• by Sarah Mahoney , March 9, 2009

It only seems like every retail ad you've watched in the last year simply screamed about lower prices ("Take 175% off--this week only! We'll pay you to buy our sweaters!!!) At its recent confab in Las Vegas, retail execs honored a handful of stores for campaigns that shot right through the recession-panicked clutter.

OfficeMax took home the top RACie, awarded by the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA) for its Penny Pranks campaign. Launched to support its 1-cent sale of back-to-school essentials, the ads used a hidden camera to follow a shopper as he tried to unload his pennies in stores and restaurants, and included a fun fast-forward stunt in which shoppers grabbed up 2 million pennies at the Mall of America. The ads, which included a few fierce evangelical moments--"Sure, they charge you $9.99, not $1 -but then they won't take your pennies!"--were especially big hits on YouTube.

RAMA, part of the National Retail Federation, says its awards are based on stronger brand awareness, sales results, and "meaningful connection with consumers."

The group also made awards based on a live-vote, with the audience handing Kohl's a gold for a single TV spot, Target for its gift card/digital camera, Massachusetts General Hospital for its radio spot, and Walmart for a single TV spot in the fourth quarter. Lowe's, with its striking visuals for Valspar paints, tied with Best Buy's "True Stories" campaign, based on sales associates' favorite moments, in the single-media campaign for broadcast.

Other companies that took home a gold award include: Old Navy, which won RAMA's Board of Directors Creative Award for its "I want candy" holiday TV spot; Kmart for direct mail supporting its Baby Sale; JC Penney for an interactive program called Doghouse, in which men reveal how boneheaded gift decisions have landed them in the doghouse, and AT&T, for a fourth-quarter ad called "International Hands."

The group also presented Best Buy with an award for its commitment to giving back to the community. The electronics retailer runs Best Buy's BlueShirt Corps, a service program that pairs up highly trained employees with those in need. "Through the program, 16 Best Buy retail employees are "on call" for the Red Cross to be flown to disaster sites to set up communications systems," it says. "Their expertise and assistance allows the Red Cross to help people more quickly and efficiently."