BEIJING JWT and Ogilvy & Mather were the major winners at the first China 4A Golden Seal Creative Awards, scooping two golds each, the only top prizes handed out, and a significant number of other medals awarded.
JWT's Nike work spawned their two golds in Best Outdoor for its Nike 'Run Free' campaign, and Best Television Commercial for Nike '2008ing.'
Ogilvy's online work was celebrated, with golds in the Best Online campaign category for the Audi Q7 'Adventure Chronicles' and in the Best Viral campaign category for their Motorola 'Lipsynch'.
To confirm their dominance of the awards the two agencies also received 53 of the 77 silver and bronze awards handed out on the evening. The best advertiser gongs went to Motorola, Volvo and Li Ning.
Shenan Cheung, chairman of the China 4As and vice-chairman of the Ogilvy Group said "(the) award ceremony is a very exciting moment for the China 4A association.
"It marks the end of a very eventful first year that has seen many accomplishments," added Chuang. "These awards will serve as a benchmark for creative excellence in the future."
The China 4As association was set up last year by a collection of 28 foreign and Chinese firms seeking to raise industry standards in the country.
The organisation hopes the Golden Seal awards will help to improve creative work while becoming the benchmark international standard advertising awards in China.
The dominance of the awards by two firms suggests both foreign and Chinese agencies have some improvement to make.
"Even the top end stuff only just reached international standards and there was a large amount of average work," said Ogilvy Beijing executive creative director, and awards judge Nils Andersson.
