CASSIES Awards Announces 2017 Winners

Last month in Toronto, Canada’s top 34 business-building communications campaigns were recognised with 44 awards by the advertising industry’s most prized competition, the CASSIES awards, Canada’s only industry awards program recognising business effectiveness based on rigorous published cases. You can view all the winners and their case studies here.

Kimberley-Clark’s Huggies campaign “No Baby Unhugged” created by Ogilvy & Mather won the Grand Prix. Also, for the first time, the CASSIES unveiled the Effectiveness Index which ranks agencies based on the overall strength of all their CASSIES case submissions each year. BBDO Toronto ranks top on the Effectiveness Index.

“The No Baby Unhugged campaign was an exceptionally strong case deserving the Grand Prix winner,” declared Christine Kalvenes, CMO at PepsiCo Foods Canada and jury co-Chair. “The campaign clearly moved opinions in the target market and the sales increase was substantial”, she added.

The campaign was based on the insight backed by medical evidence that, for a newborn baby, being held is a powerful and necessary development stimulus. The execution helps all Moms understand the power of hugs, and helps all babies get the hugs they need, even if Moms can’t be there to give them. The business results attributed a 19-point swing in the ratings and a 19.2% increase in sales. The campaign was also awarded a Gold in the Packaged Goods category and Silver for Building Brand Equity.

Other gold winning campaigns from the competition included:

- BBDO Doritos Ketchup Roses for PepsiCo Foods Canada in the Seasonal category.

- BBDO Skittles Holiday Pawn Shop campaign for Wrigley Canada in the Seasonal category.

- Bensimon Byrne Justin Trudeau 2015 Election Campaign - Hazel for the Liberal Party of Canada in the category Capitalizing on Curveballs.

- Cossette Life Unpaused campaign for SickKids Foundation in the Cause category.

- Grey Canada Ladyballs campaign for Ovarian Cancer Canada in the Underdog category.

- Juniper Park\TBWA Conquer All Conditions for Nissan Canada in the Sustained Success category.

Scott Knox, President and CEO at the Institute of Communication Agencies (ICA) expressed deep satisfaction with industry participation. “We had 12% more agencies submit 40% more cases into 74% more category entries than last year! This shows how much the agencies value a CASSIES win, as does the fact that our judges demand the highest standards of proof that advertising paid back for its clients, and our winning cases are all excellent examples demonstrating the value-generating power of great advertising”.

The panel of distinguished judges awarded a total of 44 CASSIES, including seven gold, 19 silver, 17 bronze and one Grand Prix to 34 of Canada’s top business-building communications campaigns spanning 19 categories.