For the primary time in nearly a decade, there are two Better of Present Awards on the Model Affect Awards.
Why? As a result of we really feel it’s necessary to acknowledge, on the highest degree of the scheme, that the DNA of a high-impact marketing campaign and a beautiful-yet-robust identification system, constructed for longevity, are basically completely different.
And when pitting them instantly towards one another for a Better of Present accolade, the wow issue and wealthy in-the-moment storytelling of the previous can’t be simply in comparison with the rigour and craft of the latter.
A story of two streams
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On the inaugural BIAs manner again in 2014, entries had been formally sorted into two ‘streams’. We known as them branding programmes and branded campaigns, and so they had been thought of independently: two roomfuls of in-person judges was every tasked with figuring out a set of class winners, and a Better of Present.
Because the scheme developed, these streams turned more and more intertwined. With no set variety of trophies in any given class, world-class campaigns and identities might fortunately each win Gold alongside one another – and we might draw on a wealthy mix of cross-sector judging experience for every class, somewhat than splitting our panel in half.
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2015 was the final time we had two Better of Present Awards, with Johnson Banks’ placing marketing campaign for UNICEF UK taking the highest prize alongside The Companions’ ingenious identification for the Tusk Conservation Awards.
One undertaking to rule all of them
Since then, for probably the most half one Better of Present emerged naturally and conclusively from one stream or one other with near-unanimous acclaim from the panel – Johnson Banks took it once more in 2016 with its thought-provoking marketing campaign for the College of Cambridge, following by three wins in a row for The Companions and its post-merger successor Superunion, with London Symphony Orchestra (one other marketing campaign), Elliptic and BBC Two (each identification programs).
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Over this time, Better of Present on the Model Affect Awards naturally advanced right into a singular factor: the easiest undertaking in rivalry that 12 months, no matter its wider context or from which stream it originated.
When lockdown compelled us to shift to distant judging in 2020, we took the chance to broaden our as soon as primarily London-based panel around the globe. In addition to unlocking a richer and extra various financial institution of experience, we additionally re-thought the judging course of. Instead of two distinct judging rooms, one massive international panel that would break up into smaller, specialist teams as and when wanted.
A bone of rivalry
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2020 was additionally the 12 months that Unusual Artistic Studio’s arresting Britain Get Speaking marketing campaign for ITV, our unanimous Social Affect winner, took the Better of Present accolade – however solely after a fierce debate about its deserves relative to double-Gold winner All Watched Over, a posh, poetic, thought-provoking identification system by Settle for & Proceed and Thomas Sharp.
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Three model identities went on to take the highest prize in succession.
It was unanimous to award COLLINS’ dynamic scheme for San Francisco Symphony in 2021, however subsequent years once more noticed close-run fights between an identification and a marketing campaign: Seed Library by Magpie Studio clinched it towards Superunion’s Surreal Island marketing campaign for China Responsibility Free in 2022, and Veg NI by Jack Renwick Studio narrowly triumphed towards ManvsMachine’s Make The Subsequent marketing campaign for Squarespace in 2023.
Our new path
In comparison with these early years of the BIAs, the worldwide unfold of the panel – and the extreme rigour of the judging course of, which features a three-week unbiased overview interval following by small-group discussions to find out the ultimate winners – ensures each undertaking submitted will get the scrutiny it deserves from a broad cross-section of branding specialists.
So with all of the above in thoughts, when confronted with one other chalk-and-cheese ultra-close voting battle between a marketing campaign and an identification system in 2024, the time felt proper to reintroduce two Better of Present Awards, rewarding the most effective in every respective ‘stream’ for the primary time since 2015.
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So congratulations to each ManvsMachine and Jones Knowles Ritchie on your world-class work for Samsung (marketing campaign) and RSPCA (identification). We sit up for rewarding the easiest in branding, in all its types, for a lot of extra years to return on the BIAs.
Browse all of the Model Affect Awards 2024 winners right here.
