Google Creative Lab was the only multiple winner at the Tomorrow Awards Winter 2011 Conference and Ceremony in Montreal last week, earning nods for its “The Wilderness Downtown” initiative and for “YouTube Life In A Day,” developed in partnership with U.K. firm Rehab Media.
“The Wilderness Downtown” is an interactive music video for Canadian band Arcade Fire. The initiative, which makes use of Google’s Street View technology, allows visitors to input a street address and watch the video’s action unfold in their chosen neighbourhood.
“YouTube Life In A Day” saw 80,000 people around the world uploaded video entries on July 24, 2010 for a feature documentary by directors Kevin Macdonald and Ridley Scott.
Joining Google Creative Lab in the Tomorrow Awards winners’ circle were U.S. companies 4th Amendment Wear, 180 LA and R/GA.
4th Amendment Wear developed undergarments that featured the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution–which refers to unwarranted search and seizure–printed in metallic ink that shows up in airport security scanner readings.
180 LA’s “Live Drive” application for the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport allowed consumers to virtually test drive the vehicle online. R/GA’s “Pay With A Tweet” campaign invited consumers to pay for a book with a Twitter or Facebook post rather than money.
Sponsored by Taxi Montreal, the Tomorrow Awards event was the first in its short history. It launched as a bi-annual international program in early 2010 to honour innovative initiatives that blend advertising and technology. Spring 2010 winners were announced last year without an accompanying gala.
A panel of eight judges selected the five Winter 2011 winners this week, sifting through a shortlist determined by online voting from more than 600 “public judges”–participants who signed up on the Tomorrow Awards website to critique entries.
“One of the things I talked about with the judges before we started judging the work was, let’s look at things that weren’t possible five years ago,” said Rei Inamoto, worldwide creative director for AKQA. “We also looked at a range of work. Social media is sort of the trend of the day these days, but we didn’t want that to be the main flavour.”
The panel’s final judging process was filmed for an online documentary to be released in the coming weeks. A similar video was released after the last round of judging as well. Rafik Belmesk, managing director of the Tomorrow Awards, said the video would serve as an educational tool.
“The people who need to learn are the people working for (the judges), and they never get exposed to that thinking,” said Belmesk. “We want to share that with the industry so that everyone can learn.”
