View the gold award winners below
One word dominated discussion within the juries at the inaugural Campaign Big Awards: fresh. Judges were charged with finding fresh ideas; fresh in their product category and their medium.
On Wednesday, 1,000 guests turned up at the Grosvenor House hotel to see that brief brought to life as Campaign united four of its existing creative awards and introduced sections for television and radio.
Campaign Press and Posters were the pioneers in this magazine's awards history. Direct and Digital were added to the mix later.
But by 2007, Campaign began to wonder if those schemes had fallen victim to the over-complexity that easily bedevils advertising awards - too many awards, too many categories split too many ways, too much emphasis on the medium over how entries were likely to work in the genuine competition of real business. And the logic of not including radio and TV or cinema began to look very flimsy.
The changes to the awards have been - so far - very well received. Campaign has created a new, multi-disciplinary competition that honours all media side-by-side. And in staging one big event each year Campaign has reduced future agency costs for entries and table bookings.
As for the work, the most important test - three TV golds from Boots, Cadbury and Skoda - proves that this was a very good year to add TV and cinema to the mix.
Carling and Lynx offered a benchmark of excellence in the digital arena, and direct, outdoor and press also produced a gold each. Only radio disappointed by not hitting the gold standard - but there's always next year.
The gold awards are reviewed below.
For a complete overview, see the Big Book where all ten golds, 55 silvers, five commendations and 122 finalists are featured and credited. Copies at £30 are available from steven.lewis@haymarket.com.
Campaign Big Awards 2008 Gold Award Winners
TV and Cinema
Skoda Fabia, Cake
TV and Cinema Gold
Boots, Here Come The Girls 
TV and Cinema Gold
Cadbury, Gorilla 
Press Gold
Harvey Nichols, Menswear 
Outdoor Gold
The National Gallery, Grand Tour
Direct Gold
Flora, John Wayne 
Digital Gold
Lynx, Get In There Mobile Tools 
Digital Gold
Carling, iPint
Feature
Big Awards 2008 - Gold winners
LONDON - This week saw the launch of the inaugural Campaign Big Awards. Here, we take a look at the gold winners in each category and discover what it was that impressed the judges.