In addition to showing us #HowToDad in 2014, General Mills managed to show other marketers how to win at Wednesday’s Best of the Year awards, presented by Marketing at a reception in Toronto.
As the 2014 Marketer of the Year award recipient, General Mills went out of its comfort zone this year, trying on a new persona as a “purpose-driven” manufacturer and testing out new demographics for some of its classic products. Campaigns included a mother-daughter pledge against dieting featuring Canadian Olympian Silken Laumann, and “The Cheerios Effect,” a video series that told uplifting stories of regular Canadians facing social tribulation and triumph.
Finalists in the Marketer of the Year category also included Canadian Tire Corp. and Loblaw. Loblaw spent the year launching its foodie-friendly “Crave More” campaign, while Canadian Tire’s memorable output included its hometown hockey hero commercial with Jonathan Toews, and the ice truck the company created to test the cold weather mettle of its car batteries.
Part of the team involved in creating that ice truck were Touché Media, who took home Marketing‘s Agency of the Year honour on Wednesday as well. The golden Best of the Year M trophy was just the latest in a large group of wins for the agency, which included 14 gold Media Innovation Awards in November.
Rounding out the top three agencies in 2014 were LG2 and PR firm Edelman. Expansion was the key word for LG2 in 2014, as the Montreal-based agency opened up a brand new office in Toronto and won several new accounts. In addition to a bronze award from Cannes Lions in 2014, LG2 also took home more honours than any other agency at the Marketing Awards, and picked up 40 trophies at the Crea Awards.
Edelman, meanwhile, focused on expanding its digital reach this year, and drew attention for some truly unique events for clients. During the summer in 2014, it helped North by Northeast sponsor Kraft MiO in creating a festival venue inside of a Toronto streetcar (nicknamed the MiO squirtcar). The buzz on social media reached new heights for the brand, and provided a once-in-a-lifetime venue experience for concert-goers.
Marketing’s Media Player of the Year award told something of a David and Goliath story on Wednesday evening, as media company Blue Ant took home the top honours over larger companies like Google and AOL. The small media agency made big moves in 2014, expanding its international reach by establishing a new global content distribution division, setting up a New York office, and purchasing part of L.A.-based online media company Omnia. With that new purchase, Marketing’s Chris Powell reports that monthly web views of Blue Ant’s media content monthly have now surpassed one billion.
Rogers Media and Google were also honoured as finalists in the Media Player category. Rogers’ moves to strike a $100 million content deal with Vice and launch its streaming service, Shomi, made heads turn in 2014, while Google’s focus on creating unique ad campaigns for big brands in Canada extended its reach this past year.
To review our list of nominees for the 2014 Best of the Year awards, see the links below:
Marketer of the Year shortlist
Media Player of the Year shortlist
