Winners announced for The Forty Seventh Annual AADC Awards

In a celebration of local creative excellence, the Adelaide Advertising and Design Club (AADC) wrapped up a jam-packed week of inspiring talks with a bang at The Forty Seventh Annual AADC Awards last Thursday night. The annual event, this year held at the Wolf Blass Event Centre at Morphettville Racecourse was a sold-out affair, bringing together over 300 of South Australia’s creative community, current and emerging.

Local craftsperson, Scott Illingworth or Seeing Sounds was recognised with the iconic watering can trophy and a standing ovation, honoured for his significant and enduring impact on the creative industry.

Said Co-President Nic Eldridge “The most common terms people raise when talking about them is that they are one of the good guys. Generous and humble but with a steely resolve to be the best they can be in their chosen craft. Bucking the trend within the industry, authenticity is their super power and wearing their heart on their sleeve is their signature trait. This person cares deeply about those he works with, and the industry at large.”

The Gold Chair, signifying the pinnacle of advertising excellence, was for the first time ever awarded to not one, but two entries — both from Showpony Adelaide. The Jury described their TVC for Fantastic Snacks’ second phase of the award-winning Yup to the Cup campaign as “Amusingly weird with the right amount of wrong”, and loved their attention-grabbing campaign for BreastScreen SA, Make Time for the Girls.

The Rita Siow Design Chair, named in the honour of the late Rita Siow, celebrates the most outstanding design entry of the year and was awarded to the Smiling Starts brand identity, by Simple for the Western Australian government. The Smiling Starts project —which also picked up 5 awards across design and craft categories— was a crowd favourite, with comments from the Jury including “Every touch point breaks down the dental anxiety with tasteful humor and excitement. Every aspect of this brand works together wonderfully to evoke a positive feeling about going to see the dentist.” and “Brilliant project”.

The Master’s Chair for best in Craft, went to Marty Pepper of KOJO Studios for his exceptional post-production work on RAA’s Better to be a Member campaign, featuring the most well-known bee in South Australia, Trev. Pepper’s work on the campaign saw him facilitate a fully animated character into the commercials, including recording dialogue onset, lip syncing the character, removing road closures and high-vis before colour grading the shots to fully integrate Trev into the live action story.

The Chair for Good was introduced in 2022 to highlight creative work that drives social change. This year, kwpx’s work for Guide Dogs SA/NT took home the Chair for their Dogs Unite for Guide Dogs campaign. The work was well-received by the Jury across the Advertising category too, picking up a total of 4 Awards in addition to taking home the Chair for Good and being described as “Pawsome work!” by the Jury.

A full tally of all the night’s Award and major award winners:

• Showpony Adelaide / 8 Awards plus The Gold Chair for best in Advertising

• Simple / 6 Awards plus The Rita Siow Design Chair for best in Design

  • Including 2 Awards in Craft, awarded to Sam Brown and Matt Schirripa

• kwpx / 4 Awards, plus the Chair for Good for best in For Good

• Fuller / 2 Awards

  • Both in Craft, awarded to Jarrod Knoblauch

• Studio Landmark / 2 Awards

• Scott Illingworth of Seeing Sounds / 2 Awards

• KOJO Studios / 2 Awards

  • Both in Craft, awarded to Marty Pepper and Sam Clarke

• Angela Heesom of Heesom Casting / 2 Awards

• Proetic / 2 Awards

• Black Sheep Advertising / 1 Award

• Detour Design Studio / 1 Award

• Jonathan van der Knapp of Jonathan VDK / 1 Award

• Maxx Corkindale / 1 Award

• NATION / 1 Award

• Parallax / 1 Award

• The Sideways Theory / 1 Award

  • Awarded to Jason Hollamby in Craft

• Toolbox Graphic Design / 1 Award

• Visualizm / 1 Award

The night also celebrated the future of the industry with the Student Awards, with Student of the Year being awarded to Brian Park. The junior designer impressed the Student Jury with his work across the Flinders Private Hospital Rebrand and Parvis Magna Student Concert Program.

A full tally of the night’s Student winners:

• Brian Park / 2 Awards

• Di Wang / 1 Award

• Chloe Coates / 1 Award

• Emily Daws / 1 Award

• Georgia Sandford / 1 Award

• Sam Magarey / 1 Award

• Jessie Showell / 1 Award