L’Oréal Canada was recognized for having the best sponsorship program of the year for its “L’Oréal Fashion Week” at yesterday’s fourth annual Sponsorship Marketing Awards.
The cosmetics company took the Best of Show award for its integrated sponsorship program that linked its L’Oréal Paris brand with the Canadian fashion week, which features 33 shows and 69 designers from around the world.
In addition to being named Best of Show, L’Oréal took top honours in the Media Sponsorship category, introduced this year for sponsored programs or events that are experienced primarily via TV, radio, print, the Internet or other medium.
As a part of the program, which ran from August through December 2007, L’Oréal experts did the hair and makeup for models on Project Runway Canada; offered beauty tips on the Slice website; had a partnership with Flare to deliver behind-the scenes reports from Fashion Week; and created a retail program with Shoppers Drug Mart.
“L’Oréal was recognized for an incredible ability to take all of their media assets and to combine them in a true integrated seamless package that reaches the consumer on every level,” said Sunni Boot, president and chief executive officer, Zenith Optimedia, L’Oréal’s media partner. “They were really able to take their core positioning as fashion and bring it to the consumer in an incredibly relevant way.”
L’Oréal Fashion Week created 74 million impressions for L’Oréal, with a 66% increase in L’Oréal mentions compared to Spring 2007. Project Runway generated another 30 million impressions; the Flare initiative generated 2.5 million impressions, while Flare.com had 60,000 unique visitors. In the eight-week Shoppers promotion cosmetic sales more than doubled.
Other gold winners at the Sponsorship Marketing Awards put on by Association of Canadian Advertisers included:
- Levi’s “Best Impressions” program, in the Arts and Entertainment category;
- “Bring Home The Stanley Cup” from Pepsi Co. Canada, National Hockey League, NHL Players’ Association, in the Sports category;
- Campbell Company of Canada, and the Canadian Football League for the Campbell’s Chunky Tailgate With the Pros program, also in the sports category;
- Scotiabank and Cineplex Entertainment Partnership for the Scene card in the special interest category; and
- General Motors of Canada and The Calgary Stampede in the Sustained Success category.
Awards of Distinction went to marketers and events including The Scotiabank Giller Prize, Purolator Tackle Hunger, Are You Smarter Than A Canadian 5th Grader? and ‘Know-How’ NHL Coaching Workshops.
Glenn Young, vice-president media of IMG Canada, was chair of judging for the 2008 Sponsorship Marketing Awards.
The judging panel included: Sue Alexander Ash, Initiative Media; Rob Assimakopoulos, Canadian Football League; Dave Bedford, Canadian Olympic Committee; Pascale Chassé, Fusion Marketing D’Alliances; Rita Fabian, CTV; Monique Giroux, CIBC; Hunter Madsen, Yahoo Canada; Patricia Straker, Sponsorship STI; and Brenda Woods, Visa Canada Corporation.
Videos of the winning entries can be viewed a SponsorshipMarketing.ca.
