Aptly, Kancil Awards is named after our local fabled mouse deer that always uses its wit to overcome larger predators. So we told this local David vs Goliath story with a Malaysian advertising twist through the Deervid vs Golion Call-for-Entries booklet. It tells of how past “Deervids” have not only defeated their competition at the Kancils, but also went on to take down the “Golions” at Cannes, in order to inspire local agencies to join in these “Deervids’” footsteps.

The booklet showed readers how it isn’t about the size of the agency or its budget, but the size of the fight in them, using past “Deervids” as examples. To help tell our story of how readers could also take on the mighty “Golion”, we took 8 iconic Malaysian ads that won in both the Kancils and Cannes, and gave them our very own “Deervid vs Golion” twist. Each redesigned ad was done in the same style of the original ad. In fact, we even enlisted the help of the original creators to help in modifying the artwork, to get as close to the style as possible.

At the end of the campaign, we received a good number of submissions, especially from independent agencies. In fact, the winner of the best of show prize, the Golden Kancil, was Fishermen Integrated, a 3-year-old independent agency. Besides that, this campaign also helped elevate the image of Kancil Awards with lots of positive responses garnered from agencies, as more of them have started to overlook its size for its standard. Thus, helping to cement its reputation as the top creative awards show in Malaysia.