CLIO Sports Awards Announces 2016 Winners

CLIO Sports, the esteemed international competition honouring the best in sports marketing and advertising, announced the 2016 Grand CLIO Sports winners at last night’s CLIO Sports Awards in New York City. Boomer Esiason, NFL Analyst and Radio Host, served as host. The night featured a presentation of the Stuart Scott Lifetime Achievement Award, renamed for the late sportscaster in 2015, to John Miller, CMO, NBC Olympics. Miller accepted his award from NBC Sports President of Programming Jon Miller.

“The CLIO has long been the gold standard for advertising and creative excellence,” said Miller. “To be recognised by the CLIO Organisation for the Stuart Scott Lifetime Achievement Award is an extraordinary honour to me and a tribute to the many people I collaborated with on this 40+ year journey.”

Among the Grand CLIO Sports winners was One Tree Forest Films’ viral PSA “#MoreThanMean – Women in Sports ‘Face’ Online Harassment,” featuring sports writers Julie DiCaro and Sarah Spain. Africa’s campaign for ESPN Brazil’s ESPNW web portal, asking fans to identify the athlete, also received a Grand prize.

“I wasn't surprised when people around the world had a visceral reaction to our #MoreThanMean PSA – language is incredibly powerful,” said Spain. “I was surprised, however, to watch the final product and feel equally as moved by it as they did. After years of absorbing the threats and insults of online trolls, I'd grown numb enough to no longer really hear the words. It's a testament to the power of our PSA that watching it brought the words back to life, reminding me that these attacks aren't something anyone should have to get used to.”

The 2016 Grand CLIO Sports winners are:

· Partnerships, Sponsorships & Endorsements: Publicis Italy, The Dilemma for Heineken

· Events/Experiential: AKQA (USA), The Last Shot for Jordan Brand

· Direct: TBWA\HAKUHODO Inc. (Japan), X-treme Golf Cup for Nissan

· Design: R/GA (USA), Kyrie II Unexpected Moves for Nike

· Out of Home: Africa (Brazil), Invisible Players for ESPNW

· Social Media: VML (USA), The Super Bowl Dunk for Gatorade

· Social Good: One Tree Forest Films (USA), #MoreThanMean for Just Not Sports

The annual event serves to celebrate the brands, marketers, leagues, clubs and agencies producing the world’s most innovative and engaging sports creative. Reflecting CLIO Sports’ global influence, international submissions grew 47 percent this year. CLIO Sports works with an expert jury to decide its winning entries. Leading industry names who participated this year included; Jamie Weston, SVP of Marketing/Creative/Branding, NFL; Rudolf Vidal, Managing Director, FC Bayern Munich LLC; Steve Sommers, Vice President, Global Brand Marketing, Under Armour; Jaymee Messler, President, Players’ Tribune; and Sonia Bijelic, Head of Marketing, Cricket Australia. 

“This was a great year for storytelling and creativity,” said Nicole Purcell, president, CLIO. “Our Grand winners showcase the power of advertising, from important conversation starters to immersive experiences that are connecting fans with the brands they love in new and innovative ways. Perhaps no one does this better than our Lifetime honoree this year, John Miller of NBC Olympics. We were thrilled to have so many influential creatives and marketers celebrate with us this year.”

The full list of previously announced Gold, Silver, Bronze and Shortlist winners can be found at cliosports.com.