Midas Awards Announces 2011 Winners; Publicis and The Martin Agency Earn Grand Midas Awards

New York, NY (PRWEB) December 21, 2011

The Midas Awards® announced the winners of their 2011 competition for the World's Best Financial Marketing & Advertising™. Founded in 2001, the Midas Awards is the only competition that recognizes excellence in financial services communications on a global scale, and honors advertising in banking, brokerage, insurance, mutual funds, and credit, in addition to real estate, accounting, and consulting. This year the competition received entries from 31 countries around the world. The Midas Grand Jury awarded two Grand Midas Awards, 22 Gold Ingots, 41 Silver Ingots, and 63 Finalists.

Publicis New York earned the Grand Midas Award in Products & Services/Moving Image category for the “Stephen Wiltshire Film” for client UBS. The award-winning entry features British artist Stephen Wiltshire creating a detailed panoramic drawing of New York from memory. The film was part of “UBS's new brand campaign "We Will Not Rest.” The project represents commitment, service, and attention to detail, an analogy of how the Swiss bank UBS approaches finance. Creative Credits include: Rob Feakins, Chief Creative Officer; Jay Williams, Executive Vice President/Executive Creative Director; Haj Ando, Art Director; and Jason Savage, Writer.

“Winning the Grand Midas – in a global show featuring the best financial services work in the world - is a tremendous honor for our team. UBS and Publicis have a long and successful relationship together. The trust, understanding and shared commitment to excellence we’ve developed helped bring this project to life. Jason Savage, Haj Ando and Tim Bierbaum deserve kudos for thinking beyond the constraints of the original assignment and turning it into the broader, richer experience that the Wiltshire project became. And, of course, the amazing, gifted and endlessly inspirational Stephen Wiltshire - who truly made this all possible.” - Jay Williams, Executive Vice President/Executive Creative Director, Publicis NY

The Martin Agency of Richmond, Virginia earned a Grand Midas Award in Mixed Media for their “freecreditscore.com Band Search.” FreeCreditScore.com wanted to find a new band and to enlist consumers to help, the strategy was to use young, unsigned bands and their fans to spread FreeCreditScore.com’s message. The bands performed information rich songs, which increased exposure of the freecredit.com brand. Creative Credits include: Mark Hriciga, Vice President Advertising & User Experience; Marcy Smith, Vice President Marketing; Steve Sage, Vice President Creative Director; Dave Muhlenfeld, Associate Creative Director; and JP Bovie, Art Director.

41? 29! of Istanbul was the most awarded agency in the 2011 Midas awards, earning three Gold Ingots, four Silvers Ingots and two Finalist Certificates. “Garanti Mayormatik” earned two Gold Ingots, one for Social Media and the other for Place-Based Media for client Garanti Bank. The agency also garnered a Gold Ingot for “Akbank Build & Manage” in Social Media for client Akbank. The entry also earned four Silver Ingots in the following categories: Art Direction; Banking; Illustration; and Navigation. In addition, the agency received two Finalist Certificates in Animation and Design.

U.S. agencies earned five Gold Ingots: Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners New York earned two Gold Ingots in Financial Planning for “Vanguard at the Movies – Drama” and “Vanguard at the Movies - Cinema Campaign” for client The Vanguard Group Inc.; Leo Burnett Chicago garnered a Gold Ingot for “Accidental Investing” for client Invesco; Publicis New York was recognized with a Gold Ingot for “Stephen Wiltshire Billboard” for client UBS; and Venables Bell & Partners San Francisco earned a Gold Ingot for “Obvious” for client Russell Investments.

Australian agencies were honored with four Gold Ingots: The White Agency Ultimo earned three Gold Ingots for “The Commonwealth Bank Property Guide” for client The Commonwealth Bank of Australia; and BMF Advertising Sydney earned a Gold Ingot for “18” for Commonwealth Bank.

The following agencies were recognized with Gold Ingots in the 2011 Midas Awards for their outstanding work: Rahofer Werbeagentur Salzberg earned a Gold Ingot for “We Saved Wherever We Could” for client Palfinger AG; Fred & Farid Paris was awarded a Gold Ingot for “Team Spirit” for client Société Générale; Burda Creative Group GmbH/BurdaYukom Publishing Munich was honored with a Gold Ingot for “Five” for client SAP AG; JWT Mumbai earned a Gold Ingot for “Short Cut Or Dead End?” for client Birla Sun Life Insurance; McCann Erickson Japan received two Gold Ingots for “PricelessMaker” for client MasterCard Worldwide; King James Cape Town was recognized with a Gold Ingot for “The Real McCoy” for client Santam; and Tribal DDB Colombia earned a Gold Ingot for “Creditos Bancolombia” for client Bancolombia.

The Midas Jury is comprised of client and agency leaders from the creative and marketing disciplines, as well as internationally recognized experts in financial policy and communications. The jury panel, representing 13 countries, awards Gold and Silver Midas Ingots to the highest scoring entries in each category. The Grand Midas Award is recognized as the “Best of Show” by the Board of Judges and Advisors.

All winning entries are featured at: http://www.midasawards.com

All press inquiries should be directed to Gayle Mandel: gmandel(at)internationalawardsgroup(dot)com. Ph: 1 212 643 4800

About International Awards GroupFinancial Services Communications; The Global Awards for Healthcare Communications; NYF Advertising Awards; NYF Television & Film Awards; and NYF Radio Programs & Promotions. Entries to each of the competitions are judged around the world by panels of peers in their respective industries. For more information, go to http://www.newyorkfestivals.com.

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