So perhaps the Maple Leafs’ four-decade Stanley Cup drought has left a bitter taste in the mouths of some Canadians, but that hasn’t stopped the franchise from winning and celebrating other accolades, specifically, its recent Grand Prix win at the Clio Sports Awards in New York. And not only did Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment step away with the top prize in the Design category for the “Toronto Maple Leafs Winter Classic Jersey Package,” it also went home with two Silver Clio trophies for the Toronto FC and Toronto Raptors.

Also in the Design category, the two Silver prizes were given to the organization for the “Toronto Raptors Season Book” and the “Toronto FC 2014 Season Tickets and Season Book Package” (see below).

The only other Grand Clio to be given to a Canadian agency and brand was for the “Completely Pure” print campaign, created by BrandHealth for Cross Country Ski Canada. The print ads show scenes of cross-country skiing athletes performing with taglines such as “Other sports take TV timeouts so they can rest” and “Other sports wish they were invented by Vikings.”

And the fourth Canadian win in Design at the Clio Awards was for Vancouver’s “Whitecaps FC 40th Anniversary.”

Canada received two nods in the Direct category, with both Silver prizes going to Anomaly for Budweiser. The first Silver was awarded to the agency and brand for its “Red Zeppelin,” which was a two-storey high, 70-foot long blimp covered in over 75,000 LED red lights (and which looked like a giant Budweiser can). As it floated across Canadian cities, a 130-decibel blow horn inside the balloon went off whenever Canada’s hockey team scored a goal during the 2014 Olympics. The Zeppelin stunt also received a Silver Clio award in the Out-Of-Home category.

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The second Budweiser/Anomaly win was for the “Red Light Helmets,” which was created to help Calgary fans celebrate goals. The helmets were left on chairs in the stadium prior to the game so fans could wear them during the match and participate in a communal light show as each goal set off red lights that were attached to the helmets.

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Sid Lee also went home with three prizes, including a Silver for its “Ice World” campaign for Sport Chek, which was an all-encompassing program that saw Olympic athletes training in the dead of winter and harshest of climates (even though the creative was actually shot in the middle of a Montreal heat wave in the summer, with CGI giving the TV and digital spots a winter treatment). The campaign also included a frozen billboard, shoppable digital banners and print advertising, and was meant to illustrate the intensity of high-performance training.

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The second prize for Sid Lee was for Toronto FC’s “It’s a Bloody Big Deal” spot, which won a Silver in the PR category. When the U.K.’s Jermain Defoe signed a deal to join the Toronto Football Club, the agency created a campaign that would make it big news (seeing as hockey is the “it” sport in Canada, football tends to take a back seat at times). The campaign included teaser spots and follow-up commercials that showed Brits in shock from the news that the footie star had left the U.K. for Canada, with scenes of people accidentally spitting out their tea, beer, and every other drink imaginable, after hearing the news.

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And Sid Lee’s third award, this time a Bronze, was for the “We the North” spot it created for the Toronto Raptors, with the one-minute film tapping into the Canadian team being the outsider and its geographical location as the centre of the creative.

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Also tapping into the Canadian spirit that withstands even the most frigid of winters, Proximity won a Silver award for the “#WeAreWinter” campaign it produced for the Canadian Olympic Committee. The organization introduced the hashtag WeAreWinter with an endemic one-minute spot that featured three Olympic athletes and played on the connection that Canadians have to its winters.

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