Categories

Since it's harder to catch people's eye, compelling and memorable audio plays an important role within content to capture attention. Who has created an innovative audio aspect to engage their audience?

You found a way to stay within regulatory boundaries and still broke through! From Cannabis to Pharma and beyond, connecting with consumers within regulated product categories can be challenging. Who found innovative ways to navigate category complexities and build their brand?

Design thinking, whether it's a brand identity, retail design, online, packaging or a logo, that goes beyond beauty, and elevates the brand and user experience.

Creative ways to achieve critical mass and desired results. This category recognizes the clever resource-effective programs that blew past objectives. All entries in this category must show investment and return-on-investment stats.

Socially-driven campaigns that break through to deliver tangible impact. This category celebrates the best use of social media to reach and influence a demographic (or psychographic).

This category is for innovative film ideas that truly stood out by achieving impressive reach and impact.

Sometimes the most AToMiC work out of Canada doesn’t run in Canada. This category celebrates ground-breaking programs created by a Canadian agency for markets outside Canada.

This category recognizes innovation in demo targeting, including effective multicultural programs, behavioural and psychographic audience engagement, and savvy addressability solutions.

This category recognizes innovative IP (intellectual property) launches. They're breakthrough brand ideas that come to life as an entertainment franchise, products, games, apps and content.

More and more brands are creating their own content to attract, entertain and inform audiences. This category recognizes the new brand-created content programs that break through the flood of media options to command attention, engage, and ultimately influence.

When entertainment (like TV shows, sports or music) and brands come together, sometimes the whole is less than the sum of the parts, but occasionally it’s greater. This category recognizes the integration programs that go beyond what’s been done before, and add up to a more rewarding viewing experience and brand impact.
(NOTE to case writer: For this category, please explain how your brand collaborated with existing IP to create an engaging experience)

Beyond the world of omnichannel, integrated campaigns (where the same creative reaches out across multiple platforms), lies the realm of transmedia.
From web series to games and beyond, transmedia programs intrigue viewers across many story realms with content that uses each channel to its utmost potential.
Who best capitalized on the opportunity to reach and build audiences with entertainment that spans multiple storytelling and experience touchpoints, with unique yet complementary iterations that spur interaction?
Demonstrate how your transmedia content strategy involved your audience across platforms.

Best use of multiple platforms and media channels to achieve deeper engagement by utilizing novel approaches to amp up attention. This category celebrates the integrated campaigns that command interest and involve audiences in innovative ways. Entries must span two or more channels.
(NOTE to case writer: We're looking for integrated campaigns that span more than one of the following platforms: broadcast, digital, OOH, social.)

This category celebrates PR-driven campaigns that found inventive ways to break through and deliver tangible impact. Tell us how your PR program created buzz, focused attention, raised awareness (or problem solved) by creatively earning consumer and media attention.

This category recognizes the producers, brands and networks that are making the broadcast experience more engaging by breaking out of the box with new formats, models and made-you-look innovation.

This category celebrates the programs that make the most of the mobile, social, digital space with engaging content and sticky concepts that encourage interaction and participation.

Promotions and brand activations that cleverly use environments to engage consumers. Tell us how your ambient media, stunts and pop-ups, command attention.

This category recognizes the efforts that elevate the medium by taking creative risks and pushing boundaries. From posters, billboards and magazines, to executions that extend the experience via digital innovation.

This category recognizes the brands and partnering companies that bravely moved out of their comfort zones, to forge ahead into uncharted territories, requiring AToMiC levels of trust and collaboration.

Brave steps and meaningful programs that made strides in addressing inequality by creating opportunities and a platform for reflecting diversity.
AToMiC Diversity evaluates both the content and its creation – the efforts behind the scenes to foster greater equality and inclusion – so in addition to the consumer-facing program case, please provide context on any internal programs and practices that led to the work. Also address how the communications speak to deeper organizational goals and outline any broader external program investments the brand is making to support diversity.

When you go beyond conventional thinking – projects and concepts that defy categorization – this is the award that recognizes fresh takes, from brilliant insight to execution.

It takes courage to admit when change is needed, and grit to act on that. AToMiC Shift is not just fine-tuning; it’s a shift in thinking about how to approach market challenges by making changes to the marketing strategy or brand positioning to fundamentally boost success.
This category celebrates the companies that went in a new direction that repositioned themselves in front of old (or new) consumers and walked away with positive results.
(NOTE to case writer: AToMiC Shifts should be a longer-term change of direction than a one-off stunt.)

As the impact of people on the planet grows more severe, so too does the need and desire to rethink our consumption habits. This category celebrates the brave programs and meaningful measures brands are taking to conserve and sustainably use resources, and contribute to reducing environmental impact by offering consumers better choices.
AToMiC Sustainability evaluates both the programs and the efforts behind the work to advance sustainability throughout the process, such as partnering or changing internal practices.

Moving the industry forward entails doing a better job as corporate citizens. This category celebrates the most impactful engagement plans for brands' corporate social responsibility and cause-related programs. Non-profit entries should be entered into Public Service categories.

There are now more dimensions to deepen and personalize the brand/consumer relationship. Who has best deployed AI to engage consumers, improve experiences and achieve goals?

The creative application of technology (or innovative reactivation of existing tech) to help brands effectively reach & engage audiences (may span metrics, UX, etc.). You do not need to invent new tech, but you do need to tell us how you cleverly applied existing technology in a compelling way.

Tell us how you made a big change to a brand's ecomm and/or digital presence to re-engage consumers and bring a new dimension to the user experience, and how tech was creatively applied to help deliver on brand goals.

This category gives kudos to the programs that creatively apply and stretch the capabilities of tech like Mixed Reality, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and 360 Video to build engaging immersive experiences.