Kancil Awards attracts no Gold winners this year in Malaysia

The annual Kancil Awards recognises the best creative ideas in the advertising industry. Only the crème de la crème of each distinct category walks away with the coveted Golden Kancil - this year, not a single agency did.  

While some ideas were brilliant and some executions were outstanding, the judges failed to find a single entry which combined a bold idea with great execution to a level that qualified for Gold.

Aaron Cowie, chairman of the organising committee, said, “This year’s theme called for entries to ‘be bolder’ and challenges the industry to continually improve and push the boundaries of creativity. We need to adopt a ‘good is never good enough’ attitude and be critical with our work.”

Datuk Vincent Lee, president of the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents (4As) Malaysia, called for the industry to transform Malaysia into a creative hot spot. His vision is to establish Malaysia as a creative capital.  

“Let us therefore get to the trenches and foster real ‘ideas-people’," said Lee. "It’s more than survival - it’s evolving to a higher state of creative consciousness, capability and income.  It may be a dream. But nothing big ever happens without someone having the courage to dream.”

Hosted by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia, the event took place on 26 November at the Grand Ballroom of the Sime Darby Convention Centre.

The ten categories judged this year are print, television, digital, design, rebel, direct advertising, radio, integrated, copywriting and outdoor advertising.

“The telling message is that all five independent juries, print, film/ radio, digital/ direct plus Bahasa and Chinese language panels were unanimous in their opinions. Each of them decided that there were no Gold standard entries this year. To give a Gold they were looking for great ideas with outstanding execution.” said Jeff Orr, chairman of 4A’s creative council.

“The role of Kancil Awards is to keep raising the bar for Malaysian creativity. The best of our work should go on to win major international awards, as it has been doing in recent years. To achieve that goal we must be realistic about giving out the top awards in the Kancils,” he stressed.

Results:

Agency of the Year: McCann Erickson and IF Interactive
Advertiser of the Year: DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd
Chairman's Award: Y Bhg Dato Amrin Hj Awaluddin
Media Personality of the Year: Steven Gan Diong Keng & Zainon bin Ahmad
Young Creative Award: Ng Bee Nee, McCann Erickson (M) Sdn Bhd

Other results can be found here: http://www.kancilawards.com/results-2010