McCann Wins the Super Bowl's Best Ad Trophy

NEW YORK, Feb. 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- McCann's TV commercial promoting National Geographic's upcoming scripted "Genius" TV program on Albert Einstein was voted as the winner of the Super Clio award, a special Clio creative award established two years ago to honor the best commercial aired during the Super Bowl.

McCann's victory in the highly competitive creative showcase of the Super Bowl follows other recognition won recently by the agency, including rising to the global rank of No. 2 in The Gunn Report's list of the most creatively awarded networks and similarly moving up to No. 2 in Ad Age's 2017 Agency A-List.

The winning TV spot featured Geoffrey Rush, who will star as Einstein in National Geographic's first scripted series, playing the violin, as did the physicist himself as part of his thought process. But in McCann's twist, Rush plays Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" and the commercial itself ran after Lady Gaga's own halftime show during what was one of the most watched games in Super Bowl history. The 10-part series, developed by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, will premiere on April 25 on the National Geographic Channel.

"Typical movie and TV trailers all look the same, so we aimed to stand out in a way that trailers never do," said Eric Silver, McCann North America's Chief Creative Officer. "And we know most Super Bowl commercials tend to employ the same use of humor, so to get out of that box is to already start with a leg up. We discovered Einstein had a love of violin and Mozart, so it felt serendipitous to use that as a musical bridge to Lady Gaga."

"This spot was an incredible opportunity for us to reach the largest TV audience of the year and also a way to reintroduce our brand philosophy to push boundaries, go further and be pioneering in everything we do," said Jill Cress, CMO, National Geographic Partners. "We are incredibly grateful to our partners at McCann and honored to be recognized with such a prestigious acknowledgement of our efforts."

The Clio Awards, the esteemed international advertising, design and communications competition, selects a panel of industry experts to rank Big Game ads based on the strength of creative alone.

McCann's creative honors throughout 2016 included having the single-most awarded campaign at the Cannes Lions Festival with both the McCann U.S. and U.K. agencies ranking No. 1 in their respective countries; being named "Network of the Year" globally at the London International Awards, Cresta, and Midas financial marketing awards; in Europe at the Golden Drum Awards; in Latin America at the three FIAP, El Ojo and El Sol regional awards; FP7 Dubai// McCann's recognition by the EFFIEs as the No. 1 most effective agency in the world; McCann Health's being named "Network of the Year" both  at the 2016 Cannes Lions Health Festival and at the Global Awards; and Momentum and Weber Shandwick also receiving agency of the year honors. 

About McCann Worldgroup

McCann Worldgroup, part of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), is a leading global marketing services company with 24,000 employees in more than 100 countries, comprising McCann (advertising), MRM//McCann (digital marketing/relationship management), Momentum Worldwide (total brand experience), McCann Health (professional/dtc communications), CRAFT (global adaptation and production), UM (media management), Weber Shandwick (public relations), FutureBrand (consulting/design), ChaseDesign (shopper marketing) and PMK-BNC (entertainment/brand/popular culture)

SOURCE McCann Worldgroup