Ogilvy Singapore, Dentsu Tokyo and Leo Australia among top performers on Night One of ADFEST
Tonight has seen ADFEST 2026 award the first of two presentations of Lotus Awards to the elected winners in 12 categories, including Brand Experience, Commerce, Digital & Social, Direct, Digital Craft, Media, PR, Print & Outdoor Craft, Entertainment, Design Lotus, New Director (Inc. Fabulous Five) and Film Craft Lotus.
The awards were presented at PEACH, Royal Cliff Hotels Group in Pattaya, Thailand. The second ceremony will take place tomorrow night on the final day of ADFEST 2026.
A total of 1405 entries were received for the 2026 Lotus Awards, down from 1,641 in 2025. Despite this, entries increased from last year in five awards categories, including Digital Craft, Direct, INNOVA, Lotus Roots and Outdoor Lotus.
56 jury members from 17 cities were organized into 7 groups, chaired by Yasuharu Sasaki, Global Chief Creative Officer for dentsu, Tokyo to decide the winners of the ADFEST 2026 Lotus Awards.
JURY INSIGHTS: DIGITAL & SOCIAL LOTUS / DIGITAL CRAFT LOTUS
Jury President for Digital & Social and Digital Craft Lotus was Theresa Ong, Head of Creative Shop, SEA & India for Meta, Singapore.
She summarized the experience of judging the categories by saying, “As Jury President for the Digital and Social categories, our panel was guided by a single, powerful lens: ‘Human+’. We were searching for work where technology wasn’t the idea itself, but the instrument used to amplify empathy, imagination, and connection.”
DIGITAL & SOCIAL LOTUS AWARD
For the Digital and Social Lotus category, 108 pieces of work were entered. From the entries, juries gave out 11 Bronze and 5 Silver and one Grande award.
The Grande for Digital and Social Lotus was awarded to Ogilvy Singapore, Singapore for Vaseline, “Vaseline Verified”.
Said Theresa Ong, Jury President for Digital & Social Lotus, “What excited us in this category was seeing brands finally stop treating social media as just a distribution channel. The best work understood that community is now a creative partner. We saw a massive shift from passive broadcasting to active, authentic conversation.”
Our Grande winner, ‘Vaseline Verified,’ is the ultimate example of this. Instead of ignoring the viral Vaseline hacks happening on TikTok, the brand stepped in with authority and empathy. They used the platform’s native ‘stitch’ feature to test and verify these hacks, adding genuine value to the conversation. It was smart, seamless and proved that the best social campaigns don’t feel like advertising -they feel like a helpful part of the feed.”
DIGITAL CRAFT LOTUS
The Digital Craft Lotus category received 28 entries this year, up 17% on last year’s tally. The jury awarded 3 Bronze, 2 Silver and 2 Gold. There was no Grande awarded for Digital Craft this year.
Theresa Ong, Jury President for Digital Craft Lotus explained, “What moved us was the redefinition of craft itself. It’s no longer just about beautiful pixels. Today, digital craft is about the invisible architecture—how flawlessly you can weave complex data and AI together to create a frictionless, deeply human experience.“
The two Gold awards were presented to:
• BBDO Guerrero, Manila for Mountain Dew, “Play the Dew”
• Leo Australia, Sydney for SUNCORP Insurance, “Haven”
Theresa Ong said, “Our first Gold winner, Mountain Dew’s ‘Play the Dew,’ shows a different kind of social genius. They took their simplest asset—the sound of their name—and turned it into an entire gaming soundscape. This is craft at its most playful and innovative. By creating a voice-activated TikTok game filter, they didn’t just join the gaming world; they created a new way to play within it. It was a brilliantly simple idea that turned a brand name into a platform for human fun and interaction.”
“’Suncorp Haven’ is our second Gold winner”, explained Theresa. “This platform is a masterclass in using complex technology to deliver profound human comfort. Suncorp took massive amounts of data—live APIs, climate research, and property data for 11 million homes—and crafted it into a personalized risk assessment for every single homeowner. They didn’t just show people terrifying data; they gave them an actionable plan to protect their families. Suncorp Haven won because it made invisible data visible, actionable, and deeply empathetic. It used the highest level of technological craft to literally build a safe haven for humanity.”
Theresa Ong concluded, “The three winning campaigns in Digital & Social and Digital Craft – Vaseline being helpful, Mountain Dew being playful, and Suncorp being protective – all prove our ‘Human+’ philosophy. They show that the most award-worthy digital work uses technology not to replace us, but to engage, protect, and amplify what makes us uniquely human.”
JURY INSIGHTS: PRINT & OUTDOOR CRAFT LOTUS / DESIGN LOTUS
Geet Rathi, Founder & Creative Director for Openfield, Mumbai was the Jury President for Design Lotus and Print & Outdoor Craft.
Overall, she explained what stood out in. both categories, “In Print & Outdoor Craft, what stood out was the attention to detail. You could see a deep respect for the medium — materials, typography, finishes. The strongest work communicated instantly, yet still carried depth. Impact was balanced with simplicity.”
“In Design, what excited me was the clarity of thinking. The best work was visually strong it had a clear point of view and purpose behind it. Additionally, there was a sense of restraint, where every element felt intentional.”
PRINT & OUTDOOR CRAFT LOTUS AWARD
There were 34 Print and Outdoor Craft Lotus entries in total this year. Out of those, 3 Bronze, 1 Silver, 2 Gold awards and 1 Grande were given out.
The Grande was received by Dentsu Inc., Tokyo for its work for Nikka Whisky, “No Labels”.
Geet Rathi, Founder & Creative Director for Openfield, Mumbai was Jury President for Print & Outdoor Craft Lotus.
She explained the jury’s decision, “The Grande winner in Print & Outdoor Craft was selected for its meticulous effort and discipline. Every detail felt resolved from material to typography. It elevated the idea through execution. The winner stood out for its simplicity and impact. It communicated instantly but stayed with you. That balance is not easy to achieve.”
The two Gold awards for Print & Outdoor Lotus were presented to:
• Ogilvy Shanghai, Shanghai for Viatris, “Make Love Last” and
• Shiseido Creative, Tokyo for Shiseido, “Traces of Trance’
DESIGN LOTUS AWARD
93 entries were received for the Design Lotus award and out of these, the jury awarded 9 Bronze, 3 Silver and 3 Gold. There was no Grande awarded for Design this year.
Two of the Gold awards in Design were accepted by Dentsu Inc., Tokyo for its work on Nikka Whisky, “No Labels in two sub-categories
The third Gold was won by Shiseido Creative, Tokyo for Ogi-Miso, “Best after 2055”
Geet Rathi, Founder & Creative Director for Openfield, Mumbai was Jury President for Design Lotus.
She explained, “The winning works stood out for their clarity and conviction. They weren’t trying to do too much and knew exactly what to communicate and executed that with precision. There was a strong alignment between idea and execution.”
BRAND EXPERIENCE LOTUS / COMMERCE LOTUS / DIRECT LOTUS
Jim Ingram, Co-Founder & Group Chief Creative for Thinkerbell, Australia resided over the jury for Brand Experience, Commerce and Direct Lotus awards.
He summarized the judging experience for all three categories, “We judged Brand Experience, Commerce and Direct. Combining these disciplines helped us overall: we looked for work that had the core of the brand at the heart of the idea, helped sell actual products or services, and involved the customer in some way.“
BRAND EXPERIENCE LOTUS AWARD
There were 139 entries for the Brand Experience Lotus category. The jury for this category also awarded 5 Bronze, 4 Silver and 1 Gold awards. There was no Grande awarded for the Brand Experience category.
The Gold award was given to:
• Leo Australia, Sydney for its work on SUNCORP Insurance, “Haven”
Jim Ingram, Co-Founder & Group Chief Creative for Thinkerbell, Australia was Jury President for Brand Experience Lotus awards explained, “The best work in Brand Experience created a tangible, connected experience for consumers that was two-way, and immersive, creating a richer experience than just a simple one-way communication.”
“SUNHAVEN Insurance “Haven” won Gold for delivering a near seamless experience that uses data, AI and automated tech to create a personality for your house. Creating an idea for an insurance brand that can make you feel responsible for bricks and mortar, whilst encouraging you to change your behaviour towards mundane things like cleaning your gutters and updating your smoke alarms is utter genius. If you haven’t played with the platform, I encourage you to look at the demo video at ADFEST.”
COMMERCE LOTUS AWARD
For the Commerce Lotus category, 24 pieces of work were entered. The Jury awarded 1 Bronze, 1 Silver and a Gold award. No Grande award was given in this category.
The Gold award was picked up by:
• Ogilvy Singapore, Singapore for its work on Vaseline, “Vaseline Verified”
Jim Ingram, Co-Founder & Group Chief Creative for Thinkerbell, Australia was Jury President for Commerce Lotus awards said, “Surprisingly, Commerce had fewer entries than expected, because almost all our work should trigger a commercial outcome. The best work here was just as clever as it was effective in driving sales results.”
“Vaseline Verified won Gold and this is certainly a “wish we’d done that” type of idea. A huge idea that effortlessly converts ‘influencers’ into ‘advertisers’. It creates scale, relevance and direct commercial uplift via a platform that a huge proportion of the ‘ad industry’ has struggled to know what to do with. We loved it.”
DIRECT LOTUS AWARD
Out of 83 entries for Direct Lotus this year, the juries awarded 4 Bronze, 2 Silver and 3 Gold. There was no Grande announced for Direct Lotus.
Two Gold awards were presented to Leo Australia, Sydney for its work on SUNCORP Insurance, “Haven” in two sub-categories.
The third Gold award was accepted by Ogilvy Singapore, Singapore for its work for Vaseline, “Vaseline Verified”.
Jim Ingram, Co-Founder & Group Chief Creative for Thinkerbell, Australia was Jury President for Direct Lotus awards concluded, “The best work in Direct was super targeted, with an identified audience that was then engaged in a highly creative way.”
JURY INSIGHTS: MEDIA LOTUS / PR LOTUS / ENTERTAINMENT LOTUS
Jury President for Entertainment, Media and PR was Julie Jihyun Kang, CEO, Serviceplan Korea and Founder & CEO, Flux Al Asia from Seoul. She gave her view of her experiences when judging at ADFEST this year.
“If I had to summarize ADFEST 2026 in one sentence, it is this: Brands are no longer interrupting’ our lives; they are becoming part of our culture. We saw three major shifts:
• The Gaming Takeover: Gaming is no longer a sub-culture. Brands are now ‘all-in,’ moving from simple logos to becoming true members of the gaming community.
• Human-First Tech: We moved past ‘tech for tech’s sake.’ The winning work used AI and data not to look cool, but to solve real human problems and unlock new social possibilities.
• Giving up Control: Brands are finally learning to ‘let go.’ By letting creators and platforms speak in their own voice, brands achieved a level of authenticity we haven’t seen before. This year’s works showed the end of polished perfection and how brands are learning to let go.”
“Finally, what makes ADFEST special is the Magic of Asian Creativity. When we fuse deep-rooted traditions with modern technology, we create something the rest of the world cannot copy. That is where the magic hits differently”, concluded Julie Jihyun Kang.
MEDIA LOTUS AWARD
The Media Lotus received 91 entries, this year. Out of those, juries awarded 7 Bronze, 6 Silver, and 1 Gold awards. There was no Grande award for the Media category.
The Gold award was won by DMINUSONE, Seoul for its work on CHOROGUSAN For Children, “The Life-Saving Receipt”.
Julie Jihyun Kang, CEO, Serviceplan Korea and Founder & CEO, Flux Al Asia from Seoul was Jury President for Media Lotus. She summarized, “In Media, we saw a shift from ‘media execution’ to ‘media thinking’. The most exciting work redefined the role of media by turning everyday behaviors and user voices into functional communication systems. They reached people at the exact moment when the message became meaningful.”
“’Chorogusan, THE LIFE-SAVING RECEIPT’ was the Gold winner for Media Lotus. It was ‘Media Precision with a Heart’. This campaign represents media thinking and precision at its absolute finest. By transforming a mundane grocery receipt into a targeted health tool for migrant families, it reached people at the exact moment the message mattered most—specifically when they were purchasing childcare products. This strategic intervention achieved a massive impact, leading 72% of previously unvaccinated children to receive their vaccinations. Ultimately, it stands as the perfect example of how data, when used with heart, can be harnessed as a social safety net to save lives.”
PR LOTUS AWARD
There were 64 entries for the PR Lotus category. The jury for this category also awarded 4 Bronze, 5 Silver and 2 Gold awards.
The Grande award in the PR category was awarded to BLKJ Havas, Singapore for Haraku Ramen, “One Noodle”. This work also won a Gold award.
The second Gold award was presented to Ogilvy Singapore, Singapore for its work on Vaseline, “Vaseline Verified”.
Julie Jihyun Kang, CEO, Serviceplan Korea and Founder & CEO, Flux Al Asia from Seoul was Jury President for PR Lotus.
The trend in PR was “From Polish to Talkability- The Humility to Relinquish Control”. Explained Julie, “In PR, we were deeply impressed by a new level of brand humility. The most exciting trend wasn’t just ‘doing’ things; it was the courage to relinquish creative control to earn real ‘talkability’. The strongest winners were not overly polished brand messages dropped from above; they were ideas built to belong inside existing fan ecosystems.”
“We saw brands stop acting like ‘owners’ of the conversation and start acting like ‘members’ of the community, blending in to truly earn the hearts of their audience.”
“The PR Grande Winner was ‘Haraku Ramen “ONE NOODLE”:’ Instead of a traditional PR campaign, the brand used a 3.5-meter long noodle to solve a real-world dilemma for gamers. This is product innovation acting as the ultimate PR engine—addressing community behavior so deeply that the brand didn’t need a script; the community did the talking for them
ENTERTAINMENT LOTUS AWARD
This year, there were 105 entries in the Entertainment Lotus category. There were 8 Bronze, 7 Silver and 3 Gold Lotus awards given out. There was no Grande award for Entertainment Lotus.
The 3 Gold Awards were accepted by:
• TBWA\Media Arts Lab Tokyo, Tokyo for iPhone, “Shot on iPhone – Last Scene”
• Six Inc., Tokyo/Hakuhodo Inc., Tokyo for PlayStation, “Project: Memory Card” and
• DDB Mudra Group, Mumbai for Battlegrounds Mobile India, “The Great In-Game Wedding”
Julie Jihyun Kang, CEO, Serviceplan Korea and Founder & CEO, Flux Al Asia from Seoul was Jury President for Entertainment Lotus.
She saw that the overarching trend for Entertainment was the work was creating “Cultural Assets, Not Advertisements” “Story-Living in Ecosystems”.
“The fundamental question in our Jury room was: ‘Would people watch this if the brand didn’t pay for it?’. We were thrilled to see work that felt like a ‘dream come true’ for fans, where brands moved from being simple sponsors to becoming true co-creators of culture.
Entertainment has evolved from storytelling to ‘story-living.’ Brands are no longer outsiders looking in; they are bravely entering existing fan ecosystems—like gaming and social communities—to create dream-scenarios that fans actually want to live through and share.”
All the Gold winners reflected this trend, but especially Battleground Mobile India’s “The Great In-Game Wedding”. Julie explained, “Turning a Battleground into a Bond, this work used India’s most powerful cultural code – marriage – to break the stigma around gaming. It proved that games are not just about violence; they are platforms where real human relationships are born.”
JURY INSIGHTS: NEW DIRECTOR LOTUS / FILM CRAFT LOTUS
Jury President for New Director and Film Craft Lotus was Michael Ahmadzadeh, Partner & Executive Producer of electriclimeº, APAC & MENA.
Michael identified two main takeaways from the work judged at ADFEST 2026 for New Director and Film Craft.
“Firstly, the level of work from year to year is getting better and better across the region, which was great to see and sparked a lot of interesting debates and inspiring conversations,” he said.
“Secondly, Asia is no longer following Europe and the US — it is defining its own voice, shaped by the work we’re seeing now.”
NEW DIRECTOR LOTUS AWARD (INCL. FABULOUS FIVE)
From 7 entries, there was 1 Gold and a Grande awarded in this category.
The Gold and Grande awards were won by separate agencies for the same client, The Kancil Awards and Creative Festival.
The Grande award was won by:
• Denhouse Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur for The Kancil Awards and Creative Festival, “Kapal Kertas”
Michael Ahmadzadeh, Partner & Executive Producer of electriclimeº, APAC & MENA was Jury President for New Director Lotus, expanded on the jury’s decision to award the Grande. “It was a bold topic. The writer-director addressed the challenges for under-age girls forced into marriage in smaller rural communities and created a beautiful, poetic film with subtle messages throughout. Throughout the story, the girl’s messages start to change to reflect the influence from family, community and the male she has to marry, almost normalizing what happens in the execution. It really stood out.”
The Gold award was won by:
• Graph Studio Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur for The Kancil Awards and Creative Festival, “Talk to Me 2025”
FILM CRAFT LOTUS AWARD
Film Craft had a tally of 118 entries in total this year. The Jury awarded 11 Bronze, 9 Silver and 8 Gold awards.
The Grande award was awarded to Studio Eeksaurus Productions, Mumbai for its work on Centre for Pastoralism, “Desi Oon”. This work also won 2 Gold awards in the Film Craft category.
Michael Ahmadzadeh, Partner & Executive Producer of electriclimeº, APAC & MENA was Jury President for Film Craft Lotus explained this work was awarded top metal.
“The film was telling universal, beautiful and well-crafted stories about how wool impacts the community and daily life. We were just amazed by the level of craft at a human level that used skill, time and dedication. For me and the rest of the jury, the work was exceptional.”
Fundamental, Mumbai won 2 Gold awards for WhatsApp, “WhatsApp Baatan Hi Baatan Mein (Love in a Few Words)”
The other 4 Gold awards went to:
• Denhouse Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur for The Kancil Awards and Creative Festival, “Kapal Kertas”
• Ducktape Studios, Mumbai for Steadfast Stationery, “Steadfast – Dirty Money”
• ALT.VFX, Brisbane for Allianz, “Flight of the Finch” and
• Hakuhodo Gravity Inc., Tokyo for Ships, “Craftman.Ships”
FABULOUS FIVE
ADFEST’s ‘Fabulous Five’ program is one of the world’s most respected platforms for kick-starting the careers of commercial directors. Five directors with less than two years’ experience were invited to direct 5-minute short films inspired by the theme of ADFEST 2026, “Human+”.
Congratulations to Ariyaporn Boondeepathum, Director, from And Friends Studio Co., Ltd., Bangkok who was awarded a Commendation for his short film for ADFEST 2026, called “Human Mode”.
The other Fabulous Five finalists were:
• Irvine Prisilia, Assistant Director from TJT Creative Lab, Jakarta
• Karin Nogami, Director from Tohokushinsha Film Corporation, Tokyo
• Lisa Aoki, Director from Tohokushinsha Film Corporation, Tokyo
• Nagi Tajima, Director from FIELD MANAGEMENT EXPAND Inc, Tokyo
Follow all the latest news and events via #ADFEST2026 #HumanPlus on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and TikTok. To view the full program, visit www.ADFEST.com.