NEW YORK -- (SPW) --

The 2020 AICP Next Awards debuted tonight during a special virtual premiere held online in the wake of social distancing initiatives driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. Tonight’s presentation is the first of three virtual celebrations that comprise AICP Week – which will also include premieres of the AICP Post Awards on June 17th and the AICP Show: The Art & Technique of the Commercial on June 18th. 

Five campaigns were multiple winners in the 2020 Next Awards: 

• RAICES #NoKidsInCages from Badger & Winters won in three categories: Next Experiential, Next Purpose Driven and Next Real Time Engagement. 

• Baskin-Robbins’ “Scoops Ahoy: Operation Scoop Snoop,” created by 22squared and produced by m ss ng p eces, was a winner in Next Branded Content & Entertainment and Next Integrated Campaign.

• Johnson & Johnson’s “5B,” created by UM and produced by Saville Productions, was a winner in Next Branded Content and Next Purpose Driven.

• Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen’s “Popeyes Chicken Wars,” created and produced by GSD&M, won in Next Social and Next Real Time Engagement. 

• Tinder’s “Swipe Night,” created by 72andSunny and also produced by m ss ng p eces, won in Next Digital Experiences and Next Integrated Campaign. 

It was a big night for the production company m ss ng p eces, which was represented on the Next Awards winners list five times; in addition to its work for Baskin-Robbins and Tinder, it also produced a winner in the Next Extended Reality category for Ally Bank titled “Grow Your Fortune,” created by Anomaly. 

Tiffany Rolfe, EVP and US Chief Creative Officer for R/GA, served as this year’s AICP Next Awards Judging Chair – a role she will repeat in 2021, owing to the truncated judging process for this year’s competition, which omitted its in-person curatorial committee review in light of the ongoing pandemic. 

As with the AICP Show, The AICP Next Awards honorees are preserved in The Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Film’s state of the art archives for future generations to study, and are available for use or exhibition by the museum’s curators. All individual works, and each year’s shows in their entirety, including this year’s winners, can be viewed exclusively at www.aicpawards.com, the AICP Awards Archive website.

The 2020 AICP Next Awards recognizes work in 13 categories: Branded Content & Entertainment, Creative Data, Digital Experiences, Experiential, Extended Reality, Influencer, Innovation, Integrated Campaign, Purpose Driven, Real Time Engagement, Social, Web Film, Under 15 Seconds and Web Film, Over 15 Seconds.

Prior to the premiere of the Next Awards, a series of online panel discussions focusing on key shortlisted entries across the three AICP Awards competitions, in which members of the client, agency and production teams offered insights into the honored work, were posted on the AICP web site and can be viewed here. Next Awards winners “Scoops Ahoy: Operation Scoop Snoop,” “5B” and Apple’s “Daughter” are included in the series. 

Cosmo Street created the opening sequence for the Next Awards virtual presentation, and Musicbed provided the music. The Jury President films, which introduced the winners in each category, were directed by Lance Oppenheim of m ss ng p eces and edited by Tony LaRocca of Cosmo Street. The AICP Awards sponsor reel, which plays at the start of each AICP Week virtual awards show, was created by Framestore, with music by Human. 

Sponsors play an all-important role making AICP Week events possible. AICP Partners and Supporting Partners, who support all AICP events throughout the year, are CAPS – A Cast & Crew Company and Universal Studios (Partners); and Film Offices of The Hawaiian Islands; Musicbed + Filmsupply; Simian; Sony Pictures Studios; and The TEAM Companies (Supporting Partners). 

Sponsoring the full complement of AICP Awards virtual presentations are ABK + Bogart’s Spirits, Aspen Travel, AwardCore, Bikini Lists, City National Bank, Color Lab, Cosmo Street Editorial, Cutters Studios, Flavor, Framestore, Global Production Network, Hello World Communications, Human, International Digital Centre, Inc., Island Film Group, Istros Media Corporation, Kane Kessler, Kodak Film, Little Black Book, LVLY, m ss ng p eces, PSP Production Portugal, Spain & Malta, Red Studios Hollywood, RNDM ORDR, SHOOT Magazine | SHOOTonline, Source | SHOTS | Slate, S’well, SyncFloor, Taylor & Taylor Associates Inc., Tendril, The Roots Production Service, Warner Brothers Studios and Yessian.

A full roster of AICP Next Awards winners includes:

Next Branded Content & Entertainment

Johnson & Johnson “5B”

Production/Development Companies: Saville Productions, UM Studios
Advertising Agency: UM
Director/Developer/Producer: Dan Krauss
Director/Developer: Paul Haggis

Baskin-Robbins “Scoops Ahoy: Operation Scoop Snoop”

Production/Development Company: m ss ng p eces
Director/Developer: Mike Woods
Advertising Agency: 22squared

Next Creative Data

Thorne “The Frontier Within”

Production/Development Companies: Active Theory, Marshmallow Laser Feast, Plan8
Directors/Developers: Andy Thelander, Barney Steel, Michael Anthony
Advertising Agency: Droga5

Febreze “The Most Undisruptive Radio Ads”

Production/Development Company: Junto Sounds
Advertising Agency/Director/Developer: Grey Midwest

Next Digital Experiences

New York Live Arts, Bill T. Jones, Google Creative Lab “Body, Movement, Language” 

Advertising Agency/Production Company/Director/Developer: Google Creative Lab
Development Companies: New York Live Arts, Flies Collective, Mixtape Club, Use All Five

Tinder “Swipe Night”

Production/Development Company: m ss ng p eces
Director/Developer: Karena Evans
Advertising Agency: 72andSunny

Next Experiential

Santander “In Her Shoes”

Production/Development Company: HELO
Director/Developer: Annie Saunders
Advertising Agency: Arnold Boston

RAICES “#NoKidsInCages”

Advertising Agency /Production Company/Director/Developer: Badger & Winters

Next Extended Reality

AT&T, Samsung “AT&T 5G Fan Experience”
Production/Development Company: Nexus Studios
Director/Developer/Creative Director: Alex Jenkins
Head of XR & Interactive Arts: Luke Ritchie

Ally Bank “Grow Your Fortune”

Production/Development Company: m ss ng p eces
Director/Developer: Mike Woods
Advertising Agency: Anomaly

John F. Kennedy Library & Museum “JFK Moonshot”

Production Company/Director/Developer: UNIT9
Director/Developer: John F. Kennedy Library & Museum
Advertising Agency/Director/Developer/Social Media Team: Digitas

Next Influencer

Planned Parenthood “Roo High School”

Advertising Agency/Production/Development Company: R/GA

Kentucky Fried Chicken “Virtual Influencer Colonel Sanders”

Production/Development Company: Generic Versatility Inc.
Director/Developer: Nick DenBoer
Agency Executive Creative Directors/Directors/Developers: Jason Bagley, Eric Baldwin
Agency Creative Directors/Directors/Developers: Jarrod Higgins, Freddie Powell 
Advertising Agency: Wieden+Kennedy

Next Innovation

Daughters of the Evolution “Lessons in Herstory”

Production/Development Company: GS&P Labs, GS&P Design
Directors/Developers: Troy Lumpkin, August Bjornberg
Advertising Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners

Ayax TOYOTA “The Hy Project”

Advertising Agency/Production/Development Company: The Electric Factory
Director/Developer: Piter Moreira, Niko Films

Next Integrated Campaign

Baskin-Robbins “Scoops Ahoy: Operation Scoop Snoop”
Production/Development Company: m ss ng p eces
Director/Developer: Mike Woods
Advertising Agency: 22squared

Tinder “Swipe Night”

Production/Development Company: m ss ng p eces
Director/Developer: Karena Evans
Advertising Agency: 72andSunny
Agency Producer: Kate Morrison

Next Purpose Driven 

RAICES “#NoKidsInCages”

Advertising Agency /Production Company/Director/Developer: Badger & Winters

Johnson & Johnson “5B”

Production/Development Companies: Saville Productions, UM Studios
Director/Developer/Producer: Dan Krauss
Director/Developer: Paul Haggis
Advertising Agency: UM

Next Real Time Engagement

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen “Popeyes Chicken Wars”

Advertising Agency/Production/Development Company: GSD&M

RAICES “#NoKidsInCages”

Advertising Agency /Production Company/Director/Developer: Badger & Winters

Next Social

March For Our Lives “Generation Lockdown”

Production/Development Company: Hungry Man
Director/Developer: Bryan Buckley
Advertising Agency: McCann New York
Editorial Company: NO6

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen “Popeyes Chicken Wars”

Advertising Agency/Production/Development Company: GSD&M

Next Web Film, Under 15 Seconds

Hulu “No Ads"

Production/Development Company: MJZ
Director/Developer: Craig Gillespie
Advertising Agency: Big Family Table

Mars Petcare “No One Quite Like a Dog”

Production/Development Company: O Positive
Director/Developer: Ken Herzog
Editor: Pamela Petruski
Editorial Company: Mackcut
Advertising Agency: BBDO New York

Next Web Film, Over 15 Seconds

Apple “Daughter"

Production/Development Company: brother
Director/Developer: Theodore Melfi
Editor: Giovanni Messner
Editing Company: brother
Advertising Agency: TBWAMedia Arts Lab Shanghai

Guinness “Liberty Fields”

Production/Development Company: Stink Films
Director/Developer: Mackenzie Sheppard
Advertising Agency: AMV BBDO

About AICP 
AICP represents, exclusively, the interests of independent companies that specialize in the production and post production of commercials in various media—film, video, digital—for advertisers and agencies. The association, with national offices in New York and Los Angeles as well as regional chapters across the country, serves as a strong collective voice for this $5 billion-plus industry. Founded in 1972, AICP assists its members by: disseminating information; representing production and post production companies within the advertising community in business circles, in labor negotiations and dealing with employment issues; and before governmental officials; developing industry standards and tools; providing professional development; and marketing American production and post production via events and awards shows.