny Chin and Hilmi Muzzy from Dentsu LHS as the winners for their work on a brief for an Instagram-centric campaign focused on Grab drivers.

The One Academy took home four Golds for the Student Kancil x Scoolers Awards, a creative challenge that showcases students’ work against a professional barometer.

This was followed by Raffles College of Higher Education with two Gold Awards. A special award was given to IACT College for best use of cultural insight with their project called “Kuih and Cherki”.

“Creativity goes far beyond the confining filters of Ad-land, and sometimes can lose the human touch.

“This year’s Kancil Awards aims to bring back humanity as the center of creativity by rewarding creative excellence that is meaningful and compelling, which in turn becomes impactful,” said Alvin Teoh, Creative Council Chairman of the 2018 Kancil Awards (picture).

Andrew Lee, President of the 4As Malaysia (picture) said, “While the Kancil Awards celebrates creative excellence, we need to think about our roles in marketing – how we can use our creativity to sell products for our clients – and to take a step back in reassessing how to create meaningful connections through content that resonates, just like the work we celebrate tonight.”

Organized annually by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia (4As), this year’s Kancil Awards closes the inaugural Kancil Creative Festival – a two-day creative festival assembling brilliant minds from different disciplines and industries to celebrate humanity as the focus of creative excellence.

Full list of winners here: http://www.kancilawards.com/winners