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SapientNitro Wins Two Coveted Black Pencils at D&AD Awards

^{Published on 2010-06-04 13:15:20 - Market Wire}
 

BOSTON--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--[ SapientNitro ], part of Sapient (NASDAQ: SAPE), today announced that it won two Black Pencils for its aBest Job in the Worlda campaign created for Tourism Queensland at this yeara™s D&AD Awards, held Thursday evening. The campaign picked up two of five Black Pencils awarded all evening: one for Direct and one for Integrated. The dual wins are a first for Australia in the history of the awards, which have celebrated outstanding work in design and advertising since 1962.

"sets a new standard of excellence in creativity."

Considered the aOscara™ of the advertising industry, the rare [ Black Pencil ] (formerly gold award) is particularly coveted as it is given for outstanding work that abreaks the moulda or asets a new standard of excellence in creativity.a Typically, only one or two Black Pencils are awarded each year although, in some years, none were given out. The Black Pencil requires more than 50 percent of the judges to vote ayesa for work to receive the accolade.

Speaking on SapientNitroa™s achievement, D&AD President Paul Brazier said: aThirty-five thousand people applied for The Best Job in the World. The idea is so well known today, we almost take it for granted. We shouldna™t. Ita™s a brilliant leap of thinking. Rather than write another invisible tourism campaign for the Great Barrier Reef, SapientNitroa™s idea got the region splashed all over the world.a

Associate Creative Directors Cristian Staal and Ralph Barnett collected the awards on behalf of SapientNitro at the ceremony in London. To date the campaign, created by the companya™s Brisbane office, has received more than 60 awards, including three Grand Prix and five Gold at the Cannes Lions.

Executive Creative Directors James Burchill and Nancy Hartley added that this honor was the culmination of a world-record breaking run of awards for the campaign: aThe fact that this is the first Australian campaign in history to be awarded a D&AD Black Pencil, let alone two of them, puts into perspective what a rare honor this is,a said Hartley.

aThe Black Pencil is reserved for work that is considered game-changing,a added Burchill. aTo do ground-breaking work requires a visionary client, and we are as thrilled for Tourism Queensland as we are for ourselves.a

In 2009, Tourism Queensland commissioned SapientNitro to launch a new brand, the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef, across eight key international markets. SapientNitro started with a simple classified ad and drove people to an engaging website and solicited video applications for the job of island caretaker. The [ campaign ] captured worldwide attention, reaching millions through broadcast, print, and online channels, including heavy use of social media and PR coverage in outlets ranging from Time to a BBC documentary. It took the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef brand to a new level of awareness, generating 35,000 video job applications from 197 countries and more than $300 million USD in estimated media value.

For more information about the D&AD awards and 2010 winners, visit: [ http://www.dandad.org ].

About SapientNitro

[ SapientNitro ]^SM, part of Sapient®, is the worlda™s first customer experience company. We create and engineer highly relevant experiences that accelerate business growth and fuel brand advocacy for our clients. By combining multi-channel marketing, multi-channel commerce, and the technology that binds them, we influence customer behavior across the spectrum of content, communication and commerce channels, resulting in deeper, more meaningful relationships between customers and brands. SapientNitro services global leaders such as Citi, The Coca-Cola Company, Mars, Singapore Airlines, Target, and Vodafone through our operations in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. For more information, visit [ www.sapientnitro.com ] or follow us on Twitter [ @sapientnitro ].

Sapient is a registered service mark of Sapient Corporation.