Top 22 business-building brands and their agencies honoured at the CASSIES awards

DDB Canada's autoTRADER Campaign: 'Most Cars in One Place' Captures Coveted Grand Prix

TORONTO, Jan. 29, 2013 /CNW/ - This past year, Canadians flocked to "the most cars in one place", experienced the "joy of finger cooking" and even took action to "make death wait." From coast to coast, people were moved by the brands they love, and they spoke with their hearts, minds and wallets. So, 33 of Canada's top business-building communications campaigns received one of the industry's highest honours last night from the prestigious CASSIES awards show, Canada's only industry awards recognizing business effectiveness based on rigorous published cases.

The coveted Grand Prix was awarded to DDB Canada and autoTRADER for their memorable "Most cars in one place" campaign. This campaign also garnered a gold in the 'Off to a good start' category.  Other big agency winners from the evening included john st. (one gold, four silvers, one bronze for their work on Zellers, Maple Leaf Natural Selections, Mitsubishi, Wiser's DeLuxe Canadian Whisky, and Scotties tissues respectively), and TAXI Canada (one silver, and four bronze for their work on MINI, and Boston Pizza respectively).

Notable client winners who each won three CASSIES awards included: IKEA (agency, Leo Burnett), Boston Pizza International (agency, TAXI Canada) and PepsiCo Beverages Canada (agencies: TBWA/Toronto and BBDO).

"Each year, the calibre of entries to this awards show amazes us, and reflects the incredible talent we have in this country when it comes to business-building advertising," said Jani Yates, president, Institute of Communication Agencies (ICA), CASSIES chair.  "Advertisers are going deeper in search of compelling consumer insights that link back to core brand values, and they are entertaining Canadians through innovative technology that is ultimately changing our industry's playing field."

This year's Grand Prix award winner is a prime example - DDB Canada and autoTRADER's "Most cars in one place" campaign was based on the insight that the car buying experience is a very social one, involving influences and approvals from friends and family.  The six-month effort included traditional TV, radio and online advertising, a business-to-business strategy, PR and social media seeding, which included a unique Facebook autoLYZER app.  This program not only re-positioned autoTRADER as the preeminent destination for car buyers and sellers, it also generated triple-digit growth on its consumer traffic-generating targets.

Charities also performed very well at the CASSIES this year.  Stand-out campaigns included gold CASSIES winners Cundari and the Hospital for Sick Children for their Pain Squad campaign and app - a tool that allows sick kids to take control of their pain management and treatment in an entertaining and fun way; and Wunderkind and Plan Canada for their "Because I am a girl" campaign, which introduced an inspiring new way of looking at return-on-investment in charitable giving.

"The diversity of winners at this year's CASSIES reflect the evolution we are currently experiencing in communications, where prominence and frequency of corporate messaging is taking a back seat to the emotional battle brands are undertaking to win consumers' share of mind," added Yates. "Today, traditional boundaries between communication mediums are crumbling, and brand 'philosophies' are ultimately determining business success," added Yates.

This year, 43 awards were handed out in total - 9 gold, 16 silver, 17 bronze CASSIES and one Grand Prix award to 22 of Canada's top business-building communication agencies.

The 2013 CASSIES awards show was held on Monday, January 28, 2013 at the Ritz-Carlton in Toronto. The event was also part of the official kick off to the Institute of Communication Agencies' FFWD Advertising & Marketing Week in Canada. This year's winning case studies will be added to the comprehensive CASSIES case library at www.cassies.ca, which serves as a valuable industry reference and time capsule for communications enthusiasts across the country.

The 2013 gold-winning CASSIES cases will also be featured in strategy magazine's February issue.  Select winners will also appear in a five-part series of stories released on the Report On Business website and will present their cases at the LIFT conference in the spring of 2013. The Globe Effectiveness Prize, which provides delegate passes for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to the winning client-agency team was awarded to Hospital for Sick Children and Cundari for 'Pain Squad'.

ABOUT THE CASSIES

The pre-eminent CASSIES awards show, celebrating its 20^th anniversary this year, is Canada's only industry awards recognizing business effectiveness based on rigorous published cases. The CASSIES are presented by the Institute of Communication Agencies (ICA), the Association des agences de Publicité du Québec (AAPQ) and Association des professionnels de la communication et du marketing (APCM) and produced by Strategy magazine. The 2013 sponsors are The Globe and Mail, Millward Brown, john st., DDB Public Relations, TVB and AOL. Since its inception in 1993, CASSIES has recognized the business achievements of over 350 campaigns from Canada's top advertisers and communications agencies.  All award-winning case studies can be viewed in the Case Library section of the CASSIES website at www.cassies.ca.

SOURCE: CASSIES

For more information on the CASSIES or to request an interview, please contact:

Sharon Hayward, account manager, DDB Public Relations
416.972.5844 | [email protected]