Geographical focus 2021

The Epica Awards season just ended and after crunching the numbers, some additional facts emerged from the creative prize judged by the press. Key among them, the Independent Agency of the Year was Zulu Alpha Kilo, with three Golds, three Silvers and six Bronzes. It was followed in the indie top three by Rethink, then Cossette, all from Canada. As previously announced, McCann Worldgroup was Network of the Year, while &co./NoA was effectively Agency of the Year, closely followed by Zulu Alpha Kilo and Serviceplan Germany.

The Epica Awards Geographical focus, yearly ranking of agencies by country and region is now available here: https://www.epica-awards.com/news/geographical-focus-2021 This year the Epica Awards received 3184 entries from 64 countries, a dramatic increase on the difficult year before (1980 entries) and close to the 2019 level. The highest number of entries came from the United States (206) followed by Germany (200).

Mark Tungate, Editorial director commented: The entries this year seemed to reflect a general feeling of positivity in the industry, at least compared to 2020. The jury seemed to feel it too: it didn’t surprise me that the two Film Grand Prix were both uplifting, from the humour of &Co./NoA with its funny road safety campaign – about a viking who refuses to wear a helmet – to the superbly choreographed “Festive”, by RiffRaff Films, for Burberry. Dance was one of the trends I spotted, by the way. The number of print entries has been slowly decreasing over the years, but I was pleased to see that the excellent print campaign by Leo Burnett for McDonald’s also got a Grand Prix. The general trend is away from traditional advertising towards experiences, events and digital solutions. Many of these are amazing, but I’m glad we can still celebrate a great film or an eye-catching poster.

Find all the winners at the following link: https://winners.epica-awards.com/