SA's D&AD 2017 winners: FoxP2

International advertising award season is underway, with the One Show taking place in New York next week and the Cannes Lions next month. South Africa is off to a good start, having brought home 13 Pencils from 732 in total at the 55th annual D&AD Awards, which ranked us in 13th country spot.

All the SA Pencil winners: D&AD 2017

28 Apr 2017

Here, Gomes specifically talks us through this year’s wins for the agency, their previous D&AD ‘pencil box’ record and their strategy to keep those international accolades coming…

Congratulations! Talk us through this year’s wins for the agency.

We won two D&AD pencils this year, one for our Masterlock ‘Something to Hide’ radio campaign and the other for FoxP2 Design’s Cape Animal Dentistry logo. FoxP2 Design is a new offering in the FoxP2 stable, headed up by ECD and FoxP2 creative founding partner Andrew Whitehouse, so the win is particularly significant. We were fortunate enough to win a Cannes Lion in our first six months after FoxP2 opened its doors twelve years ago and that win set a benchmark for us, we’ve tried to hold ourselves to a world-class standard ever since. The same now applies for FoxP2 Design, so watch this space! We’re also proud of the fact that the Masterlock campaign was one of only two campaigns from around the world recognised in the radio advertising campaign category.

What was your previous D&AD ‘pencil box’ record?

We’ve had some Pencil joy over the years, including the Frank.net radio campaign that went on to win the Grand Prix at the Loeries and the Drive Dry ‘Papa Wag Vir Jou’ campaign, which went on to be one of FoxP2’s most highly awarded campaigns.

Team FoxP2 at Loeries 2016.

Share your strategy to keep those international accolades coming.

I’m not sure there’s a strategy to winning international – or local – accolades. You can’t control how judges feel about your work but you can control the quality of your work. If you push your clients and creatives to create something fresh and unexpected, then you’re in with an outside shot. At the end of the day, awards are a byproduct of great work.

Here’s hoping for much more of that great South African work to come. Click here for a reminder of all of South Africa’s 2017 D&AD Pencil winners.