Marketing Awards Annual 2023

the 2023 marketing awards strategyonline.ca

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Member of

CONTENTS

Hall of Marketing Gold

The Advertising Jury

Advertising Best of Show

Advertising Special Jury Prize

Branded Content

Integrated Campaign

Direct

Health and Wellness

Out-of-Home

PR

Self-Promotion

Film Press, Newspaper

The Public Service Advertising Jury

Public Service Advertising Best of Show

The Multicultural Jury

Multicultural Best of Show

Multicultural Public Service Best of Show

The Design Jury

Design Special Jury Prize

The Craft Jury

Craft Best of Show

Craft Special Jury Prize

The Digital Jury

Digital Best of Show

Digital Special Jury Prize

Medal Count

ON THE COVER: “With age comes wisdom,” as they say, and it turns out – they’re right. When you hit a certain age, what becomes important is getting to the depths of authenticity – saying what needs to be said and not giving a dang what anyone thinks about it. This year’s winningest campaigns took that to heart by being larger than life, thought-provoking and entirely brave. Our incredible juries celebrated the past while looking towards the future –something that also spoke to this year’s Hall of Marketing Gold inductees: Don Watt, Judy John and Frank Palmer. The effects these trailblazers had on the industry will continue to pave the way for years to come. In our 101st year of the Marketing Awards, we learned that age isn’t something to be feared. In fact, we’ve never looked so good.

To celebrate the past and recognize how it affects the future, each year, we induct a special selection of individuals into the Hall of Marketing Gold. These trailblazers didn’t just impact the industry – they influenced and changed its trajectory forever. For the 101st year of the Marketing Awards, the late, legendary designer Don Watt, overachiever extraordinaire Judy John and ultimate agency builder Frank Palmer have all been named as the gamechangers whose work and accomplishments will be referenced in awe for years to come. Read on to learn how these icons achieved their status.

If the measure of a posthumous Hall of Fame inductee is the legacy one leaves behind, there’s no questioning the honour bestowed on Don Watt, who died in 2009 at the age of 73. Watt pioneered a holistic approach to retail branding and design, injecting life into major retailers and their private brands, and created the original design from which the Canadian flag is based.

“He has one of the most illustrious careers of anyone in advertising or marketing history,” says Steve Mykolyn, a partner at Castor Design, former CCO of Taxi and a member of strategy’s Marketing Awards Advisory Board who nominated Watt for the Hall of Fame honour.

Not long after he founded Don Watt and Associates in 1966, Watt was hired by then-Loblaw CEO Galen Weston to rejuvenate Loblaws. Watt took a comprehensive approach at one of its locations. To evoke freshness, he repositioned produce at the front and featured large photographs of fresh food throughout the store. He repainted the storefront and

DON WATT

THE 2023 HALL OF MARKETING GOLD

parking lot lines, and redesigned the logo. A jump in sales followed, and Watt went on to replicate the changes across the chain and also refashioned multiple Loblaws house brands.

“Don changed the retail business from a visual standpoint,” says Ed Shikatani, whose first job was working as a designer for Watt – a career starter that led to Shikatani launching his own companies including Shikatani Lacroix Design (SLD) before retiring. “Watt controlled everything: the packaging, the store, store colour, the logo, what the building looked like. That was pretty unique at that time.”

For Loblaw’s No Name packaging, Watt created its simple yet impactful design, with its bold, black, lower-case text, classic Helvetica type and clean yellow background – a design inspired by a generic brand in black and white that caught his eye while in France.

“It’s a pretty safe bet to say that everyone in Canada has seen this work that was done in the ‘70s, which is perhaps even more ubiquitous today than it was back then,” says Mykolyn. “He took the stigma out of buying something generic and cheap and it flew off the shelves. Don Watt changed retail forever.”

Watt also reinvigorated Loblaws’ President’s Choice label in the ‘80s by taking its name at face value and incorporating then-Loblaws president Dave Nichol into the brand: he turned Nichol’s handwritten “PC” signature into the brand logo, tapped Nichol to be the spokesman when William Shatner was no longer available and featured Nichol’s top picks inside the Insider’s Report flyer.

For Walmart, Watt designed the Supercentre retail model, along with its Sam’s Choice, Great Value and Equate brands. For Home Depot, he developed its distinctive orange logo and store concept. Watt was the first designer to use photo-symbolism on packaging, for Nestle. Says Shikatani, “Nescafé coffee was beautifully packaged with fresh coffee beans on it so you perceived it as fresh - but it was instant coffee. He focused on great photography. The big thing was: perception is reality.”

Brand after brand, Watt made the work look easy. Alexa Retchkiman, VP of international client development at Watt international, his namesake company, worked with Watt when she joined the company in the mid-‘90s. On her first work trip with Watt to Bentonville, Arkansas to meet with Walmart about its Great Value brand, she recalls being anxious that Watt appeared to be “doodling” rather than paying attention in the meeting. She says, “But then, he lays all his pages around the table and says, ‘Would any of these solutions work for you?’”

According to Retchkiman, Watt connected with clients because his philosophy was to ask them tough questions and even make them uncomfortable in order to find a solution that would prove his value. One of those questions: Where did clients want their companies to be in five to ten years? From his perspective, Retchkiman says, “There was no point in creating something that lasted for a couple of years.”

Originally from Regina, Watt attended the Ontario College of Art (now OCAD University), and turned his eye to aviation and animation prior to branding. At A.V. Roe, he worked on the design of the Avro Arrow cockpit. As an animator for Warner Brothers in California, he worked on Bugs Bunny. His design was selected as the basis for the Canadian flag and he also designed the Canadian Pavillion at Expo ’67.

Watt’s approach to design was integral to the development of some of Canada’s most iconic brands. He was responsible for reimagining Loblaws and its No Name and PC labels, as well as integrating The Home Depot’s distinctive orange logo and store concept. Watt’s vision extended to CPG and restaurant brands too.

Over the years Don Watt and Associates became Watt Group, and is now Watt International and in 2003, he cofounded DW+Partners, a strategic retail services group. Today, at Watt International, his impact lives on. Retchkiman says that with every new hire and client, she speaks of his legacy. His philosophy is incorporated into her work, and that of the company. “He designed with business in mind, which is now part of our DNA,” she says.

Watt’s way of thinking is easy to take for granted, now that it’s common practice within the industry. All the more reason to ensure recognition with a posthumous Hall of Fame honour, says Mykolyn: “Today, we can see Watt’s genius through the lens of history.”

JUDY JOHN

With her impactful, culture-shifting work and a slew of firsts in the industry, Judy John has carved out a singular path.

John was the driving force behind the Always “Like a Girl” campaign, recasting the derogatory phrase as a compliment and racking up awards including an Emmy, Black Pencil at D&AD, and Grand Prix and Glass Lion at Cannes. But her accomplishments go beyond the creative realm, as she also took on the CEO reins at a multinational while simultaneously leading creative teams in two countries, holding the dual remit of CEO for Canada and CCO for North America at Leo Burnett. In 2019, she was hired as the first ever Global CCO at Edelman, the position she currently holds. This is just a sampling of the accolades she’s accumulated, with more likely to come.

“Judy broke down barriers based on her work ethic and her principles, and her ability to get her team going in the right direction in service of the right things. Good things followed for her and for the industry,” says David Moore, who recommended she take his position as CEO when he was at Leo Burnett, and is now Advisory Board chairman for

Jackman Reinvents. “It wasn’t good enough to be a branch plant and work on Canadian stuff. She wanted visibility for us, for our agency, for the creative community both at Leo Burnett and in Canada to have exposure and opportunity on the global stage.”

John has brought that same mindset to Edelman. “At Leo Burnett, we wanted to be number one in the country, top ten in the world; we got to number five in the world, according to Ad Age,” says John. “When I joined Edelman, I said, ‘We’re going to win an Oscar.’ I’ve put it out in the ether. I have audacious goals.”

Now in her fourth year at Edelman, John likes how things are progressing. In the past couple of years, Edelman won the Grand Prix in Entertainment for Sports and Independent Agency of the Year for the Entertainment Track at the Cannes Lions Festival for Creativity; and Edelman was named Independent Agency of the Year for the Good Track. The New York and London offices have each made Contagious Magazine’s top ten list of Pioneers. “We’re showing up where people aren’t expecting us to show up,” she says. “We’re

winning types of business that we haven’t won in the past. That’s incredibly satisfying.”

John grew up working from a young age at her parents’ Chinese restaurant in Leamington, Ontario, the place and people she credits for her work ethic. She studied film and theatre at Brock University in St. Catharines before switching to copywriting at Centennial College in Toronto. After school, she worked at globally-lauded creative agencies, including Taxi and Ogilvy & Mather.

John was one of Nancy Vonk’s and Janet Kestin’s first hires when they were co-CCOs at Ogilvy & Mather.

Vonk and Kestin now run Swim, the creative leadership consultancy they co-founded, and together, they were inducted into last year’s Hall of Fame. “The #LikeAGirl campaign made a global, indelible mark, but Judy was behind such a tidal wave of outstanding work from the very start of her career,” says Vonk, citing the Zellers “Victor Newman” campaign, the Lovecraft “Chicken” TV spot and the IKEA “Cook This Page” ad. “The common thread across all her work is how smart, funny, fresh and strategic it is. And so often, she finds a way to reframe a brand, giving people a new reason to make that choice.”

John joined Leo Burnett in 1999. In the earlier days of working together, Moore recalls John returning from a trip to the company’s Tokyo office, inspired by the revelation that the CCO and CEO shared the same office – the idea being that the creative leader worked in tandem with the direction of the agency. Back at the office, John pitched the CEO at the time to share his office, but was turned down. In search of the next best option, she approached Moore, then the managing director, and they went on to share an office for ten years. Moore recalls hanging up after difficult client calls, and John would immediately ask him what her team could do to help. Eventually, Moore, as CEO, would propose John take his coveted position.

“In the early days, she had just a bursting vision of where the agency could go,” he says. “She is fearless. She would run to the fire if there was smoke anywhere, if it didn’t feel right or sound right. She conducts herself in service of the work, with no ego, no politics. The quality of work is paramount.”

John initially rejected the idea of taking on the CEO role at Leo Burnett but Moore convinced her that it would allow her to maintain her vision, instead of having a new CEO set the

course, and that the role could be restructured to suit her strengths and skill set.

She spent 20 years at Leo Burnett, before joining Edelman. She was swayed to join the company over breakfast with CEO Richard Edelman, who spoke about the future of Edelman and PR: creativity could help solve business problems and inspire clients to shape culture and transform society. John was in.

So, what’s the secret sauce to making a brand stand out?

“We talk a lot about trust, building trust with all stakeholders,” she says. “But I’m also talking a lot about relevance. Are you relevant in people’s lives? Are you relevant in culture? I’m talking about relevance as a brand, as an icon in people’s minds, and how you maintain that.”

A key driver for John is to create work that is meaningful or motivating, to help companies shape society for the better in the face of AI and other challenges. “There will always be the need for creativity, and the need for creativity to drive commerce,” she says. “We have to show our value as problem-solvers, innovators, entertainers, business-drivers, people-inspirers. That’s the point.”

John’s work sparks cultural conversations, such as taking a stand against ageism in Dove’s #KeepTheGrey campaign and recasting the derogatory phrase #LikeAGirl for Always. She’s also no stranger to the cover of strategy

FRANK PALMER

An entrepreneur, agency builder, dealmaker and businessman, Frank Palmer is an industry legend. Palmer put Vancouver on the map with his award-winning agency while grooming the industry’s top talent who then went on to found some of today’s most lauded indies: Rethink, 123w and Broken Heart Love Affair.

“Frank has been responsible for a creative renaissance in Canadian advertising,” says Chris Staples, a founding partner at Rethink who was hired by Palmer early in his career. “These companies are successful because of values he imprinted in us along the way.”

After graduating from the Vancouver School of Art (now the Emily Carr University of Art and Design), Palmer worked as an illustrator before joining Trend Advertising in 1969. He formed Palmer Jarvis in 1974 and went on to orchestrate a merger with the DDB network, becoming chairman and CEO of DDB Canada. He would leave the multinational in 2019 – 50 years after he began in the ad business – only to be asked to return to helm it again a year later. He and business partner Bob Stamnes took over the Vancouver office, rebranding it PS&Co Brand Studio and making it a separate entity, where he is now

partner and chairman.

Whatever the name of his agency – and there have been multiple iterations – Palmer cultivated a culture of possibilities. Staples recalls the learnings he took with him: Palmer let those who acted like leaders lead, gave creatives leeway, allowed people to make mistakes and was gracious to those who left to start their own agencies. Staples, who now sits on Rethink’s board of directors, says: “This comes up a lot with us [the board of directors] where we say, ‘What would Frank do?’”

What Palmer would do, and has done, is now the stuff of legend. By turns inventive and clever, he would craft opportunities from challenges and find fresh approaches to get to better solutions.

In one instance, Palmer found himself in the sudden and unfortunate position of owing $750,000 to radio, TV and newspapers after the loss of a major client who went bankrupt. So, he called the media outlets and asked for the opportunity to pay back the money over a three-year period. To make good on his promise, Palmer had to lay off a number of his staff. “But I ended up paying all those bills off within a

two-year period, because my word was my word; I paid you; I didn’t ask for a discount,” he says. “I ended up getting the best credit reputation in the city.”

In another instance, when a client approached Palmer to take on work in Alberta, where his agency didn’t have a presence, he sought out an Alberta-based agency similar to his to take on the work. “I was able to barter and trade that business we were doing with that client,” he says. “So, for example, if the client had $2 million revenue, I looked at an agency that had $2 million in revenue, and I was able to buy that agency using my client. I was able to buy and get a partnership in those other markets without us putting up any of my own money. That’s how I grew the business.”

Says Staples: “Frank is the absolute master of relationships and dealmaking. That’s his true calling, making people feel comfortable and putting together people, clients and agencies.”

For Palmer, every stage of a relationship is important. “Getting new business was always a highlight,” says Palmer. “It’s like dating, where you want to be accepted and prove you’re better than other potential agencies.”

To win accounts, candid conversations have often been the tough part. Although companies typically approach Palmer to find new ways to position their brand, the quality of the product itself could be the problem – a hard but necessary truth for marketers to hear. But once potential new business was converted into actual clients – Palmer cites McDonald’s among them – a long-term relationship developed and evolved into something resembling family, a phenomenon he laments is less common now that marketers are inclined to change agencies every few years.

A notorious prankster, Staples recalls Palmer once pulling one at a McDonald’s conference, printing fake newspapers featuring a story that a rival fast-food chain was opening up an absurd number of locations across Canada.

Outside of work, Palmer has funded a scholarship for digital design students at the Vancouver Film School; released Let’s Get Frank, his biography; and is a painter. He is also a founder of NABS, which supports the wellbeing of those employed in the media, marketing and communications industry.

At 82, Palmer remains a force in the industry. “He is so connected and so revered, that to this day, people are still calling him up for help,” says Patty Jones, partner and president at PS&Co Brand Studio, who met Palmer when she was hired at Palmer Jarvis as an account director. “When you consider the change that the industry has gone through since he started in 1969, he’s still on top of it. He’s the guy sending us articles about AI, a merger that’s happening or digital marketing fraud. All of his insight and wisdom are still ridiculously relevant in 2023.”

Currently, PS&Co Brand Studio is aiming to get its B Corp Certification. And Palmer remains as passionate about the business as he ever did: “Today, it’s still exciting to show what you can do that others can’t.”

Whether he’s showing up “totally exposed” in Adpages (top), building winning agencies, like Palmer Jarvis along with then-ECD Ron Woodall circa 1974 (centre) or tapping into his alter ego on the cover of strategy, Palmer’s humour, mentorship and whipsmart attitude make for creations you can’t help but admire. And to put the rumours to rest: yes, strategy archives include a Palmer-original rap.

A NOTE FROM THE ADVERTISING CO-CHAIRS

We were honoured and excited to cochair the 101st Marketing Awards’ Advertising category. One thing’s for sure: the top creative in Canada did not disappoint. In fact, we believe the winning work will be recognized around the world at all the top shows this year. Why? The work is nothing short of brave. Our jury was thoughtful, experienced and respectful. They uncovered the themes and ideas that lifted the winning work above the rest. Besides being fearless, each piece was unique. Case studies were shorter and more efficient. Being timely was praised, and in some cases, traditional media was new again. Most of the work used PR to its advantage and just about everything was featured or promoted on social platforms. The winning work was emotionally engaging and relevant. But best of all was the discovery of more work that featured diversity in the talent and stories told, and inclusivity behind the scenes as well. Our Best of Show winner is much more than a masterpiece in cinematography. It reinvented the way we position and promote museums. It raised the bar in film on every level and will definitely be a Canadian ambassador on the global stage. A big thanks to the folks at strategy, our live and shortlist juries, and to all the brave clients and agencies out there who still believe in the power of creativity.

Luc Du Sault | LG2

Jenny Smith | Ray

Joseph Bonnici Tadiem

Pete Breton Friday

Jean-Charles Bullot INNOCEAN Canada

Bryan Collins 123w

Julie Desrochers Sid Lee

Deyra Jaye Fontaine Export Development Canada

Heather Hnatiuk Senior Creative Director

Peter Ignazi Diamond

Krystle Mullin Edelman

Gail Pak McCann

Helen Pak The Walt Disney Company

Leia Rogers Rethink

Roehl Sanchez BIMM

BEST OF SHOW: ADVERTISING

GOLD: Branded Content

GOLD: Film, Other Broadcast Single

GOLD: Film, TV Single - Long-Form

Royal Ontario Museum

Broken Heart Love Affair

To attract visitors after the lifting of pandemic restrictions and to make people feel more represented and welcome, the Royal Ontario Museum created “Immortal,” a sixminute film driving home the message that the stories behind every historical object help make sense of the present. The film, by Broken Heart Love Affair, depicts key moments in human history, from glorious and inspiring to evil and destructive. A baby floats in the ocean, representing Mother Nature’s womb, and is surrounded by symbolic re-enactments of collective and individual experiences. As a result of this campaign, attendance from those aged 18 to 24 increased by 60%, media impressions totaled 127 million, ticket booking page traffic increased by 85%, website traffic increased by 42%, and general attendance increased by 65%.

CCOs: Denise Rossetto, Carlos Moreno, Todd Mackie

CSO: Jay Chaney

AD: Carlos Moreno

CW: Denise Rossetto

Director (Scouts Honour): Mark Zibert

“Immortal”

THE M FOR MPACT AWARD: SPECIAL JURY PRIZE

GOLD: Out-of-Home, Experiential/Special Events/Stunts

GOLD: PR, Community Building

SILVER: Branded Content

Muskrat Magazine

“Missing Matoaka” BBDO

When it comes to stereotypes of Indigenous women, one of the most misrepresented depictions is of Pocahontas, the main character in the animated movie of the same name. To counter the popular narrative, Muskrat Magazine, with BBDO, created “Missing Matoaka,” a project that presented an alternative audio track to be played in sync with the movie. The project also replaced the name “Pocahontas” with “Matoaka,” which she was also known by. The alternative track gives Matoaka greater agency, in her thoughts and actions, and is told through the lens of today’s knowledge. The entire film was re-recorded from an Indigenous perspective: it was written by Indigenous writers, voiced by Indigenous actors, with music composed and performed by Indigenous artists.

CCO: Max Geraldo

ECD: Derek Blais

AD: Olga Netaeva

CW: Hailey Ireland

Director/Composer (TA2): Steve Gadsden

GOLD: Branded Content

Kijiji “I-Kijiji-A Catalogue”

BBDO

When global supply chain issues affected product offerings at IKEA, Kijiji, Canada’s largest online reselling platform, seized the moment. With BBDO, the company developed the “I-Kijiji-A Catalogue,” a replica of an IKEA catalogue that featured its inventory and drove people to its platform to buy hard-to-find products from local Kijiji sellers. The campaign drove a 15% lift in furniture searches.

CCO: Max Geraldo

ECD: Derek Blais

ACDs: Mat Cruz, Alex Smith

GOLD: Integrated Campaign

GOLD: Out-of-Home, Poster Campaign

GOLD: Out-of-Home, Transit Campaign

BRONZE: Press, Newspaper Campaign

Kraft Heinz

In a sequel to its prior campaign, “Draw Ketchup,” Kraft Heinz enlisted the use of machines instead of humans to create “Ketchup A.I.,” a campaign using the most advanced AI image generator to create visuals of ketchup – which always resembled bottles of Heinz. The campaign, by Rethink, asked consumers to suggest mashup image prompts and used the results to create the first-ever campaign with visuals generated by AI and coauthored by fans. The images – both weird and wonderful – were featured on social, in a long-format video, at an art gallery both in the metaverse and in real life, on a special run of custom bottles, in print and OOH. The campaign generated major media coverage and over 1.15 billion earned impressions from around the world. The 18 OOH boards delivered over 55 million impressions. The social engagement rate was 38% higher than benchmarks, and brands such as Ducati and Sportsnet even suggested image mashups.

CCOs: Aaron Starkman, Mike Dubrick

CDs: Xavier Blais, Zachary Bautista

CWs: Geoff Baillie, Xavier Blais, Aman Soin

“Ketchup A.I.” Rethink

BRONZE: Integrated Campaign

Pizza Pizza

“Fixed-Rate Pizza”

Zulu Alpha Kilo

Three days after Canada’s biggest interest rate hike, Pizza Pizza sought to lightheartedly calm financial jitters with its “Fixed-Rate Pizza,” letting consumers know the price of its extra-large, four-topping pizza would stay the same. The campaign, by Zulu Alpha Kilo, featured a website, OOH and TV spot that poked fun at insurance commercials and other types of ads. The film featured people of different ages and stages expressing their contentment with “fixed-rate pizza,” where “medical exams” weren’t needed. The campaign also included a humorous ‘pre-approval’ questionnaire. The campaign racked up more than 90 million earned PR impressions in the first two weeks and more than 500,000 fixed-rate pizzas sold in first six months, resulting in a 2,217% return on spend.

CCO: Zak Mroueh

ECD: Brian Murray

ACD/CW: Jonah Flynn

ACD/AD: Michael Siegers

AD: Duncan Porter

GOLD: Best in Direct SILVER: Out-of-Home, Poster Campaign

Smucker Food’s Milk-Bone, a market-leading dog treat brand in Canada, faced competition from new brands entering the market. To reach its goal of increasing its Facebook and Instagram followers by at least 50%, it created the “Chewpons” program, with Leo Burnett. The campaign encouraged pet parents to send pictures of chewed-up items and in exchange, they’d receive coupons for Milk-Bone treats – an item dogs are meant to chew on. The campaign was heavily targeted at young pet parents, with relatable bitten-up imagery in a promoted video and print media that drove people to Milk-Bone’s social channels, using a small, $10,000 media budget. DMs flooded in of chewed-up items ranging from stuffed animals to passports. The result was a 215% increase in Facebook visits, a 132% increase in Instagram followers and a 7,600% increase in Facebook page reach.

CCOs: Steve Persico, Lisa Greenberg

CSO: Tahir Ahmad

CD: Kohl Forsberg

CW: Aisling Penco

AD/Designer: Angelo Roldan

Smucker Foods

“Chewpons” Leo Burnett

CCO: Zak Mroueh

ECD: Brian Murray

CD/AD: Vic Bath

CD/CW: Dan Cummings

ACD/AD: Michael Romaniuk

ACD/CW: Marco Buchar

GOLD: Best in Direct SILVER: Direct, Best in Collateral BRONZE: Integrated Campaign

HomeEquity Bank and Royal Canadian Legion

For the fourth consecutive year, HomeEquity Bank was the presenting partner of the Legion National Foundation’s Digital Poppy Campaign for Remembrance Day. The “Letters Home” campaign, by Zulu Alpha Kilo, honoured Canadian veterans and their sacrifices by sending replica letters from Canadian soldiers who fought in the First and Second World Wars to their originally intended addresses across Canada. The letters were sourced from the Canadian Letters and Images Project at Vancouver Island University. The campaign featured a 30-second video and OOH across Canada, generating significant online media coverage across the country and raised over $189,029 in individual donations for veterans and their families.

“Letters Home”

Zulu Alpha Kilo

SILVER:

Best in Direct

Kraft Heinz “Feeding Gamers” The Kitchen

Kraft Heinz’s Delimex wanted to introduce its taquitos to gamers authentically. “Feeding Gamers,” by The Kitchen, was inspired by a gaming term called “feeding” – the act of dying repeatedly, serving the enemy team easy wins. The in-game activation met players on their own turf in three of the year’s biggest games: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Warzone 2.0 and Overwatch 2. Every time a player killed one of the Delimex characters, who hung out at in-game food spots, they were sent a coupon code for a free box of taquitos. This was supported by top Twitch streamers, and gamers shared their clips on Reddit and Discord. The final tally? More than 40 million gamers were reached, 11,500 taquitos were sampled and there was a 905% increase in social media traffic.

ECD: Simon Au

CD: Damon Crate

ADs: Arman Sadrzadeh, Allison Boyd

CW: Sean Kinton

Motion Designers: Branson Schell, Conor Cicci, Daniel Corrigan

SILVER: Direct, Best in Collateral

BRONZE: Best in Direct

BRONZE: Integrated Campaign

BRONZE: Integrated Campaign Led by PR

Kraft Heinz “Vintage Drip” Rethink

With thrifting a popular pastime among young consumers, Kraft Heinz launched “Vintage Drip,” a thrifted collection of 157 unique items from dozens of luxe and streetwear brands, all ‘branded’ with Heinz Ketchup stains. Leading up to New York Fashion Week, the campaign created by Rethink launched with a social video. At the same time, pieces were worn by Gen Z streetwear icons such as Antoni Bumba, Nazjaa, Sym Clarke, Izzi Poopi and Mirian Njoh. The collection sold out, with all proceeds going to Rise Against Hunger to support global hunger relief. The campaign garnered over 1.75 billion earned impressions and mentions on The Drew Barrymore Show and from singer SZA.

CCOs: Aaron Starkman, Mike Dubrick

CSO: Sean McDonald

CD: Zachary Bautista

CWs: Geoff Baillie, Aman Soin, Brendan Scullion

BRONZE: Direct, Best in Collateral BRONZE: Integrated Campaign

OLG

“Dream Drop”

FCB

With its player base ageing out, OLG designed Lotto Max “Dream Drop” to compel young adults to view it as an entertainment option. The campaign, by FCB, partnered with fashion designer Mr. Saturday to create the first clothing line that doubled as lottery tickets. Each item had a barcode for a year’s worth of Lotto Max tickets, encouraging purchasers to play for a chance to win up to $70 million. Designs were teased to drive awareness of the partnership and launch date via social posts, OLV, bumpers, banners, influencers, press kits and PR. When designs were released, Gary Trent Jr. modelled the clothing. When e-commerce opened, a popup allowed visitors to crack a code on a giant vault to win apparel or a $1,000 gift card. Upon selling out, a digital vault launched giving people a final chance to score the popular hoodie. Knowing that young adults enjoyed having their money support a cause, OLG donated all proceeds to BLACK HXOUSE, a charity supporting Black creators. The campaign garnered positive perception of the brand, increased online registrations and sold out the collection within a week. It also encouraged play with 200% ticket sales over the first three weeks.

CCO: Nancy Crimi-Lamanna

ECDs: Cuanan Cronwright, Leonardo Barbosa

ACDs: Michael Morelli, Marty Hoefkes

AD: Jerry Yang

CWs: Michael Carey, Jon Dawe

GOLD: Health and Wellness, Education & Advocacy

SILVER: Direct, Best in Collateral

SILVER: PR, Community Building

Cheekbone Beauty “Glossed Over” Sid Lee

With “Glossed Over,” Indigenous-owned cosmetics brand Cheekbone Beauty created a lip gloss set made with contaminated water to raise awareness of the lack of clean drinking water affecting more than 100 Indigenous communities across Canada. The water was sourced from three communities affected by different contaminates, which were incorporated into the product ‘colours’: Luscious Lead, Mercury Shimmer and E.Coli Kiss. To broaden the conversation and create change, the campaign by Sid Lee was launched during Indigenous History Month in June and box sets were sent to beauty influencers. The company partnered with Sephora Canada, with proceeds from that month’s Cheekbone Beauty sales donated to Water First, a non-profit aiming to end the water crisis. The campaign racked up over 36 million organic impressions and was featured in over 100 publications, raising more than $30,000 for clean water.

ECD: Jeffrey Da Silva, CD: Matt Fraracci, CW: Peter Sreckovic, ADs: Raine Calucag, Sammy Lo, Designer: Matthew Beaubien

SILVER: Health & Wellness, Education & Advocacy

Petro-Canada CareMakers Foundation

“24

Hours of Care” McCann

To raise funds and awareness for the eight million caregivers in Canada, the PetroCanada CareMakers Foundation (PCCF) created the world’s first 24-hour PSA. The film, by McCann, followed real family caregivers in their homes to highlight both the triumphs and struggles they experience within a typical day. The film appeared across TV, OOH, online video and social, with the interactive digital experience living at 24HoursOfCare. ca. The campaign was picked up by newscasts and daytime shows, which helped achieve a 64% increase in awareness of PCCF, and a 53% increase in awareness of the issue of caregiving. The PCCF also secured over $300,000 in donated media from partners.

CCO: Josh Stein

CD: Mike Shuman

CW: Aaron Peever

AD: Kyle Shields

GOLD: Out-of-Home, Ambient – Large Scale

GOLD: Out-of-Home – Experiential/Special Events/Stunts

SILVER: PR – Community Building

PepsiCo Foods

PepsiCo’s Cheetos decided to turn the iconic orange dust people wash off their fingertips, called Cheetle, into a point of pride. With Citizen Relations, the company erected a 17-foot statue of a hand holding a Cheetos Puffs snack in the tiny hamlet of Cheadle, Alberta – “Cheetle in Cheadle” – then did nothing. While at first, a few passersby stumbled upon it, eventually thousands would travel across Canada for a selfie with the statue. Attention from global media outlets led to a 1,735% increase in Cheetle mentions, 2.2 billion impressions, 1,103 earned traditional hits, 777 earned social hits, a 47% increase in regional sales and a 23% increase in national sales. Actor Don Cheadle told TV host Jimmy Kimmel he’d even put it on his lawn. And only $5,000 was spent on paid media.

CCO: Josh Budd

AD: Shirley Xu Wang

CW: Marly Dichter

“Cheetle in Cheadle”

Citizen Relations

SILVER: Out-of-Home, Ambient – Small Scale

Kraft Heinz

Rethink

As the summer BBQ season approached and with wallets tightening, Kraft Heinz aimed to stay top of mind with the creation of “Cold Ketchup.” The campaign, by Rethink, posed a question on social media that was hotly debated when Cardi B initially mentioned her preference in 2019: did people prefer to keep their ketchup in the fridge or the pantry? To place its product at the centre of the conversation, Heinz created a ketchup bottle with colour-changing label technology signalling room temperature or coolness, made the bottle available through social or in retail via a custom Cold Ketchup fridge and partnered with Wendy’s to give out blue sachets as well. Social media, OLV, influencers, OOH and PR was used to generate buzz about the product. It achieved 26 million PR impressions, got featured on major news outlets and the limitededition bottles and sachets all sold out quickly.

BRONZE: Out-of-Home, Ambient – Small Scale

Jeep

Publicis

To reach a young audience, Jeep partnered with Snapchat to launch “Jeep Code,” by Publicis. The campaign turned the grille of every Jeep into a barcode, so that every vehicle acted like a dealership. If consumers passed by a Jeep they liked, they could open up their Snapchat camera to scan the grille, which would allow them to identify, explore, customize and shop the inventory. “Jeep Code” was seeded on social media platforms and billboards. There were 150,000 lens interactions, with 51 million people impacted and 25% of people exploring the full Jeep range.

CCO: Joanna Monteiro

ECD: Vinicius Dalvi

Group CD: Victor Yves

CD: Steve Turnbull

CW: Steve Muzzin

“Jeep Code”

“Cold Ketchup”

CCOs: Aaron Starkman, Mike Dubrick, CSO: Sean McDonald, CD: Mike Dubrick, CW: Jacquelyn Parent

GOLD: Out-of-Home, Billboard Single

GOLD: Out-of-Home, Experiential/Special Events/Stunts

BRONZE: Out-of-Home, Integrated Campaign

Lactalis

“For Trade: One Cheestring” Broken Heart Love Affair

To rekindle the affection people have for its Cheestring, Lactalis’ Black Diamond created “For Trade: One Cheestring.” The campaign, by Broken Heart Love Affair, featured a classified ad on a giant billboard in Toronto’s Yonge and Dundas Square looking to trade a single Cheestring and featuring a name and phone number to call. More than 1,000 offers were made, including a baby hamster, a yacht and a dinner with someone’s mom. The campaign got people and media talking, and garnered more than 245 million earned media impressions.

CDs: Jordan Hamer, Spencer Ryan

CW: Jordan Hamer

AD: Spencer Ryan

SVP Strategy: Kristy Pleckaitis

SILVER: Out-of-Home, Billboard Single

Corona “Sun Dial Billboard”

Anomaly

Corona repurposed the concept of the sundial for its “Sun Dial Billboard” campaign, by Anomaly. The billboard featured the classic backdrop of an empty sandy beach and lapping clear blue water, with a Corona bottle taking pride of place. Affixed to the top of the billboard was a stick that juts out, an image of a sliced lime at the end of it – acting as the sundial. As the sun moved across the sky, the shadow of the lime eventually reached the mouth of the bottle. The message is spelled out in text: “When Bottle Meets Lime. Corona Time.”

ECD: Dave Douglass

CD: Neil Blewett

AD: John Ricciardella

Design Director: Shawn Lambino

CW: Dylan Verwey

GOLD: Out-of-Home, Experiential/Special Events/Stunts

GOLD: PR, Influencer/Talent Marketing

GOLD: PR, Integrated Campaign Led by PR

Penguin Random House

Rethink

CCO: Aaron Starkman

CSO: Sean McDonald

CDs: Robbie Percy, Caroline Friesen

Director of Broadcast Production: Steph Walker-Wells

In response to the unprecedented rise in book banning in the U.S., Penguin Random House, the world’s largest English-language book publisher, launched “The Unburnable Book.” The campaign, by Rethink, featured the creation of a single fireproof edition of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, one of the most banned books of all time. A video featured the author herself attempting to burn her own book with a flamethrower – to no avail. The book launched on social channels and at the PEN America Literary Gala in New York. The campaign gained global attention, 12 billion impressions and $35 million in earned media – all with no media spend. The book was auctioned at Sotheby’s New York for $130,000 USD, with all proceeds going to PEN America, which promotes freedom of expression.

“The Unburnable Book”

GOLD: Out-of-Home, Transit Campaign

SILVER: Out-of-Home, Billboard Campaign

BRONZE: Out-of-Home, Billboard Single “Tarbäk”

IKEA “Swearnitures” Rethink

With July 1st a common moving day in Quebec, IKEA’s “Swearnitures” campaign capitalized on the fact that IKEA product names bear similar phonetics to swear words. The campaign, by Rethink, replaced common curse words typically uttered in tense moving situations with products that solve the problem. The 360 campaign used billboards, radio, banners and social media. There was a 1,436% increase in social media engagement and IKEA experienced a 36% increase on year-over-year sales.

CCO: Aaron Starkman

CSO: Sean McDonald

ECD: Xavier Blais

ADs: Steve Pepin, Preto Murara

CWs: Geneviève Jannelle, Aman Soin

GOLD: Out-of-Home, Transit Single SILVER: Out-of-Home, Experiential/Special Events/Stunts

Wendy’s “French Toast Guy” McCann

To generate buzz around its new French Toast Sticks, Wendy’s enlisted McCann to convey how awkward French toast could be to eat on the go in its original form. The “French Toast Guy” campaign planted a man on the subway to eat French toast – complete with table, white tablecloth, bib, maple syrup, utensils and a bell. The mystery man befuddled commuters and generated intrigue across social media via #FrenchToastMan. Just as the build-up peaked, Wendy’s sent the man out to eat on the subway again – this time with its new, more portable breakfast offering. The campaign earned 25.6 million impressions in the first week and reached 243 million people. Wendy’s breakfast sales increased by 30%, driven largely by on-the-go, in-app orders increasing by 74.8%.

CCO: Josh Stein

CDs: Amy O’Neill, Bill Schaefer

AD: Menna Toeima

CWs: Elfreda Tetteh, Ethan MacDonald

Unilever

When top Canadian news anchor Lisa LaFlamme was fired, it took less than 48 hours for Unilever’s Dove to launch its “#KeepTheGrey” social campaign to battle the discrimination women face for showing their grey hair. As a key part of the campaign, by Edelman, Dove turned its iconic gold logo grey and recruited influencers and brands to join them in taking a stand and turn their profile pictures grey too. Dove also donated $100,000 to Catalyst, a Canadian nonprofit working to advance women in the workplace, and worked with the Ontario Human Rights Commission to protect grey-haired women from ageism and sexism. The campaign trended on Twitter, and garnered more than 674 earned stories globally and over one billion earned impressions. Dove became the firstever beauty and CPG brand to be offered a seat on the Ontario Human Rights Commission board.

GOLD: PR, Community Building

“Keep The Grey” Edelman

CCO: Anthony Chelvanathan. CSO: Laura Kim, VP CDs: Mary Soroka, Shauna Roe Head of Influencer: Sara Rezaee

GOLD: PR, Influencer/Talent Marketing

Maxi “Unbeatable Sponsorship”

LG2

As part of its “Unbeatable Sponsorship” campaign, Maxi, a Quebecbased discount grocery store sought to highlight its local product offering by sponsoring local tennis favourite Félix Auger-Aliassime, ranked #1 in Canada and #9 in the world. There was one caveat. The deal was only valid if he remained undefeated. The sponsorship reflecting the grocer’s steadfast commitment to its “Unbeatable, period.” pricing policy lasted one game, but the campaign by LG2 had legs. Ads featured Maxi’s spokesperson, a comedian, with AugerAliassime at a news conference announcing the terms of the unique sponsorship, and at a presser announcing the end of it, and the news was picked up by all of Quebec’s major media. Ultimately it attracted attention to Maxi during the National Bank Open in Montreal, which was played at a stadium that bears the name of a Maxi competitor, and engagement rates were all higher than benchmarks.

CCOs: Marc Fortin, Luc Du Sault

ECD: François Sauvé

CD: Frédéric Tremblay

CW: Guillaume Bergeron

SILVER: PR, Influencer/Talent Marketing Metrolinx

Metrolinx partnered with British trainspotter and TikTok influencer Francis Bourgeois to create “Train Spotting,” a campaign by Rethink that would get young Ontarians excited about transit and boost ridership. Shot in his own style and format, Bourgeois’ videos showcased the joys of riding GO Transit and UP Express to his 2.6 million followers. The PR strategy harnessed traditional media channels to amplify Francis’ content across the rest of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, and the use of TikTok ignited a flurry of reposts, shares, duets and stitched videos. The campaign achieved 14.6 million impressions, 6.5 million TikTok views, and 953,000 combined likes on TikTok and Instagram. Average discretionary ridership reached 94% of pre-pandemic levels and exceeded 2019 numbers.

SILVER: Self-Promotion

theVanity

CCO: Aaron Starkman

CSO: Sean McDonald

ECD: Mike Dubrick

CDs: Loretta Lau, Arjang Esfandiyari

AD: Amber Arezes

TheVanity, a boutique special VFX house, developed “Monster Mayhem” to goodnaturedly showcase its skills. The film is an action thriller, featuring combatants under attack. They work together to fire a rocket at a giant monster in the distance but after it lands, a series of brightly-coloured balloons are slowly released in the air. They take aim again. This time, a giant donut rolls out - and past the monster. Confused, they curse. Then realize: “It’s the visual effects team. They’re trying to show off their f*cking skills.” Their last attempt to shoot the rocket yields a promising-looking robot, but the monster simply steps on it and crushes it, leaving them to curse again at the visual effects team.

VFX Supervisor: Naveen Srivastava

CG Artist: Joaquin Manay

Producer: Kari Hollend

AD: Jeff Cheung

“Monster Mayhem” theVanity

“Train Spotting” Rethink

BRONZE: Self-Promotion

Zulu Alpha Kilo

Zulu Alpha Kilo

With its “Left-Handed Mango Chutney” video, Zulu Alpha Kilo pokes fun at advertising awards, advocating for awards to go to work that audiences love. The point is made via a dinner party vignette where a man who works in advertising tries to explain what a case study is and to convey the success of the left-handed mango chutney campaign he worked on to non-ad people – who all struggle to understand its significance. Another guest pipes up that she, too, works in advertising. “I wrote the beer ad where the horse farts,” she explains – an ad everyone immediately recognizes because it went viral. The guests mimic the fart noises, eliciting laughter from everyone except the Grand Prix-winning left-handed mango chutney creator.

ACD/CW:

ACD/AD:

SILVER:

Film,

TV Single - Long-Form Toys’R’Us “Imagination Included”

Broken Heart Love Affair

Toys‘R’Us Canada launched its first brand platform, “Imagination Included,” to distinguish it from giants such as Amazon and Walmart, and to resurrect the makebelieve world missing from the childhood of today’s kids. The campaign, by Broken Heart Love Affair, included a 60-second spot featuring a boy’s imaginary friend, Mr. Ferguson, who is brought back to life by a team of “playamedics” using toys. The spot ran in different lengths across online video, cinema, social and out-of-home.

CCOs: Craig Mcintosh, Jaimes Zentil

CSOs: Kristy Pleckaitis, Jay Chaney

AD: Jaimes Zentil

CW: Craig McIntosh

“Left-Handed Mango Chutney”

CCO/CD: Zak Mroueh

Jonah Flynn

Michael Siegers

BRONZE: Film, TV Single – 30s & Under

Pizza Pizza

“Canada is Locking In”

Zulu Alpha Kilo

With inflation affecting everyone’s lives, Pizza Pizza’s “Canada is Locking In” campaign aimed to provide a bright spot for consumers by maintaining the current price of its extralarge, four-topping pizza. The film, by Zulu Alpha Kilo, was a play on commercials touting fixed rates and poked fun at insurance ads. The film featured people of different ages and stages expressing their contentment with “fixed-rate pizza,” where the price of pizza wouldn’t change and where “medical exams” weren’t needed.

BRONZE: Film, TV Single – 30s & Under New

LG2

Look

For New Look’s “Spaghetti Western” campaign by LG2, the classic Westernmovie stand-off is re-enacted in a modern, parking garage setting. Two men approach each other from opposite sides of the garage before stopping some distance away from each other. Close-up shots show them glaring – squinting? – at each other, to the sound of familiar Western stand-off music. It’s a tense moment. But instead of whipping out guns from their pants, they each don a pair of glasses, immediately recognize each other and laugh.

CCOs: Marc Fortin, Luc Du Sault

ECD: Nick Paget

CD: Geneviève Langlois

ADs: Maxime Jenniss, Philippe Leduc

CWs: Martin Charron, Philippe Coulombe

“Spaghetti Western”

CCO: Zak Mroueh, ECD: Brian Murray, CD/AD: Michael Siegers, CD/CW: Jonah Flynn

BRONZE: Film, TV Campaign – 15s & Under

Kruger Products / Cashmere UltraLuxe

“Sounds of Softness” Broken Heart Love Affair

Kruger Products’ Cashmere UltraLuxe developed “Sounds of Softness” to convey the allure of its toilet paper. Created by Broken Heart Love Affair, the series of 15-second spots feature the same visual: a toilet paper roll placed on a custom, branded turntable, playing as though it is a record. The only difference in each spot is the tune: each a familiar pop love song. And the same line appears at the end: “Softer than a love song.”

CCOs: Craig McIntosh, Jaimes Zentil

CSO: Jay Chaney

AD: Jaimes Zentil

CW: Craig McIntosh

FILM, TV CAMPAIGN – LONG-FORM

BRONZE: Film, TV Campaign – Long-Form

IGA (Sobeys)

Sid Lee

ECD: Alex Bernier

CDs: David Lambert, Julie Desrochers

ADs: Francis Lévesque, Audrey-Claude Roy

CWs: Quentin Fachon, Krissi Campbell

Designers: Etienne Roy-Martel, Cecile Tousignant

IGA (Sobeys) created “The Meatloaf” for its annual holiday campaign. The animated film, by Sid Lee, evoked the warmth of the season by showing a family’s humorous attempts over the years to covertly feed the family dog the meatloaf a beloved aunt always brings. After the aunt passes, the family recreates the meatloaf – out of love for her and the tradition - only to discover that the aunt knew all along they were pretending to eat her food, and was grateful for their love in doing so.

“The Meatloaf”

SILVER: Press, Newspaper Single BRONZE: Best in Direct

Exceldor Farms

LG2

Exceldor Farms created “Check Mark CV” to address the global labour shortage and streamline the hiring process for both applicants and employers. Developed by LG2, a simple resume was printed in local newspapers, requiring only the applicant’s name and two boxes to check. Once filled out, applicants could take a picture of the resume on their phones, and send it to the company via text message – a process that only took a few seconds. Exceldor Farms saw visits to the Career section of the company website increase by 75% and a 400% increase in CVs from the year prior. It hired 203 employees within two weeks.

AD:

CW: Félix-Antoine Belleville

“Check Mark CV”

CD: Luc Du Sault

Olivier Caron

SILVER: Press, Newspaper Single Upside Foods

“Open Letter to Chickens” Rethink

When Upside Foods, the world’s first cultivated meat company, received the Food and Drug Administration’s “No Questions Letter,” it needed to let consumers know that its chicken product was close to being available. “Open Letter to Chickens,” by Rethink, featured a full-page ad published in the New York Times written entirely in chicken language. With public awareness of cultivated meat virtually non-existent, a QR code took users to a microsite hosting an English version in identical formatting, explaining cultivated meat, the FDA approval process and celebrating the company’s feat of getting approved. To draw attention to the print ad, it coordinated with the company’s most notable investor, Sir Richard Branson, to post a video on his social feed encouraging people to pick up a copy of the newspaper. The print activation generated nearly 1,100% higher web traffic than its average and 7,300% more newsletter subscribers than all other channels combined.

CCOs: Aaron Starkman, Mike Dubrick

CSO: Sean McDonald

CD: Noreel Asuro

AD: Matt Dunn

CW: Justin Santelli

BRONZE: Press, Newspaper Single

Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering is the world’s biggest collectable card game, with more than 40 million players. To drum up interest in the latest release, the brand let fans know that Magic was retiring one of its most legendary characters, Jaya Ballard, on the game’s 30th anniversary. To give the character its proper due, Publicis created the “Jaya Ballard Obituary” and published it in The Seattle Times. A couple of days passed, without anyone noticing. But when a Reddit user posted the obituary, fans flocked to the online memorial that was created and to the platform where they could purchase her final drop of cards. Pre-order sales went up 112%, the best-selling card collection in five years, and the campaign yielded a 2.4 million reach from 118 countries. With a mere $497 spend, it became the most successful Magic print campaign in history.

CCO: Joanna Monteiro

ECD: Vini Dalvi

CD: Helder De Freitas

AD: Paul Broughan

CW: Elliot Lewis

Wizards of the Coast

“Jaya Ballard Obituary” Publicis

Hey Judy, Carlos, Dhaval, Lisa, Alexis, and Meet Faël, Sarah, Jay, Lina, Sophie,

Deji Olubusi Designer

Julian Cadogan Designer

Sarah Aziz Art Director

Faël François Art Director

Carlos, Nancy, Lisa, Sabaa, and Aaron. Sarah, Julian, Deji, Sophie, and Jose.

We’d like to introduce you to the first eight recipients of the 20Doors Scholarship for BIPOC creative talent.

Zulu Alpha Kilo founder and creative chairman Zak Mroueh created 20Doors with a mission to open doors for new voices in advertising. Over five years, we’re offering scholarships to twenty young creatives along with mentorship from Zak and our senior creative leaders. Some 20Doors recipients have landed jobs in the ad industry, others are still in school, but all of them could benefit from getting to know Canada’s top creative minds. If any of you would be interested in meeting or mentoring BIPOC creative talent, we’d love to hear from you at 20DoorsMentors@zulualphakilo.com.

Zulu Alpha Kilo scholarship fund

Jay Bawar Art Director Lina Zhu Art Director Ademoye Oluwatoni Sophie Copywriter

Jose Bua Art Director

CO-CHAIRS

A NOTE FROM THE PUBLIC SERVICE CO-CHAIRS

While there’s no shortage of societal problems that need fixing, there’s also no shortage of people in this industry with the talent and willpower to do something about it – this was abundantly clear from the calibre and quantity of public service work that was recognized this year. From “sticking it to the man” to ingenious hijackings, hacks and stunts, the public service category was filled with irreverence, disruption and ground-breaking work that moves society forward. Our jurors tended to favour work that ignited real change by inviting people to be part of the solution. And they generously awarded everything from monumental efforts to beautifully simple but brilliant ideas. With inflation at an all-time high, and charitable donations at an alltime low, not-for-profits have never needed our industry’s generosity more. Even amid a year full of budget cuts and uncertainty, we managed to answer their needs in the most remarkable and impactful ways. We all know full well that this sector includes a lot of “non-billable” work that often happens outside of normal business hours, with minimal dollars and resourcing. These are labours of love – the kind that need to be celebrated. We wish this work all the best on the international stage. And we hope it inspires individuals, agencies, production partners and clients everywhere to keep doing the kind of work that brings meaningful change to communities across Canada.

Chris Dacyshyn | Bleublancrouge

Glen D’Souza | Forsman & Bodenfors

Sacha Ouimet The Hive

Jennifer Rossini FCB

Maxime Sauté Dentsu Creative

Rachel Abrams Jackman

Matt Antonello Creative Director

Natalie Bomberry Pilot PMR

Rana Chatterjee LG2

Anne-Claude Chénier Cossette Siobhan Dempsey DonerNorth

Addie Gillespie Zulu Alpha Kilo

Lisa Greenberg Leo Burnett

Joel Holtby Courage

Steven Kim 123w

Meredith Klapowich Narrative

SHORTLIST JURY

Rob Gendron Saatchi & Saatchi

Allie Keith Rethink

Mike Schonberger BBDO

Ian Simpson Ogilvy

Kim Tarlo Mint

Adam Thur DDB

BEST OF SHOW

GOLD: Experiential/Special Events/Stunts

GOLD: Online

Canadian Centre for Child Protection

To make the world grasp the scale and gravity of the online spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), the Canadian Centre for Child Protection reframed the issue and created the “Unwanted Followers Film Festival.” In 2021, 85 million suspected pieces of CSAM were found online; last year, it grew at a rate of one film or image being uploaded every two seconds. The campaign, by No Fixed Address, used AI to generate online film posters in real time at the same rate, with the chilling movie titles – such as “Nowhere to Run” and “Living in Fear” – translated into the six languages most spoken around the world. The campaign also included a physical immersive installation in New York and an online petition, demanding action from tech companies and governments around the world. It was billed as “the world’s largest film festival hiding in plain sight.”

CCOs: Alexis Bronstoph, Kelsey Horne

VP/Group CD: Rena Hula

Designers: Feilin Fu, Luciana Trespalacios, Valentina Gutierrez

“Unwanted Film Festival”

No Fixed Address

GOLD: Campaign Led by PR

GOLD: Integrated Campaign

GOLD: Online

#Elimin8Hate “ReclaimYourName.dic”

Citizen Relations

Elimin8Hate’s “ReclaimYourName.dic” aims to normalize Asian names and combat name discrimination. With Citizen Relations, the organization developed the custom dictionary of Asian names in the form of a free .dic file in Microsoft Word that contained more than 8,000 unique monikers from over a dozen countries – in order to eliminate the red line that appears under Asian names. The campaign was amplified through a mix of paid and earned tactics including OOH ads in Toronto and Vancouver, strategic media relations and seeding personalized campaign t-shirts to influential Asian Canadians, including Star Trek actor Hiro Kanagawa, TikTok star Tiana Shern and Top Chef Canada host Mijune Pak. Media attention and public support generated 91 million impressions with 137 pieces of traditional coverage and 71 pieces of social media coverage. Microsoft is exploring opportunities to implement it into its English dictionary.

CCO: Josh Budd

CD/AD: Mike Lo Nam

Writer: Abeer Verma

Strategy: Lindsay Page

BRONZE: Campaign Led By PR

BRONZE: Influencer/Talent Marketing

The Terry Fox Foundation

To engage younger Canadians to raise money for cancer, The Terry Fox Foundation launched “I’m Not a Quitter,” by No Fixed Address. The Foundation partnered with artist Douglas Coupland to modernize its brand and the design of its annual Terry Fox Run t-shirt. Canadian celebrities were encouraged to send the Foundation a photo of them wearing the t-shirt, which became the cornerstone of the campaign. More than 25 celebrities – including Michael Bublé, Alessia Cara and Sidney Crosby – did so at no cost. The shirt was also sent to fashion, lifestyle and fitness influencers, and outreach was made to fashion and celebrity magazines. All this, while Terry’s brother, Fred, did a national media tour. In ten days, the shirts generated the highest revenue for the Foundation, exclusive of the Run or large gift. Online fundraising increased by 126% and total revenue by 720% over 2021, going on to sell over 67,000 shirts in total. And 85% of shirt purchasers had never previously supported the foundation.

CCOs: Dave Federico, Kelsey Horne, Alexis Bronstorph

ADs: Randelle Pogue, Raine Calucag

CW: Hayley McOstrich

VP PR: Erin Banting

“I’m Not a Quitter”

No Fixed Address

GOLD: Community Building

SILVER: Experiential/Special Events/Stunts

Native Women’s Resource Centre of Toronto (NWRCT)

“4000 Cover Stories”

Forsman & Bodenfors

The Native Women’s Resource Centre of Toronto (NWRCT) created a hefty newspaper of 4,000 cover stories to highlight the dearth of media coverage and convey the injustice behind the country’s 4,000 missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. The newspaper weighed 25 pounds and measured eight and a half inches thick. The campaign, by Forsman & Bodenfors, featured a pop-up newsstand, a mass installation of “missing” posters at Queen’s Park and a newspaper that was hand-delivered to the Prime Minister’s office in Ottawa. On the National Day of Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, the NWRCT held a vigil for the community, with the newspaper and “missing” posters on display for attendees to memorialize those who were lost.

Heads of Creative: Glen D’Souza, Matt Hassell

AD: Alexandra McGuirk-Penedo

CW: Darby Clarke

Creatives: Morgan Wroot, Seumas Slingerland, Chantal Lamont, Michael Liao

Head of Strategy: Andrew Carty

GOLD: Community Building

GOLD: Influencer/Talent Marketing

YWCA Metro Vancouver

In a bold and deceptively simple move designed to address systemic gender inequity in sports and beyond, the YWCA developed a campaign that added an “M” to existing logos of men’s sports leagues to match the “W” added to logos to indicate women’s sports. “Add the M,” by Rethink, was launched on YWCA social channels with a video featuring gender equity activists, and was amplified by professional athletes and sports media companies - Christine Sinclair, Andre De Grasse, Donnovan Bennett and Tara Slone among them. Free downloadable logos and Instagram stickers made it easy for people to participate and add the M to their own league’s logos. Over 170 publications covered the story, achieving a total overall reach of over 102 million impressions. The campaign also achieved an earned media value of 46,000% above the investment.

CCO: Aaron Starkman

ECD: Mike Dubrick

Head of Art: Joel Holtby

CD: Leia Rogers

ACD/AD: Skye Deluz, Hayley Hinkley

ACD/CW: Jacquelyn Parent

“Add the M” Rethink

GOLD: Community Building

GOLD: Social Media

Jane/Finch Community Centre

“Bill It to Bezos” Angry Butterfly

The Jane/Finch Community Centre’s “Bill It to Bezos” campaign, by Angry Butterfly, found a unique way to raise funds on Twitch – by exploiting a free benefit offered only to Amazon Prime subscribers. The insights: Twitch streamers rely on subscriptions to make money; Twitch is owned by Amazon; every month, Amazon gives their Prime members a free $3.50, which members can then pass on directly to verified Twitch streamers by subscribing to their channel. So, the community centre became a Twitch streamer. This allowed Prime users who subscribed to the centre’s Twitch account to donate that free $3.50 – essentially raising funds provided by Amazon. Six thousand people ‘billed it to Bezos,’ and the centre raised more in five days than the past three years combined. In all, 45% of donations came through Twitch.

CCO: Erin Kawalecki

CSO: Graham Candy

ECD: Raul Garcia

AD: Chenice Piercy

CW: Ian Dunlop

GOLD: Out-of-Home Campaign

“La Presse Explains It All” was an OOH campaign that drew inspiration from the fact that people read the news anywhere and anytime, often getting their information piecemeal. The campaign for La Presse, by Cossette, featured the digital newspaper’s daily headlines followed by a colon – signalling an explanation that was to come. The La Presse logo was embedded in the top part of the colon, while a QR code was incorporated into the bottom. The code directed readers to the relevant article associated with the headline, while different posters were strategically placed in areas that contextualized the subject. Roe vs. Wade, for example, was placed by the Montreal Courthouse. Digital signage was leveraged to quickly create pieces to explain the latest news stories.

ECD: Anne-Claude Chénier

CD: Mélanie Delisle

AD: Marc-Antoine Vallée

CW: Raphaël Côté

Strategy: Florence Girod, Jean-Claude Kikongi

La Presse

“La Presse Explains It All” Cossette

SILVER: Branded Content

SILVER: Health & Wellness, Education & Advocacy

BRONZE: Online Film Single

Casey House “Others” Bensimon Byrne / Narrative

Casey House’s #SmashStigma campaign highlights the devastating effects of HIV stigma. “Others,” by Bensimon Byrne / Narrative, is a 20-minute horror film based on the fears and lived experiences of six people with HIV, and follows a male character during and after a nature excursion. This was the first time a professional actor living with HIV was intentionally cast to play an HIV-positive lead protagonist. After the film, viewers watched a short documentary of the six people speaking about life as an “Other.” The film debuted in an abandoned amusement park to make viewers feel the fear themselves, before being made available on Casey House’s website and social media.

CCO: Joseph Bonnici

CDs: David Mueller, Gints Bruveris

ADs: Gints Bruveris, Amy Fernandes

CWs: David Mueller, Sam Ramsey

BRONZE: Branded Content

BRONZE: Health & Wellness, Education & Advocacy

Préma-Québec

“The 1.8-Pound Book”

LG2

To raise awareness and funds to support families of premature babies, Préma-Québec created “The 1.8 Pound Book” with LG2. The weight of the illustrated book of children’s stories reflected the weight of an average very premature baby, with special attention paid to details of the book production: the format and number of pages, the humidity of the paper and the ink used in the printing process. The book’s dust jacket resembles a newborn swaddled in a blanket. The four short stories, written and illustrated by renowned Quebec authors and illustrators, depict the realities of tiny beings arriving too soon. A video was made of one of the authors reading her story in a neonatal ward. Mimicking a preemie, the book itself was released one month early on World Prematurity Day and was supported by a launch video featuring a 1.8-pound baby on a scale. The campaign included community outreach and online advertising, and engaged key influencers, including Quebec’s Premier François Legault, to support the cause.

CCOs: Marc Fortin, Luc Du Sault

CDs: Frédéric Tremblay, Geneviève Langlois, Élise Cropsal CWs: Guillaume Bergeron, Jean-Christophe Diaque, Marie-Ève Leclerc-Dion

SILVER:

Experiential/Special Events/Stunts

SILVER: Online

BRONZE: Community Building

BRONZE: Social Media

Amnesty International

TAXI

SILVER: Online Film Single

In Quebec, systemic racism has been a longstanding issue, with little help from a premier who publicly denies its existence. To make the issue visible, Amnesty International developed “The Systemic Racism Pin” with TAXI. The campaign hacked Google Map’s functionality to create ‘Systemic Racism’ as a geolocated place, placing it in front of Quebec’s Parliament. The pin became the hub for the campaign, where content of prominent activists was uploaded and where people used the Reviews section to share testimonials about systemic racism. With hundreds of comments flooding the hub in the first days, Google Maps removed the pin. The campaign then directed people to use the Reviews section of the Parliament, which couldn’t be deleted, to make their comments. With more than 500 testimonials in the first week, the campaign helped make systemic racism a leading topic in the province’s following election, leading to historic changes such as a new bill on racial profiling, the removal of preferred race on adoption forms and the election of the first Indigenous woman to Quebec’s National Assembly.

CCO: Graham Lang

CDs: Alexandre Béland, Alexis Caron-Côté

ADs: Alexandre Béland, Marie Cermakova, Nicolas Baillargeon, Maeva Moatti

With the results of a commissioned survey showing that having a daughter would make a majority of men more concerned with the issues females face, White Ribbon, the world’s largest movement to end gender-based violence and promote healthier masculinity, created “I Knew All Along.” The film, by Bensimon Byrne, Narrative and OneMethod, opens with a dad holding his baby daughter, speaking lovingly to her in the voiceover about never having felt so much fear about her growing up. Various scenes focus on the daughter’s reactions as she is harassed at different stages of her life. The script and the camera angles are then flipped, and the audience sees that the younger version of the dad was the person committing the harassment each time. In the voiceover, the dad comes to this realization, that he “knew all along.”

CCO:

“The Systemic Racism Pin”

Joseph Bonnici, CDs: David Mueller, Debbie Chan, CWs: Megan Radisa, Sophia Wilby

White Ribbon

“I Knew All Along”

Bensimon Byrne / Narrative / OneMethod

BRONZE: Online Film Single

The Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation

“Two Little Brats for Life” Cossette

To encourage donations to The Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation, Cossette created “Two Little Brats for Life,” celebrating the friendship of two boys, Max and Lou, who bond over the pranks they pull and share over walkie-talkies. When Lou is hospitalized, Max continues to relay his stunts over the receiver until one day, Lou doesn’t respond. Although Max, and the audience, are initially led to believe Lou has died, it’s revealed he was just away from his walkie-talkie in order to receive treatment – and managed to pull a prank while doing so.

ECD: Anne-Claude Chénier

CDs: Mélanie Delisle, Patrick Michaud

ADs: Éric Bouchard, Annik Tremblay-Meunier

CWs: Jean-François Perreault, Philippe Brassard, Marc Lessard, Souléman Diallo, Etienne LeBourdais

BRONZE: Online Film Single

Société de sauvetage / Lifesaving Society

In “You,” the Société de sauvetage/Lifesaving Society’s 30-second film developed with LG2, a young man cracks open a can of beer while sitting alone in a rowboat on a quiet lake, his lifejacket behind him, dusk descending. When the man leans over the side of the boat and goes to touch his reflection on the surface of the glassy water, the reflected hand suddenly reaches for his actual hand and yanks him underwater. The next shot is of his body floating in the water, a reminder from the Lifesaving Society for people to wear life jackets, to not consume alcohol or drugs and to never go out on water alone.

CCOs: Marc Fortin, Luc Du Sault

CD: Frédéric Tremblay Director (Gorditos): Raphaël Ouellet

SILVER: Point-of-Purchase

Human Rights Foundation

The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) launched “Forced Labour Plug-In,” by TAXI, as a way to raise awareness and prevent people from buying clothes made by Uyghur Muslims working in forced labor camps in Xinjiang, China. It’s estimated that one in five of the world’s cotton items are linked to these camps. When a visitor lands on a site, they’re given the choice to say ‘no’ to forced labour and are redirected to the HRF website to learn more. The extension has intervened on the websites of more than 160 major global fashion brands, blocked over 1,000 sales and convinced one global fashion retailer to remove Uyghur forced labour from its supply chain. The extension is currently active in eight countries.

CCO: Graham Lang

ECD: James Sadler

CD/CW: Mike Houldsworth

BRONZE: Ambient – Large Scale Hydro-Québec

“A Billboard That Comes to Life”

LG2

To highlight Quebec’s food autonomy and the role Hydro-Québec plays within a sustainable energy future, LG2 created “A Billboard That Comes to Life,” a panel of life-size, streetside posters that looked like standard advertising. But in a challenge to that convention, the team converted one of the ‘posters’ into a real greenhouse within a six-metre space, causing many passersby to do a double-take. As part of the campaign, a person was stationed in the greenhouse, inviting people to enter and giving them chili plants that had been transplanted, along with other greenhouse vegetables from Quebec.

CCOs: Marc Fortin, Luc Du Sault

CD: Martin Charron

CWs: Luc Dupéré, Jean-Christophe Lanteigne-Daigle, Jean-Frédéric Barrette

“Forced Labour Plug-In” TAXI

SILVER: Radio Single Canada’s Organ & Tissue Donation Community

Despite widespread support, only 32% of Canadians are registered for organ donation. To encourage people to donate, Canada’s Organ and Tissue Donation Community created “The Donated Commercial.” The radio spot, by DonerNorth, combined donated parts from over 40 commercials to show how donated organs could have a second life. The message needed to be clear while simultaneously highlighting that all the parts had been transplanted from elsewhere. Hundreds of old commercials were reviewed in order to find the right phrases that would create a smooth flow. The commercial experienced a 95% completion rate and an 87.5% increase in Spotify’s average clickthrough rate, with 79% of people registered to donate their organs.

CCO: Lance Martin

ECDs: Adam Thur, Rica Eckersley

CD/AD: Justin Turco

CD/CW: Jill Mack

ACD/CW: Lynn Sparrow

SILVER: Sustainability

Carrefour Solidaire

Sid Lee X Au / Lab X Carrefour Alimentaire

Carrefound Solidaire’s “Serres de rue” is a Montreal project that seeks to explore sustainable ways to use urban land by transforming car shelters into passive solar greenhouses. The project, by Sid Lee X Au/Lab X Carrefour Alimentaire, encourages the growth of fresh produce during winter in densely populated neighborhoods and reimagines the place that cars take in our cities. Old traffic signs were repurposed to create a learning route along the greenhouses and gardening tools were built from the same materials. The city of Montreal has even allowed for the construction of three greenhouses on the public thoroughfare. The first few crops have been distributed among the lowincome communities and the project will continue to grow its vegetable output and organize more school visits.

Design Director: Marie-Elaine Benoit

AD: Jean-François Mayrand

Designers: Benjamin Lamingo, Charlotte Boisclair

CW: Thierry Faucher

“Serres de rue”

“The Donated Commercial” DonerNorth

SILVER:

Rejecting the standard 30-second PSA format to drive home its message, the Petro-Canada CareMakers Foundation (PCCF) launched the world’s first 24-hour PSA to highlight the struggle of Canada’s eight million family caregivers. The PSA, by McCann, followed a day in the lives of ten real family caregivers, detailing the struggles and triumphs of constant caregiving. The campaign included TV, OOH, online video and social media. The campaign led to a 53% increase in awareness of the issue of caregiving, a 64% increase in awareness of the PCCF, which was formed in 2020, and secured over $300,000 in donated media from partners.

CCO: Josh Stein

CD: Mike Shuman

CW: Aaron Peever

AD: Kyle Shields

Television Single Petro-Canada CareMakers Foundation

“24 Hours of Care”

McCann

SILVER: Television Single Kids Help Phone

Kids Help Phone is a national, bilingual, 24/7 e-mental health service offering free and confidential support to any young person aged 5 to 29 in a moment of crisis or need. Its “Feel Out Loud” launch film, by McCann, depicts youth at school and at home. Rather than suppressing their emotions and dealing with them alone, the film - directed by Matilda Finn - positions Kids Help Phone as a safe environment to express feelings without fear of judgment, with the aim of improving physical and mental health and reducing the risk of suicide.

CCO: Josh Stein

CD: Mike Shuman

AD: Jayme Fairbridge

Designers: Johan Hogdahl, Mitchell Houlahan

“Feel Out Loud”

McCann

BRONZE: Direct

Tree Canada “Offset Mode” Rethink / Apply Digital

With all our online activity generating carbon emissions, Tree Canada’s “Offset Mode” allows people to track and offset their carbon footprint in real-time, with the aim of making it as easy as browsing or streaming. The free digital tool monitors a user’s download and upload volume to determine how much electricity they’re consuming, and then uses regional electric grid data to determine the type of electricity they’re using and the exact carbon emissions associated with it. Offset Mode, by Rethink and Apply Digital, enables users to offset those emissions at a cost of only a few cents per day. Since its launch just over a year ago, it’s been downloaded globally and, with microdonations, has offset more than 1.5 million streaming hours and 12,072 kg of CO2 within two months.

CCO: Aaron Starkman

ECDs: Leia Rogers, Morgan Tierney

CDs: Sean O’Connor, Hans Thiessen, Jake Hope Designer (Apply Digital): Daniela Valdes

BRONZE: Online

Razom

“Feel What We Feel” Grey Canada / TANK Worldwide

To raise funds for Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s invasion, Razom, a non-profit organization, created “Feel What We Feel,” which drew inspiration from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s plea to Canadians for help. The campaign, by Grey Canada / TANK Worldwide, used familiar city landmarks - such as the CN Tower in Toronto and the Olympic Park in Montreal - and transformed them into battle ruins. QR codes transported users into the devastation of war. Given that humanitarian assistance was needed urgently, the campaign launched six weeks after Zelenskyy’s speech. Through the use of digital, 15-second TV, traditional and digital OOH, and social media, the campaign reached 231.5 million people in the first 24 hours and raised over $10 million in donations. The funds were used to provide Ukrainians with essential medical supplies, ambulances, rape kits, walkie-talkies and other resources.

CCO: Marty Martinez

ECD: Mark Mason

CWs: Krista Raspor, Benoît Losier, Craig Redmond

ADs: Mark Mason / Camilo Monzón Navas

Designer: Eve Trudel-Lévesque

BRONZE: Press Single Lifesaving Society “Battleship”

LG2

To convey the danger of drinking while boating, the Lifesaving Society created “Battleship.”

The ad, by LG2, features a single powerful image of a person floating beside an empty boat, save for a few empty cans, alongside a set of familiar words used in the classic naval combat game Battleship: Hit and sunk.

CCOs: Marc Fortin, Luc Du Sault

CD: Frédéric Tremblay

ADs: Mario Pesant, Philippe Leduc

CW: Guillaume Bergeron

Bobby Sahni | Ethnicity Matters

A NOTE FROM THE MULTICULTURAL CO-CHAIRS

There used to be a clear line between multicultural advertising and gen poptargeted advertising. That’s been evolving over the last few years, and new hybrid programs that champion diversity and equity are emerging that seek to appeal to all Canadians as well as speak to specific cultural communities. While more brands are focusing on developing inclusive marketing programs – and the body of work in the multicultural category continues to rise – there is a distinction between DEI-focused campaigns and investing in multicultural advertising. Just as DEI programs aim to build corporate cultures that better reflect society and ensure more voices play a part in decision-making, DEI campaigns help brands build affinity by championing inclusion and representation, targeting and seeking to influence the general population and culture in Canada. Multicultural marketing is the practice of promoting and selling products and services using a consumer-focused strategy that specifically targets diverse segments of the population. More than one million new immigrants arrived in 2022, making the business case for multicultural marketing stronger than ever. The jury was pleased to see more high-quality campaigns rooted in true cultural insights, targeting growing population segments not often seen in the category such as Black Canadians, African-Americans, Muslim Canadians, Jamaicans/West Indians and Filipinos. The production quality has also improved year over year, and it’s a testament to strong agency/ client relationships who trust each other to take bold risks. We hope to see more creative bravery from more brands that see the impact of pushing beyond ethnic stereotypes and leading with consumer and cultural insights.

Joycelyn David | AVCommunications

CO-CHAIRS

Arlene Amitirigala TrulyArlene Communications

Keka DasGupta The Art of Life-ing

Salima Jivraj Nourish Food Marketing

Cyril Kirian Barrett and Welsh

Florence Lin Koo Multicultural

Viraj Ponkshe Consultant

Nachiket Sant Response Advertising

Alan Sequeira Monsoon Communications

Niraj Sinha Maple Diversity Communications

Pierre Tang Dyversity Communications

Phoebe Yang Captus Advertising

BEST OF SHOW

GOLD: Digital

GOLD: Online Film “A Hymn Away”

Black & Abroad

Black & Abroad is a niche-audience travel brand known for its international trips to Latin America, Europe and Africa. When the pandemic created global shifts in the travel industry, Black & Abroad saw an opportunity to both focus on domestic travel and provide uplifting ways for travelers to interact directly with America’s vast network of Black-owned businesses and cultural organizations. Together with Performance Art, it created “The Black Elevation Map,” an uplifting domestic travel utility that visualizes Black cultural data as elevation. The Map is transparent and purposeful about its biased use of data, which includes Black population data, Black-owned businesses, cultural markers and social sources. The map sits on a historical continuum of Black-led design and “countermapping.” The campaign included the film “A Hymn Away,” which depicted the beauty of Black life across various U.S. cities. The campaign resulted in a 116% brand lift and 647% greater campaign awareness than the benchmark, 45.4 million impressions across paid and earned channels, a 302% increase in traffic to BlackAndAbroad.com, a 360% increase in unique visitors and a 971% increase in event sales and site merchandise.

CCO: Ian Mackenzie

ACDs: Pedro Izzo, Benson Ngo

Director (Alfredo Films): Kelly Fyffe-Marshall

CWs: Hemal Dhanjee, Tobi Adebowale, Paula Purdon, Jasmine Mans

“The Black Elevation Map” Performance Art

PUBLIC SERVICE BEST OF SHOW

GOLD: Digital

GOLD: Integrated Campaign

GOLD: Online Film

GOLD: Out-of-Home

#Elimin8Hate

“ReclaimYourName.dic”

Citizen Relations

When using software, Asian Canadians are used to seeing their names underlined in red, signifying a typo. To combat name discrimination and normalize Asian identity, Elimin8Hate, the advocacy arm of the Vancouver Asian Film Festival, launched the “ReclaimYourName.dic” campaign. With Citizen Relations, it created a custom dictionary in the form of a free Microsoft Word plug-in. The dictionary contained more than 8,000 unique monikers from over a dozen countries, sourced from online search, census data and cultural associations. The dictionary could be downloaded for free as a .dic file from namereclaim.ca and users could add their own

names to expand the databank. The campaign included a film showing the powerful, real-time reactions of several Asian Canadians who saw their name without the red underline after downloading the dictionary, and a number of paid and earned tactics. The campaign led to 208 placements, generating more than 91 million impressions. Interviews with Elimin8Hate spokespeople appeared across regional and national media outlets. Across social media, prominent Asian Canadians such as Star Trek actor Hiro Kanagawa, Top Chef Canada host Mijune Pak and TikTok star Tiana Shern expressed their support.

CCO: Josh Budd

CD/AD: Mike Lo Nam

CD/CW: Abeer Verma

Director/Photographer: Nick Wong

Editor: Andy Ferreira

GOLD: Best Use of Social Media

SILVER: Digital SILVER: Direct SILVER: Integrated Campaign

New Canadian Media

New Canadian Media’s “MISSING” campaign, developed by Barrett and Welsh, aimed to raise awareness of the need for diversity in Canadian newsrooms and the urgent need for funds to sustain its award-winning work. According to studies by the Canadian Association of Journalists in 2021 and 2022, only 21% of Canadian newsrooms employed visible minorities or Indigenous journalists in a top three leadership role. White journalists accounted for 78% of Canadian newsrooms, while 90% had no Latin, Middle Eastern or mixed-race journalists. In 2021, two out of five immigrant and refugee journalists worked as freelancers, restricted to small community media outlets or typecast as “community or minority” reporters. New Canadian Media, a non-profit immigrant journalism news organization, wanted to correct this diversity deficit. Through its fundraising campaign – deployed via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and leveraging Giving Tuesday and the giving season - New Canadian Media appealed to donors’ sense of justice to raise funds and create awareness of the inequities in Canadian news reporting. With creative designed to shock readers with its attention-grabbing headlines and intriguing text, and borrowing the visual language of a missing person poster, it was able to engage and provoke a response immediately: the campaign was successful in achieving its objectives, with a 22.3% engagement rate and 1,188 link clicks.

CCO: Gavin Barrett

CWs: Cyril Kirian, Arjun Kumar

AD: Jaideep Mahajan

“MISSING”

Barrett and Welsh

SILVER: Best Use of Social Media

SILVER: Digital SILVER: Direct SILVER: Integrated Campaign

Maple Lodge Farms

Zabiha Halal (Maple Lodge Farms) launched an open letter campaign “Dear Canada” to call out our country’s reputation for tolerance and acceptance in the face of anti-Muslim hate crimes that had become all too common. King Ursa helped create a platform for the Muslim community to share their stories and dismantle the stereotypes perpetuated by the media. The content of Zabiha Halal’s social and digital channels pivoted away from food to instead become a hub for cultural conversation and social dialogue. By amplifying Muslim voices, Zabiha Halal also cemented its status as a brand that advocates for its community. The campaign achieved 142 million impressions and 7.9 million video views, and was featured in news publications across the nation. The impact of the campaign was so great that Zabiha Halal was invited to address the Canadian Senate.

ECD: Grant Cleland

ACDs: Kevin Hoessler, Steven Tiao

CWs: Kevin Hoessler, Claire Mills

AD: Steven Tiao

“Dear Canada”

King Ursa

BRONZE: Best Use of Social Media

Rogers Communication

Loosely inspired by its official mascot and capitalizing on its youthful branding, Rogers Communication’s Fido launched “Always ON Mini Game (Virtual Pet),” an interactive game allowing users to have their own virtual pet dog to feed and pet, in various virtual environments, earning points to redeem for virtual rewards or real prizes. The game, conceived with Ethnicity Matters, was designed to engage users on WeChat – a platform where Fido has maintained a consistent presence – and build brand awareness. Users could also share the game with friends via a QR code. The game was well-received by the target audience, with over 15,000 plays and 22,000 page visits within five months of launch. The in-language execution and cultural messaging helped Fido gain more followers on its official WeChat account, resulting in higher social engagement and popularity among Chinese audiences.

SILVER: Best Use of Social Media

Rogers Communication

“Lunar New Year WeChat Promotion”

Ethnicity Matters

Rogers Communication’s Fido, with Ethnicity Matters, leveraged the Lunar New Year festival to reach Chinese communities in Canada by creating a culturally relevant mobile game on WeChat. The game was based on a Chinese traditional game, Idiom Solitaire, where family and friends would sit together and play word games relating to common Chinese idioms learned from a young age and complete word chains using the idioms. In this mobile version of the Chinese game, players were given new idioms from time to time and were required to start the next sentence with the last character of the previous one to fill in the blank spaces. Players also got e-posters of their results to share and invite more friends to join. The competitive, interactive and rewards-based elements of the game engaged over 6,000 players and increased Fido’s presence in the Chinese market, while also allowing players to reconnect with the cultural traditions and wisdom passed down through generations.

CD: Ming Zhong, CW: Kiki Zhao

CD: Ming Zhong, CW: Kiki Zhao

“Always ON Mini Game (Virtual Pet)”

Ethnicity Matters

GOLD: Branded Content

GOLD: Brochures/Print Collateral

GOLD: Promotion

SILVER: Integrated Campaign

Scotiabank

Scotiabank’s Hockey for All platform aims to make hockey more diverse, inclusive and accessible. To demonstrate its commitment, and with the help of Rethink, Scotiabank partnered with Black creators Jael Richardson and Chelsea Charles to update the classic Canadian children’s book The Hockey Sweater, by Roch Carrier, with “The Hockey Jersey.” Forty thousand copies were printed, with a distribution plan that surpassed traditional book releases. An education guide, created in partnership with a BIPOC educator, was distributed to the equity leads at school boards as an option for teachers to include in their curriculum. Upon launch, more than 200 educators requested copies in addition to braille and multilingual versions of the book.

CCO: Aaron Starkman

CSO: Sean McDonald

ECD: Mike Dubrick

CDs: Caroline Friesen, Robbie Percy, Dhaval Bhatt

AD: Ashley Park

“The Hockey Jersey” Rethink

BRONZE: Branded Content

GSK / Haleon

“Right to Rest” Wunderman Thompson

With many working Americans – including more than one-third of Black and Latina women - lacking paid sick days, Theraflu’s Rest and Recover Fund was an initiative to help prevent workers from having to decide between sacrificing wages to rest or working while ill. Last year, Theraflu (GSK / Haleon) contributed $350,000 to the fund, and this year, they created, with Wunderman Thompson, a short film, “Calling in Sick,” to raise awareness and engage people in the cause. The film features three generations of mothers affected by unpaid sick days, sharing their stories in the same way they would let their workplace know they were sick: over the phone. The film was sent to traditional and activist-focused festivals. By using film trailers, Theraflu directed people to a microsite to learn about the fund. Visitors could also share the film with a story of their own, under the hashtag #MakeRestARight. The efforts led to a 58% increase in the site’s engagement, along with increases in brand favourability, brand recommendations and purchase intent.

CCO: Cass Zawadowski

ACDs: Jer Lenz, Sucheta Shankar

AD: Freya MacIsaac

CW: Zach Kumaczow

GOLD: Digital GOLD: Holiday/Seasonal Advertising

Mina Halal (Maple Leaf Foods)

Welsh

Mina Halal’s (Maple Leaf Foods) digital ad campaign for Ramadan, “Ads That Fast with You,” used empathy to connect with Muslim Canadians in the GTA. Since Ramadan requires the community to go without food and water for 12 to 18 hours a day, the campaign ads showed empty plates moving through the sky in sync with the sun and moon during fasting hours – a white plate symbolized the moon and a yellow plate for the sun. When it was time to break the fast, the ads would show platefuls of Mina Halal chicken. Barrett and Welsh’s campaign leveraged The Weather Network’s weather-based, location-based sunrise and sunset data, combined with real-time userlocation data, to deliver customized messages to Muslim Canadians across the GTA: at sunrise, sunset and during the day, precisely for their specific locations. Multicultural media was used to target the preferred audience. Despite a $50,000 budget, the campaign surpassed all expectations and delivered 3.3 million impressions and more than 9,800 clicks. It also ended with a celebratory message that leveraged local moonrise times, celebrating the ending of the fast.

CCO: Gavin Barrett, AD: Bhupesh Luther

“Ads That Fast with You” Barrett and

Given that people rarely switch banks, attracting new Canadians is a significant opportunity for Scotiabank to boost its market share. The bank’s StartRight program provides new Canadians with a selection of cost-free products for one year to help them settle into their new home. But in a marketplace with similar offerings, it needed to find a way to distinguish itself. Rethink helped create a heartfelt campaign to appeal to new Canadians. The “First Day” hero video features scenes of a new Canadian’s first day – riding a taxi from the airport to a new home, finding places to eat, figuring out what to cook and choosing a bank advisor – while a voiceover from current day speaks to all the advice he would have given himself. The video aired on TV, cinema and online, and was supported by digital, social and OOH assets. The campaign successfully increased Scotiabank’s market share to 18% and website traffic increased by 276%. The call and online bookings for StartRight appointments were 82% higher than the previous year, with a 42% growth in account openings. Beyond the metrics, Scotiabank also earned recognition for its empathy and for tapping into the shared experiences and learnings of new Canadians.

CCO: Aaron Starkman, CSO: Sean McDonald, ECD: Mike Dubrick, CD: Dhaval Bhatt, CW: Jenai Kershaw

GOLD: Television Scotiabank

“First Day” Rethink

BRONZE: Television

Nescafé

“How the World Says Coffee” Courage

Over 50% of Canadian Nescafé consumers are diverse, many of whom have come from other parts of the world. It’s an iconic brand: every second, 5,500 cups of Nescafé are consumed around the world. In Canada, however, it’s considered just another instant coffee. In order to persuade new Canadians to love Nescafé as much as they do in the rest of the world, Courage created the film “How the World Says Coffee.” Directed by Omri Cohen, the film depicts coffee lovers around the world asking for Nescafé in various languages and in different settings: on the streets, on a farm, in homes, in street markets, on bicycles, at coffee shops, at restaurants, on boats - showcasing the rich cultural tapestry of Nescafé’s global consumer base and serving as a reminder to new Canadians to reconsider the brand. The brand saw a 5.4-point increase in its market share following the film’s launch.

BRONZE: Television

Nescafé

“Jars” Courage

To rekindle the dormant affection that new Canadians have for Nescafé, which hasn’t carried over to their new home, Courage tapped into how the product is used in their countries of origin. The “Jars” film features a series of scenes depicting the ways people of various ages reuse their Nescafé jars: as piggybanks, rain catchers, insect catchers, candle holders, flower vases and storage for pantry, craft and workshop items. The film also carries a message of sustainability: “Every empty jar is full of possibilities.” With strategic placements on stations and in digital targetting Chinese and South Asian communities, the film resonated with the new Canadian demographics. The result was a market share increase of 150 basis points and sales growth of 6%. Having experienced success in Canada, the campaign is now being adapted to be aired in other markets around the world.

CCOs: Dhaval Bhatt, Joel Holtby

ACD/CW: Hemal Dhanjee

ACD/AD: Steve Ierullo

CCOs: Dhaval Bhatt, Joel Holtby

ACD/CW: Hemal Dhanjee

ACD/AD: Steve Ierullo

BRONZE: Television

Canadian Tire

Publicis

With “Tested – Birthday Surprise,” Canadian Tire wanted to convey to audiences how quality products play an important role in how families show they love and care for one another. The television spot, by Publicis, features an Asian couple as they prepare a meal together, welcome her parents to dinner, then gift the parents a baby car seat – announcing her pregnancy. In each scene, the logo of key items pop up near the product, with the word “Tested” above each one. The voiceover speaks to how “family recipes aren’t the only things to pass down” as the cookware is shown and “because safety has never been more important” when the car seat is revealed – reminding the viewers of how we all want the best for our loved ones.

BRONZE: Television

Henkel

“Sunlight”

Juniper Park\TBWA

Henkel’s “Sunlight” campaign, by Juniper Park\TBWA, was aimed at helping newcomers to Canada feel at home, many who have never been exposed to the brand. It developed a program to donate gift packs of products to new Canadians and, recognizing that Nigerians make up one of the largest immigrant groups, it developed a TV spot that follows a Nigerian family as they go through a parent’s ups and downs of looking for a job. The end reveals the Toronto skyline, landing the idea. Every element of the ad was created with the talents and guidance of the local and overseas Nigerian community. Production designer Anita Ashiru, based in Nigeria, was involved in developing the visual look while working with the Canadian-based production crew. The casting was done with a call to the local Nigerian community and the music was composed specifically for the spot in collaboration with Nigerian-born, Juno-nominated talent, Zenesoul.

CCO: Joanna Monteiro

ECD: Vinicius Dalvi

Group CD: Victor Yves

ECD: Neil Walker-Wells, ACD: Andre Yumbla-Bell, AD: Katie Lea, Producer: Jesse Brook

“Tested – Birthday Surprise”

Rangeela

“#SukhMyDukh” Rangeela

Rangeela, a not-for-profit collective, produces some of the largest South Asian LGBTQ+ nightlife events in the world. With growing global interest, they were preparing for a world-class event in 2022 when the pandemic hit. To re-energize an audience that had grown wary of nightlife, Rangeela looked back to queer history and crafted a teaser film with a Bollywood twist to promote its events. The cheeky film was titled “Sukh My Duhk”, a Hinglish concoction which translates to “Happy My Sad” and was designed to sound phonetically crude. The film features an all-South Asian, all-LGBTQ+ cast and pays homage to queer culture, including bathhouses, poppers, Tom of Finland’s artwork and Grindr. The film was shared more than 4,000 times in its first month and led to a 45% spike in attendance for Rangeela’s Pride 2023 event. This event sold out Toronto’s historic Opera House, making it Rangeela’s highest performing year yet.

CD: Waseem Shaikh

Producers: Shazad Hai, Imran Nayani

GOLD: Online Film

BRONZE: Online Film

TD Bank

Ethnicity Matters

In 2022, Canada welcomed more than 620,000 international students. TD Bank responded to this opportunity by creating competitive banking products and incentives tailored to the segment. It enlisted Ethnicity Matters to engage South Asian and Chinese international students with a more meaningful value proposition. The result was a creative platform positioning TD as a partner in the international student journey, tied by the word “together.” The film features the milestone of students’ “First Winter” in Canada, which invokes both wonder and worry, as a winter coat is a considerable investment. It tells a classic love story (not often seen on the big screen): a young woman falls in love with a jacket and begins to see it everywhere and on everyone. The message was that students could save money on their first Canadian winter jacket using incentives, savings and bonuses from TD’s International Student Banking Package. The film launched TD’s International Student Banking offering, was viewed nearly 1.2 million times and helped TD reach its acquisition goals within the segment.

CDs: Waseem Saikh, Ming Zhong

“First Winter”

GOLD: Packaging

Pfaff Harley-Davidson

“Tough Turban: B2B Packaging”

Zulu Alpha Kilo

To provide a safe and respectful way for Sikh motorcyclists to protect themselves and their identity, Pfaff Harley-Davidson partnered with an industrial designer to create a “Tough Turban” made of impact-resistant materials. To bring this innovation to life, the team at Pfaff Harley-Davidson, with Zulu Alpha Kilo, wanted to create packaging that would capture the spirit and ingenuity of the product and make the ‘unboxing’ experience a sales tool in itself. Paper packaging – a single sheet - was designed to look like a turban and folded into an origami-like envelope, with overlapping folds on one side and flat graphic patterns on the other, so that it appeared as a replica of what a turban looks like when worn. The packaging featured graphic patterns reminiscent of the high-tech fabrics and protective materials the Tough Turban itself was made of, to capture the turban’s attributes of impact resistance, impact dispersion and rigid strength. The presentation caught the interest of Hero MotoCorp, the world’s largest maker of two-wheeled vehicles; Veluon, a product development firm; and The Trendy Singh, a maker of fashion turbans.

CCO: Zak Mroueh

Head of Design: Stephanie Yung

ACD/AD: Vic Bath

ACD/CW: Dan Cummings

SILVER: Direct SILVER: Experiential/Special Events/Stunts

Barrett and Welsh

“Tartan Turban Secret Readings” Barrett and Welsh

The “Tartan Turban Secret Readings,” by Barrett and Welsh, is a literary reading series that shines a spotlight on writers who identify as Indigenous, Black, and Persons of Colour, for whom there are few such platforms. To promote the series, a digital direct marketing campaign was created and deployed across social media and via email. Target audiences included emerging visible minority writers and their audiences, from the South Asian, Chinese, Black, Indigenous and other visible minority communities, along with allies of these communities. Key images were custom-designed to reflect the evening’s theme, with the promotional materials for each event treated as collectible works of art. The campaign was successful in attracting a discerning audience to the series, with the majority (93%) of sales driven by direct marketing engagement generated by organizer channels. The email open rate was 58.6%. By the end of the season, the series had secured funding from the League of Canadian Poets and the Canada Council for the Arts, and had drawn an audience of 429 people.

INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN

SILVER: Integrated Campaign Western Union “Boonununus” AVCommunications

Western Union sought to rebuild trust with the Jamaican community in Philadelphia after high transfer fees led to a rift and negative customer perception issues created a large gap in the market. With the help of AVCommunications, the goal was to create awareness of Western Union’s $0 transfer fee for Jamaicans to send money home. To accomplish this, they used the word ‘Boonununus,’ coined by the late Jamaican cultural icon Louise Bennett-Coverley, also known as Miss Lou. The term is used to describe something delightful and pleasing that can refer to a person, place or gift. The campaign featured collaborations with DJ Drama, BET’s DJ of the Year, and reggae artist Mr. Vegas. The campaign was populated across multiple channels, making waves across social media, digital banners, POS, TV and in the community through activations at Jamaican-owned businesses. The campaign earned over 11 million impressions, 1.36 million total views and a 4.75% engagement rate on Facebook.

Creative Team: Zeno Lam, Hassan Iqbal, Shaharyar Irfan, Kiran Iftakhar, Joyce Lau, Jan Uzun, Zhanna Bondar, Arlene Amitirigala

CCO: Gavin Barrett

Creative Group Head, Art: Bhupesh Luther

AD: Andrea Lau

CWs: Andy Wong, Caroline Yao

Designer: Tiffany Lai

SILVER: Print

Telus / Google

Copy” Response Advertising

The Google Pixel 6a boasts a real time translation feature which allows messages on chat applications to be converted into the language of choice. To communicate this feature to the Chinese immigrant population in Canada, Telus and Google created an innovative print ad and placed it in high Chinese readership publications. The “Carbon Copy” ad, by Response Advertising, consisted of three pages: one which carried the message in English, the back of the page showing the carbon imprint and the immediate next page featuring the message translated into Chinese.

Media Director: Arpit Dwivedi

Designer: Tiffany Lai

AD: Andrea Lau

SILVER: Out-of-Home

Telus / Google

“Translation Minus Translation” Response Advertising

With the “Translation Minus Translation” campaign, Telus and Google wanted to make the Chinese immigrant population in Canada aware of the real time translation feature of Google Pixel 6a. Response Advertising came up with an innovative OOH experience that translated the message in real-time, just like the phone; it used lenticular printing, which allows an image to appear to be changing or moving. As the audience passed by the various installations, the message displayed in English would, after a step or two, translate into Chinese. The campaign was a success, resulting in 38 million impressions and 35% above average recall.

“Carbon

BRONZE: Print Arbor Memorial

Arbor Memorial, which offers cemetery and funeral services, wanted to communicate to the Chinese community the importance of planning for death while remaining sensitive to the cultural taboo around the subject. Knowing that rain, in Chinese culture, evokes both happiness and sadness, AVCommunications based its print concept on being prepared for both. For the “After the Rain” campaign, an umbrella acted as a metaphorical device to represent the duality of life. Noting that the community has one umbrella for sunny days and another for rainy days, the print ad juxtaposes an orange umbrella against green grass on a sunny day to represent life, and a black umbrella against dark puddles on a rainy day to represent death – with a message urging users to always be prepared. The ad campaign garnered 300,000 impressions in a span of one month, and the concept was further translated to all other channels, becoming the main visual image of the Arbor Memorial campaign.

SILVER: Print Telus / Google

“Translation: A Piece of Art” Response Advertising

The Google Pixel 6a phone has a unique feature of real time translation. To communicate this to Chinese immigrants in Canada, Telus and Google developed

“Translation: A Piece of Art.” The campaign, by Response Advertising, was inspired by the symmetrical drawings we did as kids: paint on one side of a page, then fold it, thereby replicating the same symmetrical design on the other page. For the campaign, the print ad was designed using a butterfly motif, reminiscent of a child’s painting. On one wing, the message was in English, while the other wing had the same message translated into Chinese.

Creative Team: Zeno Lam, Hassan Iqbal, Xiafan Li, Liu Young, Maureen Tang, Ainee Kalim, Candice Tong

VP/CD: Nachiket Sant , CWs: Andy Wong, Caroline Yao, Designer: Tiffany Lai, AD: Andrea Lau

“After the Rain” AVCommunications

BRONZE: Holiday/Seasonal Advertising

TD Bank

TD Bank wanted to celebrate Lunar New Year with the Chinese-Canadian community and strengthen its equity among them. The “Lunar New Year – Traditions Loved by Generations” campaign, by Koo, aimed to generate awareness of TD’s services and show the new sense of optimism and celebration that everyone is feeling after the pandemic. The campaign reflected how generations come together to celebrate the festival. It was communicated in English, Cantonese, Mandarin and French, through OLV/TVC, digital banners, social posts, OOH and in-branch digital screens. The commercial shows vignettes of a couple preparing for and celebrating Lunar New Year – cleaning the house, putting up decorations, serving food to their visiting parents, giving lucky red packets – as their two kids horse around. The voiceover at the end says, “May Lunar New Year traditions bring blessings to every generation” as the kids, in costumes, dance with their grandfather, and the family cheers them on.

CD, VP Business Lead: Jessica Borges

Designer: Tom Ng

Film Production: Kelvin Mok

Director: Angie Su

“Lunar New Year – Traditions Loved by Generations” Koo

CO-CHAIRS

A NOTE FROM THE DESIGN CO-CHAIRS

When asked to be co-chairs of the Marketing Awards for the 2023 Design jury, we couldn’t have been more excited. We took it as an opportunity to select a distinctly design-focused jury, who have dedicated their careers to pushing what design is, in Canada and beyond. A designer’s designer if you will. Our goal was to invite new voices to the design awards table to expand the conversation on the role and impact of design today. It was a blast! Amongst the jury, the dialogue was rich and lively. There were no elephants in the room, just curious minds. We debated, we challenged and most of all, we awarded some amazing work. Props to the jury for their consideration and diligence to truly understand the judging criteria for each category. The process was engaging, but not easy. The work was inspiring. Forty-two entries were shortlisted across 11 design categories. Each project was assessed individually and then reviewed in the context of other finalists within each category. After two days of deliberation, five projects rose to the top and were awarded Golds. It was a privilege to co-chair the 2023 Design Jury. A sincere thank you to the shortlist jury and to the live jury. You made us proud! A special thank you to the Marketing Awards team for the invitation to lead the Design Jury and for your stellar support and advice. You made the task rewarding.

SHORTLIST JURY

Jan Avendano

Art & Mechanical

Chris Braden

Public Address

Shawn Lambino

Anomaly

Michael Mavian

Sid Lee

Ming

Mikaeo Associate Design Director

Jay

Wall Briteweb

Christine

Mangosing CMANGO DESIGN

Jacqueline Lane | Whitman Emorson

Howard Poon | DDB

Alex Boland Bruce Mau Design

Sarah Di Domenico Wedge

Victoria Di Valerio No Fixed Address

Dani Hall Design of Brand

Rasna Jaswal Broken Heart Love Affair

Norma MacDonald Engine Digital

Mario Mercier Compagnie et Cie

Dylan Staniul Burnkit

Teresa Tam Creative Director, Design

Hans Thiessen Rethink

Blair Thomson Believe in

THE M FOR MPACT AWARD: SPECIAL JURY PRIZE GOLD: Websites/Apps/Mobile

Black & Abroad

Although best known for international trips, Black & Abroad created “The Black Elevation Map” to focus on domestic travel given the upheaval caused by both the pandemic and the mainstreaming of the conversation around systemic racism. The data-driven map, by Performance Art, created a way to see and navigate the U.S. in a way that centres both Black users and the country’s Black-owned businesses and cultural organizations. The project features more than 30,000 points of interest and allows users to save favourites and explore dozens of curated guides. The map, a crafted patchwork of interwoven data and technologies, sits on a historical continuum of Black-led design and “counter-mapping,” a map-making practice interested in charting Black geographies. The map serves as an uplifting domestic travel utility that visualizes Black cultural data as elevation.

CCO: Ian Mackenzie, ACDs: Pedro Izzo, Benson Ngo, ECD: Colin Craig, CWs: Hemal Dhanjee, Tobi Adebowale, Paula Purdon, Jasmine Mans, Designer: Joe Szabo

“The Black Elevation Map” Performance Art

GOLD: Brand Identity

BRONZE: Packaging

Keurig Dr Pepper

“Canada Dry” Wedge

To modernize Keurig Dr Pepper’s Canada Dry, Wedge took the key brand attributes - such as its signature colour, badge and crown – and combined them with a newly-designed custom wordmark to strengthen the brand. The wordmark featured a heritage-inspired typographic choice of a sharp serif to create a sense of flow. Consumer research revealed that the new design was easier to identify on shelves due to its simplicity, while simultaneously feeling like it was unchanged.

SILVER: Graphics

BRONZE: Brand Identity

RGD

RGD DesignThinkers is Canada’s largest annual conference for designers. The brand identity for the event challenged designers to “Defy” what they know. Words were paired with customized symbols in a playful way, designed to spark thought. The design was limited to the two RGD brand colours to show how even a restricted sandbox could yield a beautiful design. The brand identity worked across mediums and made its way onto the stage and into the speakers’ content. The graphic system consisted of 50 unique symbols drawn by four different designers.

ECD: Kristian Manchester

CDs: Olivier Valiquette, Lee Bradley Getty

CD: Eva Polis

ADs: Howard Poon, Dax Fullbrook, Adnan Huseinovic

Designers: Hilary Zak, John Naboye, Mike Berson

BRONZE: Graphics

Canadiens de Montréal “OG1”

Sid Lee

As a way to create a connection between the Montreal Canadiens and a Gen Z audience that neither loves nor cares about hockey, Sid Lee created “OG1,” a sub-brand that celebrates Montreal not for its hockey exploits, but for being a city of originals. The brand narrative was based on the themes Gen Z values: individuality, self-expression and originality. The name stood for the Original One, a play on the “Original Six,” the name given to the six oldest franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL); the Montreal Canadiens is the oldest, its creation preceding the NHL itself. Every character of the acronym OG1 was inspired by original, sports or cultural ideas that define the city. The Canadiens reached out to a number of Montreal-born brands, businesses and individuals to borrow visual assets and transform OG1 into a canvas for original Montreal stories.

GOLD: Packaging

LG2

La Tablée des Chefs is a non-profit organization that has been fighting food insecurity and educating young people about food autonomy for 20 years. To celebrate this milestone, it launched “The Solidarity Sparkles,” a limitededition sparkling apple must. LG2 created 20 bottles of the same apple must but with 20 different labels, each featuring an apple depicted in a uniquely whimsical style and a limited colour palette. Every label illustrated one of La Tablée’s good works and a QR code led to text highlighting the organization’s culinary actions and community involvement.

ECD:

AD:

CW:

La tablée des chefs

“The Solidarity Sparkles20 Years of Solidarity”

CCOs: Marc Fortin, Luc Du Sault

David Kessous

Pascale Alie-Crête

Laurence Hervieux-Gosselin

SILVER: Packaging BRONZE: Brand Identity

Ami Ami “Ami Ami” Wedge

To reduce its environmental impact, Ami Ami, a French winemaker, created a 1.5L box of wine that reduces the carbon footprint by 50% (when shipped) compared to a standard wine bottle. To change the negative association of wine boxes, Wedge approached each panel on the box as an opportunity to delight, with the aim of creating an overall feeling of being modern, unfussy and friendly. The logo was designed for a box: its proportion and shapes were conceived in parallel to the packaging design’s format and proportions. The box itself was designed to be half the size of traditional boxed wine in order to stand out on shelves with its portability and cuteness. To show the number of glasses available in each box, the logomark featured 10 cups in a playful pattern. To draw attention to facts on its sustainability impact, friendly illustrations were used, inspired by the Italian artist Fortunato Depero, known for his Futurism style and vintage Campari characters. The main typeface was inspired by those found on French wine crates.

GOLD: Promotion

Kraft Heinz

“Ketchup A.I.”

Rethink

To connect with younger consumers, Kraft Heinz launched a campaign for its ketchup using the A.I. image generator DALL-E 2, after discovering that the prompt for ‘ketchup’ would inevitably result in images of bottles resembling Heinz. The campaign, by Rethink, took to social media for suggestions for Heinz mashup image prompts and generated visuals from them. This included images such as “ketchup in space”, “ketchup cubism” and “psychedelic ketchup”. The A.I. images were featured on social media, in a long format video, on special edition bottles, and in an art gallery in the metaverse and in person. The campaign generated over 1.15 billion earned impressions and had a 38% higher engagement rate on social media than benchmarks. Even brands such as Ducati and Sportsnet chimed in with A.I. Ketchup image mashup requests.

CCOs: Aaron Starkman, Mike Dubrick

CDs: Xavier Blais, Zachary Bautista

Designer: Alex Fleming

SILVER: Promotion

BRONZE: Brochures/Print Collateral

Penguin Random House “The Unburnable Book” Rethink

Penguin Random House, the world’s largest Englishlanguage book publisher, launched “The Unburnable Book” in response to unprecedented levels of book banning in U.S. schools and libraries. The book was a one-of-a-kind, fireproof edition of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Printed on Cinefoil pages and using heat-resistant inks and bound with nickel wire, the materials used to create the book were stable up to 2600°F. The campaign, by Rethink, featured a video of Atwood attempting to burn her own book with a flamethrower. The single edition was auctioned at Sotheby’s New York and raised US$130,000 for PEN America, an organization that promotes freedom of expression. With the story going global and reaching a 12 billion impression earned media value of $35 million, the book also landed back on the bestsellers list.

BRONZE:

YWCA

“Add the M” was an initiative by YWCA Metro Vancouver that highlighted gender inequality and encouraged gender equity in the sports world. The concept was simple: take the iconic logos from men’s sports leagues and add an M in front of each one – duplicating the way W is added to the front of logos for women’s sports. The campaign, by Rethink, was launched on YWCA social channels and was supported by key sports figures and gender equity activists. People were encouraged to hack logos on Instagram and in real life, using the hashtag #addtheM. A ready audience answered the call: the Women’s Football Fan Collective, for example, added the M to the English Premier League. The campaign made headlines across the globe and achieved a total overall reach of over 102 million impressions.

CCO: Aaron Starkman, ECD: Mike Dubrick, CDs: Robbie Percy, Caroline Friesen

CCO: Aaron Starkman

ECD: Mike Dubrick

CD: Leia Rogers

Promotion

SILVER: Sustainability

BRONZE: Brand Environment

Carrefour Solidaire

“Serres de rue”

Sid Lee X Au / Lab X Carrefour Alimentaire

To explore new and more sustainable ways to use urban land, Carrefour Solidaire launched “Serres de rue,” which means street greenhouses, and installed them directly on the streets of Montreal. The campaign, by Sid Lee X Au/Lab X Carrefour Alimentaire, transformed car shelters into passive solar greenhouses that grow fresh produce. The visual identity was based on a car shelter that grows and transforms into a logotype, as well as a series of icons and illustrations used for company materials. With circular design in mind, old traffic signs were upcycled to create a learning route along the greenhouses for pedestrians and for school groups to learn about the science behind the project, sustainable ways to grow food and public policies that could be changed to allow the spread of similar initiatives. Gardening tools for the greenhouses were built from the same traffic signs. The first few crops were distributed to local low-income communities, and the project will continue to grow and organize school visits in the future.

Designers: Benjamin Lamingo, Charlotte Boisclair

AD: Jean-François Mayrand

CD: Marie-Elaine Benoit

Léa Clermont-Dion, La Ruelle Films

Janette Bertrand is a renowned figure in Quebec culture, known for her progressive views on women’s emancipation. Her story was told in the documentary “Janette and Daughters” presented on Télé-Québec. The visual identity for the documentary reappropriated the patriarchal codes of the time by putting women at the forefront. With custom typography, by Sid Lee, each chapter began with a business card Bertrand might have used - her titles include journalist, actor, screenwriter, feminist, author and psychologist - and allowed the documentary to move between different decades. The women interviewed in the film also got a unique typographic style, with a letter from each name designed to stand out and take its own place. The visual universe, simultaneously avant-garde and retro, was created by an all-female team.

CD: Isabelle Allard

AD: Cécile Tousignant

Designer: Gabriella Perrino

SILVER: Typography

“Janette & Daughters”

Sid Lee

BRONZE: Brand Environment

Sid Lee

Sid Lee

The Sid Lee Biosquare is a complex office space located at the base of Place Ville Marie in Montreal. The new office for its 400 workers consists of four quadrants and three floors. To help staff navigate the large space, Sid Lee developed a signage system that used elevation and the four cardinal directions to indicate a precise location. Each floor was designed with nature-centric inspiration along with its own specific color, room naming system, materials, style elements, design choices and layout. The Underground features sombre, minerallike details inspired by subterranean spaces like caves and mines; the Ground features vegetation and wood, reflecting places like jungles and forests; and details on the Upperground evoke both sky and space.

CD Design: Marie-Élaine Benoit

CD Motion: Olivier Valiquette

ADs: Annik Bouchard, Audrey-Claude Roy

CWs: Shane Patrick, Mélodie Karama

WEBSITES/APPS/MOBILE

BRONZE: Websites/Apps/Mobile

Relief

Cossette

Relief is an organization with a mission to open the door to discussion, education, and mental health self-management. To build awareness, allow for accessibility and encourage people to take charge of their mental health, Cossette created “The Diary of Louise.” The project features Louise, a fictional character living with anxiety whose story is depicted through line drawings and text. The team had to ensure Louise’s emotions authentically represented the ups and downs of someone with a mental health issue while integrating Relief’s tools and services into the experience. The solution also had to allow Relief to produce 50 stories over a one-year period. The agency used Webflow for the website, leveraging everything it had to offer and tweaking it to achieve its vision.

“Biosquare”

CD: Frédéric Lord, AD: Marlène Dulude, Illustrator: Ève Chenette, CW: Charles Saliba-Couture

“The Diary of Louise”

CO-CHAIRS

A NOTE FROM THE CRAFT CO-CHAIRS

Jealous rage is always the truest measure of great work. As creatives, whenever we see someone else produce something beautiful, smart, disruptive, surprisingly delightful, shockingly original and nearly perfect, we get insanely jealous that we didn’t think of it or make it first. There was a lot of jealousy in the jury room this year. The work being produced in Canada doesn’t feel like work that needs a disclaimer, excusing it as work produced in a smaller market with smaller budgets for smaller brands. A lot of the work that won this year will go on to win at the international shows. When we were asked to co-chair the Marketing Craft jury, we looked back at the past year’s winners. The calibre of Canadian talent is getting stronger every year, and this year continued that trend. Of the work submitted, we saw a lot of great cinematography, direction, sound design, music, editing, copywriting and art direction. In this virtual jury room, no award came easy. There was a lot of great debate. The big questions for all the work was, “How did this great execution serve the idea? Was it relevant? Was it meaningful? Was it great craft, except for that one thing that kinda let it down? Was it great craft, except that Droga5 did something like it in 2005…?” et cetera, et cetera. Knowing the best work was going on to win on the biggest stages for advertising was the bar. So, if you won Gold, congratulations, your work made us insanely jealous. And you held the bar high for our industry.

Vapor Music

Outsider Editorial

Spears & Arrows

Creative/Art Director

Rob Sweetman | 123w

Eva Van den Bulcke | Septième

Gavin Alexander

Kristina Anzlinger

Christina Hodnet

Evaan Kheraj Photographer

Rose Sauquillo

Louise Villanueva Media.Monks

SHORTLIST JURY

Nick Asik Creative Director

Stuart Campbell Mantl

Paul-Étienne Côté Circonflex

Francesco Grandi Ogilvy

Shenny Jaffer Smile + Wave

Laura Kim Forsman & Bodenfors

Steve Mottershead Artjail

Alanna Nathanson G&G Advertising

Neal Owusu Grey

Mark Rajakovic Rajakovic Electric

Raj Ramnauth Nimiopere

Ann Rubenstein Content Producer

CRAFT BEST OF SHOW

GOLD: Art Direction

GOLD: Direction

GOLD: Editing

SILVER: Copywriting

SILVER: Editing “Immortal 90”

Royal Ontario Museum

Broken Heart Love Affair

In the Royal Ontario Museum’s “Immortal” video, by Broken Heart Love Affair, key moments and milestones in human history – both as a collective and as individuals – are depicted through a series of eerie, slow-motion set pieces that appear to take place underwater and are lit by a single source of natural light. The film begins with a big bang, a burst of light and a baby splashing into water before floating peacefully. “My mother is 4 billion, 600 million-years-old. She is the mother of the seas, the land, life itself,” says the voiceover. Humans appear to be standing on the bottom of the ocean, their hair floating the way it would in water, as the voiceover talks about the range of human emotions. It continues: “I will paddle the rivers of Turtle Island,” as an Indigenous man rows a canoe while seemingly suspended in the water. Battles are depicted by individual men wearing uniforms from different eras fighting each other, including one between a Black man and a police officer in riot gear. Skillful editing and direction build tension and drama throughout the six-minute film, which evokes both the beauty and awfulness of the human experience. The video ends with the words “I will give birth and I will die. But I will live on in what I leave behind,” as a series of artifacts from the ROM are shown in quick succession.

CCOs: Denise Rossetto, Carlos Moreno, Todd Mackie Director (Scouts Honour): Mark Zibert

Copywriter: Denise Rossetto Editor (Nimiopere Editorial): Graham Chisholm

VFX Artist (Motif Studios): Craig Parker

“Immortal”

THE M FOR MPACT AWARD: SPECIAL JURY PRIZE

Muskrat Magazine

“Missing Matoaka” BBDO

Stereotypes about Indigenous women lead to violence. One of the most harmful stereotypes is the misrepresentation of Pocahontas, as depicted in the animated movie of the same name. To counter the popular narrative, Muskrat Magazine, with BBDO, created “Missing Matoaka,” a project that presented an alternative audio track to be played with the movie. The project also replaced the name “Pocahontas” with “Matoaka,” which she was also known by. The entire film was rerecorded from an Indigenous perspective: it was written by Indigenous writers, voiced by Indigenous actors, with music composed and performed by Indigenous artists. Screenwriter Lauren DeLeary said: “Matoaka, also known as Pocahontas, was the first documented missing and murdered Indigenous woman.”

CCO: Max Geraldo

AD: Olga Netaeva

Screenwriters: Camille Beaudoin, Lauren DeLeary

Sound Director and Composer (TA2): Steve Gadsden

GOLD: Copywriting

SILVER: Direction

SILVER: Editing

SILVER: Music

SILVER: Cinematography

White Ribbon

Bensimon Byrne / Narrative / OneMethod

CCO: Joseph Bonnici

CDs: David Mueller, Debbie Chan (Narrative)

CWs: Megan Radisa, Sophia Wilby (OneMethod)

Director (Untitled Films): Hubert Davis

Director of Photography

(Untitled Films): Kiel Milligan

Editor (Rooster Post): Michelle Czuker

VFX CD (Fort York VFX): Mike Bishop

Audio Director (Berkeley Inc): Jared Kuemper

White Ribbon, the world’s largest movement to end gender-based violence and promote healthier masculinity, based “I Knew All Along,” by Bensimon Byrne, Narrative and OneMethod, on the revelation that a majority of men in a commissioned survey said that having a daughter made them more concerned about issues women face. The opening shot is a dad holding his baby daughter. He speaks lovingly to her in the voiceover about never having felt so much love and fear: “Fear for you to grow up, to meet certain people, to hold your own. I didn’t know what could happen to you.” As he speaks, various scenes show her growing up, being harassed in school hallways, on the street, at work – focussing on her and her reactions. The script and the camera angles are then flipped. The same scenes are shown, this time showing what she sees, which is the person who is harassing her – and each time, it’s the younger version of the dad. The dad’s voiceover is overlaid on these scenes: “But looking back on my life, and the things that I’ve done, I did know. I knew all along.” In the last scene, the dad’s face registers the reality of what his daughter faces.

“I Knew All Along”

SILVER: Copywriting

Zulu Alpha Kilo

“Left-Handed Mango Chutney” Zulu Alpha Kilo

Zulu Alpha Kilo’s “Left-Handed Mango Chutney” spoofs the industry of advertising awards. The ad begins with a brain surgeon telling the story of how he saved a patient’s life to dinner guests, who are duly impressed. When another dinner guest is asked what he does, he tells them he works in advertising and is working on a case study, which he explains are submitted for awards to show how successful a campaign is. He created a left-handed mango chutney - for a small chutney company for National Left Handers’ Day – a product none of the guests has heard of. He cites campaign stats, for impressions and brand engagement, which are met with awkward silence. Another guest pipes up that she, too, works in advertising. “I wrote the beer ad where the horse farts,” she explains – an ad everyone immediately recognizes because it went viral. The guests mimic the fart noises, eliciting laughter from everyone except the ad guy. A line appears on screen: “Let’s award work real people love.”

BRONZE: Copywriting

Harry Rosen

To promote its new line of golf apparel, Harry Rosen, the Canadian luxury menswear retailer, created the “Hijacking the Masters” campaign. The series of ads, by Zulu Alpha Kilo, ran during the Masters golf tournament and were made to look and sound identical to real golf coverage – from the camera angles to the graphics –except the two-man commentary focused purely on various player’s outfits. The ads included lines such as:

“Well Tim, he’s worked really hard at his shirt game and that delicate pink polo is pure finesse” and “Yeah, that palm tree pattern is a high-risk, high-reward play Tim. But he makes it look effortless.” The event was also live-tweeted, with comments made exclusively about the golfer’s clothes. The campaign resulted in a 350% increase in golf clothing searches and 40% growth in the polo category.

CCO: Zak Mroueh

ECD: Wain Choi

CD/CW: George Ault

CD/AD: Jacob Gawrysiak

CCO: Zak Mroueh

ACD/CW: Jonah Flynn

ACD/CD: Michael Siegers

“Hijacking the Masters”

Zulu Alpha Kilo

BRONZE: Copywriting

Scotiabank “The Hockey Jersey” Rethink

Scotiabank’s Hockey for All platform aims to make hockey more diverse, inclusive and accessible. To demonstrate its commitment, and with the help of Rethink, Scotiabank partnered with Black creators Jael Richardson and Chelsea Charles to create “The Hockey Jersey,” an updated version of the classic Canadian children’s book The Hockey Sweater, by Roch Carrier. Every aspect of the book - the characters, illustrations and storyline - was crafted to increase representation. Among the opening lines: “Kareema rushes into the rink, carrying the bag her neighbour gave her.” The story later continues: “Inside the changeroom, Camilla pulls on a brand-new pair of shin pads and Hana slides on red socks that her brother brought home from his first year at college. Sam wiggles on hockey pants, sliding their fingers over the patch their grandmother stitched on with careful crooked hands.

Meatloaf” Sid Lee

For its annual holiday campaign, IGA created “The Meatloaf” with Sid Lee. The heartwarming 3D animated film shows a family’s humorous attempts over the years to avoid eating the meatloaf a beloved aunt brings – allowing the family dog to eat it instead. After the aunt passes, the family recreates the meatloaf – out of love for her and the tradition - only to discover that the aunt knew all along they were pretending to eat her food. To evoke the warmth of family and the holiday, a friendly cast of characters with knubby noses was created and great attention was paid to the details found in and outside of a home during the season.

CCO: Aaron Starkman

ECD: Mike Dubrick

CDs: Caroline Friesen, Robbie Percy, Dhaval Bhatt

CW: Aman Soin

ECD: Alex Bernier

CDs: David Lambert, Julie Desrochers

Director (Tonic DNA) : Joe Bluhm

3D Animation Artists (Tonic DNA): Angel Canales, Andrés Armstrong, Rasika Jayawardene, Fabien Fulchiron, Juan Paulo Mardónez, Sebastião Lopes, Guilherme Afonso, Salvador Artero, David Omair, Emma Manske, Ahmed Adel, Sreeparna Basu

SILVER: Animation

BRONZE: Animation

Air Canada

To increase brand favourability after the pandemic-driven travel chaos of 2020, Air Canada developed “The Stopover,” by FCB. The animated film used a loon, an iconic Canadian character, to connect with audiences during the holiday season. The film follows a baby loon who gets lost while flying with his family, but finds a wooden toy duck in a house to keep it company. While sleeping, the baby loon gets swept up with the toy duck into Santa’s sleigh and, on that journey, is able to reunite with its family. CGI was used to ensure the characters and settings would be life-like while retaining an element of charm. The aim was to make every detail rich in texture, rather than cartoonish. Even a separate script was drafted, dedicated only to lighting.

BRONZE: Animation

Coca-Cola “Take a Taste” AKQA

Since its launch in 2016, Coca-Cola Zero has become a fast-growing product in CocaCola’s portfolio. To encourage people to try the product, AKQA created the ‘’Take a Taste’’ campaign, a series of 15-second, 2D animated videos featuring a graphic universe. The videos featured ‘Takers,’ small taste bud characters who live in the fridge trying to steal the CocaCola Zero. The videos were produced and created with a minimalist three-colour palette, fast camera movements and smooth character animation. The campaign was rolled out globally and adapted for various countries.

CCO: Nancy Crimi-Lamanna

ECDs: Jeremiah McNama, Andrew MacPhee

Animation Director (Zombie Studio): Paolo Garcia

Animation: Gimmick Studio, Music/Sound Design: Combustion Studio, Illustrator: Jack Teagle

“The Stopover” FCB

SILVER: Art Direction

SILVER: Cinematography

SILVER: Direction

BRONZE: Editing

BRONZE: Music

BRONZE: Visual Effects

IKEA

IKEA’s proprietary Life at Home report found that our homes have a greater influence on our wellbeing than we may think. To demonstrate this, IKEA, with Rethink, created a film called “The Troll,” which follows the story of a boy who sees a grumpy troll under a bridge and decides his home is in need of some love and attention. The film was shot in Slovenia, with particular attention focussed on seamlessly integrating the real elements, the practical troll costume, and the CGI magic. Through intentional and painstakingly detailed creative direction, editing, CGI, VFX and SFX, the spot transports the audience into a mystical environment. At the end, the troll’s home is transformed and he is happier for it. Matching the mood, the music shifts from dramatic to uplifting. The spot reached 5 million people.

CCOs: Aaron Starkman, Mike Dubrick

AD: Caroline Friesen

Director (OPC / Division Films): Nick Ball

DOP (OPC / Division Films): Daniel Voldheim

Editor (Nimiopere): Graham Chisholm

VFX Producers (House of Parliament): Lexi Stearn, Emma Hertz

Music Director (Vapor Music): Ted Rosnick

SILVER: Art Direction Booking.com

For Booking.com’s “Somewhere, Anywhere,” Zulu Alpha Kilo went with a comedic musical treatment. It features actress and comedian Melissa McCarthy as she sings from her bed about needing a vacation, before she enters the world of vacation rentals she’s checking out on her phone. Glammed up and wearing elaborate vacation-wear, hats and wigs, she sings on the balcony of a beach house, by a hotel pool, in front of a cabin in the woods, in a luxurious hotel room, perched on the edge of a hot tub by a ski hill, from inside glamping tent, on a beach - among other locations. Each location showcases a kitschy or unique set design: the hotel room features bright yellow walls, a giant painting and a massage therapist dressed in different shades of pink; sun umbrellas by the poolside match the fuchsia colour of the surrounding flowers. Saturated in colours that pop, the film’s art direction screams fun, good times and vacay fantasy.

CCO: Tim Gordon

CDs/ADs: Vic Bath, Rachel Goss

CDs/CWs: Dan Cummings, Ross Wolinsky

Director (Arts and Sciences LA): Alex Prager

Composer (Barking Owl Sound): Drew Gasparini

“The Troll” Rethink

“Somewhere, Anywhere”

Zulu Alpha Kilo

SILVER: Cinematography

SILVER: Editing

SILVER: Sound Design

BRONZE: Direction

Cannabis Amnesty “Legalize Us”

Although cannabis became legal in Canada in 2018, those convicted of possession before then were still considered convicted criminals and shut out of employment opportunities. The “Legalize Us” film was created for Cannabis Amnesty by Cossette as part of a larger campaign to bring attention to this injustice. The film follows the nerve-wracking journey of a man as he goes for a job interview - using flashbacks to reflect his experiences including his arrest for possession of marijuana - only to be injured when he runs inexplicably into an invisible barrier to the office where the interview takes place. Skillful editing, cinematography and direction create an impactful narrative, with the drama elevated by a heightened sound track.

ECD: Anthony Atkinson

CDs: Kevin Filliter, Anthony Atkinson, Theo Gibson

Director (Magic Circle Workshop & Common Good): Christo Anesti

DOP (Magic Circle Workshop & Common Good): Ali Khurshid

Editor (Common Good): Red Barbaza

Lead VFX Artist (Common Good): Alex Avram

Sound Design and Mix CD (Berkeley Inc): Jared Kuemper

BRONZE: Cinematography

Go RVing Canada

Broken Heart Love Affair

Go RVing Canada’s “You Are Out There” film, by Broken Heart Love Affair, features a man doing what so many dream of: ditching the daily office grind and living a life surrounded by nature. Instead of taking the subway home from work, the man literally runs the other way, tossing away his briefcase and suit jacket as he heads out of the city on foot. Steady camera shots in the city give way to handheld shots as he sheds his belongings. The grey and blue tones of urban life transition to sundappled earth tones outside of the city. In the woods, the man stumbles upon another version of himself, which he chases but doesn’t catch up to until they both jump off a cliff and into the water, hugging each other and crying –a baptism or rebirth of sorts. The alternate version of the man emerges on the other side of the water. He smiles when he sees a picturesque scene of people camping out with their RVs, and walks towards them.

CCOs: Todd Mackie, Denise Rossetto, Carlos Moreno, Director (OPC): Natalie Rae, DP (OPC): Matthew Ballard , VFX Artist (Darling VFX): Paul Binney

“You Are Out There”

SILVER: Sound Design Canada’s Organ and Tissue Donation Community

“The Donated Commercial” DonerNorth

While 90% of Canadians support organ donation, only 32% are registered to do so. To educate people about the lost potential of organs, Canada’s Organ and Tissue Donation Community, with DonerNorth, created a radio spot using pieces donated parts from over 40 commercials to demonstrate how organ donation works. The message needed to be clearly understood while highlighting that all the parts had been transplanted from elsewhere. Hundreds of old commercials were reviewed in order to find the right phrases to create a message that flowed together. The sound engineers then spliced the segments together and balanced them out. People responded positively to the commercial, with a 95% completion rate, an 87.5% increase in Spotify’s average clickthrough rate, and 79% of people registering to donate their organs.

ECDs:

Casey House, a hospital for those living with and at risk of HIV, used the power of fear to demonstrate the devastating impacts of stigma. “Others,” by Bensimon Byrne and Narrative, is a short horror film that makes up part of Casey House’s #smashstigma campaign and features a professional actor living with HIV who was intentionally cast as the lead protagonist. The film follows the character and the anxiety he experiences in different scenarios throughout the day: when he is encouraged to jump off a cliff into water, when he reluctantly accepts a ride from a stranger when he has a flat tire. The music and sound design are meant to unsettle viewers by heightening sensitivity to the sounds of cicadas, the wind and small movements.

CCO: Lance Martin

Adam Thur, Rica Eckersley

Audio CD (Berkeley Inc): Jared Kuemper

CCO: Joseph Bonnici, CDs: David Mueller, Gints Bruveris, Director (OPC): Paul Shkordoff, Composer: Kyle McCrea

BRONZE: Sound Design

Casey House “Others”

Bensimon Byrne / Narrative

SILVER: Visual Effects

BRONZE: Cinematography

Stella Artois

Anomaly

ECD/Partner: Dave Douglass

Group CD: Neil Blewett

Director (Pulse Films): Sam Pilling

DP (Pulse Films): Tom Townend

VFX Artists (The Mill): Edward Shires, Gary Driver

Stella Artois’s “Table Setters,” by Anomaly, used the concept of a ‘table flip’ to show the positive effects of taking a break from work and enjoying a meal together. A woman is working at the dining room table around dinnertime when her partner enters, carrying two glasses of beer. With no place to put them on her cluttered tabletop, she overturns the table. Everything spills off, and when the table lands right side up, a dinner for two is ready for them. After each enjoying a sip of their beer, the partner gets up and flips the table over again; this time, their friends, along with food and beer for everyone, appears. When one of their friends is distracted by his phone, the woman flips his chair over and when he lands, a beer is in his hand. To create these effects, the dinner for the couple was glued to the table and the meal was disguised under the original table top clutter that would fly off when it was overturned. For the table flip, the table was attached to wires hanging from the ceiling. Other effects included using air canons to make objects fly further and lowering actors into the scene by wires. For the friend flip, the actor was strapped into a chair while wires were used to assist with the flip, to ensure the movement was natural while ensuring the actor’s safety when he landed.

“Table Setters”

BRONZE: Visual Effects

Food Banks Canada

“Starve the Hunger” The Local Collective

Food Banks Canada launched the “Starve the Hunger” campaign to bring awareness to the issue of food insecurity. The film, by The Local Collective, begins with a voiceover: “There’s this thing. It feeds on our frustration, on our joy and devours our dreams.” Holes of various sizes appear in everyday items: a notebook, a high school locker door, across the city’s apartment and office buildings. A caterpillar crawls through some of the holes. Once people start donating and providing food, and as the film encourages audiences to donate in order to “defeat it,” butterflies flit through various scenes – a sign of hope. To create the effects, gaping holes throughout the spot were crafted by a matte painter; 3D models of the buildings and objects were used to stand in for the live action footage; then the matte paintings were tracked on to the live action footage.

MUSIC

BRONZE: Music

Royal Ontario Museum

“We Are Made of Stardust”

Broken Heart Love Affair

The Royal Ontario Museum was looking to promote the “Being Legendary” exhibition from internationally acclaimed Cree artist, Kent Monkman. Inspired by text from the exhibition, Broken Heart Love Affair called the campaign “We Are Made of Stardust,” which speaks to the Cree people’s origin story and the belief in the undying spirit. The film features an Indigenous girl who happens upon a pink comet, then crushes it to create a pigment – paint she uses to create posters that read, “We are made of stardust.” The music is both moving and dramatic, incorporating both Western and Indigenous styles, including throat singing. The campaign took cues from the exhibition’s comet narrative and Monkman’s use of cosmic, supernatural colours. The campaign was developed with input from Indigenous talent both in front and behind the camera.

CCOs: Craig McIntosh, Jaimes Zentil

AD: Jaimes Zentil

CW: Craig McIntosh

Audio CD/Sound and Mix Design (Berkeley Inc): Jared Kuemper

CCO: Matt Litzinger, CD: Omar Morson, Director (Scouts Honour): Mark Zibert, VFX Artist (Tantrum): Dominik Bochenski, Editor (Nimeopere): Graham Chisholm

BRONZE: Music Kids Help Phone “Feel Out Loud” McCann

Kids Help Phone (KHP) is Canada’s only bilingual, 24/7 e-mental health service providing free, confidential support to young people, aged 5 to 29, in a time of crisis or need. Its services extend beyond the phone to include text, chat, web resources and programs for equity-deserving groups and a peer-to-peer forum. McCann created the new platform, “Feel Out Loud,” as a way to empower young people to express their feelings in a safe and nonjudgmental space. The launch campaign features a film directed by Matilda Finn, which highlights KHP as a safe space for youth, while the music provides an eerie rendition of Björk’s “Oh So Quiet,” with its contrasting lyrics amplifying the silence of keeping emotions inside. The version of the song was created to match the deeply emotional content and mood of the film. The film depicts kids, of various ages and in different scenarios – at school, at a party, at homegrappling with tough emotions. The film ends with each kid looking at, or texting on, their phones, with the line “Give feelings a place to go. Feel Out Loud.”

BRONZE: Direction

Montreal Children’s Hospital “Walkie Talkie” Cossette

Audio

To encourage donations to the Montreal Children’s Hospital, Cossette created “Walkie Talkie,” a film demonstrating the friendship of two boys who bond over the pranks they plan together, pull on other people and then share over their walkie-talkies. When Lou is hospitalized, Max continues to execute stunts and share them over the receiver until one day, Lou doesn’t respond. Although viewers are initially led to believe Lou has died, it’s revealed he was away from his walkie-talkie in order to receive treatment, allowing Max –and the audience – a sense of relief. Throughout the film, the two young actors show the range of emotions experienced through the joys of a childhood friendship, and the potential loss of it.

Director: Benjamin Nicolas

Production House: Quatre Zero Un

CCO: Josh Stein

CDs: Mike Shuman, Athina Lalljee

Directors (TA2): Steve Gadsden, Oliver Wickham

CO-CHAIRS

A NOTE FROM THE DIGITAL CO-CHAIRS

This was the first time the Marketing Awards had a dedicated Digital jury. For us, it reflects the deepening impact of the digitally connected world we now live in. The first thing we do when we get up in the morning is reach for our mobile phones. The last thing we do before going to bed is put down our mobile phones. It is very difficult to do anything without digital. We are so dependent on it in all aspects of our daily lives. There’s no turning back. We cannot live without it. Figuring out what work best resonated within the cyber world we live in requires a different lens, but also speaks to the source code of great advertising. Is it fresh? Does this work relate to the brand? Is the final execution flawless? And as chairs who have both spent decades working abroad, we’re proud to report that the answer was often, “Yes.” Canada’s homegrown work is global worthy and does not take the back seat to anyone. With the help of the shortlist jury, we spent countless hours identifying the best ideas, and then over two days, we had the pleasure of leading 13 jurors through discussions to determine what would represent the best of the best in Canada. The work that you will see shows how talented we are and gives us hope that ideas in the increasingly pervasive and persuasive digital realm can move people and change our lives for the better.

Wain Choi | Zulu Alpha Kilo

Joanna Monteiro | Publicis

Christina Yu Ostrich

Cass Zawadowski Manulife

Marilou Aubin LG2

Andrew Bernardi CD, AD

Alice Blastorah CD, AD

Hemal Dhanjee Courage

Marty Hoefkes FCB

Michael Houldsworth Taxi

Elma Karabegovic Creative Director

Erin Kawalecki Angry Butterfly

Darian Kovacs Jelly Marketing

Sabaa Quao Cossette

Steve Savic Critical Mass

SHORTLIST JURY

Lyranda Martin Evans Fellow Human Creative Matthew May Believeco Radhika Mohandas FEED/DEPT Joshua Richards Klick Health

Jess Willis Performance Art

DIGITAL BEST OF SHOW

GOLD: Creative Use of Technology

GOLD: Integrated Web Campaign

Black & Abroad

Performance Art

In response to the pandemic, Black & Abroad shifted its focus from international to domestic travel to support Black-owned businesses and uplift Black travellers at a time when conversations about systemic racism were going mainstream. “The Black Elevation Map,” developed with Performance Art, is a travel utility that visualizes Black cultural data as elevation. The map is a crafted patchwork of interwoven data and technologies, designed to spark interest in Blackcentered domestic travel.

ACDs:

CWs: Hemal Dhanjee, Tobi

Adebowale, Paula Purdon, Jasmine Mans

Experience Designers: Joe

Szabo, Leon Mullings

“The Black Elevation Map”

CCO: Ian Mackenzie

Pedro Izzo, Benson Ngo

THE M FOR MPACT AWARD:

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE

GOLD: Social Media

Dove’s #KeepTheGrey campaign was launched within 48 hours after Lisa LaFlamme, a top national news anchor, was abruptly let go – a move many speculated stemmed from her decision to go grey during the pandemic. The campaign was a call to action to fight against the double standards women face when it comes to grey hair in the workplace. Dove (Unilever), with Edelman, quickly mobilized a social media campaign that included paid, owned and earned media. Dove turned its gold logo grey and recruited people and brands to do the same with their profile pictures. The hashtag #KeepTheGrey trended on Twitter, turning one woman’s experience into a force for change.

CCO: Anthony Chelvanathan

CDs: Mary Soroka, Shauna Roe

CSO: Laura Kim

Head of Influencer: Sara Rezaee

Unilever

“Keep the Grey” Edelman

GOLD: Creative Use of Technology

GOLD: Social Media

Smucker Foods

Leo Burnett

Smucker Food’s Milk-Bone, with Leo Burnett, tapped into a common, frustrating experience among dog owners: discovering that their pets chewed on a beloved or important item. The “Chewpon” campaign allowed pet owners to send in pictures on social of the objects their dogs chewed up - which turned out to include furniture, homework, stuffed animals and passports. In return, they would receive customized coupons for Milk-Bone treats – something dogs were allowed to chew on. The campaign proved to be Milk-Bone’s most successful social media campaign ever.

CCOs: Steve Persico, Lisa Greenberg

CD: Kohl Forsberg

CW: Aisling Penco

AD: Angelo Roldan

“Chewpons”

BRONZE: Creative Use of Technology

Kraft Heinz “Ketchup A.I.” Rethink

Kraft Heinz’s “Ketchup A.I.,” by Rethink, was the first campaign with visuals generated entirely by AI. When Heinz prompted an advanced AI image generator to create an image of what “ketchup” looked like, it generated a ketchup bottle that resembled Heinz’s bottle. People were asked to suggest Heinz mashup image prompts on social media, which were then turned into visuals by AI. The images were featured in social media, on OOH boards and at art galleries in the metaverse and in real life. A run of special edition bottles featured the label replaced with AI images.

CCOs: Aaron Starkman, Mike Dubrick

CDs: Xavier Blais, Zachary Bautista

CWs: Geoff Baillie, Xavier Blais, Aman Soin

Interactive Designer: Alex Fleming

SILVER: Augmented/Virtual Reality

HomeEquity Bank

“Metaverse Homes for Heroes” Zulu Alpha Kilo

As a meaningful way to support veterans in need, HomeEquity Bank’s “Metaverse Homes for Heroes” allowed a virtual tour of a community the bank wanted to help bring to life. Housing designs were built inside Decentraland, the 3D virtual world browser-based platform. The concept, by Zulu Alpha Kilo, was to use the Metaverse to raise funds for a real “Homes for Heroes” village, using the virtual world to shed light on the problem of homeless veterans.

CCO: Zak Mroueh

ECD: Brian Murray

CD/AD: Vic Bath

CD/CW: Dan Cummings

Metaverse Architects: Sean Ellul, Andre Causon, Aaron Zarb

APPS/MOBILE

SILVER: Apps/Mobile BRONZE: Augmented/Virtual Reality

Jeep “Jeep Code” Publicis

The “Jeep Code” campaign by Publicis employed an innovative technology that uses AI to transform Jeep’s iconic sevenslot grille into a barcode, allowing users to interact with the brand. The technology was implemented on Snapchat, to reach younger buyers. With “Jeep Code,” users could learn more about the Jeep, browse inventory, build and price their preferred model and even start the buying process on the spot, helping to streamline the purchasing journey.

CCO: Joanna Monteiro, ECD: Vinicius Dalvi, Group CD: Victor Yves, CD: Steve Turnbull

Kraft Heinz (Delimex)

“Feeding Gamers” The Kitchen

To introduce the taquitos of Kraft Heinz’s Delimex to gamers, The Kitchen decided to get in on a common gamer experience called “feeding,” the act of dying repeatedly and serving the enemy team easy wins. The campaign hacked the year’s biggest online games and met gamers in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Warzone 2.0, and Overwatch 2 Mexican special forces characters Delimex and Taquito hung out at in-game food spots, sacrificing themselves to players. Delimex then sent out coupons for free taquitos to the gamers. Twitch streamers were enlisted to join the “feast” and show gamers where to find their characters in-game, with gamers posting clips to gaming’s biggest communities.

ECD: Simon Au

CD: Damon Crate

CW: Sean Kinton

ADs: Arman Sadrzadeh, Allison Boyd

Motion Designers: Branson Schell, Conor Cicci, Daniel Corrigan

GOLD: Games

SILVER: Games

OLG

“Chatham Plays On” The Hive

Despite making history as Canada’s first all-Black team to win the Ontario Baseball Association Championship in 1934, the Chatham Coloured All-Stars was shut out of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame - five times. With “Chatham Plays On,” by The Hive, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) partnered with Major League Baseball (MLB) to resurrect the legacy of the legendary team and brought the entire 1934 team to the MLB The Show video game. The 13man roster was recreated and made available for gamers to play on PS5, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

BRONZE: Games

CCO: Nancy Crimi-Lamanna

ECDs: Jeremiah McNama, Andrew MacPhee

AD: Hussein Rumaithi

With “NXT LVL” by FCB, BMO became the first financial institution to create a channel on Twitch, the world’s largest gaming community platform. The bank appointed the world’s first Gaming Relations Specialist (GRS), responsible for providing financial education through the lens of gaming by playing popular games with gaming influencers and providing tips on topics like monetizing gaming, homeownership and budgeting. The campaign was supported with paid units on Twitch, interactive AR content and organic content.

CCO: Simon Creet, CSO: Dustin Rideout, ACDs: Mike Albrecht, Ryan Speziale

GOLD: Online Video Single – Long-Form

Muskrat Magazine

BBDO

To counter the harmful misrepresentation of Pocahontas depicted in the animated movie of the same name, Muskrat Magazine created “Missing Matoaka.” The project, by BBDO, presented an alternative audio track to be played with the movie and replaced the name “Pocahontas” with “Matoaka,” which she was also known by. The entire film was re-recorded from an Indigenous perspective: it was written by Indigenous writers, voiced by Indigenous actors, with music composed and performed by Indigenous artists.

CCO: Max Geraldo

ECD: Derek Blais

AD: Olga Netaeva

CW: Hailey Ireland

Screenwriters: Lauren DeLeary, Camille Beaudoin

“Missing Matoaka”

SILVER: Online Video Single – Long-Form

IKEA

To highlight the difference décor can make, IKEA’s “The Troll” is a cinematic tale of a young boy who decides to do a glow-up on the dim abode of the local bridge-toll troll. The video, by Rethink, whimsically demonstrates how any home, even one belonging to a monster living under a bridge, can be transformed into a comfortable, cozy place – lifting the spirits of the homeowner.

CCOs: Aaron Starkman, Mike Dubrick

ACD: Karine Doucet

CDs: Caroline Friesen, Robbie Percy

SILVER: Online Video Single – Long-Form

Penguin Random House

“The Unburnable Book”

Rethink

Penguin Random House, the world’s largest Englishlanguage book publisher, wanted to take a stand against censorship at a time when books are being banned in U.S. schools and libraries. The “Unburnable Book,” by Rethink, features the making of a fireproof edition of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale – which has been banned - and shows Atwood herself attempting to burn the special edition with a flamethrower, to no avail.

CCO: Aaron Starkman

CSO: Sean McDonald

CDs: Robbie Percy, Caroline Friesen

BRONZE: Online Video Single – Long-Form

Royal Ontario Museum “Immortal”

Broken Heart Love Affair

In the Royal Ontario Museum’s cinematic “Immortal” video, by Broken Heart Love Affair, a voiceover – accompanied by sombre, dramatic music – details key moments and milestones in human history, slow-moving set pieces that mostly take place underwater, designed to depict both collective and individual experiences. The script and accompanying images cover the range in both broad and specific strokes: “I will be beheaded. I will be a girl. I will be shamed. I will live through a pandemic. Or die in one.” The video ends with the words “I will give birth and I will die. But I will live on in what I leave behind,” as a series of artifacts from the ROM are shown in quick succession.

CCOs: Denise Rossetto, Carlos Moreno, Todd Mackie

CSO: Jay Chaney

AD: Carolos Moreno

BRONZE: Online Video Single – Long-Form

Toys’R’Us

Broken Heart Love Affair

Eschewing all the conventions of the toy retailer category – show toys, show kids playing with toys, show more toys – Broken Heart Love Affair brought the Toys’R’Us “Imagination Included” tagline to life in a spoof. An ER team came to the rescue of a bored kid, resuscitating his comatose imaginary friend with interventions like whoopie cushions – allowing them to play together again.

CCOs: Craig Mcintosh, Jaimes Zentil

CSOs: Kristy Pleckaitis, Jay Chaney

AD: Jaimes Zentil

“Mr. Ferguson”

SILVER: Online Video Single – 30s & Under

O’Select

“When It Smells, Everything Smells”

LG2

To show how the smell of cat poop can get out of hand and the need for its litter product to contain it, O’Select created “When It Smells, Everything Smells.” The video, by LG2, follows a man going through his morning routine and acting completely normal even as cat litter containing poop appears in unexpected places: the bedroom drawer, the cereal box and as a replacement to the living room carpet.

BRONZE: Online Video Single – 30s & Under

Mondou

LG2

LG2 created “Relaxayvoo” for Mondou, the biggest pet chain store in Quebec. The video shows the joy people experience when a worker lets her kittens loose in her office: colleagues cuddle with them, a man laughs when a cat ends his phone call by accident – all while a female voiceover croons a song called “Relaxayvoo.” The kicker is an exterior shot: it shows a line of people outside the Passport Office, waiting their turn.

CCOs: Marc Fortin, Luc Du Sault

CD: Geneviève Langlois

ADs: Pascal Lefebvre, Etienne Goulet

CWs: Etienne Théberge, Luc Dupéré

CCOs: Marc Fortin, Luc Du Sault

CWs: Olivier Giguère, Martin Charron

AD: Colin Beaudin

GOLD: Social Media

PepsiCo Foods

Citizen Relations

Cheetos lovers know all about the iconic orange dust found on their fingers after eating a bag of chips but few are aware of the official term for the dust: Cheetle. So PepsiCo Foods Canada, with Citizen Relations, erected a 17-foot statue of a hand holding a Cheetos Puffs snack in the tiny Alberta hamlet of Cheadle –“Cheetle in Cheadle.” The statue caught the attention of the public and drew tourists, and even got a mention by actor Don Cheadle. Mentions of “Cheetle” increased by 1,750% and Cheetos Puff snacks experienced a 23% increase in national sales.

CCO: Josh Budd

AD: Shirley Xu Wang

CW: Marly Dichter

“Cheetle in Cheadle”

GOLD: Social Media

Destination Québec Cité

LG2

Seeing how the stunning scenery of Sicily was highlighted in season 2 of The White Lotus, Destination Québec Cité wondered if it could be showcased in the same light. “The Winter Lotus,” by LG2, was the first tourism brochure positioned as a location pitch to the producers of the show, citing the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac, the St. Lawrence and “the magic of winter” among the compelling reasons. The total cost of the campaign was $5,000, yet reached more than 16 million people.

CCOs: Marc Fortin, Luc Du Sault

ECD: Geneviève Langlois

CD: Alexandre Jourdain

AD: Gabrielle Turcotte

CW: Christian O’Brien

“The Winter Lotus”

SILVER: Social Media

Campbell’s “Brothtails”

Leo Burnett

To get millennial foodies to think of Campbell’s in a new light, Leo Burnett collaborated with mixologists – rather than chefs - to highlight the unique possibilities of the modern broth flavours that had yet to grab their attention. “Brothtails” featured four cocktails made with its new broths: margaritas with Pork Ramen Broth, daiquiris with Mushroom Broth, mango bourbon sours with Pho Broth and negronis with Thai Chicken broth. The campaign led to a 1,600% increase in organic engagement, 69% increase in brand mentions and more than 46 million impressions.

CCOs: Lisa Greenberg, Steve Persico

Group CD: Ryan Lawrence

AD: Angelo Roldan

CWs: Ryan Lawrence

CSO: Tahir Ahmad

BRONZE: Social Media

Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism

“Come Home 2022” Target

“Come Home 2022” was a year-long campaign led by Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism to encourage its citizens across the country to return home, rather than travel elsewhere. To get national reach on a small budget, Target made use of the social media networks of friends and family back home. The campaign launched with a video depicting what makes Newfoundland and Labrador unique, and encouraged locals to invite friends and family back home by tagging them in posts. As organic content was generated, paid media was used to boost posts, creating a feedback loop that encouraged more engagement.

CD: TJ Arch

ADs: Jennifer Szilagyi, Alyssa Campeau

Digital AD: Amanda Blackwood

Designers: Luisa Bojaca, Pierre Tabbiner, Joel Arbez

BRONZE: Social Media

McCain Foods “Flying Chickens” Rethink

When McCain Foods secured the Canadian distribution rights for Simulate, a U.S. plant-based food company, it needed to recreate its cultural presence in the country. Inspired by the brand’s name, Rethink created “Flying Chickens,” a campaign that involved an unbranded, fake, flying chicken that was set loose across targeted online platforms. The stunt sparked wild conspiracy theories and the videos quickly spread across Reddit, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. When it was revealed that it was all fake, just like Simulate’s chicken, the internet lit up again.

CCO: Aaron Starkman

ECD: Leia Rogers

CD: Karine Doucet

AD: Grace Cho

SILVER: Integrated Web Campaign

Kraft Heinz

Kraft Heinz tapped into the growing role thrifting plays in the lives of younger consumers while reframing the role its ketchup plays in staining clothes. “Vintage Drip,” by Rethink, was a thrifted collection of luxe and streetwear brands featuring Heinz Ketchup stains. Kraft Heinz partnered with thredUp, the world’s largest resale platform for an unauthorized brand collaboration. The collection featured 157 unique items from brands like Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, and Nike, all dripped in Heinz. The launch video ran on OLV, and pieces from the collection were worn by streetwear icons at New York Fashion Week.

CCOs: Aaron Starkman, Mike Dubrick

CSO: Sean McDonald

CD: Zachary Bautista

CWs: Geoff Baillie, Aman Soin, Brendan Scullion

“Vintage Drip” Rethink

BRONZE:

Plenty

123W

Plenty of Fish carved a definitive space in the dating app market with its cheeky “The Gallery of Dick Pics” campaign, by 123W. Having fun with the play on the common term, the campaign featured wholesome photos of men named Richard - a.k.a. Dick - as a bold reminder to singles that the best pics are photos of themselves, not nudes – a campaign that resonated strongly with women. The campaign was supported by connected TV, social and digital, and was promoted by influencers.

CDs: Mo Bofill, Rob Sweetman, Jeff Harrison, Bryan Collins

ADs: Ryan Semeniuk, Troy Geoghegan

CWs: Allan Topol, Kyle Waye

Designers: Mo Bofill, Jeff Harrison, Ming Mikaeo

Integrated Web Campaign

of Fish

“The Gallery of Dick Pics”

THE 2023 MARKETING AWARDS MEDAL COUNT

This award index is a translation of medals into points. Agencies and production studios across the country received Best of Show, The M for Mpact - Special Jury Prize, Gold, Silver and Bronze awards, as well as Merits, with the trophies awarded across Advertising, Public Service, Craft, Digital, Design and Multicultural at a live gala in Toronto in June.