The 58th D&AD Awards Ceremony took place virtually, and four Black Pencils – the most prestigious creative accolade at the UK event – were awarded. Designed by Studio Dumbar and hosted by D&AD President Kate Stanners, the virtual ceremony was an opportunity for the creative industry to come together, celebrate great work and have the platform it deserves during an exceptionally challenging year.
This year only two countries from the MENA region made it to the D&AD Awards winners list: the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. The United Arab Emirates came 21st in the country ranking, and Egypt at 39th. VMLY&R won a Yellow Pencil, the only one for the region.
The agencies recognised from the UAE were:
The agency VMLY&R won a Yellow Pencil for “Mothers Smile Strong” for Colgate in the category Photography: Portraits.
Leo Burnett Dubai won a Wood Pencil for the campaign “Secure Your Account” for Emirates NBD in the category Sound Design & Use of Music: Adapted Music.
Impact BBDO Dubai received several recognitions for the “The New National Anthem Edition” for An Nahar Newspaper. The campaign won a Wood Pencil in the category PR: Reactive Response and was shortlisted in the two categories Impact: Advertising-Brands and Direct: Direct Response-Ambient.
The agency FP7 McCann Dubai was shortlisted in the category Direct: Direct Acquisition for the “Astronomical Sales” campaign for Mastercard.
TBWA RAAD Dubai was also shortlisted for “Napkinized” for KFC in the category Branding: Brand Expression in Print.
The Egyptian agency Matter Branding won a Wood Pencil for the campaign “Mega Ice Cream” for Froneri, in the category Branding: Logos.
The four Black Pencils were awarded to INGO Stockholm-David Miami-Publicis Bucharest in PR, Family Type in Typography, FCB Chicago in Book Design, and FCB/SIX in Digital. The President’s Award, reserved for “true industry heroes”, was awarded to Yuya Furukawa, CCO at Dentsu. The United States was the most awarded country at this year’s D&AD Awards, followed by the United Kingdom in second place and Japan in third.
Dara Lynch, D&AD COO, commented: “This year, the global creative community deserved more than ever an opportunity to collectively celebrate the power of creativity. While we were disappointed to not be able to host our annual festival and ceremony, we believe that the virtual ceremony continued to recognise outstanding work from the past year and create a moment of unity for the industry. We are delighted to be able to award 4 Black Pencils this year to work that is truly pushing the boundaries. Looking forward, we will all rely on creative thinkers to help us through this pandemic, so it is vital that we celebrate and stimulate creativity at every chance we get.”
