Kraft and MediaVest won Best of Show at the 10th annual Media Innovation Awards in Toronto last night, the capper on Media Day at Marketing Week.
MediaVest helped Kraft spread the word on Cheez Whiz with special appearances on the final season of CTV’s hit comedy, Corner Gas. The iconic brand was cleverly woven into plot lines, and was featured in the series’ corner store. In one episode, Brent Butt wrote a hilarious segment where he expounded on the virtues of Cheez Whiz.
For MediaVest, Corner Gas was the ideal property for Cheez Whiz because its quirky comedic style complemented the personality of the brand.
The partnership also included an in-store promotion, with winners attending the Corner Gas finale cast party as VIP guests.
The Kraft partnership also earned MediaVest a Gold in Television and a Gold in Content Integration. Meanwhile, Starcom picked up a Gold in the Newspaper category for client Procter & Gamble, making Starcom MediaVest Group the big winner of the evening.
Cossette Media picked up two Gold awards—one in the Place Based category for Nike Canada’s Train Till You Red Line. As part of the campaign, which targeted elite AAA Hockey players across Canada, messages for the Nike Sparq training program were placed in previous off-limit areas of the rinks, like players’ benches.
Cossette’s second Gold was in the Niche Target category, for Cuffwear Inc.’s Get Your Shirt Together, which asked high-end dry cleaners to insert message tags on every cuff in their clients’ French cuff suits, to promote Cuffwear’s brand of cufflinks in the lead-up to Christmas.
Rounding out the Gold winners were:
Radio: Banque Laurentienne du Canada for Les Visites Libres Banque Laurentienne by BleuBlancRouge
Magazine: Microsoft Canada for 2007 MS Office for Real Life Tools by M2 Universal
Magazine: L’Oreal Canada for Garnier Hair Colour’s Dare to be Blonde campaign by Zenith Optimedia
Experiential: Zulu Alpha Kilo for Thinking Inside the Box (agency self-promotion)
Digital–Single Platform: Rogers Communications Inc. for Fido–Twitter Feed Branded Content by BOS
Multi-Channel: Mazda3 for 33 Keys Alternate Reality Game by Doner Canada
Women: Unilever for Do One Small Thing to Love Your Heart by PHD Canada
Media spend under $250,000: Suicide Action Montreal for Abrupt Endings by Touché PHD
Photos of the winners courtesy of Astral Media will be available on the site later today. Please go to MarketingMag.ca/mia/miaphotos to check them out.
