2012 RADs: top prize goes to Penna; five awards for andsome

At the 2012 RAD Awards, held as usual in the Great Room of London’s Grosvenor House on the evening of Thursday 19th January, Penna won best work of the year for its client KPMG, while andsome bagged the biggest haul of the night with five category awards.

Penna’s top award was for KPMG’s ‘immersive assessment’ event (which also won in the innovation category).  Making use of the latest video-game animation and rendering techniques, this digitally-created virtual office environment enabled candidates to undertake job simulation exercises.  At the same time, sophisticated back-end functionality scored candidates directly against specific competencies as well as recording all results and data, thus helping to ensure that the best candidates were selected.  (Judges’ comments included “admirable in its efforts, experience and results”, “demonstrating a true client-agency partnership” and “so much went into this to get it right”.)

In terms of category awards, it was a case of ‘’andsome is as andsome does’, with the London-based agency picking up no less than five high-profile awards – three for Zizzi, in the best campaign, campaign site and digital marketing sections, plus two for ITV, for best emerging talent campaign and use of social media.

SMRS and ThirtyThree joined Penna in picking up a brace of category awards, as did the combined forces of PeoplePeople and Work Comms.  That left five further agencies claiming one award apiece – aia worldwide, McCann Birmingham, McQueen, TMP Worldwide and Wave.

The event was introduced by RBI director Peter Kumposcht, who maintained that attracting the very best talent would be key to success in 2012.  He also noted that entries were up on last year, while more people than ever were present at the awards ceremony – confirming its status as the recruitment industry’s premier event.

The awards were presented by the ever entertaining Sean Lock, assisted by Sky Sports presenter Millie Clode.  The full list of winners, in order of presentation, is as follows:

Campaign site – andsome (Zizzi)
Print ad (commercial) – McCann Birmingham (McCann Birmingham)
A/V/broadcast – TMP Worldwide (Jaguar Land Rover)
Digital marketing – andsome (Zizzi)
Ambient/outdoor – PeoplePeople/Work Comms (George/Graduate Fashion Week)
Print ad (public) – Penna (Hampshire Fire and Rescue)
Emerging talent campaign* – andsome (ITV)
Graduate campaign – McQueen (Grant Thornton)
Recruitment literature – SMRS (adidas)
Campaign – andsome (Zizzi)
International campaign* – aia worldwide (Linklaters)
Use of mobile* – Wave (YHA)
Employer brand* – PeoplePeople/Work Comms (ASDA)
Employer website (< £50K) – ThirtyThree (ITV)
Use of social media – andsome (ITV)
Innovation – Penna (KPMG)
Employee comms – ThirtyThree (National Trust)
Employer website (> £50K) – SMRS (Sky)
Work of the year (selected from all the category winners) – Penna (KPMG).

(* new for 2012)

●  All the winning entries can be viewed on Ri5 next Tuesday (24th January), along with pictures of the event and related editorial content.

Friday, 20 January 2012
2012 RADs: top prize goes to Penna; five awards for andsome