Seen and noted

BEST TV
Winner: Sainsbury's 'BFG and Sophie'. As a child of the 80's, Roald Dahl books littered my bedroom floor, read from cover to cover on repeat, with The Witches and The BFG being my favourite two. Now let's be clear, I is not picking Sainsbury's because NCA joined Ogilvy! Anyone who knows me knows I is honest, says what I thinks and is not a fibster. I does truly love this gloriumptious phizz-whizzing festive ad on the telly-telly-bumkin box. It's sweet, nostalgic and makes us human beans feel all 'hopscotchy' on the inside.

Runner Up: Club 21 'Salute The Detail'. From the greatest ever Children's book writer to the Shakespeare of Thailand. Each of the three films are infused with his poetry and the idea focuses on attention to detail, which is so brilliantly done I found myself watching them again to spot the difference.

BEST PRINT
Winner: Comtrex 'Forget those Horror Nights'. This felt a bit familiar but was simple and culturally relevant. I quite like that brands are celebrating and tapping into Halloween. Probably because I grew up in a ye olde village where the local newsletter was called 'The Broomstick' and a legend was frequently told - "As the church tower stands, there will be 6 witches, furthermore every time a stone falls from the tower, one witch will die and another will take her place." My Mum told me she was a witch but I think that was just to get me to do the washing up and make my bed.

Runner Up: BSAG 'Fish'. I thought this attempted to be creative with the message. But Marmite did the whole turn-the-ad-upside down thing so well that it's hard to beat. The ad tells me the ecosystem can be saved through a turnaround in conservation, but it doesn't give me any clear call to action, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with that information or how I can help. But at least it made me want to turn it up instead of turn it over.

BEST OUTDOOR

Winner: Guild Gaming and Esports / Sky Broadband 'The Forty-Seven %'. Consider me a newb but I didn't know that only 5% of esports pros are women. Wait? What? Enter 47 game-changing women representing 47% of UK gamers take on the esports industry's gender disparity and promote more diversity in the world of gaming. XP for taking a stand and trying to make change in culture just a couple of small bugs in the system for me. I wanted it to be more punchy - not Street Fighter punchy - but putting up a bit more of a fight.

Runner Up: Hellmanns 'Hellmanns Freaky Recipes'. Great art-direction and like the socially sourced recipes. Most of them freak me out or make me feel sick but it's Halloween so I guess that's the point.

BEST INTERACTIVE
Winner: New Zealand Herpes Foundation 'Make New Zealand The Best Place In The World To Have Herpes'. This campaign really tickled me, really really tickled me, which is apt given it's an awareness campaign for Herpes 'a largely medically insignificant virus'. I love the audacity of making a country famous for a shady virus no one wants to talk about. The humour is spot on, with tongue firmly in cheek and fabulous bits of dialogue. "Herpes is spread from skin-to-skin contact, face to bits, face to face, bits to face or bits to bits". I completed the course and particularly liked lesson 4 on how to drop herpes into conversation. "That's A for Alpha, C for Charlie and H for Herpes". I love the real time Herpes Stigma Index, at time of writing New Zealand was behind Spain in top spot for 'The best place in the world to have herpes'.

Runner Up: Supercuts 'Real Dumb Coupon'. Real Dumb Coupon takes a swipe at the naysayers who question who would get their haircut at Supercuts by pointing out your Mum, your dad and 43 million other people do. Then, it offers redeemable real dumb coupons because if you want to pay more for a haircut you can come to Supercuts and use the vouchers, which entitles you to pay more. It's a stupidly good idea.

BEST RADIO
No Winner. I love writing for radio, it's how I cut my teeth in the industry but as a category it's quite wallpaper. That's why I applaud campaigns like 'Misheard version' and 'Phone it in'. Most radio ads I go out of my way to avoid listening to now, in the car I'll literally cross the centre line and narrowly miss oncoming traffic just to turn a station over.

Runner Up: Life Pharmacy 'Pregnant Pickles'. There was some clever wit here but pregnancy + pickles = cliche.




This week's guest judge is Nicola Wood, executive creative director at Ogilvy, UK.

Nicola is a creative force of nature. Her positivity and down to earth no-nonsense approach delivers world class creativity. She's all about insightful and disruptive ideas and finding the best way for them to land in culture in whatever media is best.

She is a multi award-winning writer, CD and ECD - among the highest ranked in the world. In March 2024 she ranked in both the WARC and DRUM worldwide rankings and helped to rank Ogilvy UK as the top 5 creative agency in the world.

Among her many recent wins, is the coveted D&AD White Pencil and Cannes Glass Lion awards for the culturally impactful "Have a word" integrated campaign for Mayor of London. The cheeky "Hornicultural Society" campaign for charity Relate was one of the world most awarded campaigns and featured in the 2024 WARC Creative 100 at no.38.

Nicola has featured in the worldwide rankings for over three consecutive years. In 2023 she was Top 5 D&AD Copywriters worldwide and the Top 20 Creative Director Worldwide. Nicola has been shortlisted for 2024 Creativepool Annual awards Creative Leader of the Year, was a 2022 Female Frontier Honouree shortlisted for the Conquering Creativity Award and was also awarded Creative Equals Future Leaders Award 2021. ​​

She has a track record for cracking tough briefs and winning pitches for both local and global clients, and has worked on some of Britain's best-loved brands including M&S, BBC and British Airways. She currently leads work globally across Jameson Whiskey, and locally across Molson Coors brands Madri and Coors, St James Place and the Mayor of London.

She has a reputation for her love of craft and human insight. Bringing fun and truth to the creative department, as well as every brief, client relationship and team she works with. Nicola really cares about the people and the work, nurturing both talent and ideas makes her heart sing. She has always been hugely passionate about helping emerging talent come into the industry. Nicola's favourite human is her cheeky son Ollie, and she loves being a Mum (even in the current teenage years).

Please note, Nicola does not really like talking about herself, especially in third person.

Check out Nic's website: nicolawood.online