MasterCard and MacLaren McCann went home with the top prize at the inaugural Shopper Innovation Awards, held today at the Hilton in Toronto.
The Shopper Innovation Awards celebrate breakthrough programs from brands and retailers that really challenge the shopper marketing status quo and show the way forward.
The Grand Prix-winning program brought a sponsorship of Toronto Fashion Week to the retail level by recruiting fashionable Toronto stores, restaurants and spas in key neighbourhoods to offer cardholders exclusive discounts and experiences that coincided with the event. It also won Gold in the Integration category.
Another notably big winner was McDonald’s and Tribal DDB for the “Our Food. Your Questions.” campaign, which now-famously answered all sorts of consumer questions about the makeup and quality of McDonald’s food. The program won three Gold awards – for Original Idea, Tech Breakthrough and Targeting.
James Ready and Leo Burnett also picked up three Golds for three different programs – two in the Loyalty category for the Awesome Awards and Spelling Bee Lottery, and one in Packaging for immortalizing JR drinkers on beer labels.
Also winning Gold were Loblaw for its BBQTown program; Holt Renfrew and InField Marketing for “Hot@175”; Metro and ZIP Communication for Vins Hemisphere; GMCR brand Keurig and SVM for its grocery sampling program; Nestle Purina PetCare and The Think Tank for “Paws for the planet”; RBC for its new retail model; and Frito Lay and Capital C for the launch campaign for Doritos Jacked chips.
In total, 12 Golds, 14 Silvers and 15 Bronze awards were handed out.
Read about all the winners below, by category.
