The Australasian Writers and Art Directors (AWARD) has announced the winners of the inaugural AWARD Lab GenAI Sprint, with Rhys Delios Callanan of We The People and freelancer Liam Ratliff taking out the top prize in the national competition.
Selected from 33 teams across Australia, the creative duo developed a Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) campaign for not-for-profit Plus One Serve, led by AUSVEG, in just 60 hours using Leonardo.Ai.
Ben Cooper, Jury Chair and Global Executive Director of AI Products at R/GA, said, “The strongest work didn’t treat AI as the idea. It treated AI as the medium. The winning campaign, ‘Do a World Of Good’, stood out because it had a clear human idea at its core, then used the technology to push the craft, scale and imagination behind it.”
Mandie van der Merwe, Chair of AWARD, said: “It quickly became clear there is a strong appetite in the industry to explore AI creatively and responsibly, addressing the questions it raises around authorship, copyright and craft.
“The Sprint brought together creatives, production experts and AI specialists to begin building a framework for evaluating AI-generated work and helping the industry move forward with confidence.”
In the second phase of the initiative, the winning work will be presented to the client and refined with support from AWARD and Photoplay Photography before launching across Outdoor Media Association member screens in the coming weeks. Final executions will be shared publicly once the creative process and client approvals are complete.
Dwayne Koh, Head of Creative at Leonardo.Ai, said: “The best AI-generated work still starts with a strong human idea, and ‘Do a World of Good’ had that. The campaign stood out for its craft, imagination and sophisticated use of AI, and I’m excited to see it evolve into a national campaign.”
Elizabeth McIntyre, CEO of the Outdoor Media Association, said: “The quality of ideas presented was outstanding, and I was particularly impressed by the creative thinking the teams brought to both the interpretation of the brief and their use of AI. We look forward to seeing the winning campaign come to life across our members’ screens.”
Shortlisted campaigns
“Always Room for More”
Adam Cooper and Jessica Szakacs
Dentsu Creative – Sydney
“It Doesn’t Matter How You Get ‘Em”
Simon Mullins and Leah Mammoliti
Rare – Perth
“Feed Your Body”
Laura Murphy and Amy Morrison
M+C Saatchi – Sydney
“Start with an Extra Handful”
Baxter Atkins and Tim Yates
Leo Australia – Sydney
“Get an Edge with a Handful of Veg”
Jackson Elliott and Will Campion
Saatchi & Saatchi – Sydney
“The Veg Pledge”
Catherine Risbey and Isabella Novak
The General Store – Sydney
“A Handful Can Go a Long Way”
Emmalie Narathipakorn and Jimmy Williams
BMF – Sydney
“Do a World of Good”
Rhys Delios Callanan and Liam Ratliff
We The People/Freelance
AWARD thanks foundation partners Leonardo.Ai and Outdoor Media Association, as well as Photoplay Photography and Commercial Producers Council, for their craft expertise and support.