Spikes Asia 2025: Behind Leo Burnett Taiwan’s award-winning ‘Paper Organs’ campaign

Leo Burnett Taiwan achieved success at both Spikes Asia and Cannes Lions in 2024, winning two gold Spikes, two bronze Spikes, one gold Lion and two silver Lions for ‘Paper Organs’. The campaign broke taboos surrounding organ donation in Taiwan by using cultural beliefs to shift traditional attitudes towards organ donation.

 

We spoke with the Leo Burnett Taiwan team, including Hao Tseng, creative director & digital innovation lead, Yuan Chuang, creative director and Chin Chin Chiang, business vice president, client services, to discover what drove the success of this campaign, how they leveraged cultural insights to craft a compelling narrative, the importance of cultural context behind this work and ensuring the Jury with their diverse backgrounds understood it, and more.

 

Q: What sparked the idea for the 'Paper Dragons' campaign and what drove its success?

 

Chin Chin Chiang: Publicis Groupe Taiwan has a long-standing tradition of regularly inviting guest speakers to share on a variety of topics, helping expand the perspectives of our team. In 2022, we invited Chien-Yu Huang, an organ donation recipient who has made promoting organ donation his personal mission in Taiwan, to share his story. His journey deeply moved everyone in our account and creative teams and gave us greater insight into the challenges of promoting organ donation in Taiwan.

 

Hao Tseng: Absolutely. Huang’s talk inspired the Leo Burnett Taiwan team to consider how we could use creativity to help advocate for organ donation. I believe the success of the Paper Organs project stemmed from a shared passion and sense of mission among all our creatives and account team members after hearing his life story, uniting us in a commitment to promote organ donation in Taiwan.

 

Q: This is a very novel idea. How did you convince your client that this would work?

 

Yuan Chuang: We’d especially like to thank our client, the Taiwan Organ Sharing Registry and Patient Autonomy Promotion Center, for their collaboration. They don’t often work with creative agencies, so we took special care in preparing for this unique client relationship. In our first proposal, we anticipated some concerns they might have, such as the potential issue of avoiding deep connections with specific religions since they are a government-affiliated organisation. With that in mind, we intentionally gave the Paper Organs project a modern, artistic visual style to keep it neutral. Thanks to this approach, the initial proposal went smoothly, and we were pleasantly surprised by the openness to creative ideas within Government-affiliated non-profit organisations in Taiwan.

 

Chiang: Throughout the project, we were deeply hands-on and stood by our client in facing all stakeholders. For instance, the Paper Organs launch event was an art exhibition held at Taiwan’s largest organ donation hospital – National Taiwan University Hospital. This collaboration required extensive coordination with frontline doctors, social workers, and nurses at National Taiwan University Hospital, which was beyond what our client could accomplish alone. The Leo Burnett Taiwan team attended each meeting with the hospital, assisting in gaining their support. Our collective efforts ultimately led to a successful outcome.

 

Q: How did you leverage cultural insights to craft a compelling narrative?

 

Tseng: Ideas rooted in cultural insights are often the most resonant, especially in a society like Taiwan where folk beliefs play a strong role. So, we drew on the concept of the Joss Paper Burning ritual, a practice very familiar to the public with no barrier to understanding. This instantly made the idea relatable to Taiwanese people. By linking this custom with organ donation, we created a powerful contrast.

 

Chuang: Visually, we dramatised the presentation of Paper Organs by simulating the Joss Paper Burning ritual. This piqued the audience’s curiosity. For example, the main visual and opening scenes of related videos featured a heart being set on fire, capturing attention immediately and making a strong impression.

 

Q: How important was the cultural context behind this work and how did you ensure the diverse Jury understood it?

 

Chuang: The cultural insight is the heart of Paper Organs. By incorporating the Joss Paper Burning ritual, we created an idea that the Taiwanese public could instantly understand. This tradition added a meaningful layer, offering comfort to the families of organ donors through the familiar act of ritual burning.

 

Tseng: To convey this effectively, we included a brief introduction at the start of the case film, explaining the cultural context in Taiwan, where having incomplete body remains after death is a common taboo. This gave judges a quick grasp of the issue.

 

Interestingly, we discovered during regular discussions within Publicis Groupe APAC that this tradition of preserving the body intact isn’t unique to Taiwan. It’s prevalent across the Chinese cultural sphere, including places like China, Malaysia, Vietnam, and even Thailand. This commonality means judges from these regions may also have felt a strong connection to the Paper Organs concept.

 

Q: How has entering Spikes Asia impacted your work over the years? E.g. Has it changed the way you pitch, does it help with benchmarking or critically analysing your work?

 

Tseng: The Spikes Asia Awards archive has always been an essential source for tracking creative trends each year, shaping the standards of that year’s creative tastes. As a regional award that focuses on Asia, Spikes Asia often highlights creative works with deep local insights, encouraging our creative team to boldly incorporate cultural insights into our work, too.

 

Chiang: As someone in an account role, I don’t typically focus on creative awards. However, last year, Publicis Groupe Taiwan’s CEO Irene Chang served as a judge for Spikes Asia's Creative Effectiveness category. Many outstanding cases in this category directly showcased the connection between creativity and client performance, inspiring me to think differently about how to plan impactful campaigns that truly benefit our clients.

 

Q: What did this project teach you about the role of design in creative communications?

 

Chuang: We believe that good design is more crucial than ever in today’s media landscape, where attention spans are shorter. Important messages can be easily swiped past if they don’t capture attention immediately. The most challenging part of creating Paper Organs was designing the look of the organs themselves. From the start, we discussed with our paper artist partner that the design should avoid strong religious associations yet still evoke the feel of traditional Joss Paper items, while immediately drawing people’s attention.

 

Tseng: Looking back, establishing the design style for Paper Organs was indeed a challenging task. Initially, we tried finding suitable references, but quickly realised there was nothing like Paper Organs anywhere in the world. We had to build it from scratch, focusing on visual appeal, functionality, and cultural relevance. We went through over 20 different prototypes before finalising the design. We’re delighted that the final look met our expectations and played a key role in the success of the project.

 

Q: What advice would you give to others about working within cultural constraints?

 

Chuang: When explaining cultural context, aim for simplicity and clarity. It's helpful to explore multiple versions of the narrative, as there’s never just one way to convey a cultural fact.

 

Tseng: If possible, take advantage of resources within an international network. Share your culturally-informed narrative with colleagues from different cultural backgrounds to see if they easily understand it or if it leads to any misunderstandings. Adjust as you go, since a good story should be able to transcend cultural boundaries.

 

Q: If you could share one key piece of advice with agencies entering their work into awards, what would it be?

 

Chuang: Before submitting your work, make sure to thoroughly review the previous year's winning cases—not just the Grand Prix and Gold awards, but also Silver, Bronze, and even shortlisted works. This is the only way to understand that year’s creative trends and the judges' preferences, which can shift significantly each year. Reviewing these entries has taught me a lot, especially by examining how each submission form is written, revealing the thinking behind each piece and enhancing my own daily creative process.

 

Tseng: It’s essential to carefully study the award categories, as the forms of creativity are constantly evolving, and even a familiar term can have a very different meaning from year to year. In this ever-changing creative landscape, accurately selecting the category for your hard work is crucial. Based on my experience as a judge for international awards, it’s surprisingly common to see entries submitted to the wrong category, which is always a shame.

 

Ready to enter? There’s still time to submit your work before the final deadline on 28 January 2025. Get started on your Spikes Asia Awards entry journey at www.spikes.asia/awards