Chemistry agency’s ad shape of things to come

THE National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) creative advertising awards Grand Prix award has been won by the Chemistry agency.

Different Sizes, a campaign by Adrian FitzSimon and Emmet Wright of the Chemistry agency, was the big winner at last night’s NNI creative advertising awards in the RDS.

The chemistry duo won both the overall Grand Prix award and the Best Copywriting trophy for Different Sizes, while Gerry Kennedy and Emma Hogan of McConnells won the Best Art Direction award for their Ideas campaign.

The awards were the culmination of a creative challenge entitled ‘What’s so powerful about press ads?’ in which agency copywriters and art directors were invited to create a press advertisement, or campaign, that articulated the power of newspaper advertising.

A total of 280 advertisements were submitted for the competition, a response described by NNI as phenomenal. The entries were judged by Luke Sullivan, the multi-award winning US creative director and author of the book Hey Whipple, Squeeze This. Luke Sullivan launched the NNI creative challenge in Dublin last January, and he said that selecting an overall winner out of the 300 entries was not as difficult as it sounds.

“I went through every single one of the 300 or so entries and made a short list. I left about ten campaigns on the table, then I invited into the room several other senior creatives from GSD&M (the Texas-based agency of which he is creative director). We all talked it out and unanimously landed on Various Sizes as the overall Grand Prix winner, and also Best Copywriting.

He added: “We thought it was a marvellous combination of writing/art-direction, and the type was done beautifully. Here the copy IS the art direction. L-shape in particular was a wonderful one,” he added. The Chemistry agency’s L-shape winning advertisement appears on this page.

Adrian FitzSimon and Emmet Wright, received €10,000 for the overall Grand Prix award and a further €5,000 for winning the Best Copywriting award.

Their agency, Chemistry, meanwhile, received a specially commissioned trophy for each of the awards in question.

The award for Best Art Direction, meanwhile, went to a series of five ads featuring the great creative ideas of such diverse figures as JK Rowling, Mozart, Leonardo Da Vinci, Paul McCartney and Michelangelo.

The campaign was produced by Gerry Kennedy and Emma Hogan who shared a cash prize of €5,000 while their agency, McConnells, received a special NNI trophy.

Commenting on the Ideas campaign, Luke Sullivan said: “In particular we liked Mozart’s Requiem while, being Beatles fanatics, we also loved Paul McCartney’s Yesterday,” he went on.

In addition to the main award winners, Luke Sullivan also awarded the Student prize of €1000 to Damien Reid, an MSc student of advertising in DIT.

There were six Highly Commended ads/campaigns:

* All in One by Kathryn McDonagh and John Kilkenny of Owens DDB.

* Eye Catching 2 by Ronan Nulty and Ger Roe of QMP Publicis.

* The power to target your every mood by Alan Kelly and Martin Cowman of Cawley Nea TBWA.

* Search by Eugene Ruane and Anton McClelland of QMP Publicis.

* Why? by Colin Hart and Mark Black of Cawley Nea TBWA.

* Got til it’s gone by Robert Frew, freelance.

The top two winning campaigns will now be published throughout the range of NNI titles - a total of 18 newspapers - including the Irish Examiner over the coming months.