Leo Burnett left last week’s Andy Awards in New York City with two gold trophies for its billboard-driven James Ready beer campaign.
The golds came in the Integrated and Out of Home categories, beating out an international field of competitors. The Andy Awards were created in 1964 by the Advertising Club of New York to honour creativity in advertising.
Leo Burnett’s campaign began in April 2008, with 106 billboards throughout southern Ontario that were only partially complete. The words “Help us keep James Ready a buck. Share our billboard” appeared in the empty space next to a product shot.
“Our campaign is about ‘help us help you keep our beer affordable,’ ” said David Buckspan, group account manager at Leo Burnett. James Ready competes in the discount beer category, and has used such marketing tactics as recycling beer caps and labels to reinforce the idea that it’s a “no frills” beer.
“The idea was the media guys bought these boards, only we don’t have the money or wherewithal to fill them.”
Visitors to the brand’s website could submit photos and messages to run on specific boards. In May, those submissions were posted to the requested boards on a first-come, first-serve basis. Below each user image ran a thank you for helping keep the beer affordable.
Leo Burnett launched the “Help us help you pay less” campaign for the Moosehead Breweries brand in 2007, and will launch an extension to the campaign in April.
“It’s become very clear that new thinking in new media has replaced traditional ‘advertising’ executions,” said Mark Waites, creative director at Mother London and chairman of the International Andy Awards, in a statement.
“Clients and their agencies are becoming adept at embracing unusual approaches, concepts and mediums to transport their creative vision into work that makes viewers take notice and respond. Reaching consumers any place and any time has become a given, but the most creatively open minds are setting their advertising apart, formulating unexpected ideas that are accessible to the audience.”
The Andy’s best-in-show award, or “Grandy,” went to Bartle Bogle Hegarty’s campaign for the release of U.K. supergroup Oasis’s album Dig Out Your Soul. The agency leaked four songs to New York street musicians, gave them rehearsal space and asked them to perform the tunes live on the street. It then created a Google map of each musician’s location so fans could find where the new songs were being played.
