Droga5's promotional campaign for search engine Bing and Jay-Z's new memoir Decoded earned the Grand Prix in the integrated category.
Replicated pages of the rapper's then-upcoming autobiography were placed in unusual places that had relevance to his life, such as on a plaque at the housing project where he grew up and on dinner plates at a restaurant where he dined with Bill Clinton.
The pages were placed in 13 major cities in the U.S. and abroad. Bing users were given clues to scout them out, and were then able to share their finds with others through the search engine's services.
"Bold," " innovative," "immersive" and "interactive" were among the words that integrated and titanium jury President Bob Scarpelli used to describe the multi-faceted promotional effort, which also won the Grand Prix in the outdoor category.
Jury member Fernanda Romano noted that Bing has "a major problem" in that Google's brand awareness is so much larger.
"You don't say that you're going to 'Bing' something," she said. "You're going to 'Google' something."
This effort was a major step in getting Google users and others to give Bing a try, she said.
No Grand Prix prizes were given out in the titanium category, but a campaign for the Romanian candy bar Rom also won a titanium Lion, as did a Volkswagen ad that promotes having fun while still being responsible.
"Each one (of the three titanium winners) has a reason why it pushes the industry forward," said Romano.