Clio Music Awards Honor Mary J. Blige, 'DojaCode' and More

Four campaigns took home Grand Clios at the 2022 Clio Music Awards in Nashville on Tuesday night, at a ceremony where Mary J. Blige was honored with the 2022 Clio Music Legend Award.

AKQA won for short film about the Brazilian musician Nego Bala; BBDO for its “Teenage Dream” project for Sandy Hook Promise; RCA Records for its interactive Girls Who Code/Doja Cat music video; and Phoenician Order Music for its brilliant soundtrack to an HBO teaser trailer.

In addition, justice activist Jason Flom accepted the 2022 Clio Music Impact Award for his work with The Innocence Project and numerous criminal justice reform organizations. Republic Records was named Label of the Year; BBDO was Agency of the Year; and Kobalt Music Publishing was Publisher of the Year.

See more about all four Grand-winning campaigns below, and see all the winners—including gold, silver and bronze—at clios.com.

Nego Bala | Sonho

At age 11, Brazilian musician Nego Bala wrote the lyrics for the song “Sonho” (“Dream”) during his first time at a juvenile detention center. This short film from AKQA tells that story.

“With a sensibility capable of transforming tragedy into poetry and knowledge, the film has the mission of inspiring others to never stop dreaming and showing that talent exists anywhere,” the agency says. “What is lacking is equality in opportunities.”

Sandy Hook Promise | Teenage Dream

For a generation of teenagers, the carefree exuberance of youth has been shattered by anxiety and fear over gun violence. To highlight this new reality of teenage life in America, Sandy Hook Promise partnered with Katy Perry to reinterpret her famous ode to adolescence, “Teenage Dream,” for 2021. In the somber cover, performed by 11 school shooting survivors, the joyful lyrics take on a haunting new meaning through the lens of the teenagers’ traumatic experiences.

BBDO also created a Survivor Stories web hub and additional assets that spotlighted the individual survivors, giving them the space to share their stories and push for action and change in their own words. 

Girls Who Code x Doja Cat | DojaCode

The platinum-selling pop star Doja Cat inviteed fans to edit video for her single “Woman,” as part of an interactive experience from the nonprofit Girls Who Code. There’s the regular music video on YouTube. And then there’s an interactive version, dubbed “DojaCode,” which lets visitors alter aspects of the film and unlock Easter eggs using basic coding languages.

Within a few hours of launch, DojaCode was everywhere. Over 150,000 people coded the video within just the first week. Thousands were capturing and sharing the experience across social platforms with a massive global reach. In the first two weeks, DojaCode garnered $9.8 million in earned coverage.

“We know firsthand that girls and young women are some of today’s most powerful creators and change-makers,” said Tarika Barrett, CEO of Girls Who Code. “However, too few know that they can have a career in computer science, and that it can open up an entire future of possibility to nurturing their passions. Learning to code enables you to change the world around you.”

The campaign was made in collaboration with RCA Records, Mojo Supermarket and Active Theory.

HBO | Made For Love trailer

Phoenician Order Music created a unique cover of Beyoncé’s “Crazy In Love”—a spoken-word version voiced by Ray Romano—in the teaser for Made For Love on HBO Max. 

“When thoughtfully considering the best first beat in this marketing campaign, we wanted to lean into this absurdity and leave our potential audience with piqued interest but more questions than answers,” Pia Chaozon Barlow, HBO Max’s SVP of original marketing, told the A.V. Club. “The idea for the ‘Rayoncé’ teaser was born out of the desire to lean into the notoriety and popularity of a smash hit and recognizable song lyrics while also leveraging the iconic voice of Ray Romano.” 

She added that Romano’s spoken-word cover “provided an unexpected twist and allowed us to kick the door open on this marketing campaign in a surprising way.”