Seen and noted

BEST TV
Winner: Virgin | Made By Dyslexia 'DyslexicU'. It's very hard to judge this piece of work purely as a film, because what it represents feels so important. So I'm not going to. The world needs more neurodiverse thinkers to be recognised, empowered and valued. I love this ambition. As a piece of film, I appreciate the passion that's clearly been poured into it. The craft is applied with clear purpose - to not just talk about a different way of thinking, but apply it through visual and sound design. The energy is dynamic, and sometimes frenetic. It feels like something new is happening, and it feels cool, rather than worthy.

"What would I have done to elevate this?" is a game I like to challenge myself with when I'm asked to judge work - so forgive me, but here goes:
I would have pushed some of the visual analogies further, e.g. the superman cape is a bit on the nose.
I would have tried to work in more moments to breathe in the edit and sound design.
Showing the incredible thinkers themselves, like Jobs and Picasso, would have been truer to the purpose.

Runner up: Uber Eats: 'Get Almost Almost Anything - Canned Laughter'. This would be a fun brief to get as a creative, every time. And that's a rare thing for long term brand platforms. Do you know what else is rare? Comedic ads that are actually funny. So well done to the team, but especially, well done to the clients for backing this. I would love to see all the "inappropriate canned laughter" moments that didn't make it, because I think this could have been taken further.

BEST PRINT
Winner: Check 'Clean your Way'. I'm caveating this with the fact that it felt like slim pickings in the print category. I appreciate the passion for craft I'm seeing here, so I'll play my "What would I have done to elevate this?" game:
I would have made it feel like it was a shot taken from within a real car.
I would have integrated the product into the scene - probably standing on the dashboard.
The windscreen wiper would have then been real, not a graphic.
And here's the big one - I would have pushed the idea to go beyond just dirty street, clean street.
There is a lot more fun to be had with removing 'the dirty' from your view.

Runner up: Adidas 'Impossible is nothing'. I'm going to make a bunch of assumptions with this Adidas print ad.
Firstly - that it relates to Nike's new CEO, who started in the company as an intern and worked his way up.
Secondly - that it ran quickly following the news of his appointment to the role.
Thirdly - the placement was right for a well informed and interested audience.
If those assumptions are true, then I kind of like the audacity of the client.
I just wish it had of been brought to life with more craft and a clearer meaning.

BEST OUTDOOR
Winner: Whanau Ora 'Real Time Reo'. There's been some really great work in New Zealand aimed at making its First Nation's language more loved, learnt, and used. And I think this has the potential to be another one. Harnessing programmatic OOH to make phrases contextual and fun is brilliant. I hope they keep going and going with this campaign - taking it into more and more places and times with phrases that go beyond the obvious and are more culturally responsive. They need hundreds of executions. I would also love to see how they are including sound - to help people pronounce the words.

Runner up: Delivereasy 'Coward'. Yes! You go Delivereasy! I love the bravery and sense of fun in this. You can't miss the attitude. But it's also more than a cheeky dig. This cleverly speaks to the Delivereasy brand and experience. I would enjoy writing for this brand. I would pretend that if what I wrote didn't feel like it came out of the crazy mouth of their logo, it wouldn't be right.




This week's guest judge is Seamus Higgins, chief creative officer at R/GA Australia.

With over 20 years' of experience across three continents, Seamus has built his career, across multiple disciplines, on a love of creative solutions that don't feel like advertising, and the uncompromising craft of their delivery.

Recognised on AdAge's Creative All-stars list, Seamus is a highly accomplished creative leader, having led The Palau Pledge, which in addition to being awarded D&AD's Design Black Pencil of the Decade, picked up two D&AD Black Pencils and three Cannes Lions Grand Prix, including Australia's first ever Titanium Grand Prix. He also helped Australian Defence Force Recruiting achieve the most successful two years in their history, picking up a Grand Effie.

Seamus is passionate about helping to drive creativity in the region forward, and is proud to have contributed through judging, but also being consistently awarded in Spikes Asia, including five Grands Prix for Palau Pledge, and more recently, Innovation and Integrated Spikes for Google Project Huey, and We Are Warriors respectively.