Leo Burnett MIXX-es supremely

Leo Burnett Sydney is one of five finalists in the Single-Branded Content category for the 2012 international IAB MIXX Awards, for Spotlight for the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Spotlight scooped the pool at the IAB Awards a month ago, taking out Best in Show and three other categories - Brand Awareness & Positioning, Brand Destination Site and Rich Media & Digital Video.

The 14 campaign and 13 single execution categories at the international IAB MIXX Awards created 111 finalists include 30 from countries outside home base, the United States. Australia is  represented as is, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Italy, Russia, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

“As the marketing industry continues its remarkable transformation in the digital age, we continue to be awestruck by the talent behind the remarkable combination of quality creative and impressive technology,” said David Doty, executive vice president and chief management officer of IAB. “The unprecedented need to strike a balance between art and technology is what led the IAB to work with leading agencies and publishers to deliver the Rising Stars, which in turn will help drive the next wave of bold interactive storytelling for brand marketers.”

Nick Law, global chief creative officer, R/GA, will chair  the 2012 IAB MIXX Awards judging panel was also impressed by the standard of entries, “The nominees are an impressive collection of advertising, most of which doesn’t look like advertising. This is a good thing because so few people like advertising enough to want to interact with it. ‘How do I get a message in front of people?’ is not the same question as ‘why would someone care about this?’ Put simply, the finalists have managed to make stuff that is interesting enough to interact with,” said Law.

Focused on creativity and impact, the MIXX Awards is the only competition that evaluates all key facets of interactive marketing, including strategy, creative development and execution, media placement and integration, effectiveness and ROI.

The winners will be announced at the IAB MIXX Awards Gala, which will take place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Times Square on Tuesday, October 2nd. The Gala is the culmination of the preeminent two-day IAB MIXX Conference & Expo Marketplace held during Advertising Week in New York City.