High energy and entertainment value at last night's CLIO awards for Emerging Media. (Emerging? Neil Robinson, AKQA CD bridled at this in a panel: "Is it still 1997? Why are we still talking about the novelty of digital?")
No surprise that Crispin Porter + Bogusky took Gold in Interactive for Whopper Sacrifice which ECD Rob Reilly pointed out leveraged both social media and human nature. A Facebook application convinced more than 233,000 to defriend someone in return for a free Whopper. Dumped friends were informed they'd been sacrificed in messages that included their profile pics in flames. Facebook stepped in, disabling the app as it violated FB policy of not informing users when defriending occurs. But by then, the campaign had already converted 233,000 consumers and generated incalcuable free press and WOM. Crispin cleverly leveraged the fallout by cross-platforming the news in traditional print.
Another no brainer: Obama campaign won Gold for Integrated. Dipdive acceptor said, humbly, "Our client was the American people." No wonder their "product" was named Ad Age Marketer of the Year. A companion campaign, the hilariously effective "The Great Schlep" won Silver in Content & Category.
Surprises were multitudes of strong showings from afar. Particularly impressive was Silver winner for Innovative Media: BBDO Auckland's campaign for New Zealand Book Council. Brief: Encourage people to read again. Concept: Disguise books as computer documents so people will be able to read them at work, despite BOS. And organize books into an online library diguised to look like a Windows desktop.
An Aussie campaign for a travel company was produced, interestingly, by an alliance between a strategic agency The Hallway and a creative one Happy Soldiers. How to get people to take vacations during a recession? Produce household staples and price them for pennies, so shoppers can spend money on travel instead.
Gold winner for viral (I know you hate that word) was Superfad's brilliant because oh-so-simple concept executed in charming animation for Durex. (As of today, 2.8 million unpaid views)
Lots more CLIO goodness (including stunningly sophisticated work from students at NYC's School of Visual Arts and Miami Ad School) in full list of winners here.
