Ad industry LGBTQ+ advocacy group Outvertising recognised the brands as inclusion trailblazers by presenting them with special awards at their virtual celebration last night.
The awards evening itself went beyond being just an awards ceremony. The nearly 200 virtual attendees were treated to numerous panels and creative reviews from LGBTQ+ community members and judges, alongside the revelation of winners across four categories; The Accelerator Award (with entries coming via OMB) – won by John Soonaye, as well as The Pride Activation Award – won by Sprite, Outvertising’s Campaign of the Year – won by Renault for their “30 years in the Making” campaign and Brand of the Year won by McCain Foods. As part of a collaboration with OMB, special mention was also to Sam Hennig for his work on an Inclusive Creativity challenge. The two-hour event was a glitzy, fun, warm and practical journey through what makes truly inclusive creative and was brought to life with support from Facebook.
Accelerator Award (One Minute Brief)
Winner: John Soonaye
Twitter: @JohnSoonaye
Outvertising’s Pride Activation of the Year
Winner: Sprite (Coca Cola)
Agency / credits: Santo Argentina
Campaign: Pride: Sprite
Outvertising’s Campaign of the Year
Winner: Renault Clio
Agency / credits: Publicis/poke
Campaign: “30 years in the Making”
Outvertising Brand of the Year
Winner: McCain Foods
Agency / credits: Adam&Eve/DDB
Campaign: “Here’s to Love”
Outvertising Chair, Mark Runacus MBE commented,
“The LGBTQ+ community in adland has been particularly badly hit by lockdown, especially in terms of mental health, and so it was really uplifting to see how many entries our awards received this year. Over 400 in total - a ten-fold increase on our last awards. But most importantly the quality of entries was very high. Whilst we still have a long way to go to be comfortable with the level of inclusion in UK advertising, this is a really positive sign amidst troubled times.”
While discussing the entries live on the evening, judge Rachel Reese founder of Global Butterflies said,
“The trans and non-binary representation was higher than ever, but also more subtle, clever and more refined than we’ve seen previously which was great… Judging the high numbers of entries has been really educational. It’s clear from what we saw brands can make the smallest of adjustments to their output which has the hugest positive impact on the LGBTQ+ community, so it’s really encouraging.”
The audience also heard from the teams behind McCain Foods, Renault and Sprite’s brilliantly inclusive output with each team expressing pride in their newly won accolade, and hope that future LGBTQ+ inclusive ads become the norm, rather than the exception.
As the event’s host, Jerry Daykin senior media director, EMEA for GSK, and Outvertising’s Co-commercial Director said:
“The evening was about learning. Learning from the creatives, learning from the community and finally from our judges.”
To quote Outvertising’s brand of the Year, McCain Foods, “here’s to all love”. Love really does win.