After a successful launch of the Campaign Cup last year, we wondered how the industry would feel about a second iteration. Turns out you're really into it.
A whopping 1,300 of you (1,301 to be precise) cast votes in the first round of Campaign Cup 2025, our head-to-head tournament to identify the best creative from the past year of Canadian advertising.
The contenders were chosen through a combination of Ad of the Month winners and wildcard picks made by the editorial team here at Campaign. Those "Sweet Sixteen" finalists were randomly drawn into eight first round matchups, with readers choosing their favourites in each match. Those winners advance to the next round until, after four rounds of voting, one winner remains.
Those eight first-round tilts resulted in three winners who enjoyed...let's say comfortable, margins of victory of 40 percentage points or more.
•It was DJs over Olympian parents in game one: Tylenol's "Sick to Siiick" by OneMethod won out over "Sponsor the Parents" by Rethink for MolsonCoors.
•In two spots that were all about the laughs, Pacific Wild's "F*** Off Open-Net Pen Salmon Farmers" by Maximum Effort defeated "Coffee Mate, mate" for Nestlé by Courage.
•In a matchup that saw two vastly different ideas and executions, "White Ribbon's "My Friend Max Hate" by Bensimon Byrne moves on by defeating Tim Hortons' "The Last Timbit" by Gut.
In another three matches the margin of vistory was more than 10 percentage points.
•In a battle of cause related spots with two very different approaches, Parkinson Canada's "Find Your Swagger" by Broken Heart Love Affair came out on top over "Grow Beyond" by LG2 for Montreal's Foundation CHU Sainte-Justine
•The voters chose condoms over bacon in Game 6, as "Trojan Duet's Good Vibrations" for Trojan by Forsman & Bodenfors won out over "Bacon is Rain" by No Fixed Address for Greenfield Natural Meat.
•"Award Show Hack," an innovative B2B campaign for Inlaws Audio House by Bleublancrouge, fell to the knee-slappingly funny "Screamin Pain" by Good & Ready for Delivra Health Brands.
Finally, there were two games which were decidedly closer, though not quite into recount territory (less than 10 points apart).
•Hard Work Club's "We Get Groceries, So You Don't Have To" for DoorDash won by 7.4% over "Kickstart Your Heard" by Lifelong Crush for Kicking Horse Coffee.
•"Magic Duos" by VML for Coca-Cola won by 6.6% over "Nature's Symphony" by Broken Heart Love Affair for the Royal Ontario Museum.
With the Elite 8 now set, the second round of voting will get underway shortly. The matchups are as follows:
- "Sick to Siiick" vs. "We Get Groceries, So You Don't Have To"
- "F*** Off Open-Net Pen Salmon Farmers" vs. "My Friend Max Hate"
- "Find Your Swagger" vs. "Trojan Duet's Good Vibrations"
- "Magic Duos" vs. "Screaming Pain"
