Molson Canadian’s “Hockey Heaven” social campaign from Rethink was awarded “Best In Show” at the 2015 Lotus Awards, which celebrates “breakthrough” creative work of individuals, companies and agencies in British Columbia.
The Hockey Heaven campaign, which asked people to submit what they would do for the game via the hashtag #AnythingForHockey, also won a gold in both the social media campaign category and best special events projects. As part of the patriotic play, the best stories were entered to win prizes including an invitation to play a game at a giant hockey rink in the Rocky Mountains.
“I loved the idea of building the world’s highest ice rink. It’s a great activation that is social by nature and has tentacles from a campaign standpoint,” said Israel Diaz, one of the Lotus Awards judges and chief creative and design officer at Toronto-based Jackman Reinvents, in a release.
“If this particular idea can capture the imagination of someone who doesn’t even play and who isn’t fanatical about hockey as the average Canadian – such as myself – I can just imagine how it would resonate with those who live for the 6 a.m. shinny.”
Other multiple gold-winning campaigns from the competition include: Music, design and PR programming from Destination British Columbia’s integrated campaign “The Wild Within” by Camp Pacific, Citizen Relations and Vapor Music; Online creative from Milk West’s branded content program “Snack Time” by DDB Canada; and Netflix’s “Entertainment Lovers,” “You gotta get it, to get it,” and “Blockbusters & Originals” campaigns from DDB Canada, which won in broadcast and print creative categories.
A total of 153 awards were handed out at a gala event in Vancouver on Thursday evening including 23 gold, 57 silver, 72 bronze and one Best In Show. There were 25 different agencies honoured across 32 different marketing communications categories.
Jani Yates, president of the Institute of Communication Agencies (ICA), the presenting organization behind the competition, said the wide-ranging body of work from B.C. agencies and marketers impressed the judges.
“These are campaigns we are proud of across Canada, they just happened to be created in B.C.,” Yates told Marketing. “There’s a lot of wonderful creativity and some great quality work.”
The Lotus Awards returned this year, after taking a hiatus in 2014, with a number of changes to categories, submission requirements and the judging process. There is also a redesigned wood-crafted trophy, which even has its own film.
Yates said changes to this year’s awards better reflected the marketing communications mix and included work “made in, played in and grown in B.C.”
She said the judges were all from outside of B.C. and worked independently online to pick the winners.
The Lotus awards started in 1989 as a way for B.C.-based marketing communications professionals to “push their craft by celebrating the breakthrough creative work,” according to event organizers.
This year’s event also included a Lotus Talks thought leadership portion, which featured speakers such as Winston Binch, chief digital officer, Deutsch North America; Keith Reinhard, chairman emeritus of DDB Worldwide; Ipsos Marketing’s Michael Rodenburgh and Gareth Kay, co-founder of Chapter.
