By Lukmon Oloyede.
It has now become clear that some of the new generations of advertising agencies emerging are not just prepared to play the second fiddle to the big agencies but keen to demonstrate to brand owners that they have got the creative knowledge to also help them grow their brands in the face of market competition. This was a clear statement proven by Noak’s Ark and X3M Ideas at the 2015 Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival (LAIF) Award held last Saturday.
The Lanre Adisa led Noah’s Ark emerged the overall best agency at this year’s Award held in Lagos and well attended by creative industry practitioners. The agency carted away with a total of 10 awards including a Grand Prix, 5 Gold, 2 Silver and 2 Bronze plaques to emerge the number one agency for 2015 upstaging the old generation agencies including Insight, DDB, SO&U among others.
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The Maryland based agency bagged the Grand Prix which is the only one awarded on the night for a Press Ad tagged Obama for Gala, one of the brand managed for UAC Foods Limited. The Grand Prix was the cutting edge for Noah’s Ark to emerge the best agency for 2015.
The 5 Gold award won includes; Best Use of Photo Manipulation for its CSR campaign- Boko Halal (Naomi Zakariyah), another Gold was won in the Ad that never ran category (Press) for Gala tagged Gala Queen, the agency also won two gold in the Food and Consumables category one for Three Crowns Milk, (Outdoor) and the other for Gala (Obama) Press while the last Gold was for Indomie in the best use of copy (Print) for the Ramadan campaign.
The Minime Chin Chin (POV Bus Stop) won the agency Silver in the Food & Consumables category while the other Silver was won in the Best Use of Photo Manipulation for Gala (Soyinka). The two Bronze plaques were won in Public, Political & Social category (Press) for Boko Halal (Grinding Stone) and Food and Consumables category for the Indomie (Ramadan).
In a chat with the Executive Creative Director, Noah’s Ark Communication Limited, Mr. Abolaji Alausa said the agency’s feat at this year’s LAIF award is a well-deserved honour and reward for creativity and excellence that it has been doing since it was setup.
X3M Ideas scooped eight awards, including three gold, two silver and three bronze medals to emerge third on the medals table ahead of other more established agencies.
However, CEO of X3M Ideas, Steve Babaeko said it’s not time for celebration has the agency still believe there is still more work to be done.
“We set up this agency to be number one and until we become number one, don’t congratulate me. We don’t look at other agencies because as far as we are concerned there is only one agency in Nigeria and that is X3M Ideas. We are running a race against ourselves. We care about the quality of work we generate here and the value we give to our clients”, Babaeko said.
Babaeko commended the clients for taking the bold step of believing in the younger agencies and trusting them to deliver. “Young agencies are throwing their hats in the ring and challenging the old agencies, clients are becoming savvier, not going for big names but big ideas. It’s an interesting time to be an ad practitioner in Nigeria and I am privileged to be part of it.”
