Award winners for 2015 were announced on Thursday, 7 April in Johannesburg, where executive creative director Gareth McPherson and creative group heads Brendan Hoffman and Kenneth van Reenen, received the award.

Vying against top agencies in the country, Publicis Machine’s print campaign for client Hasbro’s 'Trivial Pursuit Close but no Wedge' print advertising campaign came out tops.

Creative group head and art director, Brendan Hoffmann, says; “Essentially, we wanted to remind people about their thirst for knowledge and to show the fun element that comes with playing this iconic game. We set about creating a series of print ads that convey how easily players get the names of famous historical, sports, entertainment and other significant figures, confused. We illustrated this with styled shots of iconic personalities depicted with their names interpreted incorrectly such as Marilyn Manson-Monroe and Maradonna-Madonna, to demonstrate that answers that are close to right are not good enough for winning a game of Trivial Pursuit. Essentially, our message is that you have to be smart and informed to win a game of Trivial Pursuit,” Hoffman explains.

This the first time that the agency has scooped a top Creative Circle of the Year award, and it comes hot on the heels of two other top industry accolades earned for the teams’ Play-Doh Cookies Print campaign - a Silver in the 2015 African Crystal Awards and a Bronze Cannes Lion earned for the Outdoor campaign.

Publicis Machine is also fast earning a reputation for creating great television commercials, and its 'Bigger Picture' commercial, created for financial giant PSG, which was highly commended by media industry stalwart Jeremy Maggs, while the Sureslim Chocolate Flyer campaign won a Gold at the 2015 African Cristal Awards. Other creative work that has been recognised recently is the Singita Group’s bespoke marketing collateral that got the nod from Vanity Fair magazine when it featured on the coveted Travel page in the February 2015 edition.

Add to this a string of significant industry awards earned over the past year for work produced across multiple platforms, and it’s clear that Publicis Machine has grown from providing a specialist service in the Digital and BTL space, to delivering ATL and fully integrated campaigns, that provide its now heavy-weight clients with unique creative solutions across multiple media channels and platforms.

“It’s a huge honour to win an award of this calibre and we couldn’t be more proud,” says McPherson. “We are equally proud of our client partnership with Hasbro that has enabled our work to receive this creative recognition. As a creative agency, it’s rewarding to be recognized for delivering a high standard of creativity to our clients, and awards like these inspire our team to reach even greater heights of creativity. All credit to them for working so hard on this campaign.”

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