PHD Canada was the only Canadian agency to win gold at the Internationalist Awards for Innovative Digital Solutions in New York last week, for its “Warm Up to Winter” program for Scotiabank.
The program was developed to promote a new travel card partnership between Scotiabank and American Express, with a specific focus on travel enthusiasts. Based on the insight that Canadians tend to hunker down in the post-holiday period, Scotiabank partnered with Jaunt.ca and Blue Ant Media‘s Travel + Escape to encourage Canadians to enjoy the winter months.
The multi-faceted program featured content hubs on the two sites, as well as a series of blogger posts and a five-part “Warm Up to Winter” video series. The financial services company also sponsored a travel series called “Beyond Wanderlust: The New Nomads” which followed bloggers as they embarked on a nomadic lifestyle. Scotiabank messaging was included in the opening and closing billboards. The program’s 8.6 million impressions were 77% higher than projected, while an associated Facebook photo contest garnered 11,000 entries in two months. The program also helped Scotiabank exceed its card acquisition goals for the period.
Elsewhere, Carat Canada won a silver award for its work with GM on the launch campaign for its Chevrolet Spark brand, which featured an association with the Osheaga musical festival, a key cultural event for its target market of adults 21-35. The program also utilized a banner ad featuring a 10-second pre-roll video highlighting one of the car’s special features. Consumers were given the opportunity to unlock the car’s doors – as well as content from partner websites that would resonate with the target – by using their smartphone to text the word “SPARK.” Chevrolet experienced more than 3,450 “unlocked” banners.
M2M won a silver for its “HTC One” program for mobile handset maker HTC, which saw the company partner with Cineplex, Vice and Say Media. HTC partnered with Vice on a concert series featuring artists that appealed to its most influential consumers. The company gave these consumers exclusive access to the concert series, while on-site activation enabled them to post a branded photo to their social network. Vice also ran the series as branded content on its digital network.
The program also invited Say Media’s network of grassroots editors to create custom content using the HTC device, with the content featured on their website, social network and a dedicated unit appearing throughout the Say Media network. A contest entitled “Canada’s Next Influencer” – which enabled bloggers to win a start-up package designed to help them turn their blogging passion into a career – also increased the brand’s reach among millennials.
Finally, Carat also won a bronze award for its “RBZ Hockey Stick” promotion with CCM Reebok.
A complete winners list can be found here.
