A moment of reflection

A year of pioneering

Honours and awards from Cannes Lions, D&AD, Fast Company and the Clios.

16 January 2023

In 2022, AKQA was honoured with awards from across the world, receiving notable recognition at Cannes Lions, D&AD, Fast Company and the Clios, and named Agency of the Year at the Jammies.

AKQA was recognised at over 32 international award festivals throughout 2022, as well as being named as The Dots Best Company to Work For in 2022 for the third year in a row. This year the most awarded piece of creative work is Action Audio developed in partnership with Tennis Australia and Monash University, a world-first system for augmenting live sports with sound. Designed to give people who are visually impaired the ability to follow games in real-time, it uses data from a ball monitoring computer vision system with a 3D sound design system.

Tennis Australia – Action Audio

Tennis Australia’s Action Audio wins Fast Company’s World Changing Idea

Action Audio and Code of Conscience were celebrated for focusing on designs that are pursuing innovation for the good of society and the planet.

Along with Winner of the Best World Changing Idea in the APAC category, Action Audio also received honourable mentions in the AI and Data and Media and Entertainment categories.

Code of Conscience was recognised as a Finalist in this year’s Developing World Technology category and received an honourable mention in the Nature category.

AKQA - Code of Conscience
A person places a green sticker on the side panel of a large yellow SEM construction vehicle, numbered 638, under a clear blue sky. Trees are visible in the background.
AKQA - Code of Conscience
Netflix and Adobe - The Great Untold

Eight D&AD Awards for excellence in design

Two Yellow Pencils were given to Tennis Australia’s Action Audio, plus one Graphite for Netflix’s Tudum Remix and five Wood including for Adobe and Netflix’s The Great Untold. These have been awarded across the Digital, Film and Writing for Design categories.

The coveted Best of the Best Red Dot Award

RTL has won three prestigious Red Dot Design Awards for visual identity designed by AKQA. The distinctive and celebrated new visual identity for RTL beautifully communicates dynamism, modernity and unity. Receiving three Red Dot Awards in the Brands and Communication Design category, two Red Dot Best of the Best for RTL Brand and RTL United Typo, and the RTL Transformation - Brand Design and Identity project also won a Red Dot Award. The work was also noted at the Art Directors Club Awards.

RTL - United
RTL - United

Celebrating creativity at Cannes Lions Awards

AKQA was honoured with three Silver Lions at The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, setting the definitive global benchmark for creativity that drives progress.

Free Fire’s The Real Airdrop was awarded two Silver Lions, turning the game into a reality. Airdrops were made available all over Brazil, allowing Free Fire fans to capture virtual rewards dropped by digital planes with users’ geolocation with actual flight data. Sonho was awarded a Silver Lion, following Nego Bala’s story as a juvenile detention centre inmate as a film with the mission of inspiring others never to stop dreaming.

A person holds a smartphone displaying an airline app with a map and flight information on the screen, using their finger to interact with it. The background is blurred greenery and pavement.
Free Fire - The Real Airdrop
A person stands next to a parked car, gazing at a colorful sunset with the silhouettes of pyramids visible in the distance under a dramatic, cloud-filled sky.
Nego Bala - Sonho

34 awards across Clios, Clio Music, Clio Entertainment and Clio Sports

Our best year to date at the Clios, celebrating creativity and imagination across film, television, live entertainment, gaming, sports and music.

Clio Awards

AKQA was awarded six Clios for work that propels the advertising industry forwards and fosters meaningful connections in the creative community. Tennis Australia’s Action Audio and H&M’s Looop were awarded Silver. H&M, Netflix’s One Story Away, Beck’s Frequency and Nike’s Dance Awakening all won Bronze.

H&M - Looop

Clio Entertainment

Free Fire’s The Real Airdrop was acknowledged with the esteemed Grand Clio in the Games: Experiential and Events category. The work went on to receive two Gold and Silver awards within the Games categories for Virtual and Augmented Reality, Innovation and Special Event and Stunt.

Further recognition came with three Gold, 10 Silver and five Bronze awards for projects with Netflix, Tennis Australia, PlayStation, Epic Games Publishing, Bethesda and Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Free Fire - The Real Airdrop
Netflix – Tudum Remix

Clio Sports

A Gold Clio in the Events category was awarded to Tennis Australia’s Action Audio, celebrating the best in sports innovation around the world. Action Audio and Nike’s Runners Helping Runners also won two Silvers across the Experiential and Innovation categories.

Nike - Runners Helping Runners

Clio Music

Sonho by Nego Bala received the Grand Clio within the Music Marketing, Film and Video category. The work was also recognised with a Silver Clio for Film and Video Craft Direction.

Beck’s Frequency was also recognised, achieving a Silver Clio for Branded Entertainment & Content and Bronze Clio for Integrated Campaign. The Clio Music awards celebrate the emotional power of music to connect individuals around the world.

Nego Bala - Sonho

10 Webby Awards for excellence on the Internet

Tennis Australia’s Action Audio won the Webby Award for Diversity and Inclusion and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales - Be Yourself won the People’s Choice Award. AKQA’s work was also noted with an additional four Honourees, including World Gold Council, and four Nominees, including The (uncertain) Four Seasons and Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4.

Samsung - Galaxy Watch 4
A stylized blue tennis court is shown with white lines and a single green tennis ball near the edge casting a small shadow.
Tennis Australia - Action Audio
World Gold Council - The Golden Thread
A landscape shrouded in orange haze from heavy wildfire smoke, with trees, power lines, and fields barely visible in the thick, smoky air.
The [uncertain] Four Seasons

Recognised by Luum Awards for dedication to social responsibility

The Luum Awards is the first global festival to exclusively recognise the most outstanding creative communications dedicated to awakening social, animal rights and environmental consciousness. AKQA won two Luum Awards for Tennis Australia’s Action Audio in Sporting Values and The [uncertain] Four Seasons’ in Climate Action.

The [uncertain] Four Seasons.

Gold at the Gerety Awards

RGBlack was awarded a Gold Gerety Award in the digital category, and Nego Bala’s Sonho won Silver for cinematography. Bringing together an international jury, the best in advertising that resonates most with a female audience is selected. The Gerety Awards reward the highest standard of creative excellence in advertising and communications.

A group of twenty people pose together indoors, wearing earth-toned and brown clothing. Some are standing, while others kneel or sit on the floor. A brown curtain serves as a backdrop. The image has a warm, sepia-toned filter.
AKQA - Reframing the Greatness of Black
A child in a wizard costume stands with a dog in a living room, gazing at a TV. Colorful, magical swirls fill the room, creating an imaginative, enchanting atmosphere.
Sky - Made of Magic
A minimalistic image showing the top corners of several flat-screen monitors or panels in a row, each outlined in different colors: green, pink, blue, gray, and black, against a plain light background.
Sky - Glass

Outdoor Media Awards and The Drum OOH Awards for technology innovation

Sky has collaborated with AKQA’s pre-eminent industrial design studio Map to create Sky Glass, the world’s first carbon-neutral TV. Sky Glass won a Gold and Bronze at the Outdoor Media Awards in the Tech Innovation and Cross Format categories, respectively. Its national campaign also won at the The Drum OOH Awards.

Named Agency of the Year at the Jammies

AKQA has been acknowledged for creating far-reaching, faster and secure digital experiences, apps and websites for global clients, with an emphasis on education and the delivery of composable Jamstack solutions. Receiving such an accolade continues to build awareness of AKQA’s performance expertise and web innovation across industries. AKQA has received over 70 Agency of the Year awards since 1999.

A woman with long curly hair in a ponytail wears an orange turtleneck and wireless earbuds, dancing with her arms raised against a gradient purple and pink background.
Sennheiser - Sound Expressed in Full
Three overlapping mobile screens display a retirement planning app with congratulatory messages, savings amounts, and to-do lists, set against a purple background with illustrated clock and hot air balloon graphics.
HESTA - Addressing economic inequality

Awarded Specialist Agency of the Year by The Mumbrella Awards

AKQA New Zealand and Australia were awarded Specialist Agency of the Year for proven momentum to drive positive change through Tennis Australia’s Action Audio and HESTA. These works delivered strategic design and innovation to the industry, setting new standards across projects for accessibility and to financially empower women.

Named in the Gartner Market Guide for Global Digital Marketing Agencies

The report highlights AKQA’s strategic leadership and innovative use of technology, noting: “Its client work is focused on the design and implementation of transformative experiences, from vision and purpose to prototype, pilots and launch. In addition, AKQA offers its clients innovation as a service; the agency embeds UX design and innovation strategy experts within a client’s organisation to create new business model concepts and prototypes.”

Related Work

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Reputation

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AKQA named in the Gartner Market Guide for Global Digital Marketing Agencies 2022 ↘

Recognition

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Recognition

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