The jury, chaired by Worldwide Creative Director of Y&R, Tony Granger, chose Canning who received a number of awards including 2 Gold Bullets for the WWF ‘Vote Earth’ global campaign, as well as Canon ‘Photochains’ and McDonalds Australia, all created along with creative partner Kieran Antill.
Leo Burnett Worldwide was named the 2009 ‘YoungGuns Network of the Year’. Canning joins a prestigious list of previous YoungGun of the Year winners, including Fallon London’s Juan Cabral, and Wieden + Kennedy creatives Eric Kallman and Craig Allen.
Says Mark Tutssel, Worldwide Creative Director of Leo Burnett, “Michael is a new breed of integrated thinker. He has the ability to truly connect with people in a meaningful way. His work is always category defying and future-facing. He is a remarkable talent and a wonderful human being"
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The YoungGuns award is designed to recognize the freshest thinking in the industry, and the winning work displayed big ideas and media neutral thinking that struck a chord within popular culture. The ‘Vote Earth’ campaign was created as a way to transform Earth Hour from creating awareness into creating action against global warming. The idea cultivated a worldwide grassroots movement by transforming people’s light switch into a vote, in a global election between Earth and Global Warming. The Canon ‘Photochains’ campaign also represented
fresh social media thinking, creating a new network of photography that has become a part of photographers everyday lives.
Says Andy DiLallo, co-executive creative director at Leo Burnett Sydney, “Rather than repeating the same sentiment about how brilliant, and how creative Michael is, I would rather talk about something that has nothing to do with his creativity at all, but for me is the single most defining characteristic of him. That is Michael's humility; I have never come across a creative who is more gracious or kind. Michael is truly an amazing person to be around, nothing ever seems to bother the guy when trouble heads his way, he meets it with a cool laid back charm that makes anything seem manageable. It doesn’t always happen, but I am happy to be able to say, nice guys can finish first and in this case first in the world.”
Says Jay Benjamin, co-executive creative director at Leo Burnett Sydney, “Michael and Kieran never stop surprising me with their brilliant thinking and good humor. I can’t begin to say enough about how much I look forward to every meeting with them. And they’re pretty good looking too.”
Canning has been recognized as one of the industry’s fastest rising stars, with his work consistently awarded for its thinking and integration, including campaigns such as ‘LynxJet’, the ‘TED696 Project’ and ‘Vote Earth’ among others.
Named 2009 YGAward Network of the Year, Leo Burnett Worldwide has received a total of 2 Gold Bullets, 1 Silver Bullet, 5 Bronze Bullets and 11 Finalists.
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