Ice­land takes home Gold and Sil­ver Aw­ards

Business Iceland's Sweatpant Boots marketing campaign won a gold medal in the category of small budgets for "services" and a silver medal in the "David vs. Goliath" category at the Effie Awards.

Business Iceland's Sweatpant Boots marketing campaign won a gold medal in the category of small budgets for "services" and a silver medal in the "David vs. Goliath" category at the Effie Awards held in the US on June 14. Marketing professionals recognize the Effie Awards as one of the most sought-after awards in various categories that showcase those campaigns that demonstrate outstanding results. The jury consists of marketing professionals who select the winners from a large pool of submissions. 

The Sweatpant Boots campaign invited tourists to Iceland with their "pandemic comfy pants" to a pop-up shop on Bankastræti. Here craftspeople upcycled these pants by sewing them into the hiking boots as built-in gaiters. The campaign reached a total of 1.4 billion viewers, and 62 million have watched the video, with more than 100 foreign news outlets covering the campaign. 

"It is incredibly fun to receive this recognition," says Sigríður Dögg Guðmundsdóttir, Head of Tourism at Business Iceland. "We decided to continue marketing the destination throughout the pandemic. That decision has paid off—Iceland's popularity as a destination has never been greater, and the tourism industry is recovering at an astonishing rate after the recent downturn." 

The campaign was designed in collaboration with the advertising agency M&C Saatchi and the Icelandic advertising agency Peel. The campaign launched a year ago, on June 21, 2021, lasting 11 weeks. See all the Effie Award winners.