Stanfield’s, a 150-year-old, family-owned underwear company from small-town Nova Scotia, was well known among the older generation, but when it came to younger consumers they weren’t even in the conversation. In fact, Radian6 tracking showed zero mentions of the brand online. The challenge was to get people talking about Stanfield’s again.

The path to change was not going to be traditional. With limited funds to invest – $400,000 nationally – the solution had to stand out to get attention and drive results. The target was digitally savvy, so if John St. could come up with a bold enough digital idea it could use social networks and PR to earn a more signifi cant media presence.

But it’s hard enough to get men to talk about underwear, let alone Stanfield’s. They needed to give the target something they would talk about that was rooted in Stanfield’s “We Support Men” strategy. So rather than just saying “We Support Men,”they decided to prove it for a cause that is literally close to both Stanfield’s and the men who wear them: testicular cancer.

“The Guy At Home In His Underwear” was an unedited, unscripted social media experiment in support of testicular cancer awareness, where testicular cancer survivor Mark McIntyre, a.k.a. “The Guy At Home In His Underwear,” attempted to spend 25 straight days at home in nothing but his Stanfield’s skivvies live, on camera, 24/7, for all to see at GuyAtHome.com. For each Facebook “like”he received, Stanfield’s donated $1 to The Canadian Cancer Society.

Four cameras were placed in the loft that streamed simultaneously. Facebook social plugins were tied to the “Guy At Home”website and Facebook page (one of the fi rst in Canada to tie a CSR component with a Facebook “like”and one of the fi rst Canadian sites to test the “chat”feature just as Facebook launched it). Tweets could be hashtagged with #guyathome while The Guy At Home had his own Twitter feed. And blogging software was integrated into the site so Mark could update folks on what was happening and have further dialogue with them.

One-minute videos that recapped each day were hosted on the Guy At Home YouTube channel and pulled into the site. Direct donations could also be made through a branded donation page tied to the Canadian Cancer Society’s back-end donation platform.

The Guy at Home in his Underwear became the fastest growing branded Facebook page in Canada with 52,000 new Facebook fans in just 25 days. The Globe and Mail called it “The best social media stunt the country has seen,”with over $52,000 raised for the cause.

Viewers tuned in for over three million minutes of live streaming. That translates into over six years of viewing time. The campaign concluded with over 1.3 million page views and over 43 million media impressions.

The Tourette Syndrome Foundation of Canada (TSFC) needed to make Canadians aware of what Tourette Syndrome (TS) really is. Many people think that it’s simply the "swearing disease," but TS is many things: physical tics, vocal outbursts, obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety attacks, sometimes all at once.

It is a remarkably difficult and complex disorder to understand and explain. And that became the brief: explain the unexplainable.

The TSFC decided to tell as many real TS stories as they could, in a way that mimics the unpredictable nature of the disorder. The result was the @Random documentary project, launched in April 2011.

They worked with filmmakers and TS families across Canada to create dozens of films about real people with TS. Then, to evoke the disorder’s unpredictable nature, these shorter films were randomly arranged online to make up larger documentaries. Every time someone visits Atrandom.ca, they see a new collection of stories, making each viewing totally different and unique, just like TS.

This project took two years and the collaboration of hundreds of people. The TSFC connected with families living with TS across Canada to allow their stories to be told.

Working with a tiny honorarium of about $1,000 each, two dozen filmmakers inserted themselves into the lives of Canadians living with TS. The individual films have been selections at festivals like Hot Docs, TIFF and the Palm Springs Shortfest, where one of the films won Best Short Documentary.

This collaboration has been remarkably successful for the TSFC. In just six weeks, @Random attracted 17,000+ viewers who immersed themselves in TS via the website and films. The project was featured on the CTV   Evening News, generating valuable PR and an estimated earned media value of $45,000. The site was featured on dozens of influential marketing blogs from Creativity and Ads of the World, to the San Francisco Egotist and the Inspiration Room. Most importantly, many people with TS thanked the team for portraying the disorder as it really is.

To generate awareness and interest in the province, and to celebrate its unique time zone, NL Tourism developed the 48 Half Hours Contest - a slightly off-kilter travel giveaway held entirely online. Working with Target, on June 22, NL Tourism paired with WestJet to launch one of the biggest travel contests in the province’s history. In just 48 half hours, entrants were given chances to win a free round-trip flight to NL - one every half hour. People could enter as many times as they liked, and winners were announced live every half hour.

The contest framework was developed with Strutta, one of three Facebook-preferred vendors in Canada. The custom-built engagement console, developed with Radian 6,allowed Target to monitor chatter, and evolved the contest from “just another giveaway” into an active, engaged online community.

During the contest, 1,400 audience posts were made on NL Tourism’s wall, and its posts accumulated 1.3 million views. The contest received 900,000 entries or 620 per minute.

James Ready competes in Ontario’s discount beer segment, which accounts for 40% of total beer sales, but is incredibly fragmented with over 35 brands.

The brand has had to fight for every possible share point since it launched four years ago. In 2010,it wasn’t getting any easier. The big players were getting bigger and tastes were changing, with spirits gaining ground. And just when the brand was achieving traction on its tiny budget, legislative changes affected the price of beer and one of the brand’s key claims.

And yet, James Ready’s share, sales volume and shipments continued to flourish this year.

Although younger drinkers (19 to 24) love the taste of premium beers, these beers are too expensive to be their volume brands. Discount beers, by contrast, have the price young drinkers want, but not the fun that they thirst for in their main brand. JR’s opportunity was to address this unmet need for a fun, social brand and engage its drinkers in a way that was uncommon in the category.

JR asked fans to participate and actively co-create with them. Every beer drinker who helped keep costs down would in turn become a zealot for the brand, helping drive engagement and, of course, volume.

One request was to help a young couple get married, so the brand decided to throw them a James Ready wedding. JR assumed the role of wedding planner, fl orist and even caterer. They designed everything from the centrepieces to the groom’s cuffl inks to the DJ’s set list. And on May 1 over 100 cheerful and beer-chugging guests enjoyed the bliss of wedlock, and a bar stocked with ice cold JR.

Next, JR bought billboards in selected towns in the parking lots of Beer Stores. They offered free haircuts and free portraits right under the billboards so people could save money and buy James Ready beer.

As part of an in-case promotion, JR gave away a calendar found inside each 2-4. Drinkers had to collect all 369 unique beer caps that went with each day and stick them on the calendar. Fans loved sharing their completed and semi-completed calendars on Facebook, even trading doubles for their missing days.

The agency then created the first ever mobile pop-up billboard that went to places that JR drinkers frequent, and offered deals on things they need.

JR’s Facebook page let people know the exact location of each billboard and details about the limited-time discounts.

After a printing screw-up left millions of JR beer caps blank, fans asked “WTF?” To make amends, JR launched the Blank Cap Recall. Any drinker who received a blank cap could mail it back to JR and in return it would give them something from the brewery as compensation, like a tiny plastic dinosaur. Thousands of drinkers participated, and JR’s irreverent response helped cement their love of the brand.

Against 2009 as a base, JR’s sales in hectolitres grew 29.2% by the beginning of 2011. JR’s market share grew from 1.04% in 2009 to 1.39% by the beginning of 2011,translating into a 25.2% increase over that period. That share level equates to more than $30 million in sales annually.

Finally, JR succeeded in taking share from the leading brands in the discount segment, Carling and Lakeport. From 2008 to 2011,while JR share increased by 47%, Carling market share fell by -14% and Lakeport share fell by -22%.

JR has received thousands of fans’ stories, pictures and videos. When a person loves a brand so much they get it tattooed on their body, they’re doing something right.

The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) needed to create buzz around its Worldwide Short Film Festival (WSFF) that would ultimately translate to ticket sales.

These days it’s easy for anyone to record something and post it online for the world to see. The biggest challenge was convincing an audience who can easily watch short videos at home for free, to pay to watch short films at the Worldwide Short Film Festival.

Since audiences are spending more time watching videos online than in theatres, Doug & Serge decided to demonstrate the difference between the two: quality. That led to the concept that anyone can upload but few can direct.

Three short film directors were asked to re-imagine the most popular online amateur video to ever go viral, “Charlie Bit My Finger,” with over 300 million views worldwide, using three fi lm genres. Real movie posters were created and posted throughout Toronto directing people to a page within the WSFF website where they could watch the original Charlie video and the three short film remakes.

On the first day of the campaign, YouTube’s view counter literally froze as total views reached 50,000 in just under an hour. Views rose to over 100,000 by day three and over 200,000 after the first week. After three weeks, total views rose to over half a million. The short film remakes popped up on video blogs, in Twitter feeds and in nearly every major publication in Canada. Over 200 different websites featured the videos, including Mashable, IMDB and Reddit.

At a time when festivals, operas and theatres are experiencing a steady decline, the WSFF total box office revenue was up 10% from last year and attendance went up 28%. Visits to the website rose 60% and total YouTube hits reached 847,000 in just under a month, a 945% increase from last year. With nearly one million views and increased festival attendance, it was clear consumers agreed that anyone can upload, but few can direct.

The objective was to introduce the all-new 2011 Subaru WRX- STI and re-establish it as a “true-performance” car, as well as increase sales by +25% after 12 months of flat sales.

The biggest challenge was to launch a performance car under strict ASC guidelines that didn’t allow the demonstration of performance - no speeding, no drifting, no jumping - in other words, no fun.

Using fi lm as the driving force, DDB created a real, living fl ipbook commercial that comes alive only when the WRX- STI passes it, using no post or CGI.

In addition to paid and social media, a multi-angle video shoot at an off-road rally race created a series of YouTube videos allowing the viewer to change the camera angle in real-time, giving them control over the action.

Views for “Pure Performance” content online have surpassed 750,000 and the campaign crushed all sales expectations. Sales more than doubled during the campaign period to 449 cars (+126% vs. the previous year).

Tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors in the global economy, and while the pie was getting bigger, Canada’s share was shrinking within an intensely competitive international tourism marketplace. Trying to sell Canada as a vacation destination in a world of exotic tourism locales posed a definite challenge.

Through quantitative studies by the Global Tourism Watch, it was found that Canada was stereotyped as all beautiful scenery and outdoors, and a bit one-dimensional. International travellers didn’t have enough of a sense of the breadth of experiences Canada could offer. Also, people’s travel desires were increasingly being inspired by friends and larger online communities.

The insight was to rally around the sharing of authentic “traveller-to-traveller” experiences. The invitation to “Keep Exploring” would give travellers the emotional commitment and bragging rights - “I’m going to Canada to do that” - and would compel them to choose Canada over other exotic locales.

DDB created a social media inspired campaign platform that showed authentic traveller experiences in a style mimicking the way consumers research their own trips. All elements of the campaign led to the Keep Exploring interactive blog, which used social media to allow consumers to get a richer picture of the travel experience and join the conversation.

On television, instead of spending large sums on lavish productions, travellers” videos from YouTube were used to tell a series of stories. Print emulated Flickr and Facebook, and the front covers of major newspapers were taken over with wraps that looked like a blog including QR codes that live-linked to long-form content on the Keep Exploring blog.

Online ads used Google Maps and Street View technology to virtually transport travellers onto real Canadian streets. Digital storescapes transformed empty storefronts into Twitter-based murals that featured interactive touch-screen interfaces and aggregated tweets and photos from real travellers to Canada, posted in real time.

The “Keep Exploring” campaign platform has helped propel Canada to being named the number one country brand in the world by FutureBrand, bumping the U.S. from the top spot. Seven of the nine countries polled are CTC key markets that received over 80% of CTC’s international marketing budget and contributed approximately 85% of all international arrivals in 2010. This is the first step in the CTC’s efforts to capture Canada’s fair share of international tourism growth.

H&M looked to MuchMusic to develop a never-done-before creative initiative that would extend reach beyond their MuchMusic Video Awards (MMVA) sponsorship.

For the first time, Much created a Fashion Hub within the MMVA website that incorporated H&M-inspired blog posts and hosted the point of entry for the contest, “Be H&M’s Fashion Blogger at the 2011 MMVAs.”

To promote the contest, Much produced a 30-second spot that aired for four weeks. Viewers submitted videos showcasing their fashionista credentials and utilized their own social network to acquire votes. Much and H&M selected their Top 4 Fashion Bloggers and their profiles were featured on the MMVA Fashion Vertical, along with their music- and fashion-related blog posts.

During MMVA weekend, winning fashion blogger Hilary Allen did everything and anything fashion related including talking fashion with Canadian pop sensation Fefe Dobson at H&M, taking over the red carpet and co-hosting two live cut-ins that aired during the broadcast, and live tweeting from H&M Canada’s Twitter account.

H&M also became the first advertiser to design the wristband that served as the ticket to the MMVA s.

The 2011 MMVA s were the most-watched broadcast in Much history. The MMVA microsite saw a 125% increase in visits over last year on show day, and four of the top 10 trending Twitter hashtags worldwide were MMVA-related.

H&M saw double-digit growth in Facebook “likes” and Twitter followers, and with over 13 million impressions delivered across TV,online and mobile, H&Mgot its fashion-related content to viewers wherever they were.

In February 2011, Discovery Canada aired a new incarnation - a 60-minute documentary that further explored the impact of competitive winter sports on the bodies of elite athletes.

In partnership with CTV Olympics and the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, an educational game app was created to support the doc. With 3 Danimation and original video segments, the SuperBodies mobile app allows users to peel away the human skin to reveal what truly happens on the inside when star athletes perform.

Online, Facebook and Twitter facilitated knowledge sharing and fan interaction with athletes and sports scientists.

With its continued success, CTV commissioned another 12 segments for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London.

The National Parks Project (NPP) is an exploration of the link between nature and creativity, produced in part to celebrate the centennial of Parks Canada, captured in a TV series and augmented online by FilmCAN and and Primitive Entertainment.

The genesis of NPP was a series of trips to 13 national parks across Canada. Each trip included a different group of three musicians and one fi lmmaker, whose task was to collaborate on a short film and soundtrack that captured their collective impressions of the landscape. The website was a hub wherein all of the various elements could interconnect through the “virtual park.”

The NPP kicked off with the TV series premiere on Discovery

World HD in March. Each episode followed the artists through the parks as they pursued their creative goal in an unfamiliar environment, and concluded with a throw to the website, where short fi lms were unlocked weekly. Songs written and recorded in the parks, photographs, artist bios, park information and bonus video content for every park was included. Also, each week a new digital EP of music was released through iTunes.

The full collection of NPP films then premiered at the Hot Docs Film Festival, and the full LP/ CD was released to iTunes. These events set the stage for the Toronto premiere of the NPP Live on May 19,the actual centennial of Parks Canada.

The project has received coverage and acclaim in publications such as the Globe   and Mail, as well as on CBC Newsworld and other major outlets. Six episodes of the documentary series have been sold to Air Canada, and it has attracted the attention of several international festivals.

Coca-Cola needed to reconnect with youth 12 to 19. It needed to make a connection and move the needle on brand love.

To leverage the powerful role that music plays in teen life, Coke partnered with the MuchMusic Video Awards (MMVAs) to create “Coca-Cola Covers,” giving teens a shot at fame. The campaign challenged fame-seekers to videotape their own renditions of popular songs and post them online at Covers.muchmusic.com, while also pushing them out through their own social media feeds. The website was filled with user-generated content and allowed fans to vote on their favourite “Covers.“

After 10 weeks, votes were tallied, deciding the fate of 10 semi-finalists. Over the next five weeks they were challenged to cover new songs and leverage their social media prowess to win more votes and views. Three finalists rose to the top, earning live performances on New Music, Live and press features, while creating even more original videos.

On June 19,the finalists arrived at the 2011 MMVA s where Danyka Nadeau was given the first Coca-Cola Covers Award. Covers created a compelling connection with teens, with 1,200 videos uploaded and almost 52 hours of total content created - triple the estimates.

The website generated over 330,000 visitors and two million page views. Over two million impressions were delivered across social media platforms. Key equity indicators increased integrated marketing amongst teens, with brand love scores (“For someone like me”) increasing by +8.1% vs YAG. Also, media impressions reached over six million for the campaign.

When Danone wanted to reach tweens, it saw a connection between its Coolision yogurt and the demo for Splatalot, a show on Corus’s YTV that’s a children’s spin on Wipeout.

Due to kids TV regulations, the advertiser was unable to utilize traditional product placement, so it had to be inventive.

The integration begins in the opening sequence and is carried through in the form of a bumper and the “Best Coolision of the Day,” a look back at the best splats and falls from the episode.

The cool quotient of the show was leveraged through billboards, tune-in spots and a contest for the chance to be a contestant.

Facebook and Twitter updates kept fans engaged, and there was a masthead presence throughout the show site, as well as a Castle Coolision-themed game, a microsite and exclusive videos.

Splatalot was a Top 20 show for the broadcaster and Danone kids volume was up 25% over last year.

To appeal to its young target, Doritos gave consumers ultimate control of the brand by asking them to choose one of two new flavours: Onion Rings n’ Ketchup or Buffalo Wings n’ Ranch.

A TV spot introduced the flavours during the Super Bowl, but the last 20 seconds was left to be written. Over six weeks, people could visit Writetheend.ca where more than 30,000 endings to the spot were written.

A panel of judges picked the winner out of 14 peer-chosen finalists. On May 5,the finished spot and winner were revealed on MuchMusic and MusiquePlus. Mélanie Normandin won $25,000 and + 1% of all future Onion Rings n’ Ketchup sales.

After six years of advertising inactivity, Kellogg’s wanted to reintroduce Corn Pops by shifting the focus to tweens.

The company charged Starcom MediaVest Group with targeting kids between the ages of 10 and 14, but this presented a challenge - too young for TV but not old enough for Facebook and Twitter. The demo is starting to expand their media consumption beyond TV. This meant digital had to play a critical role.

The campaign focus was the new Corn Pops “It’s Popnetic” platform (it’s kinetic, it’s phonetic and it’s magnetic). It started with online drivers to the brand site. In a series of media firsts, the agency leveraged the webcam as a means to spark tween conversation more directly and in real-time. For 80% of Canadian tweens, the number one social media was online instant messaging (IM).

The agency employed advanced motion-control technology to create a totally new IM experience, partnering with MSN Messenger. As tweens logged on, they were prompted to play a real-time game within the actual chat. With their webcams activated, they see each other, but a kitchen table is projected between them with an empty bowl on either side. To play, tweens use their mouse to fling Corn Pops at their counterpart. Using their heads, they bounce the flying Corn Pops into the bowl. (A non-webcam version of the game was also available.)

The Corn Pops site attracted more tweens a month in Canada than long-established sites such as Mattel.com, Hasbro.com and Millsbery.com. Volume is up 3% and net sales have popped +5.3%. Truly Popnetic results.

One in two people will either need blood themselves or know someone who will, yet only 4% of the population donates. It was critical to reposition Canadian Blood Services (CBS) as a brand that can’t be ignored.

Offline, the first-ever Canadian blood icon was created, alerting Canadians to the fact that supplies are low and blood is needed. Online, Bloodsignal.ca was developed, with the goal of attracting 100,000 new donors annually within three years.

To hit donors-to-be, DDB used Facebook Connect linking to the microsite that hosted a personalized video - pulling in statistics, visuals and audio narrative that works around each person’s unique set of friends and activity.

In the first three months, CBS collected over 11,000 units of blood from new donors - exceeding its target by 27%.

Secret Location was tasked with extending the narrative of the docudrama Storming Juno  via a riveting site incorporating film clips, photography and CGI. The immersive 360 environment allows viewers to navigate through a 3 Dsetting, where graphical “hotspots” serve as gateways to stories told by Canadian veterans and other witnesses. The film clips then fragment into a 3 Dinterface that serves as a menu for story selection. Clicking each fragment unlocks an actual veteran or eyewitness story from the beach on D-Day.

Endgame Interactive is a transmedia episode created to extend the Showcase television drama Endgame online. The audience plays an interactive mystery where they take on a main role in the narrative, which is populated with information from their Facebook account. Fans interact with the cast, search for clues, question suspects and unravel the mystery in a cinematic and personal experience.

Endgame is an original series centred on brilliant chess master Arkady Balagan. Traumatized by the murder of his fi ancée, Balagan has become a prisoner in his luxury hotel, terrifi ed to step outside. To pay his bill, Balagan starts solving mysteries using an unlikely band of hotel employees and chess fanatics to do his legwork.

Secret Location wanted to create an online execution that had the same high production values as the show and create a direct interaction with the show’rsquo;s charismatic star. To carry the show online, they conceived of an original episode where viewers join Balagan’rsquo;s band of investigators and participate in putting the pieces together to solve a mystery. The episode places the user’rsquo;s Facebook friends at the centre of the kidnapping mystery. The online experience is built on a platform that integrates social media directly into the story, posting cryptic messages to viewers’rsquo; Facebook accounts and building the need to share the content right into the story narrative.

The Facebook integration was continuously tweeted and blogged about around the world. The traffi c numbers were very good for a show on a specialty channel, with over 300,000 page views and 100,000 visitors. The site won several prestigious online design awards including a Favourite Website Award (FWA).

To push Swiss Chalet’s iconic product even further into the public consciousness and drive sales, BBDO created a world media first. It bought an entire channel on Canada’s largest cable provider that just broadcast one thing: six chickens turning continuously on a spit. To drive interest and viewership they shot teaser videos that launched on YouTube and Facebook.

Once the channel launched, promotion codes were intermittently featured that gave deals on the rotisserie chicken viewers were watching.

BBDO broke the campaign to online media outlet (and strategy sister site)  Media in Canada . The word spread and “Swiss Chalet” and “rotisserie” both became trending topics on Twitter. The agency then used what the public was saying about the Rotisserie Channel to create a new online video, showcasing quotes from actual tweets. Next came a TV, newspaper, online and billboard campaign.

The goal was 10,000 coupon downloads over three months, but in week one, there was 13,707,and 32,546 after three months. There were over five million “likes” on Facebook, more than 28,000 new friends, 8, 224 downloaded screen savers and chicken delivery orders went up 30% almost immediately. Overall, it has earned over 36 million free media impressions.

After a printing screw-up left millions of James Ready beer caps blank, its agency Leo Burnett was asked to explain to confused customers what had happened. It chose to use direct as a way to address each drinker and fix the problem.

The brand launched a Blank Cap Recall. Any drinker who received a blank cap on their beer could mail it back and in return would get “something” from the brewery as compensation - anything from a toy hamster to a ping-pong paddle.

James Ready received thousands of caps from drinkers and continues to do so. The fans have been talking about the recall on Facebook and discussing the items they got back. The blank caps may have raised doubts but the recall proved that the brand really does appreciate its drinkers.

The Mini Vending Machine was an interactive night projection in downtown Toronto. Minis in different colour confi gurations were shown and passersby were invited to interact with them by texting to a short code to select the Mini of their choice, which then drove around in a fun animation, making its way down to the bottom of the Vending Machine.

A personalized SMS message was dispatched to participants, encouraging them to click through to a mobile-optimized web page to become a Mini Facebook fan.

Downtown high-traffic locations with a busy nightlife buzz were chosen for the projections. Each execution was videotaped and sent to the national press.

The Vending Machine reinforced Mini’s cachet and cool factor, creating PR and social media buzz in Canada and around the world. To cap it off, Mini’s counterparts throughout Europe and Australia are bringing the Vending Machine to those markets.

To create awareness for the good that First United does in the homeless community, specifi cally that they help get people off the streets, DDB placed life-sized statues of homeless people on streets in downtown Vancouver. Upon closer inspection it became clear that there were no people inside the soiled clothes. A cardboard sign reading “Help get someone off the street” accompanied each sculpture, along with a cup that contained slips of paper with directions to Facebook profi les of people who’d actually been helped off the street by First United, linking back to First United’s website.

So far, PR has generated nine million media impressions. This includes newspaper and local television, as well as trade magazine coverage and numerous blogs. Although the main focus of the campaign was awareness, several people were moved to donate sizeable amounts to First United.

Every year Ikea has a Summer Sale in Montreal. The sale coincides with a particularly busy July period of moving in the city, and it is sometimes difficult to get Montrealers’ attention. Ikea needed to fi gure out a way to not only invite them to the sale, but help them out at this busy time.

Not everyone in Montreal actually moves on Moving Day (July 1), but a lot of them do, since fi xed term leases typically begin and end on this day. Ikea launched an experiential media campaign to make moving easier by providing people in Montreal with boxes (which can be very hard to come by during the weeks leading up to Moving Day).

The OOH execution featured Ikea-branded boxes people could take with them, printed with moving tips, checklists, a dinner offer for those who had yet to set up kitchens and an offer for Ikea furniture. The boxes were staged as wild postings around the city in easyto- reach, high-traffi c locations. If the boxes were taken, there was messaging underneath telling people to come back soon once they were replenished.

Also, 14-foot pyramids of moving boxes were placed in high-traffi c areas of the city where an event team distributed them to desperate movers. On top of all the OOH, Ikea took control of a radio station with a playlist of songs designed to keep people moving and directing them to the box locations.

More than 10,000 boxes were given away over the course of two weeks, and Ikea was sent thank-you emails and notes. Local media picked up on the offering and news of the “free Ikea boxes” grew online as well. But most importantly, the idea really paid off with sales at the Montreal stores up 37% from last year.

TVO, Ontario’s publicly funded media organization, found it had a signifi cant portion of viewers 65+ but was lacking engagement with the burgeoning younger viewer and future donor.

The impetus was to contemporize and re-colour TVO by engaging a younger demo where they work and live, by highlighting some of the more intriguing programs TVO had to offer, like The Tiger Next Door, a disturbing documentary about wild tigers kept in captivity in North America.

United by the tagline “TVO makes you think,” the campaign launched the fall schedule and drove to TVO.org. The idea was to change the perception of TVO by reaching the target during moments of quiet contemplation and small talk, such as in an elevator. To promote The Tiger Next Door the agency took advantage of the media itself, turning elevators into tiger cages. Consumers entered “the cage” and could immediately feel like a trapped animal. The elevators were surrounded with posters to keep that feeling top of mind.

Online, the agency utilized rich media ad units and video-embedded banners and highlighted the time-sensitivity and compelling content. Through Facebook’s Social Ads and the TVO Twitter account, it reached existing TVO fans and recruited others with paid exposure and viral response.

The campaign earned 5.6 million media impressions, and audience viewership overall for The Tiger Next Door grew by 29%. Viewers 45 to 65 grew by 7%. During the course of the campaign, clicks to the TVO home page increased 28% and clicks to the schedule page increased 19% year over year. Facebook overdelivered on planned impressions, expanding the TVO fan page by 50% by campaign end.

BC Hydro, through its Power Smart program, is faced with a unique challenge: trying to get British Columbians to use less of what it sells – electricity. Research showed that energy waste isn’t perceived to be that bad because we can’t see it. BC Hydro needed to help people see when energy is being used, and when it can be saved.

As a complement to TV, print, radio and TSA creative, a hightraffi c storefront was created with a motion sensor display that integrated energy effi cient LED lights, semi-transparent fi lm and lasers sensors.

The lights behind each word in the message “Let’s be smart with our power” only turned on when someone passed in front of them, bringing to life the idea of only using the power you need. A QR code and URL drove to the Power Smart section of BC Hydro’s mobile site where offers, tips, product rebates and links to Facebook and Twitter were found.

Over the 38 days in market there were 142,880 interactions with the boards, and 91% of British Columbians agreed that they would be “doing more” to save power since seeing the campaign, an increase of 6%.

MasterCard Canada wanted to hire four digitally savvy interns to work in the marketing and product solutions group at the Toronto headquarters. They recognized that the success of the company depends on the quality of people they hire, and they wanted the brightest, most qualifi ed interns. To that end, they knew they had to reach candidates in a new way - not by posting ads on campus job boards.

MasterCard historically received no more than 30 applications for intern positions. They wanted to surpass this number with worthy, pre-filtered candidates. The campaign itself needed to refl ect the well-known “priceless” positioning and be something students would talk about.

The intern call had to appeal to 18- to 23-year-olds so the look, feel and use of technology had to be relevant and enable an innovative application process.

The agency created the “Social Interview” - an elaborate online exercise that used social media to pre-screen candidates and fi nd the best and brightest interns.

Posters on campuses featured QR codes and shortened URLs so that smartphone-equipped students could access info about the program. This took them to a Facebook fan page where a “like” unpacked the info they needed on how to apply. Students then went to LinkedIn to upload a resume, cover letter and a link to “something creative” that further demonstrated their digital know-how. Applicants then had to follow MasterCard on Twitter to find out next steps.

In the end, students that successfully completed the application process had also demonstrated their understanding of the digital landscape. Candidates that also created something unique and compelling were invited to meet the selection team in a one-day workshop and face-to-face panel interview.

The campaign exceeded all expectations, with 532 qualifi ed candidates. Facebook fans grew by 400% in four weeks - establishing a channel for future engagement - and 46% of MasterCard Twitter conversations were about the intern program. MasterCard hired an extra intern because of the quality of the candidates, and the Social Interview process is now part of MasterCard’s global recruitment effort.

The Canadian Tire House of Innovation was an agency initiative that grew into one of the retailer’s biggest commitments of the year.

Recently, Canadian Tire’s innovation scores softened in tracking research. To reverse this decline, Taxi thought, who better than Canadian Tire to teach Canadians how to do things around the house?

Canadian Tire became Canada’s first retailer to become a homeowner. It bought a house that needed some work and took on a long list of repairs and decorating projects. The efforts were fi lmed to educate homeowners on how to do home improvement projects using innovative products. It then launched HouseofInnovation.ca to showcase the work.

The House of Innovation launched as part of the larger new “Bring It On” brand campaign. In the first month, more than 105,000 unique visitors spent an average of more than fi ve minutes on the site. In a single 24-hour period, a YouTube mosaic expandable banner generated 8,812,314 impressions and 39,389,550 interactions. There have been more than 3.5 million views of the anthem video that explains the program and invites people back for future installments. Seems like Canadian Tire has one of those houses people like to visit.

Over the last several years, Skittles communications had been mainly limited to TV, and there was little opportunity to engage with the brand unless you were a Facebook fan.

With touch technology spearheading a new generation of digital interaction, BBDO wanted to show people what happens when they actually “Touch the Rainbow.” But it didn’t invent a new kind of touch screen, it simply asked people to touch their computer screen and then watch as their finger played a starring role in five online ads.

Fingers fought crime, hitchhiked, befriended cats and even went to war.

The videos were hosted on a branded Canadian Skittles YouTube channel, seeded to nearly 300 blogs and linked to on Skittles’ Facebook page. In addition, a masthead on the YouTube homepage ran for two days, and promoted video ads ran on YouTube for two weeks.

Within three days, the videos had over 1.5 million views and exceeded the campaign target of 800,000. Over a month, they received over fi ve million views and were featured on 2,200 blogs. The Skittles videos elicited over 104,600 comments, 88,000 Facebook shares and 5,000 tweets.