Canadian media agencies won six awards, including a Grand Prix, at the Internationalist Awards for Innovation in Media last night. Canadian agencies have now won a total of four Grand Prix awards at the Internationalist Awards since their 2009 debut.
“We continue to be excited with both the number and quality of the submissions we see from Canadian media companies in the competition,” said Deborah Malone, founder of The Internationalist Magazine and the awards show.
This year’s Canadian Grand Prix winner was Media Experts, which won for its much-lauded “Igniting a Nation” execution conceived on behalf of client Bombardier, which designed and manufactured the Olympic Torch.
“Igniting a Nation” also won two gold medals at the 2010 Media Innovation Awards, and was highly commended in the Award for Media Bravery category at this year’s Festival of Media Awards. Malone described the Bombardier execution as a “world class standard of a fresh approach to communication.”
Media Experts also won a gold award for work promoting former client Telus’s Extreme High Speed Internet service. (Media Experts now has the Bell media account.)
PHD Canada, a Grand Prix winner at last year’s Internationalist Awards, led all Canadian agencies with three awards, split between its Toronto office and Montreal’s Touche! PHD.
The Toronto office won a gold medal for its “Love Your Heart” execution on behalf of Unilever’s Becel brand, and a bronze for its “Reach Out with Red Rose” execution on behalf of Red Rose tea.
The former execution included a short film, The Heart, which aired throughout an entire commercial block on the Academy Awards (immediately after the presentation of the Oscar for best short film) and in-program during a telecast of their French-language counterpart Les Jutra. The program was extended via magazine, digital pre-roll and cinema ads, as well as a Facebook community.
Touche! PHD won gold for its “Milk, A Natural Source of Comfort” execution on behalf of the Quebec Milk Producers, which included redesigned transit shelters and street columns made to look like knitted toques, as well as other components including a free iPhone app. The campaign won Best of Show at the 2010 MIAs.
Starcom MediaVest Group won a silver medal for its “Going to Great Lengths” execution for client Covergirl, which saw subway turnstiles transformed into mascara wands and demonstrated the long lashes attainable with the product through advertising boards that extended beyond their borders.
A total of 41 awards – three Grand Prix, 12 gold, 15 silver and 11 bronze – were handed out during last night’s awards ceremony, held at New York’s Times Square.
