Australia’s oldest, continually running industry body, the Adelaide Advertising and Design Club, has held its 43rd annual awards tonight at Lot100 in Adelaide’s Hay Valley. The most coveted award for most outstanding Idea in the entire exhibition, the Gold Chair, was awarded to TBWA\Adelaide for South Australia Tourism’s “#BookThemOut” campaign.

On presenting the Gold Chair, chair of judges, David Ponce De Leon, executive creative director at Ogilvy Melbourne said: “The winner was difficult to pick, the level of the playing field was very high.”

The Master’s Chair for best Craft entry was awarded to Pat Parisi of Simple Integrated Marketing for Design, Brand Identity for Rundle Mall of which Ponce De Leon said: “smashed it out of the park with multiple category winners over every single design touchpoint.”

Awards were also received by:

Astbury Audio – DASSA, “Don’t Let It In” and CFS “Fire Fire Go Away” audio production
CAMPFIRE – Henschke, “Hill Of Grace” digital video commercial
Heesom Casting – CFS, “What would you be prepared to lose” casting for advertising
KOJO – Yalumba & Hill-Smith Family Vineyards, “Yalumba Website Design”
The Rowdy Group – National Pharmacies, “Saddleworth” branded video
Seeingsounds – Henschke Wines, “Hill Of Grace” audio production
Showpony Adelaide – Return To Work SA, “Reach for the Facts” integrated campaign

The President’s Award is awarded each year for outstanding contribution above and beyond the call of duty to the local advertising industry and the AADC and the recipient of this year’s award was John McLaren. With a career spanning 40 years, John is a fearless advocate for creativity whose finely tuned strategic skills were pivotal in helping to develop and sell countless, award-winning and results-generating campaigns for iconic local brands like BankSA, Jacob’s Creek, San Remo, MAC and SA Lotteries.

One of the highlights of the night was the inaugural Client’s Choice Award, presented by SATC head of marketing, Brent Hill.

Says Hill: “I was really honoured to be able to chair the judging group of brilliant marketers. What was obvious looking through the awards is the depth of talent. The level of work across many different fields in marketing and advertising such as branding, advertising, digital and design was of a really high standard, and reflects that in Adelaide we can compete with the best.”

The winning entry was selected by a panel of local marketers including Richard Blackwell of SAPOL, Nicky Gameau of Yalumba, Meegan Sancilio of People’s Choice Credit Union, Erik de Roos of San Remo, Matthew Schumacher of RAA and Stephen Kernaghan of Escapod.

The award was presented to Joe Godsell of TBWA\Adelaide for “#BookThemOut” South Australia Tourism campaign.

On presenting the award, the Chair of the Client Panel, Brent Hill said: “I’m so proud of this campaign and our industry – particularly those amazingly resilient people who we made this ad for – the communities of Kangaroo Island and the Adelaide Hills.”

The AADC would like to acknowledge the continued, generous support of its sponsors:

Technology Partner: Adstream
Platinum Sponsors: KOJO and The Rowdy Group
Gold Sponsors: Blacksheep, KHQ Lawyers, NewsCorp and Showpony Advertising
Silver Sponsors: he Audio Embassy, Mattrixx, Merlin Post and Visualism

Full list of winners: