The Canadian Marketing Association Awards saw Subaru Canada and DDB Canada drive away with some heavy hardware on Friday night.
Subaru’s ads for the 2009 Forester, which featured "sexy" sumo wrestlers introduced by DDB in 2008, took home the show’s Best of the Best award.
The campaign also won golds in the automotive divisions of three categories–digital, integrated and promo advertising–as well as "Best of" titles in the Advertising, Automotive and Integrated competitions.
Subaru reported a 132% sales increase during the campaign compared to the same period the previous year.
Toronto agency John St. took home five gold awards for two campaigns, scoring three for its War Child‘s "Help Child Soldiers," and two more for Corby Distilleries‘ "Welcome to the Wiserhood."
Proximity Canada rounds out the multi-gold winners’ list with wins for Bayer‘s "Alka-Seltzer Great American Road Trip."
Twenty-one golds were handed out in 42 professional categories.
In student competitions, Mohawk College students dominated the podium with five medal prizes.
The team of Lindsay Durk and Violet Karbaleaei won gold in the Marketing Case category under professor Catharine Ozols. In the Creative Case category, Amanda Baldaia, Hailey Barton, Katherine Perla and Sara Pilger won gold alongside professor Jef Petrossi.
Friday’s gala was held at the Westin Harbour Castle hotel in Toronto.
