Blood is the new normal: AMV BBDO wins big at The Drum Advertising Awards 2018

The winning campaign is the first in the UK to depict real period blood, breaking taboos that hold women back. The campaign is around the idea of breaking taboos and positioning periods positively.

Member of the jury and global editor-in-chief at August Media, Helen Bazuaye said: "Zeitgeist moments. Easy (ish) to spot, harder to capture creatively and nigh on impossible to box up and packing into a credible advertising campaign. Yet Bloodnormal does. It stands as a piece of work that not only captures the current mood for challenging the status quo, but sets a culture-shifting benchmark.

"With humour, creativity and pitch-perfect boldness, the campaign has taken the insane level of sanitisation and ‘blue rinse’ thinking that held sway over all things period, and made normal the bloody truth. It’s daring work that leaves most who experience it thinking: ‘why was it ever different to this!’ Congratulations to the BloodNormal team – your success is totally deserved."

This year's chair of the judging panel Nick Law, chief creative officer of Publicis Group awarded AMV BBDO his Chair Award, as well as the Charity and Not for Profit accolade, for the campaign that founded a country of rubbish to tackle a global crisis, Trash Isles.

In the North Pacific there is so much plastic, an area of trash the size of France has formed. Governments have ignored this, so AMV BBDO, The Plastic Oceans Foundation and LadBible found a way to ensure they couldn't, by turning the country sized trash patch into an official country. Submitting an application to The United Nations on World Oceans Day, the aim was to recognise The Trash Isles as an official country. In the end, the campaign garnered over 200,000 citizens, 50 million video views and reached half a billion people.

On his choice, Law said: "In our world we spend a lot of time thinking about craft, in film, in print, in interfaces and experiences. But there are times when our ideas are more abstract and those ideas have to be constructed in a different world. Trash Isles is a very interesting one. It was an idea that could only be be expressed as a political entity.

"It's something that when you think about it is almost inconceivable. How do you actually create a country that gets accepted by the UN."

Creative agency, Gravity Road has snapped up the award for Automotive and Transport, for it's work with Uber on Where to, Britain?

Running on Channel 4’s on-demand service All 4, Where to, Britain? spanned six five minute episodes that followed some of Britain’s top drivers who use the Uber app as they pick-up and drop-off people across the UK.

Judge and chief creative officer, Mick Mahoney said that despite the quality of the Uber product and the user interface, the perception of their drivers, 'their offline user interface', tends to vary.

He added: "This simple, engaging idea uses one of the oldest tactics in the book – show the staff. But it proves that often the oldest ideas are sometimes the best ones.

"It’s a simple, charming and engaging way of humanising the brand and showcasing the positive brand experience."

Other winners of the evening include: The Hook Group for Campaign of the Year (over million views), Habito for Campaign of the Year (under one million views), TMW Unlimited for Food and Drink, M&C Saatchi London for Financial Services and Professional Services, McCann London for Entertainment Goods and Services and Amaze Realise for Art Direction.

A full list of the winners can be found here. The awards ceremony took place on 29 November at The Postal Museum, London. To register your interest for the awards in 2019, click here.

These awards are sponsored by Talenthouse and The Financial Times.