Adweek’s Arc Awards: Best Music Video, Apple’s ‘Welcome Home,’ Best Use of Animation, Apple’s ‘Animoji’

“Now in its third year, Adweek’s Arc Awards once again brings you storytelling gems for clients ranging from the U.S. Navy to Skittles,” T.L. Stanley writes for Adweek. “While the arc of these campaigns spans emotion, humor, compassion, politics and societal pain points and woes, they all engage with a powerful narrative rather than a cold interruption.”
“In a significant shift this year, we are publishing Adweek Arc Awards in concert with SXSW and will host a celebration of the winners on Saturday, March 9, in Austin. Our sponsor Screenvision Media will return as well and help us reveal our Grand Arc Award winner,” Stanley writes. “I’d like to thank our panel of 24 jurors, especially jury chairperson Shannon Pruitt, CMO of The Honest Company, for taking time out of their jammed schedules to thoughtfully vet the 253 submissions.”
Agency: TBWAMedia Arts Lab
Client: Apple
Awards: Best Music Video, “Welcome Home,” and Best Use of Animation, “Animoji”
FKA twigs leaps through a looking glass to an Anderson.Paak soundtrack, and animated puppy, unicorn and chicken emojis lip sync, adorably, to chart-topping hits.
Advertising for Apple product the HomePod and the 3D animoji feature on the iPhone X could’ve explained bells and whistles like voice technology and facial recognition. But the brand took the show-don’t-tell route instead. “The elegant execution of a simple idea combined with the perfect music has long been the hallmark of iconic, culture-rippling Apple expressions,” says Brent Anderson, TBWAMedia Arts Lab’s chief creative officer.
In “Welcome Home,” which won multiple Cannes Lions, including a Grand Prix, Apple put the transformative power of music on display, with a touch of Alice in Wonderland, to hype its smart HomePod speaker. The result: an intricately choreographed, visually stunning ad from celebrated director Spike Jonze.
The agency took a relatable truth (dancing to a great song can cure all kinds of ills, from a brutal day to a cramped living space), and turned it into a music video that rocketed (with no paid media) to the top trending spot on YouTube and stayed there for two consecutive weeks. It became the platform’s most-watched piece of branded content in March 2018.

And for a dash of tech-enabled fun, Apple made karaoke stars out of animated characters like bears and robots for “Animoji.” Belting out popular tunes from Childish Gambino, Migos and others, the disembodied creatures snagged more than 40 million social views and generated upward of 300,000 hours of user-generated videos.

Childish Gambino x ANIMOJI@donaldglover