AKQA has won Agency of the Year and Best Creative Idea at the Internet Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Creative Showcase Grand Prix Awards for 2012.
The Awards, for which The Drum is media partner, took place in London this evening and saw AKQA pick up Agency of the Year award for being the most “consistent” agency with the most wins, picking up Best Creative Idea and Most Creative On The Move categories for its mobile app Under the Thumb, created for MTV (see more below).
Best Creative Idea and Most Creative On The Move: MTV Under the Thumb - AKQA
MTV's Under The Thumb app, created by AKQA, was designed to let people watch its shows while chatting to friends, and also control playback on their TVs.The app was unveiled at Mobile World Congress last year in Barcelona and by the end of the conference had reached over 5 million tech and TV enthusiasts, generating a download a minute of the app on both iTunes and Google Play stores ahead of MTV’s ad campaign launch to support it. Users could stream the best MTV shows onto their mobile devices on demand for the first time via the app. It also became a remote control to use when watching TV on PC, laptop or connected TVs, and syncs with friends’ viewing, letting them watch shows and chat together in real time. MTV is now looking to expand the app into new markets.
Best integrated campaign: AIS London - One Direction, Sony Music
The brief was to turn One Direction from X Factor runners-up, into the number one boy band in the world. It created an interactive story-telling platform - seven-week 24/7 escapade, on and offline, for fans to engage with.It started with a character called 1DCyberpunk. A 1D mega-fan who gets her paws on the band’s production laptop containing all the new songs, artwork, and videos. To win it back, fans faced 50 challenges in 50 days.The resuIts: It sparked 16 global twitter trends; 85,000 followers; 4.5 million video views. 1DCyberpunk became huge online with a Klout score of 76, helping One Direction become the first British artists to have a number one debut album in the US.
Boldest Brand and Most Buzzworthy: Bodyform - Rubber Republic and Carat
The Boldest Brand and Most Buzzworthy Awards went to Bodyform's viral video created by Rubber Republic and Carat. The video was created off the back of a Facebook user Richard Neill's complaint on Facebook about the fact Bodyform’s advertising had been misleading and causing him considerable stress. The post drew a lot of media attention and generated 80,000 Facebook Likes within two days. Carat and Bodyform engaged Rubber Republic to respond with a video that could address this user’s concerns (see above).The film clocked nearly three million views in less than a week. It achieved the 'Most Viewed' video honours on YouTube by Thursday 18 October. And it trended on Twitter the day it was released (Tuesday 16 October).It recorded further social engagement including over 82,000 Facebook actions, nearly 6,000 Tweets and 98 per cent 'Likes' on YouTube.It also received over 200 pieces of editorial across title including the Times, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, and The Daily Mail.
Most Creative for a Cause: Unicef - Weapon 7
The Most Creative for a Cause Award went to Weapon 7 and Unicef’s ‘Pinning Their Hopes’ Pinterest-based campaign. For this it created the profile of a 13 year-old girl from Sierra Leone and filled her board with the things she wanted. In contrast to other people's pins, her desires are much more urgent. Food, water, a decent education.People were invited to repin these basic needs, to remind the community of what the world's poorest children dream of and the excellent work UNICEF do to help.Every picture also linked straight through to a donation page where people could make a difference directly.The IAB Creative Showcase was sponsored by Martini Media.
