Wendy’s wins Adweek's Grand ARC award Adweek has named Wendy’s and agency partner VMLY&R its 2019 Grand ARC winners for their Weebeefin? entry to the annual Adweek ARC Awards celebrating the best of brand storytelling.
The Weebeefin? work was submitted to, and won, the best use of audio storytelling general category. Sponsor partner Christine Martino, evp of national sales for Screenvision, presented the award. The Adweek ARC awards program, now in its third year, drew 253 submissions. This is the first year Adweek hosted the ARC Awards as an official part of the SXSW Interactive Conference and drew a crowd of over 200 to the Line hotel in downtown Austin.
“When we talk about brands going from category to culture, Wendy’s has had a long history of breaking barriers," said Shannon Pruitt, CMO of The Honest Company and chairperson of the 2019 Adweek ARC Award jury. “With Webeefin? they pushed both innovation in consumer connection by using audio as their form of delivery and by the tapping the cultural resonance of music to stretch from talking about yet another burger message to selling nostalgia of a mix tape rooted in current day.”
Earlier in the day, as the morning’s humidity swirled along with conventioneers mounting a fleet of Bird and Lime Scooters, seemingly endless queues formed in the Austin convention center to hear prominent keynotes from the likes of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elisabeth Warren, who discussed her position on the breakup of big technology, and Starbuck founder Howard Schultz, who offered up four key insights on how brands can deliver on authentic purpose.
The schedule also featured a discussion with Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley on the platform’s new “Hypertrending” feature being tested at SXSW this week,which shows real-time visualizations of the area’s most crowded—and least crowded—locations—and a featured session by The Daily Show Host Trevor Noah.
The Giant Spoon experience for HBO’s Game of Thrones was open to attendees for the second day. They formed a very long line well down the block under the hot sun and were at times entertained, some might say playfully menaced, by actors convincingly playing Dothraki Screamers or Free Folk.
And not to be outdone, Vice’s Viceland turned a downtown Austin parking lot into a pop-up ’80s/hip-hop themed roller skating rink, replete with its signature Viceland party bus.
Later, as the Saturday evening cool set it, activations from Netflix, Amazon and CNN began to stir on Rainey Street, conventioneers set out in search of the BBQ, drink and brand networking experiences the night seemed sure to deliver. Enjoy your Sunday, James Cooper, editorial director, Adweek |
