Clio Sports, the competition honoring creative excellence in sports marketing and advertising on a global scale, has unveiled winners of the coveted Grand, Gold, Silver and Bronze Clio Sports Awards for 2020.
VaynerMediaโs work for Budweiser was the yearโs big winner, with a total of three Grand Clio Sports trophies. The agencyโs โThe Future Official Sponsorโ campaign, which aimed to shrink the pay gap between womenโs and menโs sports by way of increasing sponsorships for womenโs soccer, earned top honors in Integrated Campaign, Partnerships, Social Media and Sponsorships & Collaborations.
โBudweiserโs Future Official campaign is important on so many levels,โ said Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia. โIt is an incredibly powerful business-to-business campaign that used consumers to drive it and, most importantly, it helped close the National Womenโs Soccer Leagueโs sponsorship gap. Weโre thrilled to have helped our partners at Budweiser drive real change with this culture-shifting work, and grateful to Clio Sports for recognizing the importance of this campaign.โ
Brazilโs Africa was also a big Clio Sports winner this year, securing Gold for Go Equal movementโs โ#GOequalโ campaign in Branded Entertainment & Content; SporTVโs โLet Her Runโ in Film and Direct; and AB Inbev/ Brahma beerโs โPay Per Beerโ in Digital/Mobile and Innovation. Notably, the Philadelphia 76ers were the team to beat, scoring in-house honors in Design, Experiential/Events and Social Media.
โWe got a lot of interesting entries that pushed creative boundaries in different ways this year,โ said Nicole Purcell, president, Clio Awards. โBut I think the most important trend Iโve noticed is that the juries rewarded work that moved the needle in tangible ways. There is an appetite to celebrate creative executions that make a measurable impact on important issues like gender equality and social justice and that give athletes a platform to share their passions and personalities. Iโm excited to see our trophies going to projects that connected with audiences on a deeper level than what weโve seen in the past.โ
The 2020 Grand Clio Sports Award winners are:
- Design: Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai for Nike with โBEIJING 99โ
- Direct: AKQA for Google with โGoogle Offside Museumโ
- Integrated Campaign: VaynerMedia for Budweiser with โThe Future Official Sponsorโ
- Partnerships, Sponsorships & Collaborations: VaynerMedia for Budweiser with โThe Future Official Sponsorโ
- Public Relations: Fingerpaint Marketing for Concussion Legacy Foundation with โTackle Can Waitโ
- Social Media: VaynerMedia for Budweiser with โThe Future Official Sponsorโ
All of this yearโs Clio Sports Gold, Silver, Bronze and Shortlist recipients as well as the Agency, Brand and Team Of the Year Finalists are available here.