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Creative award shows in the past were often accused of being an excuse for a party and an exercise in ego stoking. The winners were sometimes disparaged as ‘dog walker’ ads – work that was developed just for the competition.

Attitudes have changed a lot recently. Why? Because big brands recognize that creativity delivers a real advantage and measurable results – and clients are taking note of the agencies behind the winning work. Major ad festivals such as Cannes now attract a growing contingent.

At this year’s Cannes Lions, Jonathan Mildenhall, VP global advertising & creative excellence, for The Coca-Cola Company was quoted as saying, “I get very frustrated with the ongoing debate about creativity and effectiveness because I do not believe you can have one without the other.”

Matt Biespiel, global brand development, McDonald’s, quantified the difference that creativity makes to a brand: “For McDonald’s, we’ve seen ROI 54% higher with creative that wins [Cannes] Lions than creative that doesn’t.”

Evidence supporting the correlation includes a study released by the UK’s Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) a few years ago called “The link between creativity and effectiveness”. The analysis of campaign case studies spanned several years and found that creative award-winning advertising was eleven times more effective at growing marketshare than non-winning work.

The more creative awards won, the more effective the campaign. And as the stakes are higher and standing out gets tougher, Canadian marketers are more open to taking creative risks than ever before. They’re also enjoying the ROI that comes with that leap of faith . . .

Zulu Alpha Kilo invited millennials to leave the beach and ‘Live Mas Finas’ using TV, digital and social media and has proven that Corona can actually grow its brand in a declining beer market.

Lowe Roche demonstrated its innovation with missingkidsstamps.ca, a program to get the faces of missing children to as wide an audience as possible, raise awareness for the Missing Children’s Network, and hopefully help bring kids home.

Extreme Group went big and bold for BULL’S EYE BBQ Sauce with a heavy-duty combination of meat and testosterone involving a 2.5-ton Bulldozer-BQ and sampling at Ontario events appealing to males in their mid-30s.

BBDO’s DEWmocracy campaign achieved 110% of the brand’s 2013 sales goal in just six months thanks to a TV and social media effort resulting in Voltage being the consumers’ choice for new Mountain Dew Canada flavour.

Proximity combined former Raptor Matt Bonner, a couple of rappers, and a bag of flavoured baby carrots to net a viral YouTube video and ESPN attention for the Texas launch of Bolthouse Farms’ Baby Carrot Shakedown.

Grey’s “Most Valuable Social Network’ campaign for the Missing Children’s Society of Canada won Cannes Lions in both cyber and mobile categories but most importantly, it led to the safe return of six missing children.

The Hive’ ‘Bicycle Factory’ campaign for Cadbury, now in its fifth year, still appeals to the altruistic nature of Canadians. It’s been a huge commercial success and to date has sent 23,340 bikes to students in Africa.