2013 Call for CASSIES Submissions Marks 20 Years of Celebrating Business Effectiveness

– Knorr’s Salty; Smarties’ “Blue is back” cat; ‘New’ diamond Shreddies – all memorable campaigns and all winners of the pre-eminent CASSIES Awards lead the path to this year’s Call for Submissions – due on Thursday August 2, 2012. Honouring the innovative, the daring, but above all, the performance-driven campaigns from the communications world, the CASSIES will be celebrating its 20th year in 2013. As Canada’s only industry awards recognizing business effectiveness based on rigorous published cases, any paid communications campaign that proves solid business outcomes, via tracking, data and research results, is eligible to enter.
“We are encouraging entries from all types of communications disciplines, including PR, social media, mobile marketing and shopper marketing,” said David Gibb, CASSIES board chair and executive vice president, managing director, JWT. “There is a misconception that the CASSIES are specifically for traditional advertising, however these awards encompass all business-building campaigns, regardless of the specific marketing mixes.”
In fact, the CASSIES are a great reference and learning resource for the industry, as winning entries from each year are uploaded to the CASSIES website (www.cassies.ca). This growing online library serves as a valuable tool for professionals and students alike, capturing the ebb and flow of our communications landscape.
“The CASSIES are much more than an award show,” said Nancy Marcus, this year’s chair of judging for the CASSIES, and corporate vice president at Kruger Products. “The submissions and winning case studies reflect the changing dynamics of our communications world. With growing influences such as social media, mobile and shopper marketing, we can see shifts showcased in the online library of case studies – preserving moments of our marketing culture, year over year.”
Winning at the CASSIES carries a high profile. Gold-winning cases are summarized for the national marketing community in strategy magazine’s February issue and qualify for The Globe Effectiveness Prize, which provides delegate passes for the Cannes Lions festival to the winning client-agency team. Additionally, select winners will appear in a five-part series of stories released on the Report On Business website and are invited to present their cases live at the annual LIFT conference in the spring of 2012.
This year’s entries must be filed online at www.cassies.ca by Thursday, August 2, 2012 at 12:00 noon EST. Winners will be announced at the CASSIES annual awards show on Monday, January 28, 2013 at the Ritz-Carlton in Toronto – a much-anticipated soirée that also marks the kick off to the Institute of Communication Agencies’ Advertising Week in Canada. Tickets to attend the awards show will go on sale in early September at www.cassies.ca.
Marcus is pleased to announce the panel of notable judges who represent clients, agencies, media, academic, interactive, international and research disciplines in the advertising and communications realm. The twelve judges are:

• Andrew Barrett, vice president of marketing, Samsung
• Fiona Stevenson, category brand manager, P&G
• Myrianne Collin, senior vice president of strategy and marketing and consumer services, Vidéotron
• Sylvain Marcoux, director of customer experience and marketing, Intact Insurance
• Marie Andrée Bertrand, associate partner & Chief Operating Officer, SVY&R
• Pascal DeDecker, vice president and creative director, PALM + HAVAS
• Melanie Johnston, senior vice president and managing director, DDB Canada
• Alvin Wasserman, president, Wasserman + Partners • Karine Courtemanche, president, Touche! PHD
• Emily Bain, partner and strategic planning director, john st.
• Shane Skillen, president and founder, HotSpex • Scott Goodson, founder and CEO, Strawberry Frog – NYC

For cases to be eligible, entrants must show impressive business results and prove convincingly that these results were the product of the campaign. This year, it is easier than ever to enter, as the CASSIES has added a new video tutorial feature on their website, taking the applicant through the online submission process. Details on how to enter can be found at www.cassies.ca/howtoenter.
CASSIES award categories are:

• Events, Seasonal and Short-Term
• Off to a Good Start
• Services – General
• Services – Financial
• Packaged Goods – Food/Other
• Packaged Goods – Beverage
• Prescription Pharmaceuticals
• Durables
• Automotive and DIY
• Retail
• Not-for-Profit
• Government & Advocacy
• Business to Business
• Sustained Success
• Best Launch
• Best Insight
• Best Integrated Program
• Best Use of Media
• Canadian Contribution to a Global or Multi-Country Campaign
• Canadian Success Outside Canada

ABOUT THE CASSIES
The CASSIES are presented by the Institute of Communication Agencies (ICA), the Association des agences de Publicité du Québec (AAPQ) and Association des professionnels de la communication et du marketing (APCM) and produced by strategy magazine. The 2013 sponsors are The Globe and Mail, Millward Brown and john st. Since their inception in 1993, CASSIES has recognized the business achievements of over 350 campaigns from Canada’s top advertisers and communications agencies. All award-winning case studies can be viewed in the Case Library section of the CASSIES website at www.cassies.ca.
For more information on the CASSIES or to arrange an interview, please contact:
Paige Calvert, Director of Corporate Communications & Public Relations, DDB Canada
604.608.4421 | paige.calvert@ddbcanada.com
or
Linda Yahya, Consultant, DDB Public Relations
416.963.4274 | linda.yahya@can.ddbpr.com