Skittles strikes again. The sequel to one of last year’s award show darlings, “Touch The Rainbow,” has earned Canada a Bronze Lion in the Promo & Activation competition in Cannes.
“Touch the Untouchable” from BBDO Toronto moved a relatively lo-fi online video concept for Wrigley Canada into the activation space. With a fresh batch of “interactive” videos, viewers were subsequently invited to call a toll-free number and further interact with the brand’s cast of outlandish characters.
Though he didn’t see the video during his initial review of category work, Brian Sheppard, co-ECD at Saatchi & Saatchi Toronto and a Promo & Activation jury member, said he could hear other jurists laughing at the work from the next room.
“People talked about it throughout the week. I heard them referencing it a couple of times. It seemed really liked,” Sheppard said.
BBDO was the only Canadian medalist, even though Canada ramped up its submissions in the competition this year to 75 (up from 44 last year).
The Grand Prix went to Crispin Porter + Bogusky Boulder and Digitas New York for “Small Business Day” for American Express. The U.S.-wide effort took an idea launched in 2010 (a national day to support small business owners) and expanded it with widespread support from politicians, business owners and consumers.
The agencies created free tool kits for business owners to promote the day (including posters, social media tools and instructional videos), and lobbied government at municipal, state and national levels to promote the day. U.S. president Barak Obama even tweeted about the event, and spoke of it on the day while out shopping.
Jury president Nick Worthington, creative chairman at Colenso BBDO in New Zealand, said the idea “transcended media” and had the potential to live long after the initial timeframe of the campaign.
Promo & Activation is a popular competition, garnering 2,600 submissions this year. Seventeen Golds were awarded, along with 26 Silvers and 42 Bronzes.
The American Express campaign continued its winning ways in the Direct competition, taking its second Grand Prix.
The Direct jury president, Gideon Amichay, former CCO and joint managing partner of Shalmor Avnon Amichay/Y&R Interactive Tel Aviv , said he was glad the American Express work also won the Grand Prix in Promo & Activation, but stressed that his category was about creating relationships with individuals. To do that, he said, an emotional attachment is needed, and you can’t do that anymore without a key realization.
“There are no consumers out there,” Amichay said. “It’s about time that we deleted the idea of consumers altogether. There are people, not consumers.” Among the most successful Direct entries were “so many companies trying to create a different dialogue, build a different relationship.”
No Canadian entries made the Direct shortlist. Canuck agencies nearly doubled their submissions to the competition, putting 47 cases before the 25-member jury. In 2011, Canadians only submitted 25 concepts.
Direct is a growing competition, earning more than 2,300 submissions this year over last year’s 1,800.
