IPG Mediabrands firms take 7 awards at media event

IPG Mediabrands' network grabbed seven awards at the Festival of Media Asia in Singapore.

The event was focused on mobility, featuring presentations from global giants such as Unilever, Coca-Cola and Diageo.

Initiative's campaign "Million Reasons to Believe in Thailand" for Coca-Cola won the award for the Campaign of the Year. It also bagged the Creative Use of Media and Public Service awards. This campaign was highly commended in the Best Communications Strategy and Best Engagement Strategy categories.

Kredlada Benjaathonsiricul, strategist from the Initiative Thailand office, was first runner-up in the Rising Star category.

UM (Universal McCann) Australia scooped the Best Communications Strategy award with its McDonald's "Gets Grilled"' campaign and was highly commended in the Best Event cam-paign category for its work on the "World's Longest Catwalk" for Ecco.

Representing the growth and diversity of IPG Mediabrands' network in Asia-Pacific, four campaigns from Lodestar UM in India were shortlisted and two from UM Malaysia.

With 17 shortlisted campaigns, UM's holding company, IPG Mediabrands, was the most recognised group at the awards.

UM was picked as Agency Network of the Year at the inaugural Festival of Media Asia event in November 2011, meaning that IPG Mediabrands has now taken out major honours at both events held to date.

This success came amid a considerably more competitive field at the Festival of Media Asia this year. There were more than 500 entries, with a shortlist of 117 campaigns representing more than 10 markets and a huge expansion in entries from China and Thailand.

Judges unanimously praised the consistent quality of all of the entries.