O&M HK clear winner at spartan Kam Fan

O&M picked up the top accolade for its 'Washing machine' television commercial for client Fortress.

One of the judges, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne executive creative director Mike O'Sullivan, described the Kam Fan winner as "funny and engaging in a hard category".

Other gold winners included Saatchi & Saatchi Guangzhou for Olay, Leo Burnett for Green Hill 2nd Hand Store, and Euro RSCG for Sony So-Net.

But the talking point of the night was the paltry seven golds awarded, compared with 16 last year.

KC Tsang, one of the founders of local hot shop CTWCM, said that this was due to a combination of two key factors.

"This hasn't been a vintage year for Hong Kong, because of the economic pressures we have faced, mainly because of Sars. But at the same time, we were under strict instructions to apply international standards to all the ads and campaigns we examined," he said.

Justin Tindall, art director at London-based BMP DDB, said, "We weren't going to give sympathy votes anyway. It doesn't work that way in the real world, where intense competitive pressure is part of life."

The judges described the general standard of entries as good, but not great.

Ron Cheung, head of creative at Hotdog Workshop, said: "It's dictated by the market. Clients want tactical, short-term work, usually with a turnaround time of two or three days, on a small budget. This doesn't leave much room for agencies to come up with great campaigns."

However, not all the opinions were negative.

Eugene Cheong, O&M regional head of copy, said that Hong Kong once again demonstrated its strength in television.

"This came through again this year, especially in art and sound direction. However the quantity of quality work was lacking," he said.

Tindall added: "I thought the work was just okay. I know that the city has gone through a difficult few years economically and this was largely reflected in the submissions."

Mike Wong, 4As chairman and managing director of McCann-Erickson Guangming Hong Kong, said that the industry had performed well over the past 12 months, given the difficulties.

Overall Ogilvy topped the creative awards tally with 125 points, after winning the Kam Fan, two golds, six silvers, 14 bronzes and 10 merits.

Leo Burnett was a distant second with 66 points in total, while Euro RSCG was third with 53.

In the interactive contest, OgilvyOne Hong Kong came away the biggest winner, followed by OgilvyOne Beijing and e-Crusade Marketing.