A staggering 405 prizes were awarded to Canadian agencies for exceptional work in advertising, graphic design, editorial design and interactive media at last night’s Advertising & Design Club of Canada (ADCC) awards in Toronto. Almost a tenth of the total winners went home with a Gold, and BBDO Toronto, Leo Burnett, DDB Canada and Untitled Films each grabbed a Scarlett Letter Award (the ADCC’s highest honours).
Diti Katona, CD and founding partner of Concrete Design and Communication, took home the Les Underwood lifetime achievement award. The honour is presented each year to someone who has made a major contribution to the Canadian creative community. Katona won the award for her work with clients in the fashion, retail and luxury goods industry. Also, Unilever took home the inaugural Canadian Advertising Museum McLuhan Award for its innovative and integrated Dove “Real Beauty” campaign.
In addition to being named Agency of the Year in the Scarlett Letter Award group, BBDO also won seven Golds for its work this year. The Toronto agency took home two top prizes for its “Car Chase” TV spot for Shaw Communications (in Advertising Broadcast), three for the Canadian Paralympic Committee “Unstoppable” ad and another for its “Cow Mermaid/Pig Reality” campaign for Mabe Canada (in the Advertising category). And to finish, it received two Golds for its “Curls” campaign promoting the Toronto Jewish Film Festival (in the Editorial & Book Design ).
Leo Burnett, another recipient of the Scarlett Letter award for Design Agency of the Year, took home Gold in Advertising for its “Good Deal” spot for Procter & Gamble as well as for the “James Ready Spelling Bee Lottery” in the Promo category. It also nabbed two Golds in the Graphic Design category for Elections Ontario’s “We Make Voting Easy” and another for self-promotion of its client Peter Schafrick’s “Flip Books.”
DDB Canada, the third ad agency to win a Scarlett (Interactive Agency of the Year), saw its Vancouver branch take home five Golds last night – four in the Advertising Broadcast category for Big Sisters of Lower Mainland (“Wanna Baby/Like Me/First Time” campaign) and another in Interactive Media for its digital interactive campaign “Keep Exploring” for the Canadian Tourism Commission.
Other big winners in the Advertising Broadcast category include Rethink for Science World’s “Airport Security” TV spot; Red Urban Canada for its “Forest/Ocean/New Car” campaign for Little Trees; Target for Newfoundland & Labrador Tourism’s “Secret Place” commercial, Cundari for the BMW Canada “1M Launch” campaign; and Draftfcb for its “Better” radio spot for Paradise Pools.
And in the Advertising category: Taxi Toronto snagged a Gold for its “Jimmie Cook/Peter Dubbs/Oliver Renauld” poster campaign for the Hockey Hall of Fame, as did Dare Vancouver for its “Live Ads” transit campaign for John Frieda. Lowe Roche was recognized for its “Contagion – Bacteria Billboard” for Warner Bros. Canada, taking home two Gold awards for the OOH ambient execution. And Dare Vancouver won two Gold prizes for its “Buildings” ad for The Orange Apple.
And lastly, the Interactive Media category saw a Gold award given to CP+B for its “Toronto Trending” website for Tourism Toronto, Grey Canada for the “World’s Most Valuable Social Network” for Missing Children of Society Canada, Teehan + Lax for its “Readability” mobile app, as did Jam3 for the National Film Board of Canada’s “Bear 71” project.
