A NOTE FROM THE DIGITAL CO-CHAIRS

This was the first time the Marketing Awards had a dedicated Digital jury. For us, it reflects the deepening impact of the digitally connected world we now live in. The first thing we do when we get up in the morning is reach for our mobile phones. The last thing we do before going to bed is put down our mobile phones. It is very difficult to do anything without digital. We are so dependent on it in all aspects of our daily lives. There’s no turning back. We cannot live without it. Figuring out what work best resonated within the cyber world we live in requires a different lens, but also speaks to the source code of great advertising. Is it fresh? Does this work relate to the brand? Is the final execution flawless? And as chairs who have both spent decades working abroad, we’re proud to report that the answer was often, “Yes.” Canada’s homegrown work is global worthy and does not take the back seat to anyone. With the help of the shortlist jury, we spent countless hours identifying the best ideas, and then over two days, we had the pleasure of leading 13 jurors through discussions to determine what would represent the best of the best in Canada. The work that you will see shows how talented we are and gives us hope that ideas in the increasingly pervasive and persuasive digital realm can move people and change our lives for the better.

DIGITAL BEST OF SHOW

GOLD: Creative Use of Technology

GOLD: Integrated Web Campaign

Performance Art

In response to the pandemic, Black & Abroad shifted its focus from international to domestic travel to support Black-owned businesses and uplift Black travellers at a time when conversations about systemic racism were going mainstream. “The Black Elevation Map,” developed with Performance Art, is a travel utility that visualizes Black cultural data as elevation. The map is a crafted patchwork of interwoven data and technologies, designed to spark interest in Blackcentered domestic travel.

ACDs:

CWs: Hemal Dhanjee, Tobi

Adebowale, Paula Purdon, Jasmine Mans

Experience Designers: Joe

Szabo, Leon Mullings

THE M FOR MPACT AWARD:

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE

GOLD: Social Media

Dove’s #KeepTheGrey campaign was launched within 48 hours after Lisa LaFlamme, a top national news anchor, was abruptly let go – a move many speculated stemmed from her decision to go grey during the pandemic. The campaign was a call to action to fight against the double standards women face when it comes to grey hair in the workplace. Dove (Unilever), with Edelman, quickly mobilized a social media campaign that included paid, owned and earned media. Dove turned its gold logo grey and recruited people and brands to do the same with their profile pictures. The hashtag #KeepTheGrey trended on Twitter, turning one woman’s experience into a force for change.

CCO: Anthony Chelvanathan

CDs: Mary Soroka, Shauna Roe

CSO: Laura Kim

Head of Influencer: Sara Rezaee

GOLD: Creative Use of Technology

GOLD: Social Media

Smucker Foods

Leo Burnett

Smucker Food’s Milk-Bone, with Leo Burnett, tapped into a common, frustrating experience among dog owners: discovering that their pets chewed on a beloved or important item. The “Chewpon” campaign allowed pet owners to send in pictures on social of the objects their dogs chewed up - which turned out to include furniture, homework, stuffed animals and passports. In return, they would receive customized coupons for Milk-Bone treats – something dogs were allowed to chew on. The campaign proved to be Milk-Bone’s most successful social media campaign ever.

CCOs: Steve Persico, Lisa Greenberg

CD: Kohl Forsberg

CW: Aisling Penco

AD: Angelo Roldan

Kraft Heinz’s “Ketchup A.I.,” by Rethink, was the first campaign with visuals generated entirely by AI. When Heinz prompted an advanced AI image generator to create an image of what “ketchup” looked like, it generated a ketchup bottle that resembled Heinz’s bottle. People were asked to suggest Heinz mashup image prompts on social media, which were then turned into visuals by AI. The images were featured in social media, on OOH boards and at art galleries in the metaverse and in real life. A run of special edition bottles featured the label replaced with AI images.

CCOs: Aaron Starkman, Mike Dubrick

CDs: Xavier Blais, Zachary Bautista

CWs: Geoff Baillie, Xavier Blais, Aman Soin

Interactive Designer: Alex Fleming

SILVER: Augmented/Virtual Reality

As a meaningful way to support veterans in need, HomeEquity Bank’s “Metaverse Homes for Heroes” allowed a virtual tour of a community the bank wanted to help bring to life. Housing designs were built inside Decentraland, the 3D virtual world browser-based platform. The concept, by Zulu Alpha Kilo, was to use the Metaverse to raise funds for a real “Homes for Heroes” village, using the virtual world to shed light on the problem of homeless veterans.

CCO: Zak Mroueh

ECD: Brian Murray

CD/AD: Vic Bath

CD/CW: Dan Cummings

Metaverse Architects: Sean Ellul, Andre Causon, Aaron Zarb

SILVER: Apps/Mobile BRONZE: Augmented/Virtual Reality

The “Jeep Code” campaign by Publicis employed an innovative technology that uses AI to transform Jeep’s iconic sevenslot grille into a barcode, allowing users to interact with the brand. The technology was implemented on Snapchat, to reach younger buyers. With “Jeep Code,” users could learn more about the Jeep, browse inventory, build and price their preferred model and even start the buying process on the spot, helping to streamline the purchasing journey.

To introduce the taquitos of Kraft Heinz’s Delimex to gamers, The Kitchen decided to get in on a common gamer experience called “feeding,” the act of dying repeatedly and serving the enemy team easy wins. The campaign hacked the year’s biggest online games and met gamers in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Warzone 2.0, and Overwatch 2 Mexican special forces characters Delimex and Taquito hung out at in-game food spots, sacrificing themselves to players. Delimex then sent out coupons for free taquitos to the gamers. Twitch streamers were enlisted to join the “feast” and show gamers where to find their characters in-game, with gamers posting clips to gaming’s biggest communities.

ECD: Simon Au

CD: Damon Crate

CW: Sean Kinton

ADs: Arman Sadrzadeh, Allison Boyd

Motion Designers: Branson Schell, Conor Cicci, Daniel Corrigan

SILVER: Games

Despite making history as Canada’s first all-Black team to win the Ontario Baseball Association Championship in 1934, the Chatham Coloured All-Stars was shut out of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame - five times. With “Chatham Plays On,” by The Hive, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) partnered with Major League Baseball (MLB) to resurrect the legacy of the legendary team and brought the entire 1934 team to the MLB The Show video game. The 13man roster was recreated and made available for gamers to play on PS5, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

BRONZE: Games

CCO: Nancy Crimi-Lamanna

ECDs: Jeremiah McNama, Andrew MacPhee

AD: Hussein Rumaithi

With “NXT LVL” by FCB, BMO became the first financial institution to create a channel on Twitch, the world’s largest gaming community platform. The bank appointed the world’s first Gaming Relations Specialist (GRS), responsible for providing financial education through the lens of gaming by playing popular games with gaming influencers and providing tips on topics like monetizing gaming, homeownership and budgeting. The campaign was supported with paid units on Twitch, interactive AR content and organic content.

GOLD: Online Video Single – Long-Form

Muskrat Magazine

BBDO

To counter the harmful misrepresentation of Pocahontas depicted in the animated movie of the same name, Muskrat Magazine created “Missing Matoaka.” The project, by BBDO, presented an alternative audio track to be played with the movie and replaced the name “Pocahontas” with “Matoaka,” which she was also known by. The entire film was re-recorded from an Indigenous perspective: it was written by Indigenous writers, voiced by Indigenous actors, with music composed and performed by Indigenous artists.

CCO: Max Geraldo

ECD: Derek Blais

AD: Olga Netaeva

CW: Hailey Ireland

Screenwriters: Lauren DeLeary, Camille Beaudoin

SILVER: Online Video Single – Long-Form

To highlight the difference décor can make, IKEA’s “The Troll” is a cinematic tale of a young boy who decides to do a glow-up on the dim abode of the local bridge-toll troll. The video, by Rethink, whimsically demonstrates how any home, even one belonging to a monster living under a bridge, can be transformed into a comfortable, cozy place – lifting the spirits of the homeowner.

CCOs: Aaron Starkman, Mike Dubrick

ACD: Karine Doucet

CDs: Caroline Friesen, Robbie Percy

SILVER: Online Video Single – Long-Form

Penguin Random House, the world’s largest Englishlanguage book publisher, wanted to take a stand against censorship at a time when books are being banned in U.S. schools and libraries. The “Unburnable Book,” by Rethink, features the making of a fireproof edition of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale – which has been banned - and shows Atwood herself attempting to burn the special edition with a flamethrower, to no avail.

CCO: Aaron Starkman

CSO: Sean McDonald

CDs: Robbie Percy, Caroline Friesen

BRONZE: Online Video Single – Long-Form

In the Royal Ontario Museum’s cinematic “Immortal” video, by Broken Heart Love Affair, a voiceover – accompanied by sombre, dramatic music – details key moments and milestones in human history, slow-moving set pieces that mostly take place underwater, designed to depict both collective and individual experiences. The script and accompanying images cover the range in both broad and specific strokes: “I will be beheaded. I will be a girl. I will be shamed. I will live through a pandemic. Or die in one.” The video ends with the words “I will give birth and I will die. But I will live on in what I leave behind,” as a series of artifacts from the ROM are shown in quick succession.

CCOs: Denise Rossetto, Carlos Moreno, Todd Mackie

CSO: Jay Chaney

AD: Carolos Moreno

BRONZE: Online Video Single – Long-Form

Eschewing all the conventions of the toy retailer category – show toys, show kids playing with toys, show more toys – Broken Heart Love Affair brought the Toys’R’Us “Imagination Included” tagline to life in a spoof. An ER team came to the rescue of a bored kid, resuscitating his comatose imaginary friend with interventions like whoopie cushions – allowing them to play together again.

CCOs: Craig Mcintosh, Jaimes Zentil

CSOs: Kristy Pleckaitis, Jay Chaney

AD: Jaimes Zentil

SILVER: Online Video Single – 30s & Under

LG2

To show how the smell of cat poop can get out of hand and the need for its litter product to contain it, O’Select created “When It Smells, Everything Smells.” The video, by LG2, follows a man going through his morning routine and acting completely normal even as cat litter containing poop appears in unexpected places: the bedroom drawer, the cereal box and as a replacement to the living room carpet.

BRONZE: Online Video Single – 30s & Under

LG2

LG2 created “Relaxayvoo” for Mondou, the biggest pet chain store in Quebec. The video shows the joy people experience when a worker lets her kittens loose in her office: colleagues cuddle with them, a man laughs when a cat ends his phone call by accident – all while a female voiceover croons a song called “Relaxayvoo.” The kicker is an exterior shot: it shows a line of people outside the Passport Office, waiting their turn.

CCOs: Marc Fortin, Luc Du Sault

CD: Geneviève Langlois

ADs: Pascal Lefebvre, Etienne Goulet

CWs: Etienne Théberge, Luc Dupéré

CCOs: Marc Fortin, Luc Du Sault

CWs: Olivier Giguère, Martin Charron

AD: Colin Beaudin

GOLD: Social Media

Citizen Relations

Cheetos lovers know all about the iconic orange dust found on their fingers after eating a bag of chips but few are aware of the official term for the dust: Cheetle. So PepsiCo Foods Canada, with Citizen Relations, erected a 17-foot statue of a hand holding a Cheetos Puffs snack in the tiny Alberta hamlet of Cheadle –“Cheetle in Cheadle.” The statue caught the attention of the public and drew tourists, and even got a mention by actor Don Cheadle. Mentions of “Cheetle” increased by 1,750% and Cheetos Puff snacks experienced a 23% increase in national sales.

CCO: Josh Budd

AD: Shirley Xu Wang

CW: Marly Dichter

LG2

Seeing how the stunning scenery of Sicily was highlighted in season 2 of The White Lotus, Destination Québec Cité wondered if it could be showcased in the same light. “The Winter Lotus,” by LG2, was the first tourism brochure positioned as a location pitch to the producers of the show, citing the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac, the St. Lawrence and “the magic of winter” among the compelling reasons. The total cost of the campaign was $5,000, yet reached more than 16 million people.

CCOs: Marc Fortin, Luc Du Sault

ECD: Geneviève Langlois

CD: Alexandre Jourdain

AD: Gabrielle Turcotte

CW: Christian O’Brien

To get millennial foodies to think of Campbell’s in a new light, Leo Burnett collaborated with mixologists – rather than chefs - to highlight the unique possibilities of the modern broth flavours that had yet to grab their attention. “Brothtails” featured four cocktails made with its new broths: margaritas with Pork Ramen Broth, daiquiris with Mushroom Broth, mango bourbon sours with Pho Broth and negronis with Thai Chicken broth. The campaign led to a 1,600% increase in organic engagement, 69% increase in brand mentions and more than 46 million impressions.

CCOs: Lisa Greenberg, Steve Persico

Group CD: Ryan Lawrence

AD: Angelo Roldan

CWs: Ryan Lawrence

CSO: Tahir Ahmad

“Come Home 2022” was a year-long campaign led by Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism to encourage its citizens across the country to return home, rather than travel elsewhere. To get national reach on a small budget, Target made use of the social media networks of friends and family back home. The campaign launched with a video depicting what makes Newfoundland and Labrador unique, and encouraged locals to invite friends and family back home by tagging them in posts. As organic content was generated, paid media was used to boost posts, creating a feedback loop that encouraged more engagement.

CD: TJ Arch

ADs: Jennifer Szilagyi, Alyssa Campeau

Digital AD: Amanda Blackwood

Designers: Luisa Bojaca, Pierre Tabbiner, Joel Arbez

When McCain Foods secured the Canadian distribution rights for Simulate, a U.S. plant-based food company, it needed to recreate its cultural presence in the country. Inspired by the brand’s name, Rethink created “Flying Chickens,” a campaign that involved an unbranded, fake, flying chicken that was set loose across targeted online platforms. The stunt sparked wild conspiracy theories and the videos quickly spread across Reddit, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. When it was revealed that it was all fake, just like Simulate’s chicken, the internet lit up again.

CCO: Aaron Starkman

ECD: Leia Rogers

CD: Karine Doucet

AD: Grace Cho

SILVER: Integrated Web Campaign

Kraft Heinz

Kraft Heinz tapped into the growing role thrifting plays in the lives of younger consumers while reframing the role its ketchup plays in staining clothes. “Vintage Drip,” by Rethink, was a thrifted collection of luxe and streetwear brands featuring Heinz Ketchup stains. Kraft Heinz partnered with thredUp, the world’s largest resale platform for an unauthorized brand collaboration. The collection featured 157 unique items from brands like Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, and Nike, all dripped in Heinz. The launch video ran on OLV, and pieces from the collection were worn by streetwear icons at New York Fashion Week.

CCOs: Aaron Starkman, Mike Dubrick

CSO: Sean McDonald

CD: Zachary Bautista

CWs: Geoff Baillie, Aman Soin, Brendan Scullion

BRONZE:

Plenty

123W

Plenty of Fish carved a definitive space in the dating app market with its cheeky “The Gallery of Dick Pics” campaign, by 123W. Having fun with the play on the common term, the campaign featured wholesome photos of men named Richard - a.k.a. Dick - as a bold reminder to singles that the best pics are photos of themselves, not nudes – a campaign that resonated strongly with women. The campaign was supported by connected TV, social and digital, and was promoted by influencers.

CDs: Mo Bofill, Rob Sweetman, Jeff Harrison, Bryan Collins

ADs: Ryan Semeniuk, Troy Geoghegan

CWs: Allan Topol, Kyle Waye

Designers: Mo Bofill, Jeff Harrison, Ming Mikaeo

THE 2023 MARKETING AWARDS MEDAL COUNT

This award index is a translation of medals into points. Agencies and production studios across the country received Best of Show, The M for Mpact - Special Jury Prize, Gold, Silver and Bronze awards, as well as Merits, with the trophies awarded across Advertising, Public Service, Craft, Digital, Design and Multicultural at a live gala in Toronto in June.