Our industry has a love-hate relationship with awards. It feels great to celebrate our hard work. But it also takes so much effort to submit. On top of that, each year it seems there’s another new award show to enter and follow.

It all makes you wonder sometimes if awards really matter.

My answer: Absolutely yes. And here’s why.

Awards hold us all to higher standards and better work. Most people don’t wake up in the morning and say ‘hey, I want to engage with a brand today.’

It pays to pay attention to the winning work. With our industry constantly evolving, award-winning work serves as a snapshot of where we are today. And a catalyst to where we might be going. The stakes are higher for marketing these days because people don’t see marketing as simply marketing anymore. It’s treated like any other piece of content in the public domain. With no clear borders between culture, business, technology, marketing and politics, what brands say matters more than ever before. Seeing world-class work challenges us to level up the work we do for clients.

Creating value wins awards. And hearts, minds and wallets.

With everything demanding our attention, building awareness is not enough. Campaigns must create value in order to have impact. They need to be designed to have a value beyond the product, service or message we are promoting – be it problem solving, social good, driving change, empowerment, access, entertainment or utility. In other words, it needs to be something people seek out to benefit themselves or society.

Take for example, our #BuickStyle: The Ultimate Driving Shoe campaign, which captured CPRS 2019 Ace Creative PR Campaign Of The Year and a 2019 SABRE Diamond award. Our approach was to engage a younger demographic by partnering with a fashion brand to produce a new product – and tell a design and craftmanship story in the process. Our other award-winning campaigns like the Big Mac Coin and The Woods Parka Lodge also tapped into something real to create genuine value; both have been celebrated at many awards shows so far.

And with the Toronto Raptors in the NBA Championships for the first time, I’m reminded of our Bud Light’s Victory Fridge program in Cleveland that allowed the brand to become deeply involved in celebrating and rallying a community.

Based on our benchmarking of the recent award show circuit, the most impactful campaigns address three critical questions:

1. How do we make the idea stick? This ensures the message and activation build a bridge between the brand world and the real world. It’s about the context, and how to insert the brand’s point of view – and opportunity – within it.
2. How do we make the idea real? This is about going beyond channels and starting with audiences to ensure news value, accuracy, repetition, trust and advocacy. Positioning used to describe how your brand related to competitors in your category; now, it’s about describing how your brand relates to society at large.
3. How do we make the idea count? Ultimately, any campaign must ladder back to a business objective. Ask yourself: what are you putting out into the real world that is tangible and demonstrable? Use data validation, audience journey mapping and asset/tool production to create that real impact.

Are you ready to push your work into award-winning territory?

If you’d like to hear more about this year’s awards show learnings, get in touch. We’d love to share Weber Shandwick’s ‘Cannes-piration’ – a look at the trends, benchmarks and insights after the festival wraps later this month. We’ll walk you through our POV on the best work from the world’s biggest creative festival and talk about the insights and innovation that earned the awards.

We may have a love-hate relationship with awards, but we love sharing great work.

It is estimated that by 2030 Artificial Intelligence (AI) will contribute $15.7 trillion (USD) to the global economy. Machine learning is poised to impact everything from manufacturing to medicine and from agriculture to financial systems. Meanwhile, consumers interact with AI on a regular basis, whether it’s Amazon’s recommendations or Gmail’s auto-complete feature.

It’s no surprise that talk of AI was inescapable at C2, especially considering the theme for 2019 was ‘Tomorrow’. Keynote speaker WILL.I.AM made headlines when he announced a partnership with Stradigi AI during the conference. The musician-turned-tech entrepreneur will take on an advisory role with the Montreal-based AI company.

So, at a time when organizations are becoming increasingly intertwined and dependent on AI, what’s a brand to do to ensure a healthy bond with consumers? Act more human. Throughout C2, discussions repeatedly circled back to the idea that to succeed in the future companies must be more authentic, trustworthy and values-driven.

According to Hollywood, self-aware machines aren’t to be trusted. And while we’ve yet to witness a robot uprising, consumers are wary of the technology that we use daily, especially when it comes to data and privacy. It’s no wonder that companies have an incentive to act more human, now more than ever.

Acting human isn’t just reserved for those employing AI – it’s a sound strategy for any company at a time consumer trust is at dangerously low levels. So how does a company act more human?

1. By caring about the world and its inhabitants. IKEA’s Dominique Fularski presented a plan from the Swedish retail giant to become completely circular by 2030. In the not-too-distant future, IKEA will be exclusively using existing materials to build new products while helping customers extend the life of or reuse IKEA products they already own.
2. By treating people like people, with real emotions. Alicia Tillmam is CMO at SAP, the world’s largest provider of enterprise application software. One might expect a presentation from a tech giant to focus on speeds and feeds. Instead, she did a deep dive into research about the 27 distinct feels humans have and the importance of appealing to one another on an emotional basis.
3. By having values, and actually living them. Refinery 29 co-founder Piera Gelardi talked about how Gen-Z is a values-driven generation: a group who will decide to patronize companies based on its values. Be warned though: ‘having values’ and living them are two different things, and Gen Z will be more discerning than previous generations. Piera talked about the evolution of its 29Rooms event, which evolved from an Instagramable pop-up event to a series of experiences informed by the values important to attendees: social justice, gender equality and disconnecting from technology to reconnect with each other.

Acting human requires trust and care. Is your company one that people can trust? And a company that genuinely cares for the world?

They say good things come in threes.  For the third year in a row, IABC has named Weber Shandwick Canada the Large Agency Of The Year!

At last night’s gala we came home with a total of sixteen IABC Ovation Awards. And like last week’s CPRS Ace Awards, we left with more wins than any other agency in the country.

Our partners at McDonald’s, Buick, Chevrolet, Air Canada, Canadian Tire, Sport Chek and Splenda were all recognized. An extra hat tip goes to Sport Chek’s Woods Parka Lodge for winning the People’s Choice Award – the final and most prestigious award of the night.

We congratulate them all and remain grateful for the opportunity to do incredible work together. And we look forward to generating more value and impact next year.

Here’s the full list of Weber Shandwick Canada 2019 IABC Ovation Award wins:

Large Agency Of The Year

• Weber Shandwick Canada

People’s Choice Award

• Sport Chek – The Woods Parka Lodge

Media Relations

• Chevrolet Canada – Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup: 2017/18 Season (Excellence, $50,000 – $100,000)
• Sport Chek – The Woods Parka Lodge (Excellence, $100,000)
• Air Canada – Signature Service Launch (Merit, $100,000)

Marketing Communications

• McDonald’s Canada – McCafé Bagel Launch (Excellence)
• McDonald’s Canada – Certified Sustainable Beef (Merit)
• McDonald’s Canada – The Hottest Collab of 2018: The Big Mac® x Bacon (Merit)
• SportChek – The Woods Parka Lodge (Merit)
• Splenda – SPLENDA® Stevia Sweetener: “The Sweet Spot” (Merit)

Advertising and Brand Communications

• Splenda – SPLENDA® Stevia Sweetener: “The Sweet Spot” (Excellence)
• McDonald’s – The Hottest Collab of 2018: The Big Mac® x Bacon (Merit)

Corporate Social Responsibility

• Chevrolet Canada – Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup: 2017/18 Season (Merit)

Special Events

• Canadian Tire – Canadian Tire Christmas House (Excellence)
• Buick Canada – #BuickStyle: The Ultimate Driving Shoe (Excellence)
• Splenda – SPLENDA® Stevia Sweetener: “The Sweet Spot” (Merit)

Last week Collision descended on Toronto for the first time. Weber Shandwick was there – Chief Digital Office Chris Perry led a panel, and I joined my colleagues and clients to attend many sessions. Our partners at IBM were on hand as well, with Chief Digital Officer Bob Lord

If you weren’t among the 27,000 attendees over four days, here are six takeaways to consider in our rapidly-changing landscape.

1. AI, AI, AI. Speakers in virtually every session were using terms like “machine learning” as they were debating opportunities and fears around AI. Our client IBM’s Bob Lord shared how technologies like AI and Open Source are the biggest drivers of innovation in business today. While the general feeling was that AI is making a positive difference and is enhancing products and services, many questions arose around ethics. How do we ensure human biases are not transmitted to AI? What does the future of work look like with AI? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. What’s exciting is that some of the most interesting advancements in AI are made in Canada. There’s Thena, an AI that helps entrepreneurs with bookkeeping, payroll and analytics. And Oscar from intuitive.ai, that empowers buildings and spaces towards zero waste. Another standout AI assistant born in Canada is Lisa, the first autonomous lifeguard robot that detects drowning and rescues the person in distress.
2. Looking at viability of media, Buzzfeed’s Ben Smith summed it up perfectly: “There’s never been a better time to be a reporter…if you can get a job.” Consensus among speakers from Vox and The Guardian is that media have figured out the new model. Rather than relying on ad revenue, it’s about finding the audience who values what you do and then enabling them to subscribe and direct what you cover.
3. There was some green among the grey. Standing out among the overwhelming number of martech exhibitors and presenters is key. Some highlights included Startup Edmonton’s donut wall to engage passersby, and plant-based dairy startup Spero’s simple pitch: “There are a lot of you, and only one food company here. Come visit our booth.”
4. While this was a technology conference, doing the basics well is still important. A lot of speakers touched on the implications of talent, ethics and privacy, while GE CMO Linda Boff said that during its recent troubles she’s focused more on culture and internal engagement than running marketing campaigns.
5. Women to the front! I was thrilled to see more women here than at usual tech events. Collision reports that 45 per cent of the Toronto event’s attendees were female. With discounted tickets and onsite networking and mentoring areas for women, it’s heartening to see the tech industry do something about gender disparity.
6. That’s (business) entertainment – Sure, this conference has opportunities to learn and network, but to me this was really about entertainment. Collision is catering to a need for people to follow the latest drama with tech titans like Google and Facebook. They want to see what small characters may become future stars. Audiences want to applaud the heroes and boo the villains. With the future of business in the balance, the scale and production value of these events will only get bigger and slicker.

Missed Collision? Not to worry. There are plenty of video recordings of the sessions, and it’s set to return to Toronto for 2020 and 2021. See you there?

Nothing succeeds like success! After becoming the most awarded agency at the 2019 SABREs, we led our industry once again with 24 wins at last week’s CPRS Ace Awards.

#BuickStyle got the honour of Best Creative PR Campaign Of The Year, along with two other Golds and a Bronze. This comes after #BuickStyle was given the prestigious Diamond SABRE Award earlier this month. A huge thanks to the Buick Canada team for their partnership.

Our partners at McDonald’s received a whopping 10 CPRS accolades – the most for a single brand this year. Some of our standout McDonald’s work included Certified Sustainable Beef, the RMHC Cookie Launch and McCafé Bagel Launch. Congratulations to our friends and partners at McDonald’s.

Other recognized work includes the Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup, the Canadian Tire Christmas House and Triangle Rewards Launch, the innovative Woods Parka Lodge, Air Canada Signature Service Launch and The Sweet Spot for Splenda Stevia Sweetener. We thank all our clients for their trust and true partnership. You can read the full list below.

Recognition is nice, but the real magic comes down to three things: the value and impact of our work, the incredible clients we get to partner with, and the amazing team at Weber Shandwick that propels the work forward.

BuickStyle: The Ultimate Driving Shoe

• Best Creative PR Campaign Of The Year
• Brand Development Campaign Of The Year – Gold
• Best Use Of Special Events – Gold
• Best Media Relations Campaign over $50,000 – Bronze

McDonald’s Certified Sustainable Beef

• Brand Development Campaign Of The Year – Gold

McDonald’s #ShareSomeCookie: RMHC Cookie Launch

• New Product Or Service Launch Of The Year – Gold

McDonald’s McCafé Bagel Launch 

• New Product Or Service Launch Of The Year – Gold
• Marketing Communications Campaign Of The Year – Silver

McDonald’s Beyond the Arch – Raptors x McDonald’s

• Marketing Communications Campaign Of The Year – Silver

McDonald’s MacCoin: 50 Years Of The Big Mac

• Marketing Communications Campaign Of The Year – Silver

McDonald’s Big Mac x Bacon Launch

• Product Or Service Launch Of The Year – Bronze

Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup

• Brand Development Campaign Of The Year – Gold
• Community Relations Campaign of the Year – Gold
• Best Media Relations Campaign over $50,000 – Gold

Canadian Tire Christmas House

• Best Use Of Special Events – Gold

Canadian Tire Triangle Rewards Launch

• Best Media Relations Campaign over $50,000 – Gold
• Product Or Service Launch Of The Year – Bronze

Canadian Tire The Woods Parka Lodge

• Marketing Communications Campaign Of The Year – Gold

Air Canada Signature Service Launch

• Brand Development Campaign Of The Year – Silver
• New Product Or Service Launch Of The Year – Silver
• Best Media Relations Campaign over $50,000 – Silver
• Best Use Of Special Events – Silver

SPLENDA Stevia Sweetener “The Sweet Spot”

• Best Use Of Special Events – Gold
• Marketing Communications Campaign Of The Year – Silver

Featured photo: Team Buick, Chevrolet and Weber Shandwick Canada celebrate at the CPRS Ace Awards Gala May 23, 2019 in Toronto.

Last week at the 2019 SABRE Awards gala, I was struck about the similarities between brilliant PR programs and the best movies. But the lessons and inspiration that movies offer go far beyond fancy parties.

Game-changing ideas come from the edges, not from where you usually look. That’s why I like how the arts — and especially movies — let you free your mind to explore new ways of looking at familiar things.

With that in mind, here are five films that are great on their own merit, but also highlight the path to success in our work and in our client relationships.

Vice

Adam McKay’s brilliant follow-up to The Big Short is a tour de force about the broken social compact that has severely wobbled western democracies. In McKay’s view, everyday politics is just a brassy, empty show that distracts from the deadly maneuvering that takes place in the shadows, where the real game is fought. Vice has a jumpy staccato pace and some clever dramatic devices that are true craft. It’s huge fun.

Vice should remind us to beware of the blizzard of competing priorities and remember that focus is everything. Prioritize a few simple things, stay on them, get them done. And don’t waste time. Finding quiet time to renew your energy and get the real work done is what drives success.

The Romanoffs

I am in the minority here, but The Romanoffs is the most dazzling storytelling on screen this year – or any year. This series of eight short stories by Matthew Weiner (Mad Men) is about people who think their life is the center of the universe. Each protagonist stakes their claim to specialness based on some distant and unproven link to a diaspora of royal Russian blood. They are so self-absorbed that they blind themselves to the needs of everyone around them. Privilege leads to their self-destruction; kind of like it did one century ago to the Russian Czar.

There are many takeaways here. But for me, the biggest is that good relationships are about listening and giving. A happy life is about your impact on others, not their utility to you. In a good agency, the best talent makes everyone around them shine brighter. We don’t suck the energy out of each other, we empower one another. And when we do that, we empower our clients to create a virtuous circle.

The Favourite

This is a darkly beautiful film about powerful women engaged in a ruthless competition for favour in the dysfunctional court of Queen Anne. It is a zero-sum game with no winners. Ultimately, the player with the deepest ambition rises from lowly bedchamber woman to become the favourite bedchamber woman in the closing scene. Some reward! The lesson here: be careful what you wish for, you might get it.

The same is true in agency life when it comes to the scramble for new business. We should never pursue a new client because we like the thrill of the hunt or to burnish our egos. Chasing RFPs is a tough way to build a business given how flawed the agency selection process is. It’s always better to treat your current clients like royalty and grow your remit with them by finding new ways to contribute to their business success. Replace zero-sum with win-win.

Isle of Dogs

I have three dogs, so of course I love this movie. But that does not help me make sense of it. And like my dogs, there is a lot going on under the surface I don’t understand.

Wes Anderson has explored the bleakest corners of human nature in his last few films as a way to prove that the resilience of the better parts of our nature is our true saving grace. This dystopian view of the future (why is it set in Japan?) anchors unshakeable love in the loyal bond between boy and dog. They are friends; best friends, even. Adults are not to be trusted. Only children have the answers and the courage to act on their principles. This argument can be found in Anderson’s recent work like Moonrise Kingdom and Grand Budapest Hotel. It makes me wonder why we surrendered our innocence in the first place.

The real bite in Isle of Dogs, however, is as a cautionary tale about the banality of evil. The bad guys are mostly bland and robotic, estranged from nature, pursuing our heroes as part of the Megasaki Municipal Task Force. George Orwell would admire the use of language in this movie to mask bad intent as public service. This is a deep movie that is must viewing for anyone who wants to better understand the devices we use to communicate. Not a lot of answers provided; but all the right questions are raised about how authority figures can frame a narrative and use fear to make the public complicit in its embrace until confronted with a more powerful emotional truth.

Tokyo Drifter

This film is not new and yet it is always new. Seijun Suzuki is the Quentin Tarantino of post-war Japanese cinema. Here he smashes together a classic gangster noir with the social upheaval of the swinging sixties to break all conventions. The plot is a familiar mob drama. A fading Yakuza godfather surrenders his empire to an upstart rival leaving his No. 1 enforcer suddenly without a job and without a future. Honour forces him to abandon his past and exile himself to the frozen hinterland, where he is hunted by killers eager to tie up loose ends until he realizes he has been double-crossed. Then he returns home to avenge.

It’s a predictable plot, except everyone acts against cast to create a stunning movie with bold contrasts. Think music videos circa 1966. Everything is exaggerated, from the bright colour palette to the spare soundstages that accentuate every move. It’s eccentric to the max. This movie punches way above its weight because it never stops punching. Especially on repeat viewing.

How does a 54-year-old movie relate to communications today? As Miles Davis once said, “if you are going to tell a story, come with some attitude.” In this time of industry disruption and transformation, we need to be bold. We can’t shrink our way to success. We can’t be the admiral so afraid of the risks at sea that the navy gets sunk in its port. Better to act. Even if we might get it wrong. Then, iterate together to find the right course.

You could say we were a shoe-in.

This week The Holmes Report awarded Weber Shandwick a coveted Diamond SABRE Award for our work with Buick Canada. The campaign #BuickStyle: The Ultimate Driving Shoe was recognized as a ‘Superior Achievement in Brand-Building’ by the prestigious industry outlet.

Congratulations to our partners at Buick Canada for trusting us to take risks that generate real results for the brand. Our team put our hearts into this campaign. We’re thrilled to share this honour and look forward to continuing down the road with Buick Canada together.

Since the 2016 U.S. election and the first (of so many) Brexit votes, Weber Shandwick Canada has been counselling its clients on how to still break through in what’s been called a “garbage fire news cycle.” It’s exhausting for people reading the news. But it’s even more exhausting for journalists trying to cover it all.

When it comes to media relations, placing stories has gotten tougher and we’re turning to some of the most traditional tricks of our trade to reach media. The twist? We’re using them in new ways to fit the realities of a modern newsroom. Here are three that stand out.

Read More