Recognizing excellence in Edmonton-area communications, the IABC Edmonton Chapter’s Annual Capital Awards Gala saw DDB win five Awards of Excellence and two Awards of Merit. The winning entries included everything from more traditional tactics like TV and posters to a social media fundraising campaign, an iOS app and a fit kit that helps teachers motivate kids to eat healthy and stay active.

The theme of the award show was “A Night of Magic and Fortune,” but DDB’s showing made it clear that fortune on the podium doesn’t rely on magic – it takes keen consumer insights and engaging creative to achieve real business and communications goals.

Adding to the list of recent recognition, DDB was also honoured by Airports Council International – North America for their Christmas Campaign for Edmonton International Airport. The Excellence in Airport Marketing and Communications awards saw 245 entries from 53 airports and airport authorities from across North America. DDB’s work for EIA resonated with judges to help it come out on top as one of the 27 airports to win an award.

The “Best Part of Your Holidays” campaign encouraged travellers to arrive at the newly expanded airport early and spend some time shopping, dinning and partaking in holiday-themed festivities.

The awards, in detail:

 IABC Edmonton, Capital Awards

• Award of Excellence, Marketing and Advertising Campaigns, Alberta Health, “Healthy U Campaign”
• Award of Excellence, One-time Tactics, Hope Mission, “Share Hope Promotion”
• Award of Excellence, One-time Tactics, Canadian Patient Safety Institute, “Canadian Patient Safety Week Posters”
• Award of Excellence, One-time Tactics, Western Canada Lotteries, “Western MAX Television”
• Award of Excellence, External/Community Events, Art Gallery of Alberta, “Art on the Block”
• Award of Merit, External Communications Programs, Alberta Health, “Healthy U Munch and Move Kit”
• Award of Merit, Communication Skills and Tactics – One-time Tactics, Syncrude, “Syncrude Trailblazer iOS App”

 ACI – North America, Excellence in Airport Marketing and Communications

• Marketing Campaigns, Edmonton International Airport, “Christmas at EIA”

 

São Paulo-based Giovanni+Draftfcb sought to provide this kind of utility with the Nivea Solar Ad Charger. To make sure Brazilians don’t miss a moment of their beautiful summers, Nivea provided beachgoers with a print ad equipped with a thin solar panel, which can charge or power mobile devices. Although the solution sounds simple, creating the ad was not: it took 6 months of tech development and 2 months of printing to produce the limited run of ads, distributed in Veja Rio. Despite the limited immediate reach of the ads, it is an exciting example of how print ads are re-inventing themselves. Despite purists lamenting the demise of print in an ever-digifying world, the medium is taking on new life in advertising, with the help of Near-Field Communications (NFC) and advancements in nanotechnology.

You can check out the video explaining the ad here.

In the past 365 days, the hashtag #burntpopcorn has been used 2,972 times globally. But that’s just the hashtag. Total twitter chatter about burning popcorn racks up at 128,634 mentions. That’s a lot people spreading a lot of the foul stench that only burned popcorn can make.

Pop Secret Labs, a joint collaboration between Diamond Foods and Deustch LA designed to connect movie lovers with popcorn, has created a solution for what is clearly a burning popcorn problem: The Perfect Pop App. The app detects when your popcorn is done and tells you exactly when to stop the microwave to enjoy your tasty treat. Microwave popcorn is complete when there are approximately 1-2 seconds between kernel popping sounds. The team at Pop Secret Labs literally popped hundreds of popcorn bags to get to what they think is the perfect bag of microwavable popcorn and built that analysis into the app. As soon as a popcorn lover pushes start on his/her microwave, they start the app, hold it to the microwave and the app detects when the bag is ready.

But what really caught our attention was the video demonstration created promote both the problem and the #epicsolve. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYQQtCD1VP4

Blog Post from Pop Secret Labs: http://www.popsecretlabs.com/post/51739708615/perfect-pop

How many guys do you think would be able to convince their significant other that spending $1899 on stadium-replica seats for the living room was a good idea? What if tickets to the UEFA Champions League final were on the line? That’s what Heineken wanted to find out in “The Negotiation.”

In this stunt, Heineken set up a hidden camera in a furniture store and watched as unsuspecting couples debated the merits of the home furnishings around them while wandering through the store. The guy of the couple was then approached by an employee and told that if he convinced his lady that they need to buy a set of red plastic stadium chairs, he’ll win two coveted tickets to the Finals soccer match. The catch? He can’t tell his girlfriend about the true reason for the purchase. Only after successfully convincing his partner of the need for the chairs would the tickets be awarded.

We think “The Negotiation” is a fun and original way to promote Heineken’s long-standing sponsorship of UEFA and is a great reminder of how something as simple as a ticket giveaway can become extra special with a great creative idea behind it.

See how Heineken captured the reactions of unsuspecting couples in “The Negotiation”.

It’s a great follow up to their previous hidden camera-style video, “The Candidate.“

Earlier this month, the Serf and Wench Dinner took place at managing director of DDB PR, Martine Levy’s home in what attendees and hosts have considered as one of the most memorable experiences as a DDB-er. Playing host, each member of the management committee was assigned to a staff member on the guest list. Dressed in costume, the ‘serf’ or ‘wench’ attended their master of the evening with the highest quality of service from refilling wine glasses to pulling out their chair; should any of the ‘masters’ feel dissatisfied with their service, the management host was punished with tasks such as telling a joke or performing a song. In the picture above, Todd Mackie is seen hand serving Julia Morris her second course as part of a punishment.

The management team also contributed to the night’s delicious menu, which consisted of:

• Fabulous hors d’oeuvres (goat cheese and fruit bruschetta) by Kathleen Collins, VP, Director of Integrated Solutions, Account Services
• Shrimp Bisque by Martine Levy, Managing Director, DDB PR
• Bocconcini and Tomatoes Salad by Jennifer Issley, Director, Human Resources
• Veal Parmesan by Paul Tedesco, VP, Business Unit Director
• Beef Wellington by Todd Mackie, Creative Director
• Cheesy fried mashed potatoes by Tony Johnstone, SVP, Director of Strategic Planning
• Melody of roasted vegetables by Rosita Tong, SVP, Director of Finance
• A wine pairing to each dish prepared by David Leonard, COO, National President

The night was beautifully set up with a banquet table and name placeholders for each guest. The added touch included a scrolled menu that was read out by Dino Demopoulos, VP Strategy and Innovation at Tribal Toronto, who played DJ and spun music throughout the joyous evening.

The Share DDB is a silent auction of art and other creative endeavours produced by DDB staff, spouses/significant others, clients, suppliers, family and friends. Proceeds from the auction then benefit our chosen charities.

DDB Canada’s Edmonton team is proud to have received the highest honour at this year’s International Association of Business Communicators Gold Quill Awards – a Gold Quill Award of Excellence in the category of Government Communications Program for its Healthy U Munch and Move Kit, developed for and in collaboration with, the Government of Alberta.

Designed to get kids active and thinking about their food choices, the Munch and Move Kit is a turn-key lesson plan for day care and after school care providers that’s heavy on fun – exactly what kids want. What kid wouldn’t want to meow the tune of “Pop Goes the Weasel” while trying to catch imaginary butterflies?  Or, help their new friend Squiddy the Strawberry buy groceries to make a rainbow-coloured supper? The vibrant, imaginative package introduces a host of zany characters like Squiddy, Crabbage and Sasquash, making it irresistible to kids (and IABC judges).

IABC’s Gold Quill Awards program has been the hallmark of excellence in business communication for more than 40 years. The winners represent the best in organizational communication and their work plans serve as best practices for professional communicators across communication disciplines.

The Healthy U Munch and Move Kit was also recognized with a Gold Quill Award of Merit in the Communications Education Tools category; while the overarching Healthy U campaign by DDB Canada’s Edmonton office was awarded two Gold Quill Merits in the Advertising Campaign and Government Communications Program categories.

Communications programs by DDB Public Relations also received three Gold Quill Merit Awards for their work with autoTRADER.ca and Subaru Canada.

DDB Public Relations’ received two Gold Quill Merit Awards for autoTRADER.ca’s “The Most Cars in One Place” campaign.in the Media Relations and the Marketing Communications category. The highly successful campaign earned over 273 million social and media impressions, resulting in a healthy increase to traffic flow to www.autoTRADER.ca.

Rounding out the agency’s success at the IABC Gold Quill Awards, DDB Public Relations also received an Award of Merit for “Subaru’s BRZ Scorches the Competition” in the Marketing Communications category.

Together, DDB Canada’s Edmonton office and DDB Public Relations celebrate one prestigious Gold Quill of Excellence Award and six Gold Quill Merits.

IABC received more than 800 submissions and only 200 came away with an award.  All awards will be handed out at the annual Gold Quill Awards Gala in New York City on June 24. To see a full list of the winners, visit here.

Copywriter Sanya Grjuicic and Art Director Andrew Bernardi from Tribal Toronto were awarded Gold in the Experiential category at the NAA gala. The pair’s winning work involved a clever mobile site, accessible only by scan, to help the Digital Futures Program at OCAD University demonstrate their creative innovation and drive potential students to visit the website and enroll in the program.

Leveraging the QR-code technology to generate a code that matched the exterior of OCAD’s iconic building, prospective students from all over Toronto can unlock full content of OCAD’s Digital Futures Program and its courses simply by visiting the school and scanning the building with their smartphone.

The campaign’s mobile site included more than just course descriptions and calendars by having full lectures, videos and rich discussion topics that would allow students to truly experience the program’s open curriculum. This experiential program invites users to connect the idea, from philosophy to architecture, that OCAD’s Digital Futures is the absolute embodiment of creative, digital innovation.

The NAA is an original creative and media communications awards competition in North America. The program challenges creatives to pull out all the stops and show advertisers exactly what they’d do if given the opportunity to dare and reach for new possibilities. This year, the program received a total of 163 entries with the winners announced in front of a live audience at the annual gala held at the Design Exchange on May 16, 2013.

We live in a world where information increasingly wants to be free but where the price of freeing this information comes at the cost of imprisonment or worse. Expect to see more groups, websites and utilities focused on supporting whisteblowers, protecting their anonymity and releasing information (for better or worse) that might not have otherwise come to light.

Read more about StrongBox.

And on a related note, the Associated Press’ Social Media Editors recently held an “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit to talk bout the role that citizen journalism and user-generated content has in reporting news stories.

Created by 26-year old developer Ivan Pardo, Buycott is a free iOS app that puts a world of ethical information about the products we buy at our fingertips. Using the app is simple: Scan a barcode, and the app will look up the product, determine what brand it belongs to, and figure out what company owns that brand (and who owns that company, etc.). The results are presented in a corporate family tree, showing the complex network of corporate ownership, allowing you to avoid indirectly giving money to companies deemed objectionable. Users can also set up an account to create their own campaigns, and choose which companies they support (or which ones they want to blacklist).

Despite a currently limited corporate database, the app has the potential to make a significant impact on the way businesses conduct themselves ethically as users add to the database. As they say, “actions speak louder than words”. Despite the seemingly endless threats and “boycotts” launched against brands by disgruntled consumers in social media, talk doesn’t always turn into action. However, facilitating ethical shopping with an unbiased, convenient tool is sure to change this trend.

You can download the app from the iTunes Store now, and Android app is coming soon.

DDB Canada’s Vancouver office and Big Sisters also received a Merit earlier last week for the TV creative, “First Time, Like Me and Wanna Baby,” in the One Show’s TV campaign category.

Produced annually by The One Club, the world’s foremost nonprofit organization whose mission is to champion excellence in advertising, the One Show and One Show Interactive Awards are the centerpiece of Creative Week New York, a weeklong program of speakers, seminars, exhibitions, and special events celebrating creativity in all its forms and proclaimed an annual citywide event since 2008 by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. A complete list of winners can be found at http://www.oneclub.org.  Pencil winners will be featured in the commemorative One Show Annual, to be released later this year.