The Brill Building, the agency founded by Roisin Keown, was the big winner at the 2021 APMC Star Awards, picking up the Grand Prix as well as three other awards – Best Brand Experience, Best Cause and Best Shopper Marketing – all for The Shop that Nearly Wasn’t, its campaign for Breakthrough Cancer Research.
In all 20 Gold stars were awarded this year. Other agencies that did well Publicis Dublin and Pluto who scooped gold stars for the creativity of their work for Vhi and IDL respectively. Pluto picked up 11 other stars for campaigns for Pladis, DRCC and Department of An Taoiseach campaigns.
Elsewhere Verve won six stars including two category wins, for Best Innovation and Best Small Budget. InSight Marketing took five stars home for its Britvic Ireland and Molson Coors work while CMS picked up two Golds and a Silver for its work with Bank of Ireland and the Money Smarts Program.
Mixtape Marketing, meanwhile, saw its Samplify work once again recognised with a Gold star and Invention took gold for the Best Integrated Campaign for its ‘Raise a Toast to Ireland’ campaign for Brennans Bread.
In addition, Goosebump took stars for its work for Denny Meat Free and first-time entrants thinknblink and V360 were each recognised with stars for their work with Hines and PepsiCo respectively.
Speaking about winning the Grand Prix, Roisin Keown says: “Winning Grand Prix at APMC in a field that included fantastic work like the 20 second soap is a welcome endorsement of the power of an idea with heart and purpose to connect at every level. We are honoured to be able to do justice to the real-world benefits Breakthrough and their scientists achieve every day. Having an live activation at the heart of this campaign was essential to our strategic approach – a real working shop 100% stocked and staffed by cancer survivors – because if you can go beyond just communicating an idea, but have people stand inside it, touch it, experience it then you’re connecting with them in their world – on their terms. People directly or indirectly affected by cancer came from all over Ireland and beyond to stand in a place of hope,” she says.
This year’s judging panel was made up of Sharon Yourell-Lawlor, MD of TPD Consulting; Ian McColl, MD of therefour and Aisling Wilde, frontline activation country lead, The Coca-Cola Company.
“Overall, Sharon, Aisling and I were really impressed with the standard of work. The 2021 winners were all great ideas that have insight at the heart of them. We believe they have longevity and can be replicated in other markets. The bravery of this work is what sets it apart. Today we rewarded extraordinary work produced at an extraordinary time, and under extraordinary circumstances,” says Ian McColl, chairman of this year’s judging panel.
“From the judges’ perspective the standard and number of entries defy the conditions imposed by pandemic lockdown. The brilliance born from determination, boundless energy, marketing wizardry and hard work in the eye of this modern storm is inspirational,” he adds.
“We are thrilled that there was such a broad range of agencies winning Star Awards” says Aoife Butler, on behalf of the board of the APMC.
“These awards honour the campaigns which really deliver results for our clients and it shows the depth of talent and expertise in the Irish market, it is a great reflection of the depth and resilience of our industry even in these challenging times,” she says.
All the gold and category winners are entitled to now go on to compete against the best of the best in Europe at the European Association of Communications Agencies IMC awards which are scheduled to be open for entries in the coming months.
To view all the winners click HERE
