InSight Marketing was the big winner at the 2023 APMC Star Awards which were held this week. The agency’s ‘Yoplait Mischief Makes Us’ for Yoplait/Petits Filous picked up the Grand Prix on the night as well as a number of other awards.
It was also a good night for a number of other Irish agencies, including Goosebump which took the Creative Award for its “Generation Mooju” campaign along with a win in the coveted Alcoholic Beverages category for Bulmers “Floaty Little Devils.”
CMS Marketing scooped gold stars for “Bleedin’ Massive” The Paddy Power Comedy Festival sponsorship and its Bank of Ireland Money Smarts Challenge. Pluto went home with five golds including two category wins for spunout BeReal With How You Feel – in the Industry Bodies and Small Budget categories.
Elsewhere Verve bagged six gold stars and won the top prize and the category win in Sponsorship for Diageo Summer of Music, Verve|Showrunner had three category wins, in FMCG Food and Digital for Where is Mr Tayto?
It was also a good night for Allied Global Marketing which picked up an array of gold stars for Heineken Greener Bar and for Birra Moretti, The Shared Table.
Other big winners on the night were OLIVER Ireland for its work with O’Donnells Crisps; Mindshare for Brennans, Today’s Bread, Forever and MACE and Fifty Three Six for MACE Right Options – A walk with Johnny and Vikki. The Blink Group, Mixtape Marketing, EXP and Boys + Girls also bagged awards on the night.
Speaking on behalf of the judging panel, Chairman Ian McColl said, “Given the regard the awards are held in by the industry, we anticipated a high number of submissions this year – and we weren’t disappointed. But the sheer volume of top-quality entries was mind-blowing. This is an area where the pressure is really on – the bar is constantly being pushed higher – and it is met with increasing levels creativity, ingenuity and daring. Roll on the EACA IMPACT Awards. Ireland is well represented! The work continues to be ground breaking and utterly relevant,” says chairman of the judging panel, Ian McColl.
As part of the awards, the APMC recognised four Rising Stars of the industry- Ruth Conlon Trant (Verve), Maeve Acheson (Pluto), Eva Capelli (Allied Global Marketing) and Harry Connelly (Verve). The overall winner was Ruth Conlon Trant from Verve.
Speaking about the awards, Neil Devlin of Mixtape Marketing and board member of the APMC said, “we are thrilled to see so many agencies participate and win Star Awards. We saw record levels of entries this year and are proud to honour the campaigns which really deliver results for our clients. It shows the depth of talent and expertise in the Irish market, all the campaigns that were shortlisted and won Stars are worthy winners and we as an Association are thrilled to celebrate and congratulate them”.
All winners are eligible to go on to compete against the best of the best in Europe at the European Association of Communications Agencies IMPACT awards which are scheduled to be open for entries in early autumn.
The judges for this years’ awards were Sharon Yourell-Lawlor, Managing Director of TPD, Consulting, Ian McColl, Managing Director of therefour, Aisling Wilde, Frontline Activation Country Lead at The Coca-Cola Company and Ondřej Gottwald, MD Garp Integrated, Czech Republic.
The 2023 Star Awards were sponsored by IMJ, Element London, Extreme Structures, Hayes Solicitors, Return2Sender, basketcase.ie, McCul Clothing and Horizon Digital Print.
A full list of all the winners at the 2023 APMC Star Awards can be found HERE
