With a whopping 144 awards this year, DDB Canada stands proudly at the top of the heap, beating out worthy adversary Leo Burnett by more than 100 points. It seems that funny business was the name of the game for DDB this year, with humorous campaigns pulling in the most hardware.
The agency’s ‘Must Drink More Milk’ spots for the B.C. Dairy Foundation had their teen target demo laughing and scratching their heads as they watched Russian dolls and playing cards act out scenes in which a chug of milk would have come in handy.
The now-famous Midas ‘Chase’ spot had cops chasing robbers in the Canadian snow – and not getting very far. And print ads for the Vancouver Convention Centre featured your 1970s-style conference hall worst nightmares.
Of course, who can forget those sexy sumo wrestlers who engaged in perhaps the most seductive car wash spot ever for the Subaru Forester, as well as in print, online and anywhere consumers could handle their hotness. The sumos helped DDB sweep the newly restructured CMAs with six awards, including Best of the Best.
‘You’ll find humour in a lot of our work,’ explains DDB Vancouver CD Dean Lee (more about him on p. 33). ‘When you just feed up a sale price
or facts and figures, it goes in one ear and out the other, versus when you entertain, it becomes memorable.’
But it wasn’t all fun and games. A campaign for B.C. non-profit the Looking Glass Foundation forced consumers to see eating disorders in a different light through a TV spot featuring women leaving clues about their illness with the tag ‘not every suicide note looks like a suicide note.’ Ambient pieces like a hairbrush and spool of thread with notes attached about how they pertained to people with eating disorders were included in the awareness and fundraising push.
Work for B.C. Hydro and the Canadian Tourism Commission also rounded out DDB’s winning year, as they collected trophies from 11 out of the 16 shows counted in the CRC.
Read on to see how the other agencies fared, and who did some impressive moving up the list this year.
Top 20 agencies
1 DDB Canada 345
2 Leo Burnett Canada 240
3 Taxi 202
4 Rethink 185
5 Cossette 177
6 BBDO Toronto 148
7 John St. 124
8 Juniper Park 96
9 Lg2 74
10 Zig 72
11 Saatchi & Saatchi Canada 53
11 Sid Lee 53
13 Target 51
14 Proximity Canada 48
15 Doug Agency 47
16 Ogilvy Toronto 44
17 TBWAVancouver 41
18 Grey Canada 40
18 Lowe Roche 40
20 Arc Worldwide 35
