This afternoon in Detroit, the One Club unveiled the winners of its third annual Automobile Advertising of the Year Show, in partnership with the North American International Auto Show. The campaigns represent the best car advertising creative across a variety of categories: broadcast television, online video, print & outdoor, interactive and experiential, as well as the newly-introduced categories of corporate social responsibility and dealer ads.
Among the honorees were BMW, Chevrolet, Honda, Hyundai, Acura, Land Rover, Mercedes, BMW and Samsung, thanks to work done by agencies from the U.S., Argentina, Singapore, Germany, New Zealand and Canada.
Check out all the winners below:
Broadcast Television:
American Honda Motor Co. "Paper," RPA
Directed by PES out of Reset Content, this spot cuts together about 3,000 hand-drawn illustrations and was a fine addition to the brand's global "Power of Dreams" campaign. It chronicles the journey of Honda products throughout history, referencing everything from the brand's motorcycle development -- including how founder Soichiro Honda's used a radio generator to power his wife's bike -- to the evolution of car design, most recently that of the 2016 Pilot.
Acura "The Test," Mullen Lowe
This eerie ad via Mullen Lowe illustrates the care Acura puts into ensuring its cars safety, by diving into what goes on in the head of an engineer who is also a father.
Interactive
Chevrolet "Technology and Stuff," McCann
Chevy Regional Manager Rikk Wilde made a potentially fatal faux pas during the World Series last year. While presenting a new truck to San Francisco Giants MVP Buster Posey, he was so nervous he described the truck as full of "technology and stuff." But Chevy and agency McCann wholeheartedly embraced the less-than-professional language and used it to steer social conversation and subsequent ads. A fine example of a marketer making the most of being human.
Experiential
BMW "Reverse April Fools,'" DDB Group New Zealand
DDB Group New Zealand and BMW pulled a prank that could have been a very mean April Fool's joke but instead ended up making one woman's day.
Print & Outdoor
Land Rover "The Test Drive Billboard," Y&R Singapore
Y&R Singapore was behind this innovative outdoor ad for the Land Rover Evoque. The billboard featured a real Land Rover that passersby were invited to test drive, so if you noticed it was missing, you knew someone, somewhere was having a good time on the road.
Online Video
Hyundai "Message to Space," Innocean
Hyundai achieved a 2015 Guinness World Record for this campaign for which it created the world's largest tire track image. But that wasn't the most remarkable thing about it -- the image was intended to be a message from a Houston-based girl named Stephanie, who wanted to reach out to her father, an astronaut hovering high above the Earth in the International Space Station.
Daimler/Mercedes "The Uncrashable Toy Cars," Jung Von Matt
Mercedes and Jung von Matt pulled a "cruel" prank on kids who love to crash their toy cars -- a clever illustration of the brand's own Brake Assist System Plus feature.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Samsung "Safety Truck," Leo Burnett Argentina
This brilliant tech idea helped make large trucks safer on the road. It involved the attachment of a wireless camera to the front of a truck, which then displays the oncoming road on video screens attached to its back. It allows drivers behind the truck an idea of what's ahead, and if it would be safe for them to try to overtake the vehicle, which is especially helpful on the country's many one-way roads.
Dealership Ad
Ontario Honda Dealers Association "Mister Bunny's Journey," DS+P
A stuffed bunny embarks on a harrowing mission in this cute holiday ad for the Ontario Honda Dealers Association, via DS&P.