The Clio Awards, the premier international awards competition which has annually recognized creative excellence in advertising since 1959, has awarded on Thursday its coveted Grand Clios, the awards’ highest honor, during the 62nd Annual Clio Awards Ceremony in New York City in the first round of live ceremonies since 2019.
As it says on its website explaining its mission, “The Clio Awards celebrates bold work that propels the advertising industry forward, inspires a competitive marketplace of ideas, and fosters meaningful connections within the creative community.”
“The Clios thrive on making connections and building a community that celebrates creative thinkers, and it’s so good to be able to sign out of Zoom and sit down at a table with the makers of the world’s best advertising again after so much time apart,” said Clio CEO Nicole Purcell.
Purcell kicked off this year’s ceremony joined by The One Club for Creativity CEO Kevin Swanepoel creating a rare moment in which two global awards competitions leaders came together on one stage – to pay tribute to the late Tony Gulisano, who was the global chief growth officer of The One Club when he passed away in March and who served in several positions at the Clio Awards for over 26 years.
Triumphing in four separate categories for the Grand Clio: Direct, Experience/Activation, Integrated Campaign, and Print – Leo Burnett Chicago with the stunning anti-gun violence campaign “The Lost Class” it created for Change the Ref was the big winner on Thursday night’s ceremony of Clio Awards, Muse by Cleo reported.
The campaign that has earned 22 trophies in total, focused on the firearms as the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States and features NRA leaders delivering a speech to 3,044 empty seats, each representing a would-be graduate from the class of 2021, who lost their lives to gun violence.
Its aim was to pay respect to this Lost Class and to call attention to the burning issue that also took the life of Joaquin Oliver, Parkland High School shooting victim, whose parents founded Change the Ref.
Change the Ref, Inc also won the Advertiser of the Year Award while Leo Burnett Chicago was named Agency of the Year.
Among the seven other agencies that won them for work made on behalf of various clients are Publicis Italy, McCann Paris, BBH USA, Epic Games, R/GA, Area 23, and Ogilvy.
Area 23 won the Branded Entertainment prize for the “Sick Beats” campaign for the world’s first music-powered airway clearance vest for people with cystic fibrosis.
The “Courage is Beautiful” effort by Ogilvy UK for Dove was awarded the Grand Clio Creative Effectiveness while the Fashion & Beauty Grand Clio went to Epic Games for the campaign “Fashion’s Foray into the Metaverse” it created for Fortnite and Balenciaga.
Both Area 23 and Ogilvy UK are last year’s Cannes Grand Prix winners.
Another Cannes winner, Heineken’s highly effective “Shutter Ads” won Publicis Italy The Out of Home prize while the R/GA took the Innovation Grand Clio for Reddit’s five-second Super Bowl spot “Superb Owl”.
McCann Paris won the Public Relations honors for “The Bread Exam” made for the Lebanese Breast Cancer Foundation and Spinneys while BBH USA was bestowed the Social Media Grand Clio for Google’s “Black-Owned Friday”.
BBDO Worldwide was named Network of the Year, Rethink is Clio’s Independent Agency of the Year while the Production Company of the Year award went to Hungry Man.
With an impressive 18 awards given to firms Down Under, Australian creative agencies have certainly made their mark at the 2022 Clio Awards, including Ogilvy Australia, Clemenger BBDO Sydney, Thinkerbell, and FINCH.
The Melbourne-based Ogilvy Australia topped the ladder with two silvers for their “Saving Freddo” campaign for Mondelez Australia – in Digital/Mobile and Experience/Activation categories – and a bronze in Social Media for its work with AAMI (Suncorp).
The silver awards round included Thinkerbell, which claimed the gong in the Digital/Mobile medium category for their “Climate Warriors” campaign for NRMA Insurance, inspired by Minecraft, and FINCH, which scored big with its work with sustainability initiative The Lion’s Share Fund in the category Print & Out Of Home Craft.
With Leo Burnett Australia and CHE Proximity stashing three bronze gongs each, the Australian agencies also claimed their fair share of bronze
