The Vancouver International Film Festival’s “The Warden Sixteen” campaign earned Best In Show honours at last night’s Marketing Awards gala in Toronto.
The initiative, which allowed consumers to rearrange the 16 scenes of a short film online, was created by Vancouver agency Trees & Rocks. The shop formerly known as TBWA\Vancouver and now dubbed Station X Communications also won gold in the Integrated Campaign category.
The other big winners of the night were Leo Burnett and LG2 with 10 awards each.
The Marketing Awards introduced new Social Media and Branded Content categories this year. “The guy at home in his underwear,” created by Toronto’s John St. for Stanfield, won the latter category, while Montreal’s Cloudraker won gold for its Tim Burton work.
The Experiential and Event Marketing category was also introduced this year. Though no golds were awarded, silvers went to Trees & Rocks for “Smart Car Taxi Test Drive” and Amuse for “ARTVscope.” Bronze awards went to Taxi 2 for “MINI: Vending Machine” and Cossette for “McDonald’s Burger Debate.”
In the Cinema – Single or Campaign category, Toronto’s Red Urban went home with two bronzes for “Eye Drops” (single) and “Get Your Eyes Checked” (campaign) for its client Richmond Optometry.
The Excellence in Brand Creativity category produced two winners, with Leo Burnett’s work for James Ready earning gold alongside Bombardier’s “Torch” initiative, which was developed by Taxi.
Television spots created by LG2 for Familiprix and BBDO Toronto for FedEx won gold in the 30 Seconds and Under – Service category. BBDO Toronto also won gold in the Over-30 Seconds category for its “Arctic Sun” spot for Tropicana.
In the Broadcast – Other category, John St. and Red Urban each won gold, the former for its “Pink Ponies” self-promotional video and the latter for the lingerie-pitching “Super Sexy CPR.”
The Radio Single category didn’t name a gold winner, but silvers went to Leo Burnett, Toronto for the “Louise” spot for Procter and Gamble‘s Gain and LG2 for “Auction” for Sears Optical. Leo Burnett, Toronto also scooped up “Era – Never Get Dirty” for Procter and Gamble.
Rethink Communications of Vancouver won two print golds for its campaign for Orkin, one for Newspaper Single and another for Newspaper Campaign. Cossette also won gold in the Newspaper Single category for its “The Ultimate Wave: Tahiti 3D” ad.
James Ready’s out-of-home “Coupon” ads won two out-of-home golds, earning nods in the Standard Format Single and Standard Format Campaign categories. Taxi 2’s “Vending Machine” execution for Mini topped the Non-Standard Format field.
The public service category saw television single gold go to an Agency59 spot for Amnesty International, top radio single to the Special Olympics and its agency Grey Canada, and print and out-of-home golds to Rethink for a Science World billboard and DDB Canada for work on behalf of Toronto Crime Stoppers.
Also new this year were Multicultural Marketing categories. An Integrated gold went to Hamazaki Wong in Vancouver for its Air Canada branding. The Multicultural Broadcast: Radio category didn’t have a gold award, but the bronze went to Response Advertising, Vancouver for its Telus campaign, “Goga/Moti the Pooch/Bawla Barwarchi Babloo.”
And Multicultural Print had three silver winners: Tamm + Kit, Toronto for “Diversity Partnership – Crane;” Nexus Multicultural Communications, Toronto for “Your Joy in a Cup” for Harris Tea; and AV Communications and Cundari, Toronto for “BMW Chinese New Years” for BMW.
As Multicultural Marketing Awards co-chair Gavin Barrett said, “The ads couldn’t win if they used dumb jokes about curry or dim sum; they had to be based on a genuine idea.”
In his opening welcome to the crowd, Shawn King, 2011 Marketing Awards co-chair and chief creative officer at Extreme Group, said that while this year’s awards introduced new categories, a new location (the Fairmont Royal York Hotel) and a jury with a 50/50 split of male and female jurors, some things never change. No matter which emerging tool or execution agencies use to bring ads to the masses, King said, “You still need a good idea.”
