4Creative awarded prestigious Black Pencil and four Yellow Pencils

14 June 2013

4Creative, Channel 4’s in-house creative agency, took home a Black Pencil at the annual D&AD awards last night – and on top of winning this widely regarded award for creative excellence across the world, 4Creative were also awarded an impressive total of four highly coveted Yellow Pencils.

The critically acclaimed film ‘Meet the Superhumans’ won 4Creative the most prestigious award in the global creative industry, the Black Pencil (one of four awarded globally), in the category of TV & Cinema Communications within TV Promotions & Programme Junctions.

The 90 second multi-award winning film showcased the abilities of some of the leading UK Paralympians, representing the unique stories behind the elite athletes, and showed the herculean efforts that went into their preparation for the Games. The campaign was set to the track, Harder Than You Think by hip hop legends Public Enemy and helped to deliver Channel 4’s commitment to bring a new audience to the Paralympic Games and to raise awareness of Paralympic sport.

Tim Lindsay, CEO of D&AD said: “…for me the stand-out work in a stand-out year of celebrating what for many were the best British events in living memory was 4Creative’s ‘Meet the Superhumans’. It’s gorgeously shot and edited and the music is fantastic… It’s one of those ‘wouldn’t change a frame’ commercials that comes along once every ten years.”

Three Yellow Pencils were awarded within the Film Advertising Crafts category for ‘Meet the Superhumans’ (Editing for Film Advertising, Direction for Film Advertising and Use of Music for Film Advertising) – and a fourth Yellow Pencil was awarded for new channel 4Seven’s innovative idents (Special Effects for Film Advertising).

4Creative’s work was further recognised by being selected to appear in the D&AD Annual which celebrates the year’s most outstanding creative work from around the globe – campaigns include: promotion of Channel 4’s Funny Fortnight, a season of classic and brand new comedy (TV & Cinema Communications/ TV Promotions & Programme Junctions), digital channel More4’s rebrand and 4Seven’s idents (TV & Cinema Communications/ Channel Branding & Identity), as well as ‘Meet the Superhumans’ (Crafts for Advertising / Photography for Advertising).

Nominations were also received for 4Seven (Branding / Brand Expression in Moving Image), ‘Meet the Superhumans’ (TV & Cinema Advertising / TV Commercials 61-120 seconds) and ‘Thanks For The Warm Up’ (Writing for Advertising / Writing for Press & Poster Advertising) - which appeared in a national poster campaign as well as national newspapers.

Channel 4 received special recognition in the form of a brand new Pencil as one of the top three Most Awarded Clients.

Chris Bovill and John Allison, Heads of 4Creative said: "Five Pencils including the elusive Black Pencil – we're suitably chuffed and very proud of everyone at 4Creative."

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Notes to Editors

About 4Creative

4Creative is Channel 4’s multi-award winning creative agency and was recently named Creative Review’s Ad Agency of the Year.

Headed up by Chris Bovill and John Allison, 4Creative acts as both creative agency and production company across all advertising output for Channel 4 and its family of brands.

In 2012, 4Creative were responsible for the multi-award winning Paralympics campaign ‘Meet the Superhumans’. The 90 second film celebrated the herculean efforts of Paralympians, capturing their grit and determination intercut with an insight into their back-stories – set to the epic Public Enemy track, ‘Harder Than You Think’. The film received widespread praise and 4Creative collected multiple Gold Awards at Creative Circle and British Arrows where the ad was awarded ‘commercial of the year’ and it was Campaign magazine’s Campaign of the Year in 2012. It was also voted one of TED’s Ads Worth Spreading.

Previously 4creative has won 9 D&AD pencils since 2005 including a black pencil.

Most recently, 4Creative were behind the thrilling, critically acclaimed ad campaign for The Grand National, broadcast on Channel 4 for the first time this year. The film saw Liverpool city take the place of Aintree’s race course and featured ten horses racing through streets, allotments, back gardens, parks and ponds; jumping cars, fences and park benches.

www.4creative.co.uk