Triad Advertising Honored with Genius 100 Inspiration Award, Dentsu Japan Earns Gold Pivot Award and Verizon Creative Marketing Receives Gold Signal Award

New York, NY – July 19, 2021: New York Festivals International Advertising Awards® announced the award winners of three unique specialty awards launched within the 2021 competition, the Genius 100 Inspiration Award, and the New York Festivals Pivot, and Signal Awards.

Triad Advertising’s (Czech Republic) campaign “For a Safe Home” for client IKEA was honored with the inaugural 2021 Genius 100 Inspiration Award. Through partnership with local NGO’s IKEA broke the silence on the growing issue of domestic abuse and shined the spotlight on one of IKEA’s top priorities, gender equality. The award-winning entry supported IKEA’s mission to create a better life for the many.  

New York Festivals partnered with the Genius 100 Foundation to launch the Genius 100 Inspiration Award to honor outstanding purpose-driven creative work that inspires action to create impact. The Genius 100 Inspiration Award Executive Jury includes James Caan, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili and Jose Miguel Sokoloff. All proceeds from the Genius 100 Category will go to the Himalayan Cataract Project

“We are so grateful to IKEA, and the team at Triad Advertising, for creating and submitting this extremely arresting, powerful and gripping work,” states Hilarie Viener, CEO, Genius 100 Foundation. “It focuses on domestic violence which has increased exponentially during the COVID Pandemic, so much so that UN Women call it “The Shadow Pandemic”. Considering that statistically 1 in 3 women globally experienced some form of domestic violence, pre-pandemic, it is imperative that creative work like this is spotlighted to inspire action and create impact.”

“The inaugural year of the G100 Inspiration Award brought in wonderfully impactful work from all over the globe. We look forward to continuing the partnership with Genius, putting a spotlight on inspiration and helping to raise money for incredible groups effecting really change in the world.”—Scott Rose, Executive Director, New York Festivals Advertising Awards

With the world immersed in a pandemic New York Festivals unveiled two new specialty awards launched to addresses the challenges that marketers overcame during the pandemic, the Pivot Award, and the Signal. New York Festivals Executive Jury selected 2021’s Pivot Award and Signal Award winners from entries submitted from 58 countries around the globe.  

The New York Festivals Pivot Award honors work that demonstrates the most challenging, effective, creative PIVOT of a pre-pandemic plan to a new creative plan that bravely delivers ROI within this extraordinary year.

Dentsu Japan was honored with the 2021 NYF Gold Pivot Award for “Tuna Scope 2020” for client Tuna Scope and AI Tuna, the world's first AI capable of discerning tuna quality with the eye of a skilled Japanese artisan. With strict COVID-19 travel restrictions preventing staff from going abroad to purchase tuna, Kura Sushi succeeded in AI-driven remote purchasing of high-quality stock by sending the Tuna Scope app to plants overseas. Tuna Scope caused a major stir around the world as a digital transformation of quality judgment and a solution for overcoming the impact of the pandemic.

"It's a great honor to receive this award as we overcame many challenges during the pandemic for this job.I think the bigger the challenge, the more important it is to have creativity. The award encourages me to keep challenging to contribute to a better society and a better future with the power of ideas." said Kazuhiro, Group Creative Director, Dentsu Inc.

Stendahis’ “The Isolated Cinema” for Göteborg Film Festival was recognized with the Silver Pivot Award. In a year plagued by a pandemic and the closing of theaters, the festival’s theme was Social Distances. The Göteborg Film Festival challenged the world to apply for the only festival pass available, at The Isolated Cinema at the far end of the sea in one of Sweden’s most barren, windswept, and exposed places – Pater Noster.

Dentsu One Manila’s campaign “Ginebra Frontliner Labels for Ginebra San Miguel earned the Bronze Pivot Award. When a nationwide lockdown and liquor ban were enforced during COVID, popular liquor brand Ginebra San Miguel halted production. To remain in the public eye the brand released reimagined commemorative labels saluting the heroic frontline workers who kept the Philippine economy afloat.

2020 was a challenging year with unprecedented issues. NYF launched the Signal Award to honor brave campaigns that cut through the noise with the strongest signal addressing issues faced during the year.

Verizon Creative Marketing was honored with the 2021 Gold Signal Award for “The Met Unframed” for Verizon. During COVID The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was forced to close for the first time in over 100 years. Verizon partnered with the museum to reopen its doors virtually by bringing The Met to everyone.  Over 30,000 sq. ft. of museum space was rendered into 13 never-before-seen galleries with 46 interactive works of art, providing visitors with a 360-degree experience and the incredible feeling of being inside The Met. Together, Verizon and The Met built a first-of-its-kind art museum, supercharged it with 5G, and redefined what it means to visit a cultural institution in the 21st century.

“Through the use of art and technology, we hope we were able to bring a little bit of light into a dark year we'd probably all rather forget. To win the gold Signal award is really a tremendous honor for us and our friends at The Met and Unit 9.”—Marc Sobier, Executive Creative Director, Verizon

Wunderman Thompson Italy’s “Social Distancing Whopper” for Burger King Italy earned the Silver Signal Award. The campaign introduced the “Social Distancing Whopper” with 3 times the onions. This outside of the box communication and action gave people an "alternative" solution for keeping people at their distance during the social distance mandate, onion breath.

Bronze Signal Award winner Wunderman Thompson Singapore’s “Born This Way” is part of a broader global Lux campaign. The campaign was launched to inspire 50 million women by 2025 using content, partnerships, and activations to help them rise above everyday sexist judgements and express their beauty and femininity unapologetically. The winning campaign captured global attention and raised massive support for Caster Semenya’s right to compete in the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

To view all the 2021 New York Festivals Advertising Awards winners please visit: 2021 Winners.

About New York Festivals:  New York Festivals® Celebrating the World’s Best Work since 1957

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About the Genius 100 Foundation
Genius 100, referred to as G100, was born out of the centennial celebration of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (2016). To honor this landmark occasion, 100 of the world’s greatest minds were researched, selected, and nominated to contribute their vision of the future to the publishing of the first 3D book” Genius: 100 Visions of the Future.”  Founded in Toronto in 2017, with a global footprint, Genius 100 Foundation is an active and engaged community of exceptionally imaginative and impactful human beings. The Genius 100 Visionaries are comprised of an extraordinary group of 100 globally recognized, accomplished, compassionate minds. The Genius 100 Foundation brings together Visionaries, philanthropic impact investors and its extended global community, collectively and in collaboration, to re-imagine the future – implement creative initiatives to improve our world - raise the bar on what is achievable and make the impossible - possible.

The Genius G100 Foundation Mission
We leverage the knowledge and resources of the G100 community to support impactful humanitarian and environmental initiatives through collaboration and funding structure.
Genius 100 Foundation is a registered Charity in Canada and 501c3 US

About Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP):

The Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP) is committed to eradicating unnecessary blindness with the highest quality care at low cost. Globally, 36 million people suffer from blindness –half from treatable cataracts. HCP provides critical eye care services, training for ophthalmic professionals, and enhanced eye care infrastructure where they are needed most. The organization and its global partners have screened over 12 million people, trained 18,000 eye care professionals from 43 countries, and performed more than one million sight-restoring surgeries, a life-changing procedure that can be completed in less than 10 minutes.

Contact New York Festivals: Gayle.Mandel@NewYorkFestivals.com