***NEWS FLASH*** Cassies spread the wealth among seven

There was a spread of wealth at the Cassies today with 10 golds distributed among seven agencies. And while TV has long been the award-hogging medium, some campaigns awarded today proved you can do a lot with innovative use of the 'other' media, such as radio (used by Target for Irving Oil) or OOH (used by Cossette for the butter campaign).

Target Marketing and Communications scored some hardware today, winning a gold apiece for its McCain Foods and Irving Oil accounts. Most notable in the Irving Oil work is the take-off of a 60-second reality radio show, hyping up small prize wins such as a bag of chips. Arnold Worldwide picked up two golds for its United Way 'The hand' campaign, one each in the not-for-profit and sustained success categories. John St. scooped two golds this afternoon, both in the retail category, for its Moores and Harvey's accounts. The agency also nabbed a certificate of excellence award for its work on K&G Fashion Stores.
By Pia Musngi
November 24, 2005

There was a spread of wealth at the Cassies today with 10 golds distributed among seven agencies. And while TV has long been the award-hogging medium, some campaigns awarded today proved you can do a lot with innovative use of the ‘other’ media, such as radio (used by Target for Irving Oil) or OOH (used by Cossette for the butter campaign).

Target Marketing and Communications scored some hardware today, winning a gold apiece for its McCain Foods and Irving Oil accounts. Most notable in the Irving Oil work is the take-off of a 60-second reality radio show, hyping up small prize wins such as a bag of chips. Arnold Worldwide picked up two golds for its United Way ‘The hand’ campaign, one each in the not-for-profit and sustained success categories. John St. scooped two golds this afternoon, both in the retail category, for its Moores and Harvey’s accounts. The agency also nabbed a certificate of excellence award for its work on K&G Fashion Stores.

Other gold Cassies went to: Cossette (for its ‘Natural Selection’ butter campaign, which used a mainly OOH execution in addition to its coup – in-store advertising on grocery cart handles); Bensimon Byrne (for work on the ‘Stupid’ anti-smoking campaign, a multimedia hit which used not only TV, but wild postings and a website that has logged more than 500,000 visitors); Alfred Communications (Familiprix work); and PALM Arnold Communications (for La Brasserie Labatt campaign, of which one clever OOH execution was the creation of a Budweiser loft). PALM Arnold also nabbed a silver for its 2004 Volkswagen Olympic campaign.

In Toronto, PHD Canada chair David Harrison reprised his role as emcee at the awards luncheon. A similar Cassies event took place in Montreal simultaneously. New to the awards this year is a benchmarking panel consisting of senior Cassies judging alumni: Arthur Fleischmann, David Rutherford, Heather Fraser, Louis-Éric Vallée, Peter Elwood and Yves Blain.

The Cassies laud advertising effectiveness, and cases won have proven impressive business results substantially caused by advertising. Cross-over notes, detailing key campaign success factors (some of which are media-specific), are available within the Cassies’ archive library. The awards are represented by the ICA (The Institute of Communication and Advertising), the Association of Quebec Advertising Agencies and Publicité Club de Montréal.

More info on the winners and cases are at www.cassies.ca.