McCann Worldgroup and BBDO HK big winners at Kam Fan

Cathay Pacific and McCann Worldgroup’s Betsy Beer, ‘The Altitude Brew’ designed to taste best at 35,000 feet, won the Grand Prix award, the Grand Kam Fan, at the 2017 HK4As Kam Fan Awards on Friday, besides bagging a Kam Fan in the design and crafts category and the Client of the Year award for the carrier.

Ted Lim, jury chairman, praised the winning work as something more than an ad. “It is more than a piece of communication," he said. "It is engagement in the truest form. It is a piece of innovation that required cooperation between the agency and the client,” said Lim in a recorded statement played after the announcement of the results. Betsy Beer has been expanded to all of the airline's key routes and craft beer outlets in Hong Kong since its initial launch in March for the Hong Kong-UK route. 

BBDO was the other big winner of the night, taking home the Creative Agency of the Year Award and the Media Kam Fan for the 'Wardrobe apartment' campaign, which highlighted the housing problem in Hong Kong. The total medal tally for the agency included a Kam Fan award, a gold, seven silvers, six bronzes and five merits.

The previous winner, Grey Hong Kong, took home a gold, three silvers and three bronzes specifically for HSBC’s controversial rainbow lions campaign. There was no Media Agency of the Year awarded this year.

Overall, the 71 medals presented included the Grand Kam Fan, two Kam Fan awards, three Golds, 25 silvers and 40 bronzes.

McCann & Spencer's Spencer Wong, chairman of the Kam Fan organising committee, said that the results were "very uplifting" this year. "The Kam Fan Awards is a celebration of work from our industry that is uniquely Hong Kong, but the quality that we recognise is nothing short of world class," he said in his opening speech. 

See the full winner list.