BBDO takes home Network of the Year 2015 at London International Awards

The BBDO Lanka team

BBDO Worldwide topped the list at yet another awards show this year when it took home the ‘Network of the Year 2015’ award at the 30th London International Awards (LIA) announced on Tuesday (10). BBDO agency BBDO Proximity Malaysia also took home one of the coveted Grand LIAs for its much recognised work for KFC, in the Poster category. In total, BBDO Worldwide was awarded one Grand LIA, 20 Gold, 22 Silver and 32 Bronze awards and a further 32 attained Finalist status.

This is the fourth time in five years that BBDO has been awarded the Network of the Year title at the London International Awards, having previously won it in 2014, 2012 and 2011.

The LIA is one of the most important festivals of creativity in the world with its awards highly coveted by the advertising industry. Not only does it attract (and reward) work of the highest quality from around the world, but it also arranges for a line up of highly skilled and well recognised international jurors comprising CEOs and chief creative officers.“We are proud to be a part of the BBDO Worldwide network and are inspired by its continued success at global and regional awards shows. BBDO Lanka itself was named ‘Agency of the Year’ at our Effie Awards Sri Lanka debut this year. This comes on the back of us being recognised as Campaign Asia-Pacific magazine’s ‘Rest of South Asia Creative Agency of the Year’ – Silver in 2012, soon after only our first year of operation,” said BBDO Lanka MD Santosh Menon.Judging for LIA 2015 was held at the SLS Hotel in Las Vegas over a 10 day period with the awards decided based on a point system. LIA, at present, recognises 15 unique media types: Billboard, Branded Entertainment, Design, Digital, Integration, Music and Sound, Music Video, Non Traditional, Package Design, Poster, Print, Production and Post Production, Radio and Audio, The NEW and TV/Cinema/Online Film. Of the 14,106 submissions received for 2015 from 78 countries, 7% attained Shortlist status. Of those elite selections, only 1.2% was awarded Gold, 1.6% Silver and 2% Bronze awards while 2.1% achieved Finalist status. 

2015 jury president of the Non Traditional category, Mark Tutssel, Global Chief Creative Officer of Leo Burnett Worldwide stated: “I was blessed to work with an extremely talented jury from the four corners of the world. We were on a mission to uncover brave ideas that didn’t conform to category conventions. We wanted to celebrate the revolutionary, the unconventional and the nontraditional -- fresh ideas that defied the status quo. The winners contain some of the most influential creativity in 2015. Innovative, beautifully crafted ideas that reshape the way the entire world thinks about brands and business.”

For nine years in a row, BBDO has been named the most creative agency network in the world in The Gunn Report, and for seven years BBDO was also ranked the most awarded agency network across all marketing communications platforms in The Directory Big Won. In addition, BBDO has been named Network of the Year at Cannes five times, the world’s most Effective Agency Network thrice in the Effie Effectiveness Index and Network of the Year thrice at Spikes Asia. It has been chosen Agency of the Year multiple times by each of the leading industry trade publications, including being named ‘Global Network of the Year’ by Adweek Magazine in 2014.