A jury of 10 leading brand-side marketers selected Ally Young, chief marketing officer at mobile company Skinny NZ, as winner of The One Show 2023 CMO Pencil, honoring the marketer behind the world’s single most impactful idea on a brand’s business from the past year.
Young received the award for “Phone It In,” created for Skinny by Colenso BBDO Auckland, PHD Media Auckland, Platform29 Auckland, and Drum Agency Auckland. The work also received a Gold Pencil for Direct Marketing and two Bronze Pencils, one each in Out-of-Home and Radio & Audio, in this year’s 50th anniversary One Show.
“I’m incredibly honored to be awarded this prestigious Pencil. It represents the healthy tension between risk and invaluable creativity which inevitably equates to brand strength if you get it right,” said Young. “‘Phone It In’ brilliantly encompasses both while promoting our brand purpose of ‘We’ll do anything to keep prices low and customers happy.’ I’m so proud to be part of a team that’s delivering world-class and effective work, and congratulations to all my fellow Kiwis who are also getting recognized globally for their mahi (work). I could not have received this accolade without my incredible leaders Matt Bain and Sarah Williams, and of course without the hearts and brains of my tireless agencies Colenso BBDO, PHD, Platform29, and Drum.”
A cross-section of 31 high-scoring entries were initially considered for this year’s CMO Pencil award, from which the jury narrowed the field to seven.
Other finalists entries were Apple’s “Public Displays of Encouragement” by TBWAMedia Arts Lab Los Angeles and “The Greatest” by Apple London, Coinbase’s “Less Talk, More Bitcoin” by Accenture Song, Mars’ “Skittles–Apologize the Rainbow” by DDB Chicago, Muskrat Magazine’s “Missing Matoaka” by BBDO Canada Toronto, and Supercell/Clash of Clans’ “Clash from the Past” by Wieden+Kennedy Portland.
Top global marketers on this year’s One Show CMO Pencil jury were Zena Arnold, CMO, Sephora; Vikrant Batra, CMO, HP; Kate Jhaveri, Global Head of Marketing, TikTok; Todd Kaplan, CMO, Pepsi; Jeff Klein, CMO, Popeyes; Fernando Machado, CMO, NotCo; Kory Marchisotto, CMO, e.l.f.; Sejal Shah Miller, CMO, Converse; Leslie Sims, CMO, CCO, Impossible Foods; and Alicia Tillman, CMO, Delta Air Lines.
In accordance with The One Show judging rules, jury members abstain from voting on work done by or for their own company.
“All of these top One Show 2023 winners under consideration featured an extraordinary level of creativity,” said Kevin Swanepoel, CEO, The One Club. “The jury strongly felt “Phone It In” was a great campaign that ticked all the boxes of the judging criteria. We congratulate Ally Young, Skinny, and the agency teams for this prestigious win”.
Past CMO Pencil winners are Lorraine Twohill, CMO at Google, who accepted along with Florian Koenigsberger, Image Equity Lead, Google, for “Real Tone”; Raja Rajamannar, chief marketing & communications officer and president, healthcare business, Mastercard, for “True Name” by McCann New York; Kathleen Hall, chief brand officer, Microsoft, for Xbox’s “Changing the Game” by McCann New York; David Rubin, CMO, The New York Times, for “Truth is Worth It” by Droga5 New York; and Stephen Tisdale, CMO, State Street Global Advisors, for “Fearless Girl” by McCann New York.
The CMO Pencil is just one of the organization’s initiatives to address and recognize the fast-growing brand-side creative community. Both The One Show and ADC Annual Awards include standalone Brand-Side/In-House disciplines, featuring dedicated juries of brand-side creative peers to judge the work.
In addition, the club recently held its annual WITHIN brand-side creative conference series. The gathering addresses a void in the market for a forum to discuss issues specific to in-house creative teams and cultures, examining the inner dynamics of the very best in-house creative departments with sessions by some of the most acclaimed brand and marketing leaders.
A total of 20,166 pieces from 69 countries were entered in The One Show 2023. Agencies, studios, brands, production companies and designers in 54 countries were awarded 210 Gold Pencils, 200 Silver, 238 Bronze, and 1,172 Merits.
