Listen to the article
MAD STARS, one of Asia’s largest international advertising festival, announced their final results for 2022 at a grand ceremony in Busan, South Korea, on Saturday night.
IMPACT BBDO was named Agency of the Year, while winning 3 Grands Prix, 6 Golds, 6 Silvers, a Bronze and 3 Crystal trophies. Earlier, the agency had also picked up the most finalists in the world with 46 pieces in the running for metal.
73 countries had submitted almost 19,000 entries this year at MAD STARS, which were culled down to 1,745 finalists.
The UAE had led the world with the most finalists of any country, and went on to win the most trophies as well, a testament to the powerful creativity in the country.
The UAE won 4 Grands Prix in total — IMPACT BBDO bringing home 3 of those for its “Elections Edition” campaign for AnNahar Newspaper, which also had won a Grand Prix previously at Cannes Lions this year. These three awards were in the Outdoor, Human Rights, and Print categories.
Havas Middle East picked up a Grand Prix in the PR category for “Liquid Billboard,” which also had picked up Grand Prix earlier at Cannes Lion.
Other UAE wins included TBWA\RAAD (6 Golds, 3 Silvers, 4 Bronzes, 11 Crystals), MEMAC Ogilvy (3 Golds, 1 Bronze), VMLYR Dubai (3 Silvers, 3 Bronzes, 3 Crystals), Horizon FCB (2 Silvers, 2 Bronzes, 4 Crystals), UAE Government Media Office (1 Silver, 5 Crystals), and MullenLowe MENA and WundermanThompson with 1 Crystal each.
Hwan-Jin Choi, chairperson of MAD STARS, stated that “It’s truly remarkable to see the creativity coming from the UAE, the country with the most finalists. I can now confirm they are also the country that has received the most awards at MAD STARS 2022. Once again Impact BBDO was named Agency of the Year; in particular their work for the Elections Edition was highly regarded by our panel of judges. On behalf of MAD STARS 2022 I’d like to congratulate Ali Rez and his entire creative team for their achievement.”
A total of 15 Grands Prix were awarded to the following nine agencies:
The Elections Edition – Impact BBDO – UAE – Print Grand Prix, Human Rights Grand Prix, Outdoor Grand Prix
Liquid Billboard – Havas Middle East – UAE – PR Grand Prix
Unfiltered History Tour – Dentsu Webchutney – India – Design grand Prix, Radio & Audio Grand Prix, Interactive Grand Prix, Brand Experience & Activation Grand Prix, Media Grand Prix.
Samsung iTest – DDB Group Aotearoa New Zealand – New Zealand – Mobile Grand Prix, Direct Grand Prix
Portuguese (Re)Constitution – FBC Lisbon – Portugal – Education Grand Prix
Hydrogen Garbage Truck – Innocean – Republic of Korea – Healthcare Grand Prix
Shah Rukh Khan-My-Ad – Ogilvy India – India – Data Insights Grand Prix
David’s Unusables – Special – New Zealand – Social & Influencer
