Canadian marketing companies garnered a number of wins at the 17th annual Webby Awards this year, scoring nods for their work in advertising, public service and activism.
The Webby Awards, which honour Internet creativity, named Tribal DDB Toronto, Richmond Hill’s The Uncultured Project, and Vancouver’s Yulu Communications and MetaLab as winners for their online advertising work, the Webbys announced April 30.
The Toronto office of advertising agency Tribal DDB won especially big this year, netting four wins for its marketing and customer service delivery for McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada Limited. Tribal DDB’s global office also took home “Webby Agency of the Year.”
Last June, Tribal DDB Toronto set up an online campaign for McDonald’s called “Our food. Your questions.” It allows Canadians to type in 140-character questions about food quality, ingredients and menu items at the fast food super-chain. The questions are then answered with either text or video.
McDonald’s Canada later featured “Our food. Your questions” as an ad during the Canadian broadcast of the 2013 Super Bowl.
DDB and Tribal Win Most Awarded Agency Group at @TheWebbyAwards – http://t.co/nFyHkvFCeb @DDB_Worldwide @TribalWorldwide
— DDB (@DDB_Worldwide) April 30, 2013
Other Canadian winners include electropop singer Grimes, who scored “Webby Artist of the Year,” and pop celebrity Justin Bieber for his social media campaign in launching his new fragrance, “Girlfriend.” The National Film Board also took home a win for its interactive Web documentary, Bear 71, which won “Best Net Art (General Web site).”
The Webby Awards honour Web sites, interactive advertising and media, online film and video, mobile apps and social media. Winners are chosen by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which includes Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom and Huffington Post editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington. This year, the awards received over 11,000 entries from more than 60 different countries.
The Webby Awards roster also highlighted the achievements of the producers of Netflix-exclusive drama “House of Cards,” NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover, Google Maps for iPhone, HuffPost Live, the New York Times (social media presence), R&B artist Frank Ocean, and music streaming service Songza. The full list of winners can be found at the Webby Awards Web site. (link http://winners.webbyawards.com/2013)
Thanks to your support, I won both #Webbys (juried & People's Voice) for overall social presence http://t.co/cUyCxssYwO
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) April 30, 2013
We're thrilled to announce @frank_ocean as this year's Webby Person of the Year – http://t.co/yuKpH90GLe #webbys
— The Webby Awards (@TheWebbyAwards) April 30, 2013
The ceremony will be streamed online from New York City at www.watch.webbyawards.com, starting at 9 a.m. ET on May 22. This year’s host will be comedian Patton Oswalt, who has appeared on Comedy Central, “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” and most recently, The Newsroom, a drama from HBO.
