2026 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

To differentiate emotionally with new parents around a new brand platform based in the power of a parent’s hug – hugs change everything – they knew they couldn’t just talk about it. They needed them to experience it for themselves.

The power of a parent’s hug doesn’t just come from what baby feels: it also comes from what they hear.

Studies show that when babies are hugged, the sound of their parent’s heartbeat soothes them, promotes their growth and development, much like it did in the womb, and can even regulate their pulse.

“Sound of a Hug” is an innovative tool to prove the power of a parent’s loving hug. Using SoundofaHug.com or Amazon Alexa, parents can create a custom sleep track for their baby, inspired by their own hug.

Parents begin by entering their heart rate, which adjusts the track’s beats per minute. They can customize the track to baby’s needs by adding layers of sound design, including white noise, adapting to their current mood, time of day, sleeper type and favourite kind of hug – with over 50,000 unique combinations possible.

Users create the track in six easy steps – on a user interface designed around exhaustednew parents – to play instantaneously from their device, download it for later or even access it directly from an Alexa device – Amazon’s first-ever Alexa partnership with a fully integrated prompt feature.

The agency then extended their thinking into key placements and formats where they knew the brand’s audience of new parents were already engaging in sound-driven content: TikTok and Spotify. They also engaged influencers to help bring parents together by sharing this helpful resource and how-to content.

Overall, “Sound of a Hug” engaged their audience of new parents in the power of their hugs.

The campaign garnered over 90 million impressions overall. There were 3.3 million earned impressions through influencers, with 80% of influencer recipients posting coverage, resulting in 63 pieces of content from 70 influencers at 100% positive sentiment. 7,597 individuals initiated the sleep track experience on the web or through Amazon Alexa, with 6,002 users (79%) completing a sleep track.

There was a ignificant lift in unaided recall, tripling the industry benchmark on Meta, with a 9.4 point lift, and it drove significant gains in agreement across all major brand attributes. An 11% increase in “a brand I trust,” the number one equity driver in the category, aan 18% increase in “helps me understand the power of hugs” and a 13% increase in “makes me feel confident I’m doing my best as a parent”.

Credits

Agency: Zulu Alpha Kilo
Chief Creative Officer: Brian Murray, Jenny Glover
Associate Creative Director / Writer: Dane Boaz
Associate Creative Director / Art Director: Juan Torres
Designer: Damian Simev, Jackman Chiu
Director of Post Production &Operations: Zulubot: Sarah Dayus
Account team: Alyssa Guttman, Tara Collins, Shauna McKenna, Alyse Thompson, Amanda Wong, Zainab Mushtaq
Chief Strategy Officer: Heather Segal
Executive Director, Comms Planning & Technology: Sean Bell
Strategy Director: Meredith Ferguson, Sarah Yim
Client: Kimberly-Clark | Huggies Canada
Clients: Tanya Willer, Abhinav Sawhney, Laura Sturmer, Peace Asemota, Nikki Sells, Kopal Chourey, Jason Radocay, Sutanu Sur, Nellie Veber
Media Agency: Ignite
Media Team: Ali Tinker, Fahmida Islam, Sam Storey, Ghaith Alkhatib, James Thomas, Jasmin Shirazi, Emily Matias, Tanya Nigam, Joannie Vuong, Nisha Shah, Kristine Hirst, Min Kim
PR Agency: Veritas
PR Team: Christine McDermott, Brittany Arnold, Camille Côté-Bégin
Director of Integrated Production: Ola Stodulska
Senior Agency Producer: Kasia Zeniuk
Senior Digital Producer: Tracy Wightman
Production House: Aspekt
Director: Linnéa Bergman
Director of Photography: Mika Aberra
Executive Producer: Liz Dussault
Line Producer: Mia Sook Young
Offline Edit Company: Zulubot
Offline Edit Producer: Amy Groll
Editor: Alain Elliott
Editor Assistant: Adrian Gluvakovich
Colour Transfer Company: Alter Ego
Colourist: Wade Odlum
Colour Producer: Jane Garrah
Online Company: Adrian Gluvakovich
Online Artists: Jeff Zablotny, Miguel Natividad, Can Yuksell
Online Producer: Sarah Dayus / Amy Groll
Recording Studio: OSO
Creative Director / Voice Director: Harry Knazan
Engineer: Dylan Groff
Audio Producer: Lauren Dobbie
French Agency: The French Shop
Account Manager: Noëlie Michaux
Production Coordinator: Jennifer Lankry
Lead Production Artist & Re-touching: Ashleigh O’Brien
Lead Interactive