Last week I attended the Fresh Awards in Manchester. Fresh are an independent body rewarding creativity and innovation in the UK. The awards are regarded as an important highlight in the creative industry calendar.
My reasons for attending were a little self-motivated as midland ad agency Cogent Elliott had entered amongst a collection of their best work, two of my films. “Aga and I” a brand advocacy film for AGA Cookers and “Sento” a spoof Japanese game show challenge for Subaru Motors. Fresh gave nominations to “AGA and I” for Online Film and “Sento” for Online Film Campaign.
Apart from attending to see if my work would pick up prizes, Fresh ran a 3 day event called #Freshtival. I could only attend the Friday, but I witnessed great talks by advertising pros like Stephen Hunter, Vince McSweeney, The Bank of Creativity, Tim and James and Pitch on the future of the advertising industry; all covering inspiring and innovative topics.
A Freshtival ticket also got you a Poken, a device designed to break the ice and digitally exchange your social profile when networking with fellow delegates. Just “hi-five” your Pokens, then sync with your account to view contacts you made.
Then after having a snoop around BBC’s new media city and The Lowry favourites exhibition I suited up and scooted over to the Manchester United football ground where the awards ceremony was held.
Fresh put on a great show and the awards were very well attended. Guests tucked into fish and chips followed by bread and butter pudding. There were lots of awards with the usual posing on stage for gold winners. The Online film category was a tough one, up against 8 nominations with entries from The Gate films and The Leith Agency both taking gold.
Both Aga and Subaru films collected Silvers and although I didn’t get to walk up and receive the awards with the chaps from Cogent Elliott, we did collar the nice lady from Fluke Photography to take one for the album!
This is the first time my work has been nominated for any kind of award let alone picked up prizes and I’m really grateful to the people who took the time to think it was worthwhile!
Update. Subaru Sento also picked up a Silver at Cream Midlands in Viral Marketing.
If you’re interested in the other winners take a look here.
Thanks to FlukePhotography for the fresh snaps!
