Thursday, March 31, 2016

Mark Sweeney. Barack Obama campaign claims two top prizes at Cannes Lion ad awards. Barack Obama election work hailed for mix of new media, community and TV advertising at Cannes Lions awards. Guaridan. 17 Jul 2009.



The campaign that drove Barack Obama to victory in the US presidential election has claimed two top awards at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Awards.
The campaign, submitted by Obama for America, has been hailed as a masterful combination of new media, door-to-door and community grass roots campaigning with a clever tactical use of traditional TV advertising.
The campaign won two grands prix in the Titanium and Integrated Lions categories.
To win the Titanium grand prix, a campaign must involve a breakthrough idea that is “provocative, challenges assumptions and points to a new direction”.
“Titanium celebrates work that causes the industry to stop in its tracks and reconsider the way forward,” according to the rules set out by the Cannes organisers.
The integrated prize is awarded to a campaign using three or more media – such as TV, press and the internet - that is “high standard and state-of-the-art”.
Earlier in the week, Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, gave a seminar about how the different facets of media were used to deliver the campaign.
The Great Schlep, the campaign featuring Sarah Silverman designed to increase Obama’s Jewish support, won a Titanium Lion for agency Droga5.
The campaign to boost sales of the Zimbabwean, a newspaper that attacked Robert Mugabe’s regime by using the troubled country’s almost worthless bank notes to make billboard adverts, was awarded a Gold Lion in the Titanium and Integrated Lions category. The campaign, created by the South African agency TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris Johannesburg, previously won the grand prix in the outdoor advertising category.
The US presidential campaign also featured in the awards in the Film Lion category.
Charles Stone III, the creator of Budweiser’s famous “Wassup” TV ads from 2000, was given the unique award of a special jury commendation.
Stone produced a 2008 version, through Los Angeles-based Believe Media, to galvanise support for Obama’s presidential bid.
The ad features the formerly happy-go-lucky characters in dire circumstances, such as being posted to Iraq and the stock market crash, since we last saw them in 2000.
Under the rules of entry the ad is not eligible for consideration for an official award as only work that has been commissioned by a commercial client can be judged. However, the jury felt that the work could not go unheralded at Cannes.
“It was an extraordinary piece of work, as a standalone political statement it is perhaps second to none,” said Bil Bungay, judge and co-founder of UK ad agency Beattie McGuinness Bungay. “It completely captures eight years under president Bush. But we have rules that every work has to be commissioned [by a client] but we felt it was so significant it needed special mention”.
In a year of significantly less buzz and expectation around the traditionally high profile battle for the film grand prix one of the UK’s big hopes, ad agency MCBD’s epic “history of Britain” TV ad for Hovis could only manage a bronze lion.
T-Mobile’s “dance” TV ad, featuring a flash mob dance in Liverpool Street station, netted a Gold Lion for Saatchi & Saatchi. Mother London also managed a Gold Lion for its series of internet ads for Stella Artois featuring spoof trailers for US films and TV shows, shot in the style of French Nouvelle Vague directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut.
The UK also scored gold with agency Golley Slater’s campaign for the army highlighting road traffic accidents among servicemen.
Perhaps the biggest surprise, from a UK point of view, was the jury’s decision not to even shortlist Fallon London’s latest bizarre TV spot for Cadbury, “Eyebrows”. Last year Fallon was the joint Film Lion grand prix winner for “Gorilla”.
This year’s grand prix winner in the film category was the electronics firm Philips for an extended clip taken in one shot of a bank robbery frozen in time. The ad, by Tribal DDB in Amsterdam, is interactive, with viewers able to pause the shot at any point and open up sub-films on different parts of the robbery in progress. The ad, called Carousel, promoted the Philips Cinema 21:9 TV.
This year’s film lions category saw a 25.4% decrease in entries, from 4,626 to 3,453 year on year, with UK agencies submitting 32.5% fewer entries – down from 381 in 2008 to 257 this year.
But Dave Lubars, the president of the film Lions jury, said there were no issues with the overall quality of film work submitted.
“Entries are down this year but there is the same amount of brilliant work as any other year,” he said. “[Although] this year weaker work was not taken a shot on [by agencies]. There was the same brilliant few hundred things [submitted] this year.”
However, his fellow juror Steve Back, executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi in Australia, said that he had seen a lot of “crap” in the run up to finalising the winners.
“In the initial stages I was a little scared [that] under the current economic crisis there was still a lot of crap coming in,” he said. “However, by Wednesday a number of options emerged for the grand prix.”

Vito Rispo. Obama Wins Ad Age’s ‘Marketer of the Year’. Ad Savvy.



Every year hundreds of the biggest marketers, agency heads, and all manner of people involved in advertising get together at the Association of National Advertisers’ annual conference. And every year, they vote on the best advertiser of that particular year. This year Barack Obama won with a pretty substantial 36% of the vote, beating out the two runners-up Apple and Zappos.com. Nike, Coors and Sen. John McCain filled out the bottom of the vote.
“I honestly look at [Obama's] campaign and I look at it as something that we can all learn from as marketers,” said Angus Macaulay, VP-Rodale marketing solutions “To see what he’s done, to be able to create a social network and do it in a way where it’s created the tools to let people get engaged very easily. It’s very easy for people to participate.”
Linda Clarizio, president of AOL’s Platform A, said of Barack Obama, “I think he did a great job of going from a relative unknown to a household name to being a candidate for president.”
But some people weren’t particularly happy about getting politics involved in the voting. Mark Kaline, recently appointed global media director of Kimberly-Clark Corp., said. “Quite frankly, because political advertising kind of goes against a lot of what ANA stands for, I don’t think it belongs in the voting. … A lot of political advertising is false and misleading, and marketers at this conference don’t expect to see that kind of stuff.”

Here are the results:
Obama 36.1%
Apple 27.3%
Zappos 14.1%
Nike 9.4%
Coors 8.7%
McCain 4.5%

Matthew Creamer. Obama Wins Ad Age’s Marketer of the Year. At ANA Gathering, Marketing Pros and Agency Bigs Tap Barack Over Apple, Zappos. Advertising Age. 17 Oct 2008.



ORLANDO, Fla. (AdAge.com) -- Just weeks before he demonstrates whether his campaign’s blend of grass-roots appeal and big media-budget know-how has converted the American electorate, Sen. Barack Obama has shown he’s already won over the nation’s brand builders. He’s been named Advertising Age’s marketer of the year for 2008.
Mr. Obama won the vote of hundreds of marketers, agency heads and marketing-services vendors gathered here at the Association of National Advertisers’ annual conference. He edged out runners-up Apple and Zappos.com. The rest of the shortlist, selected by Ad Age’s editorial staff, was rounded out by megabrand Nike, turnaround story Coors and Mr. Obama’s rival, Sen. John McCain.

From unknown to presidential nominee
“I think he did a great job of going from a relative unknown to a household name to being a candidate for president,” said Linda Clarizio, president of AOL’s Platform A, the sponsor of the opening-night dinner attended by 750 where the votes were cast.
“I honestly look at [Obama’s] campaign and I look at it as something that we can all learn from as marketers,” said Angus Macaulay, VP-Rodale marketing solutions “To see what he’s done, to be able to create a social network and do it in a way where it’s created the tools to let people get engaged very easily. It’s very easy for people to participate.”
Jon Fine, marketing and media columnist for BusinessWeek, pointed to Mr. Obama’s facility with engaging voters in social-media channels. “It’s the fuckin’ Web 2.0 thing,” he said.
In introducing the winner to the crowd, Ad Age Editor Jonah Bloom joked, “I’m surprised. I thought you [all] made more than $250,000.”
While Mr. Obama may have won the most votes, he didn’t get them from several of the bigger marketers in the room, many of whom supported Apple, Coors and Nike instead. Procter & Gamble Co. had a split ticket. Outgoing Global Marketing Officer Jim Stengel, currently on special assignment as he prepares to leave the company at the end of the month, voted for Apple.

Apple’s ‘amazing consistency’
“Year in and year out, Apple delivers great innovation, customer service and user experience,” Mr. Stengel said. “It has amazing consistency.” His successor, Marc Pritchard, was a Nike supporter because of its development of a global community of users. “I think [the concept] is going to be huge,” he said.
Brian Perkins, corporate VP-corporate affairs of Johnson & Johnson, also backed Apple, though Nike was a close second for him. “I admire all of the work they do, the clarity and consistency of their message, their design and everything they do,” he said of Apple. Nike likewise consistently builds its brand across everything it does, Mr. Perkins added, noting that “they don’t do a lot of TV. In fact, I don’t remember when was the last time I saw a Nike ad on TV.”
Mark Kaline, recently appointed global media director of Kimberly-Clark Corp., voted for Coors “because they showed business results,” he said. “Quite frankly, because political advertising kind of goes against a lot of what ANA stands for, I don’t think it belongs in the voting. ... A lot of political advertising is false and misleading, and marketers at this conference don’t expect to see that kind of stuff.”

Coors’ ‘new approaches’
Nancy Abraham, assistant VP-integrated marketing communications for Allstate Insurance Co., likewise backed Coors. “They’ve done an excellent job taking some new approaches in a market that hasn’t seen a lot of growth over the years.”

How they voted
Marketer | % of votes
Obama | 36.1%
Apple | 27.3%
Zappos | 14.1%
Nike | 9.4%
Coors | 8.7%
McCain | 4.5%
Source: Meridia ARS

While Apple’s strong second-place showing in the voting surprised no one, lesser-known Zappos’ third-place finish probably caught a few off guard. But the online shoe seller is a sexy story because of its practice of pumping the budget it would spend on advertising into its customer service, leading to strong retention.
“Zappos has great customer service, a great business model and it’s smart to use the internet as a platform,” said Maria Luisa Francoli, CEO of Havas’ media agency MPG. “And I love the name.”

Contributing: Jack Neff, Natalie Zmuda