DDB Canada and autoTRADER Drive Away With CASSIES Grand Prix

"The Most Cars in One Place" repositions brand and generates triple-digit growth on its consumer traffic-generating targets

TORONTO, Jan. 29, 2013 /CNW/ - Last night, DDB Canada and autoTRADER Canada's campaign, "The Most Cars in One Place" was awarded the prestigious Grand Prix at the CASSIES awards show, Canada's only industry awards program recognizing business effectiveness based on rigorous published case studies.  The campaign also garnered a gold award in the 'Off to a good start' category.

"Through a deep dive into the brand, we discovered that autoTRADER.ca has the largest car inventory in the country, which creatively translated into 'The Most Cars in One Place'.  This core differentiator quickly become the driving force to contemporizing the brand and making it more compelling," explains David Leonard, national president and COO, DDB Canada.

The six-month effort included traditional TV, radio and online advertising, a business-to-business strategy, public relations and social media seeding, which included a unique Facebook autoLYZER app.  The program not only re-positioned autoTRADER as the preeminent destination for car buyers and sellers, it also generated triple-digit growth on its consumer traffic-generating targets.

The campaign exceeded objectives with traffic to the site up +18 per cent, and a 27 per cent growth in monthly unique visitors over the campaign period.  Also, the launch of the autoLYZER App and public relations program created a groundswell of interest in the brand, resulting in over 273,000,000 impressions and Facebook fandom of the autoTRADER.ca Canada page exploded by +126% following its launch (as of July 2012).

This year, 43 awards were handed out in total - 9 gold,16 silver, 17 bronze CASSIES and one Grand Prix award to 22 of Canada's top business-building communication agencies.

The 2013 CASSIES awards show was held on Monday, January 28, 2013 at the Ritz-Carlton in Toronto. The event was also part of the official kick off to the Institute of Communication Agencies' FFWD Advertising & Marketing Week in Canada. This year's winning case studies will be added to the comprehensive CASSIES case library at www.cassies.ca, which serves as a valuable industry reference and time capsule for communications enthusiasts across the country.

AutoTRADER's Grand Prix-winning case study and other 2013 gold-winning CASSIES cases will also be featured in strategy magazine's February issue.  Select winners will also appear in a five-part series of stories released on the Report On Business website and will present their cases at the LIFT conference in the spring of 2013.

About the CASSIES

The pre-eminent CASSIES awards show, celebrating its 20^th anniversary this year, is Canada's only industry awards recognizing business effectiveness based on rigorous published cases. 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, john st., DDB Public Relations, TVB and AOL. Since its 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.

About DDB Canada

Named Strategy's 2012 Agency of the Year and Digital Agency of the Year, DDB Canada is the most creatively acclaimed, internationally recognized marketing communications agency in Canada. Known for advertising that generates significant results for clients, DDB Canada is a "total communications company" whose fundamental belief is that creativity is the most powerful force in business. DDB Canada has offices in Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal. The agency's integrated groups include: DDB Kid Think (youth marketing), DDB Public Relations, Tribal DDB (digital), Karacters Design Group, Rapp Canada (direct), Radar DDB (social), DDB Hodes Recruitment Communications (recruitment marketing) and Shopper DDB (shopper marketing).

SOURCE: DDB Canada

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