BBDO Canada and Wrigley Canada have had a great year on the international circuit, landing the brand, agency and creative team in the runner-up spots.
The unique no-tech take on the touch-screen cleaned up at Cannes this year, earning the team two Golds and a Silver Lion for the Skittles’ “Touch the Rainbow” campaign.
Despite being intended to complement the existing Skittles work coming out of the U.S., the BBDO-led project has put both BBDO Canada and Wrigley Canada at the forefront within their global organizations.
“I think one of our proudest moments was when our U.S. teams were being complimented for this work and they had to turn around [and say] ‘This is not ours, this is the Canadian organization,’” says Dan Alvo, marketing director for Wrigley Canada. “As a Canadian, that makes you feel pretty proud.”
And the results for Skittles have been impressive: over nine million views on the videos and hundreds of thousands of comments, reaching across more than 100 countries. He says the brand was up double digits in 2011 from a profit and market share standpoint – the highest level ever for Skittles in the marketplace.
“Now that we’re working on new ideas, people are interested to hear what Canada is doing,” says Alvo.
For the coming year, art director Mike Donaghey says the creative team is looking to find new ways to get people to interact and engage with the spots.
“As much as these videos were a fantastic success, people liked them largely due to the fact that they were something they hadn’t seen before. So we can’t repeat them and expect the same results,” he says.
Donaghey and copywriter Chris Joakim say they’re big fans of destination advertising, so viewers can expect at least a similar approach to “Touch the Rainbow.”
“[The] audience is going to be more receptive when they’ve opted in to hear it,” says Donaghey.
BBDO Toronto SVPs and ECDs Peter Ignazi and Carlos Moreno say the international wins have had a great impact on the agency’s standing within the global network. The award wins allow BBDO to attract world-class talent and have increased its participation on the global BBDO stage, Ignazi says. They’ve gotten calls to work on a handful of international projects, and each time a team goes abroad, they come back with new insights, says Moreno.
“Our ultimate goal is not just to make BBDO one of the best in Canada, but we want to make BBDO Toronto one of the best agencies in the BBDO network, in the world,” says Ignazi.
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Creative Report Card intro
James Ready expands in 2012: Leo Burnett and the beerco top the CRC
Other Leo award winners
BBDO and Wrigley get global attention
Top advertiser runners-up: big year for candy and cars
Big agency movers and newcomers
Rethinking on a budget: CD duo Chris Staples and Ian Grais take third
Art & copy runners-up
Agencies: full list
Advertisers: full list
Creative directors: full list
Art directors: full list
Copywriters: full list
Methodology
