Publicis Canada Wins Two Gold CASSIES Awards

Publicis Montreal has won two gold CASSIES Awards for an interactive campaign the agency developed to launch Ubisoft's Watch_Dogs. The campaign was honoured for excellence in matching the message to the medium by using a smartphone app that turned users' phones into "hacking" devices to build anticipation for the hacking-themed game.

In Ubisoft’s Watch_Dogs—one of the company's most highly anticipated games— players control a hacker who uses his mobile phone to hack into a central operating system that controls the city of Chicago.

To maintain interest in the game and drive pre-orders during the year between the launch and release of the game, Publicis Montreal developed a mobile game app that allowed users "hack" locations across Canada. Watch_Dogs Live players received new missions through the app and competed against one another in increasingly high profile "hacks."

“This is proof that great creativity can solve any business problem," said creative director Carl Robichaud. "It’s an honor to be part of Canada’s most effective campaigns with these two top prizes.”

As Canada's answer to awards like the Effies and the IPA Awards, the prestigious CASSIES are the nation's only awards recognizing the business effectiveness of advertising campaigns based on rigorous published case studies. Awards are presented at the Gold, Silver and Bronze level, and winning case studies are included in the CASSIES online library, a respected industry resource.