Midas Awards announced 2016 Award Winners

The Midas Awards for the World’s Best Financial Advertising announced the award winners for the 2016 competition. The 2016 Midas Awards Grand Jury awarded 1 Grand Midas Award, 62 Midas Gold Ingots, 77 Midas Silver Ingots and 138 Finalist Certificates from entries submitted from 24 countries.

FP7/DXB (Part of McCann Worldgroup) earned the coveted 2016 Grand Midas Award for “A Priceless Delivery” for client MasterCard.  The award-winning campaign partnered MasterCard Priceless Causes with Salma, an innovation in food relief, that sources high-quality and securely-packaged food to create an interactive wall in Dubai Mall. The wall gave people an immersive and priceless experience when they bought a meal and metaphorically delivered it to the children through the interactive wall allowing Salma to deliver 400,000 meals and counting to displaced children and their families in the Middle East. “A Priceless Delivery” also earned 5 Midas Gold Ingots, 2 Silver Ingots and 2 Midas Certificates.

Our job, being part of a burgeoning creative economy, is to solve the really hard problems around us (brand, business or societal) through the power of our creativity. It gives us purpose and is our way to survive. ‘A Priceless Delivery’ is one such creative idea, where we have taken the first steps through MasterCard (one of the world’s best-known brands) and its meaningful Priceless Causes program, to address a real-world problem of underprivileged and displaced children and families not getting sufficient access to quality food – which is a basic human right.

We have moved people in the UAE to give and then, encouraged them to give more by showing them the impact their contributions can make; thus, removing the metaphorical wall that is often formed between those who give and those whose lives they improve. And we have garnered a lot of support that has helped scale this idea and make it sustainable.

In today’s world, it’s imperative that more leading global brands (beyond NGOs) do similar meaningful work for causes that are affecting the world around us. They have the influence. Here’s wishing that more is done by the big brands we all work with, to help people affected by atrocities around the world, through the power of creativity.

Tahaab Rais,

Regional Head of Strategic Planning, FP7/MENA (Part of McCann Worldgroup)

Savvy advertisers employed creative event marketing to engage consumers and champion causes. Gold Ingot winners: The Jupiter Drawing Room (South Africa) Johannesburg’s “Café Prosper,” a pop-up coffee shop, served  up some of the finest coffee in the world, while allowing consumers to rest up, recharge and engage, while becoming a channel of communication to consumers for client Absa/Barclays . McCann New York’s “MasterCard Restroom for All,” MasterCard’s installation at Pride Fest demonstrated their support of global acceptance by installing a restroom that accepts all humans, no matter their gender identity. McCann London’s “#44 Days of Crazy” for MasterCard harnessed the spirit of international fans traveling through London via branded taxis; riders were challenged to show team spirit by singing their nation’s rugby anthem and see their taxi fare roll down. Joe Public Pty Ltd South Africa’s “Twitter Track” for client Nedbank Sponsorships incorporated inspiring tweets into an encouraging running track to raise funds for children requiring prosthetics.

US agencies were in the lead this year, earning 13 Midas Gold Ingots. McCann New York earned 5 Gold Ingots total for client MasterCard. The agency received 3 Gold Ingots for “MasterCard Restroom for All.”  In addition “First Big Trip,” and “Stand Up To Cancer EEG Experience” for MasterCard also earned Gold Ingots. McCann Worldgroup also saw campaigns for MasterCard earn Gold Ingots including “Together and “Experiences Are Priceless.”   Other US agencies striking gold: R/GA New York earned 2 Gold Ingots for “E*TRADE Opportunity is Everywhere – Trader, Retire, Invest”; Publicis North America “Citi Double Cash Card? Double Means Double? Campaign TV Spots” was honored with 2 Gold Ingots; and SapientNitro “The Webster Bank Warm Welcome Guerilla Campaign” earned 2 Gold Ingots.  Prudential Advertising “#Run401k – The Race for Retirement” for Prudential earned a Gold Ingot.

FP7/DXB Dubai (Part of McCann Worldgroup) struck gold with a total of 11 Midas Gold Ingots including 3 Gold Ingots for “A Priceless Delivery” for MasterCard.  The agency earned a robust 6 Gold Ingots for client Emirates NBD, taking home 3 for “The AC Vests” 2 for “An Uber Ramadan” and a single Gold Ingot for “The Beautiful After.” FP7/DXB was also recognized with a single Gold Ingots for “Ad D” for National Health Insurance Company – Daman.

Australian agencies were in the spotlight scoring 6 Midas Gold Ingots. MercerBell earned 2 Gold Ingots, one for “Pirates of the High Fees” for World First and a second for “There’s a Flight in Every Card” for client Qantas.  R/GA Media Group was honored with 2 Gold Ingots for “Monkey Minded Monday” for client ANZ and Wunderman-Bienalto  was recognized with 2 Gold Ingots for “Ed: Anxiety-busting banking” for ME Bank.

South African agencies were in the winner’s circle earning a total of 6 Gold Ingots. The Jupiter Drawing Room (South Africa) Johannesburg received 4 Gold Ingots for client Absa / Barclays including 2 Ingots for “Ready. Set. Go.” and both “Cultivating the Exceptional” and “Café Prosper” each earned a single Gold Ingot.  Joe Public Pty Ltd earned 2 Gold Ingots for “Twitter Track” for client Nedbank Sponsorships.

Three Canadian agencies were honored with Gold Ingots: Zulu Alpha Kilo received Gold Ingots for both “Be In The Black” and “Pets with Credit” for client Interac Association. In addition, KBS Canada’s “BMO TARC” for BMO and McCann Canada’s “Mastercard Safety & Security” for client MasterCard earned Gold Ingots.

Global Agencies were honored with multiple Gold Ingots. McCann London’s “#44 Days of Crazy” for MasterCard. McCann Worldgroup London earned 2 Gold Ingots for “Mark Ronson Surprise” for MasterCard and McCann Singapore’s “Biometric ID Posters” also for MasterCard received 2 Gold Ingots. Publicis Communications Switzerland “UBS Retirement Campaign”   for client UBS Switzerland and CJ WORX Thailand ‘s “Big Daddy Form” for client  Krungsri Market along with. R/GA Brazil’s “Gabriel” for client Banco Bradesco S.A. each earned 2 Gold Ingots.

International agencies scoring a single Gold Ingot include: AML Group  UK “Megatrends Thematics” for Pictet Asset Management; Reinv3nt Colombia “Retirees” for client Brilla de Gases de Occidente; Havas Duesseldorf GmbH Germany “60 Years DWS” for DWS; McCann Bucharest “Champions League Spark Video”  for MasterCard; pi communications pvt.ltd., India  “The Incomplete Nameplate” for Aditya Birla Housing Finance Limited; fp7 Lebanon “The Makers” for client Byblos Bank; and TBWA Sri Lanka “Sign of Death” for client AIA Insurance.

Founded in 2001, the Midas Awards is the only competition to recognize excellence in financial advertising and marketing on a global scale, honoring the World’s Best Financial Advertising℠ in banking, brokerage, insurance, mutual funds, credit cards, real estate, accounting, and consulting. The competition invites entries in four specific categories: Products & Services, Craft, Use of Medium, and Use of Discipline.