The big winners from this year’s Kancil Awards

Back after taking a year off, the Kancil Awards returned with the promise of raising the industry’s standards with a revamped format and a hard-hitting theme of ‘Evolve of die’. 

Leo Burnett Kuala Lumpur won the Agency of The Year with one Gold, 15 Silver, 35 Bronze and 37 Merit at the creative excellence awards competition. 

The Kancil Awards is organised annually by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents of Malaysia (4As) and underwent a transformation last year by aligning itself with the evolving state of the industry. The revamped Kancil Awards consist of four awards categories – Business, Channel, Craft, and Specialist – aims to focus on inclusiveness, relevance and transparency. 

Naga DDB Tribal was the first runner-up with 218 points, followed by Isobar Malaysia with 187 points. Isobar Malaysia also picked up three Golden Kancils for its “HOEEKI” campaign for Mudah, an online retail platform, while Protect and Save the Children Association (P.S. The Children) was named Advertiser of The Year. Cassie Ng and Nicole Sue Tan from Y&R Malaysia won the Young Kancil Award.

Themed “Evolve or die”, the re-designed Kancil Awards which was revamped last year to accurately reflect the changing landscape of the advertising industry, drew in 564 Single and Campaign entries. 

Only six gold awards were handed out on the night and apart from the three picked up by Isobar, the other gold Kancil winners included Leo Burnett KL for Lazada’s Blast Off and two golden Kancils went to Naga DDB for its campaign with P.S. The Children.

“The Kancil Awards serves to recognise the importance of creativity and celebrate the best work for the year. The re-designed Kancil Awards 2017 also acts as a catalyst in transforming Malaysian creative agencies to be future-facing,” said Tan Kien Eng, Kancil Awards Creative Council Chairman.

“There are ample opportunities for agencies in the creative eco-system to showcase their creative prowess, and they must be continuously courageous in creative thinking, strategic thrust, data analytics while being progressive and consumer-driven,” Tan added. 

This year’s Chairman’s Award was presented to Patrick Teoh, a veteran voice talent in advertising productions and the official master-of-ceremony of advertising awards for 15 years. 
T. Renganathan, former FCB CEO, J Matthews, Macomm Management Services Chief Operating Officer, and Lau Peng Kai, who developed IACT College jointly with the Malaysian Advertisers Association (MAA) during his tenure as the 4As President, were inducted into the 4As Hall of Fame.

“As part of our educational initiative, this year’s Young Kancil winner will also get a pass to attend Adfest 2018. We are striving to raise our industry standards and professionalism through healthy competitions and open learning opportunities,” Tan stressed.

For a full list of this year’s winners click here