Discovery Channel Award Ceremony: A very ‘Fab’ celebration of Japan’s ‘superhumans’ and storytellers

A wild party appears… at FabCafe Tokyo, as the winners of Discovery’s AWRD competition for original documentaries are, well, discovered.

In March 2019, we kicked off the award ceremony for Discovery Channel Japan’s ‘Discovery Awards’, a documentary competition that tasked budding filmmakers with finding ‘superhumans next door’. Launched via our very own AWRD platform (What is AWRD?), the network tapped into a 30,000+ creative talent pool – and were flooded with a slew of fresh voices and extraordinary local stories. With entries finalized, winners, ambassadors, judges and even Discovery Japan president David McDonald headed to FabCafe Tokyo to take home the prizes and party with Discovery’s inaugural ‘superhumans’.

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The venue that ‘blue’ up!

With the aim of the award (and the subsequent competition theme of ‘Discovery! The superhuman next door’) being to showcase uniquely Japanese content and local discoveries, illustrator Tooru Morooka’s designs were used as a basis for the visual identity of the award. This Showa-era manga look, which is so crucial to the development of Japanese visual culture itself, communicates both a ‘hyper-Japanese’ aesthetic and a fantastical, out-of-this-world feel.

Discover…the food around you!

Extending the Discovery blue to even catering, even food and drink became something to take time to discover. The outlandish look of several menu items, such as the blue yogurt cups and rice balls, intrigued guests into guessing what they were and trying them out. 

A very ‘Fab’ treatment for the winners!

The Discovery Awards not only gave colorful local characters a voice, it provided a channel for emerging Japanese storytellers to tell the tale – and quite literally so: the Grand Prize included Discovery Channel Japan airtime. Due to the calibre of the submissions, the primetime slot was ultimately chosen as the precise airtime.

Discovery Channel Japan president David McDonald, who was present at the ceremony to present the Grand Prize, was deeply moved by all the works. “I felt the sensitivity and passion of the creators from their award-winning pieces,” he said.

The AWRD process

The entire competition process was hosted and managed by AWRD. Not only was Discovery Channel Japan able to receive submissions from the creator community with ease, the infrastructure of AWRD allowed us to generate media buzz and lend technical support to the finalists.

Businesses can start a free trial and set up a campaign on AWRD today. Email the AWRD team for a free trial here: awrd@loftwork.com.

We enlisted “ambassadors” – creatives in different fields – to not only promote the award, but also to participate as applicants in the award to drum up the competition! Ambassadors included YouTuber Marina Fujiwara, filmmaker Shota Mori and performance artist Chibiguts! (pictured above)

We also established a mentorship system for competition finalists. Since the winning entry would be aired on the Discovery Channel, this would help to polish the content, ready for broadcast. Mentors included Discovery Channel members Vikram Channa (Head of Production, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific) and Miyako Hattori (Executive Producer, Discovery Japan).

Read case study: Discovery Channel’s emerging storytellers showcase the unique humans of Japan.