Innovative Advertising Blog: Creative ad makes a big impact at Extra Awards

Newspapers Canada spotlights newspaper innovation by inviting experts from across the country to contribute to our Innovative Advertising Blog. In this edition, Aaron Starkman, partner and creative director at Rethink in Toronto, highlights an award winning newspaper ad.

I had the honour of serving as a judge for the annual Extra Awards that celebrate outstanding newspaper advertising across media. It was a great experience.

When I entered the judging room, myself and my fellow judges were faced with the best ads from across the country. Our job was to choose the top work and decide what was worthy of an award.

Flightnetwork.com was an advertiser that we decided to honour in the Travel, Tourism and Transportation category. Travel is difficult as there are so many ads that tend to focus on the destination using fabulous photography or they feature a stunningly low fare in huge font. This advertiser did neither – how refreshing!

The ad uses the medium (newspaper) as part of the message. Flightnetwork.com wanted to highlight its low fares but they did it in a clever way. The headline, “The only other way to get a cheaper flight is to make your own” is partnered with visual instructions on how to fold the newspaper page into a paper airplane. Clean layout. Executed well. Excellent!

Click here to view the ad »

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