Dentsu Utama takes top prize

One for the album: The Dentsu Utama members celebrating after winning the Agency of the Year title at The Kancil Awards 2015.

KUALA LUMPUR: Dentsu Utama Sdn Bhd was crowned the “Agency of the Year” at the advertising industry’s most prestigious annual event, the Kancil Awards 2015.

The agency won 12 silver, 64 bronze and three merit awards, totalling 79 wins.

“The secret to being recognised in this industry is to keep on producing innovative, creative ideas and fresh executions for any campaign,” said Dentsu Utama executive creative director Chow Kok Keong at the event held at Shangri-La Hotel here on Friday.

“My favourite would be the ‘Skateboard Poster’ campaign that reconnects a specific target group to a traditional brand. Also worth mentioning is our ‘Anti-Poaching Awareness’ campaign that managed to attract WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) Indonesia.”

Following behind was Y&R Malaysia with its haul of 58 awards – a gold, 16 silvers, 28 bronze and 13 merit awards.

Coming in third was Leo Burnett Malaysia that won six silver, 21 bronze and 56 merit awards, totalling 83 awards.

Bank Simpanan Nasional bagged the Advertiser of the Year trophy.

Organised by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia (4As), this year’s celebration of the best in the advertising world was themed “Deervid vs Golion: Find a Different Way to Fight”, underscoring the importance of creativity.

There were 19 entry categories and 76 sub-categories. Two new categories were introduced this year, the Young Kancil and Kancil for Good awards that recognised fresh advertising talent and the agency that had made a positive impact in consumer lives.

A total of 916 entries were received from 4As member agencies.

Star Media Group was one of the sponsors and media partners alongside Celcom Axiata, Maxis Mobile, Media Prima, The Edge, The Sun, Gardenia Bakersies, Malaysia SME, Moving Walls, Sin Chew Daily and Coca-Cola.

Organising chairman T. Reganathan, in his opening speech, said the future of the industry was highly dependent on the creativeness, talent, boldness and unconventional ideas, especially from the young executives.