European Digital Creativity Celebrated at 4th Annual Creative Awards
London 1 May 2008 – Microsoft today announced the winners of the 2008 MOUSE Awards designed to celebrate the most creative ads running across the Microsoft advertising network, including MSN®, Windows Live™, Office Online, in-game and mobile. Creative and media agencies around Europe submitted their best campaigns to win cash prizes and a place to attend the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival.
Entries were hotly debated in Barcelona by a panel of leading creative directors from some of Europe’s most prized agencies. Awards were given across 5 categories1.
David Pugh Jones, Creative Strategist from Microsoft hosted the judging day: “We had some real stand out campaigns entered into the awards this year. The use of video was widely recognised as a winning format online – demonstrated by two thirds of the awards being given to campaigns incorporating video. I’m looking forward to see if video shines through in Cannes this year and how the Gold MOUSE Award winners fare at the Cyber Lions awards. ”
Flo Heiss, Creative Director at Dare and Chairman of the 2008 MOUSE Awards judging panel added: “We had a great variety of ads to judge this year and the standard of entries compared to previous years has improved dramatically. It was an honour to get together for a day with other creatives and debate what really drives this industry forward. We saw some great ads – some that offered the user great entertainment value and made us laugh out loud – a real rarity in digital, others that were beautifully executed and some that summed up the epitomy of what digital advertising is all about.”
THE WINNERS
Financial Services
Despite a greater number of entries being received in the Financial Services category this year, it still lags behind others in its innovation for digital creativity. Only one award was given for this sector. Creative agency Akestam.Holst scooped BRONZE for the ‘No Difference’ campaign for Swedish bank SBAB. According to the judging panel, the execution of the campaign was not a ‘never before seen’ idea, but its execution and relevance for the target market was ‘flawless’.
Charity and NGO
Profero was awarded BRONZE for the ‘Cannabis’ campaign for the UK government department COI. The short film, created especially for online depicts the dangers of cannabis abuse and encourages young people affected by this to reach out and ‘Talk to FRANK’. Bronze was awarded due to the clarity of message delivered by this medium to a highly influential youth audience.
Transport and Travel
Entries to the transport and travel category excelled this year, with one bronze, two silver and one gold awarded. BRONZE was won by Italian agency RMG Connect for the ‘Upsidown’ campaign for Trentino Spa, promoting Trentino as a snowboarder’s dream destination.
The first SILVER award went to Tribal DDB London and the ‘Mid Life Crisis’ campaign for VW Passat with a series of user initiated, interactive and customisable video MPUs.
Lean Mean Fighting Machine also won SILVER for the Emirates ‘Keep Discovering’ campaign. Judges described this as ‘well executed, playing on the consumer’s sense of adventure and as having broad appeal’.
GOLD in the Transport and Travel category went to UK agency Lean Mean Fighting Machine for the Emirates campaign – ‘Non Stop Fernando’. Gold was awarded for the pure brilliance and simplicity of this idea – showing one man speaking for 14 hours to promote the equivalent length of new non-stop Emirates flights from Dubai to Sao Paulo. The user interaction in the video player only added to the experience. The campaign was heralded as creative brilliance by the judging panel and something they would take and show their agencies to inspire them.
FMCG / Consumer Goods
Awarded for a simple idea, but with beautiful execution and great user interaction Spanish agency Netthink’s ‘ImpossiBLOG is nothing’ campaign for Adidas was given a GOLD award. There were no silver or bronze awards made in this category.
Media, Telecoms and Entertainment
A gold and silver award was awarded in the Media, Telecoms and Entertainment category. SILVER went to creative agency Daddy from Sweden for the ‘Telia Safety’ campaign for broadband provider Telia Sonera for a very well executed campaign promoting anti-virus services to Telia customers.
Lean Mean Fighting Machine scooped GOLD for Virgin Games Virgin Bets ‘Big Brother’ campaign. This campaign also won the coveted ‘Best Use of the Microsoft Advertising Network’ award. The campaign reaped high praise from the entire judging panel – with claims that the ad ‘goes beyond the format’ with its great use of Easter eggs, ‘really involves the consumer’ and is ‘simply very very funny’.
Dave Bedwood, Creative Partner at Lean Mean Fighting Machine, who picked up four MOUSE Awards, including the ‘Best use of the Microsoft network’ commented: “The MOUSE Awards grow in stature every year and this year there was some stiff competition. It’s a real honour to have won these awards especially when they are judged by such a high calibre of European creative talent and industry peers.”
The nine winning campaigns were awarded with cash prizes — $5,000 for first prize (Gold), $3,000 for second prize (Silver) and $2,000 for third prize (Bronze). All Gold winning campaigns will be entered into the coveted 2008 Cannes Cyber Lions Awards and their creators invited to the festival, which Microsoft is sponsoring for the seventh year running.
-Ends-
Notes to Editors
The MOUSE Awards are open to any media or creative agency employed in the creation of online advertising. Winning campaigns can be seen here: http://advertising.microsoft.com/europe/CreativeInspiration/default.aspx?pageid=1770
The 2008 MOUSE Awards Jury
- Flo Heiss, Dare (Chair)
- Damon Crepin-Burr, FullSIX Group
- Dave Bedwood, Lean Mean Fighting Machine
- Ed Pou, Wieden & Kennedy
- Eivind Solberg, Virtual Garden
- Fernanda Romano, JWT London
- Gemma Butler, Agency Republic
- Jon Dranger, Farfar
- Lars Cortsen, Triple Copenhagen
- Matt Powell, Profero
- Paul Collins, Åkestam.Holst
- Susanna Glenndahl Thorslund, Daddy
- Tobias Gärtner, Scholz & Friends
- Vincent Jansen, Boondoggle
- David Pugh-Jones, Microsoft
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential.
#########
This material is for informational purposes only. Microsoft Corp disclaims all warranties and conditions with regard to use of the material for other purposes. Microsoft Corp shall not, at any time, be liable for any special, direct, indirect or consequential damages, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other action arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of the material. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting any kind of warranty.
Microsoft®, MSN®, Windows™ Live and Xbox® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the US and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Notes to Editors
If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft in EMEA, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/emea or the EMEA Press Centre at http://www.microsoft.com/emea/presscentre. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at the time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact the Microsoft EMEA Press Office at +44 870 243 0515 or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/emea/contactus.
If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft Corp, please visit the Microsoft web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.
1. Categories awarded: Financial Services; Charity and NGO; Transport and Travel; Media, Telecoms and Entertainment; FMCG / Consumer Goods
