See the winners of Japan's biggest TVC awards

The All Japan Radio & Television Commercial Confederation (ACC) recently announced the winners of its ACC CM Festival award for television and radio. This 56th annual contest attracted 2,685 entries, with most winners proving wildly popular on social media platforms.

KDDI au scooped the Grand Prize in Category A (television commercials) of the Film Division for its 12-part series featuring three fairy tale characters, all called Taro, a once common male name. The series promoted a new mobile phone that it positioned midway between a smartphone and a feature phone. The most popular of the commercials featured one of the Taros singing at the beach. Dentsu's Yuya Furukawa, who headed the Film Division jury, commented that KDDI au's entry clearly bettered that of the previous year's Gold winner and got by far the most votes.

Six entries in Category A received Regional Awards. They included a promotion from Oita Prefecture that featured synchronized swimming performances by—you guessed it—schoolgirls in hot springs.

The recipient of the Grand Prize in Category B (online films) in the Film Division was "I'm still" from the END ALS Association. This documentary used a session in which members of the public sketched a sufferer of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, to raise awareness and understanding of the illness. Mr. Furukawa commented that this work pushed the envelope of film creativity. He also noted the quantity, quality, and diversity of entries for this category in its second year.

The Grand Prize for the Radio CM Division went to a three-part series highlighting Kincho brand mosquito insecticides and repellents through conversations between two teenagers. The head juror for the division, Yoshimitsu Sawamoto, also from Dentsu, lauded the outstanding scripts and voice actors. He also noted that the work was an excellent example of a trend toward radio commercial content also running online.

The winner of the Grand Prize in the Marketing Effectiveness Division went to the campaign for Kiyora-no-tamago, an egg brand of a company called Akita. The campaign's television commercial featured a freezing cat made of chicken rice begging for an omelette blanket. The character proved so endearing that many consumers posted photos of their own versions on social sites. Campaign elements also included a recipe website and banner ads. Jury head Shiroyuki Dobashi of Toyota Marketing Japan said that the jury thought particularly highly of the work in view of Akita's ongoing efforts to create compelling promotions that have greatly increased its egg sales over a long time in an intensely competitive market.

The unanimous choice for the Grand Prize in the Interactive Division was a video that Kobayashi City in Miyazaki Prefecture created to attract more residents. Jury leader Kazuhiro Suda of Hakuhodo said that the intelligent approach, production values, and suitability for replaying through YouTube all combined to make the video a strong winner. He noted that the jury comprised a diverse range of people in keeping with its mission of identifying unconventional work.

Award winners will be exhibited in Tokyo on November 30 and thereafter in 30 locations around Japan.

This article originally appeared on Campaign Japan: ACC賞：シェアされた話題のコンテンツが多数受賞