AOTY HK series: Design Agency of the Year 2017

For the entirety of June, Marketing will be putting the spotlight on each of the category winners at the Agency of the Year Awards 2017 Hong Kong. A new category – including an overview of the winning agencies – will be featured every day, going from A-Z.Gold: ProphetOwned by: IndependentHeaded by: Jay Milliken, senior partnerProphet landed in the design agency category for the first time with the prestigious gold award; as well as taking out bronze at Brand Consultancy of the Year.A notable project for the agency is that it led a global rebrand for MetLife, creating a new tagline - "Navigating life together", along with a new visual identity - a blue and green stylised “M” serves as MetLife’s new logo.Prophet also helped Marriott to relaunch “Li Yu”, its Chinese outbound traveller programme, with a refreshed brand identity and a suite of new signature experiences.Believing relevance is the single greatest determining factor for a brand’s long-term success, in 2016, the firm surveyed over 10,000 consumers in China on 279 brands across 27 industries to develop its inaugural “brand relevance index” for China.This year, formerly the long-standing Asia CEO of J. Walter Thompson Tom Doctoroff joined the branding agency as senior partner.With offices in Atlanta, Berlin, Chicago, Hong Kong, London, New York, Richmond, San Francisco and Zürich, it operates as one global company, with one single global P&L structure.At the end of 2016, Prophet relocated from its former office location on Garden Road to a new, contemporary and more creative space in the heart of Causeway Bay.Silver + Local Hero: Eight PartnershipOwned by: IndependentHeaded by: Chris Fjelddahl, founder and partnerSilver and Local Hero winner Eight Partnership put its focus on ‘integrating design disciplines to create brand experiences’, a move that has paid off for the agency.In 2016, they delivered large projects all over the world, including South Korea, Japan, Mauritius, Maldives, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand - and of course, Hong Kong and China.Key clients for the agency include Blackstone, Cathay Pacific, THX, Coco-Cola, Dyson, Ocean Park and Mori Building, for which they provide strategy, product, space and communications design.Some of their work includes redesigning luxury apartments in Tokyo, rebranding and redesigning Facebook’s Seoul offices, product design for a British audio brand - and perhaps most notably, Cathay Dragon.Entering its third year with the Cathay Pacific, 2016 resulted in a massive effort to redesign Cathay Dragon’s brand experience (previously DragonAir), as well as global signage efforts, promotional state-of-the-art air-to-air footage of new planes and, launch films and in-flight safety videos, to name a few.Established in 1993 by Norwegian brothers Bjorn and Chris Fjelddahl, Eight delivers brand strategy, design and communications for companies.Bronze: ANONOwned by: IndependentHeaded by: Simon Handford / Sandy Chan, co-foundersFounded in 2013 by Ogilvy & Mather alumni Simon Handford and Sandy Chan, the agency team of 10 talents serves an impressive portfolio of clients including Hong Kong Disneyland, Vanguard Investments Hong Kong, Swire Properties and Nike Hong Kong.This relatively small but prolific team doesn’t pull any punches in offerings, including TVCs, OOH, digital, product design, packaging, collateral and brand events. In 2016, the agency scored a number of big wins, including Moet Hennessy, FOX Networks Group Asia and JP Morgan, to name a few.The most notable campaign from the ANON team in 2016 was the ‘Star Wars Takeover’ for Hong Kong Disneyland, where the agency created a range of creative collateral. For example, the print ads were accompanied by a small DIY hologram device to recreate characters from the perpetually popular franchise on your phone – an excellent fit for the space opera attraction.Bus shelters ads used directional speakers to send messages only to people standing directly beneath them to create the illusion of hearing ‘the force’, and their billboards featured villain Kylo Ren seemingly cutting through buildings using 3D perspective in the creative.Additionally, the agency organised the “Where Christmas is Made” campaign at Pacific Place late last year, setting up a beautiful display with pop-up shops, sights, smells, sounds and a professional Santa Clause.Finalist: Accenture Interactive, Greater ChinaOwned by: AccentureHeaded by: Jason Chau, Head of Accenture Interactive in Greater ChinaAccenture Interactive, a part of Accenture Digital, which, in turn, is part of Accenture, is a digital agency that envisions to create the next transformative customer experience. Through connected offerings in design, marketing, content and commerce, they have been serving both local and international giants, such as Towngas, adidas, Hong Kong Tourism Board, MTR, P&G and Philips.New clients won over the past year include Vans, Sony, Dyson, Chanel and Hennessy. Moreover, the agency puts itself as being “digital-first” with a strong focus on strategic consulting in digital services. In line with this philosophy, Accenture Interactive opened its new digital studio to provide both a place to work, and a place to showcase all the work they have been responsible for.Finalist: FimmickOwned by: IndependentHeaded by: Willy Lai, co-founder and business directorFimmick is one of Hong Kong’s own success stories, and is still on a steady curve upwards. It currently has offices in Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong. 2016 saw a number of big client wins while boasting impressive client retention numbers at the same time. Key clients includeTheir impressive portfolio includes both local and global names such as Swire, HKJC, DBS, Revlon, The Body Shop, Marks & Spencer and Microsoft.In terms of campaigns, for WeWa, the agency launched Hong Kong’s first full function credit card app with a unique instant gift redemption game – ‘We shake we win’. The campaign generated considerable increases in new customers, online applications and overshot the KPIs.Staff at Fimmick is welcomed to join the internal “Lunch with management” and “Dialogue with CEO” programmes where they can chat freely with the superiors on any interesting topics, and join numerous monthly and year-round training programmes. It also promotes a healthy work-balance in the company; a tough goal for any agency.