If you have been watching MuchMusic recently, you will have been unable to escape the spot Strut completed for Much to promote an HP cross-promo contest in which you can win your tuition for a year as well as HP Notebooks, printers and other coveted stuff.

The script was written by Much and the visual style tied into the current HP branding with a little added edge for the Much audience. Strut designer and illustrator-extraordinaire, Danielle Erickson, drew pages and pages of doodles, which we then animated in After Effects. Much produced the audio in-house, and miraculously, the entire piece was finished in under 2 weeks from start to finish.

The spot caught the attention of viewers and the contest quickly rose to the top of the charts. Within the first 24 hours of hitting the air, Much was bombarded with 62 video and essay entries and 663 weekly prize entries.

The initial commercial will be re-cut and modified twice – once to feature the contest finalists and push viewers to vote for their fave, and finally, a spot to announce the winner of the grand prize.

Recently, Shell celebrated a milestone achieved by the over 10,000 men and women working in the Athabasca Oil Sands on the Scotford Upgrader Expansion 1 project – 20 million hours worked without a serious injury or lost-time incident. Considering the number of workers involved and the many potential hazards they face every day, this is quite the accomplishment. To express the pride they have in all those involved, they launched a campaign to recognize the 20 million hours achievement.

Strut developed the campaign that consisted of full-page newspaper and radio ads – running in Northern Alberta as well as in the Maritimes, where many of the workers call home – as well as posters and pull-up displays for internal communications.

Photos of actual workers from the project were the key focus of the print materials and the newspaper ads running in each region featured people from that region. The radio – recorded at Ear Candy – presents the achievement in a heroic manner and expresses Shell's pride in and thanks to the workers. Most safety recognition messaging in the industry is usually rather low-key, but Shell really wanted the workers to receive recognition, not just internally, but within the entire oil sands community and the communities in which they and their families live.

As the guiding Shell Oil Sands line states, "Everyone home safely, always." Something these workers truly take to heart.

...thanks to an impromptu, late-night, pre-show tour fanagled by Randall Graham, Supervising Producer at MuchMusic. Getting an up-close look at the final assembly of the stage set-up was incredible and being able to take our place within The Medusa was definitely a highlight of the weekend.

The Medusa, as the spectacular lighting structure was nicknamed, is not a traditional rig by any means. What we assumed were some sort of lighting tubes, are actually special video screens with the super low-resolution of 72 pixels per foot. It's hard to imagine the technology involved to program and control such a complex light show.

The weekend was filled with seemingly endless MMVA parties held at various clubs around town with special guest appearances by celebs that made the required wristbands coveted accessories. UsingTwitter and Facebook, we kept the rest of Strut in the loop as far as our activities and half-hearted celebrity spotting. A little later than promised, but here's a recap of a few of our adventures:

Friday, June 19:

Aaron and Russ arrived in Toronto mid-afternoon and headed down to Much HQ where everyone was in full-swing as the MMVAs drew near. We were briefly introduced to some of the Much creative team, then grabbed the most amazing sandwiches from Sandwich Box before meeting up with Aaron's uncle, Victor, for some family time and a beverage or two on a very hot and humid patio. One thing that caught us off guard was thatyou can still smoke on outdoor patios in Toronto. Our Calgarian instincts kicked into gear and we were about to lean over and tell our neighbouring table to butt out, until we noticed that several tables were indeed smoking as well, and that the sidewalk was missing the expected huddle of tobacco aficionados.

After getting all spiffed up for the evening ahead, we hit Queen Mother Cafe for a bite to eat before heading to a rooftop gathering at Ultra Supper Club. Natalie (from Strut) and her husband, Beau (from Ear Candy), met us there once they got settled in TO. One of the first MMVA parties, it was to be hosted by Lady Gaga, but we departed around 1:30am -- before she eventually made an appearance -- so that Randall could check in with his dedicated crew working on last-minute changes to the show packaging, which led into our late night tour along the way. The tour of the stage was definitely more interesting than catching a glimpse of the diminutive Lady G.

Saturday, June 20:

Saturday was spent wandering the busy streets of T-Dot, shopping for MMVA outfits and occasionally checking out the soundchecks and rehearsals of the live performers. Over the couple days leading up to the awards we caught Alexisonfire, Billy Talent, Rise Against and Lady Gaga as they ran through their paces.

That evening we went for a fabulous dinner at Le Select and hit London Calling where will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas was the guest DJ and had everyone in the club bouncing for hours. Proving, once again, that reality "stars" have no sense of reality, we heard that Audrina from The Hills made a very brief appearance at London flanked by her bodyguards and refused to pose for a publicity shot against the MMVA backdrop. Looks like she doesn't realize exactly why she's famous, which puts her in the same boat as most everyone else.

Sunday, June 21 – The Big Show:

The day started with a scrumptious brunch at Sky Yard, the rooftop patio at the Drake Hotel, which was where Beau and Nat were staying. The fresh-baked scones were to die for – highly recommended. For those who have not been, The Drake is one of the coolest, most artsy hotels around. From the well thought-out design of the minimalist rooms, to the many twisted art installations scattered about the hotel, it had a very creative vibe about it. It is also home to The Underground, a great place to catch both iconic and local indie acts alike.

As we waited for the MMVA screening party at Ultra to begin, we popped into some seedy little dive bar on Queen Street for a quick drink. The bartender was a Tom Waits soundalike and the whole place, complete with its barstool regulars, was right out of a Jim Jarmusch film. As we sat there sipping our seemingly inappropriate G&Ts, eyes wandering the collaged walls, we noticed framed "scrapbook" pages containing gig posters, newspaper articles, set-lists, photographs and ticket stubs commemorating shows by bands such as Wilco, Powderfinger and The Tragically Hip. It was after closer examination of these collections that we realized we were at the infamous Horseshoe Tavern and that the curtain we thought was a backdrop for a tiny stage was actually shrouding a sizable back room stage. Luckily, there wasn't one of their secret shows going on that night, otherwise we may never have left.

We ambled up the street back to Ultra, a couple blocks down from the absolute mayhem in front of 299 Queen Street. Sinking into a couple soft couches we watched the show unfold, all the screaming teens pressed together hoping to catch a glimpse of their favourite stars, get an autograph, or better yet, touch them. The only disappointment of the evening was that at the screening, they replaced the commercials with a loop of event sponsor logos, so we didn't get to see Beau and our Molson MMVA sponsorship ad play on the big screen. Though we had viewed the spot on our computers many times throughout the production we were very excited to see it in context, so the disappointment on our faces – when the show cut to the first commercial break and the logos came up instead – must have been like the look on a kid's face when they take the first lick of an ice cream cone and the delicious scoop falls off the opposite side.

As the Awards wrapped up, the after-party moved upstairs to the rooftop patio where everyone was crammed in shoulder-to-shoulder and the crowd would suddenly part like the Red Sea as a large bodyguard would push through the masses leading a train of people consisting of a musical celeb with their entourage in tow and they quickly wove their way up to the VIP area. Some of the stars making an appearance that evening included Karl Wolf and Danny Fernandes as well as Much on-air talent such as Trevor Boris and MTV's Jessi Cruikshank. Oh, and we saw Nickleback's Hummer parked outside on Queen Street.

The party was hosted by the Black Eyed Peas and will.i.am once again took control of the tunes and rocked the joint. Yes, this was the location of the infamous Perez punch. Unfortunately, we had moved on to one of the many after-after-parties about an hour earlier and missed all the action.

We left Ultra and headed to The Courthouse for some more great music and perhaps a cocktail or two. The crowd was a little different than at Ultra and drew artists like Billy Talent, K-OS and Stereos. As the party wound down and the sun was coming up we went for breakfast with a bunch of the Much gang at Fran's. A couple of the group who arrived first, informed us upon our arrival, that Girlicious had just left the building. After we ate our burgers, pancakes, eggs and clubhouse sandwiches we parted ways coming to the realization that it was much too bright to be going home to bed. Luckily, we got to sleep in, but many of our new friends and breakfast buddies were going home to freshen up and then head into work. The lucky ones got to grab a couple hours of sleep before guzzling coffee and Red Bull and plopping themselves in front of their computers for the day.

Later on Monday, June 22:

Though the previous night's festivities carried several hours into the start of Monday, we'll consider this the beginning of the day. After sleeping in, despite the stifling Toronto heat and humidity, we took a few of the Much die-hards out for lunch then got the Official Building Tour from Randall. Very interesting to see the various network pods within the building and how small the actual studios are. Caught a glimpse of Ben Mulroney and Tanya Kim delivering the etalk scoop on the previous night's festivities – fortunately none of our antics became newsworthy. A highlight of the tour was when we ventured into the basement of the building to the video library, where there is an archive of every video ever played on Much... never to be used for personal entertainment.

No, Aaron and Russ were not mistaken for any of the Jonas Brothers, but our motley crew was repeatedly asked if we were in a band and this became a running inside joke throughout the weekend. We'll attribute it to Beau's tatts and spiffy hats and the fact that between NXNE and the MMVAs, every second person on the street was probably in a band.

Thanks to Randall Graham and Justin Stockman and all the other Much folks for being such great hosts. It was great to finally meet a lot of the people we work with over the phone and by email on a regular basis.

As a creative boutique, were not that big, but we're more than confident that we can stand up against the best. We just finished working on a spot with MuchMusic to promote Molson Canadian 6.0 Cold Shots' sponsorship of the 2009 MuchMusic Video Awards. The spot is airing now and will undoubtedly be on heavy rotation during the show this Sunday, June 21, so tune in to the MMVAs and you can see some broadcast work we're rather proud of.

It is based on the Cold Shots' tagline, "Small but Strong," and presents that theme in a music-related context. Tying in the sponsor's positioning with the event itself is something that is key to any sponsorship advertising, yet often overlooked. Hard to find a connection? Maybe that sponsorship is not in line with your brand and most likely there is another event that is a better fit and that your core audience will identify with. Yes, you are doing a good thing by supporting various groups and events in need, but there are many opportunities out there where your sponsorship budget can also reinforce your marketing budget.

The 30-second commercial stars our dear friend, Beau Shiminsky from Ear Candy, who wrote and performed the guitar solo (over and over and over). It was directed by JP Rizutto and shot  by Mike Sorrel – who you may recognize from our MuchMoreRetro "Thriller" subscription spot. Gerry Fournier helped out with some special effects that we hope you don't even notice. And finally, thanks to Webber Academy for the use of their drama studio which, through the magic of film, appeared much bigger on-screen than our little stage actually was. This is starting to sound like an MMVA acceptance speech, so we'll stop already before we go all Kanye on you. 

In a related story: Russ and Aaron are about to tackle an intimidating weekend schedule as they head to Toronto for the MMVAs and the frantic festivities that surround the event. Check in next week to see if they survived and whether anyone mistook them for The Jonas Brothers.

Sneaking in before the start of the Stampede rush, Strut hosted a Tiki Party to celebrate our new space. We magically transformed the office into a tropical paradise with palm trees, a tiki bar and audio soundscape of jungle and surf audio loops supplied by Ear Candy. 

Themed appetizers were created by Wade Paterson from Boreal Cuisine and judging by how quickly the food disappeared they were definitely crowd-pleasers. A few of the delectable delights offered were mango and fresh coconut spring rolls, lobster potstickers, kona-glazed pork belly and a special item featuring Hawaii's unofficial dish, Spam – with a twist of course... mesquite-smoked Spam crostini topped with a caramelized pineapple chutney. Yummy.

Our whiteboard board room was adorned with Hawaiian doodles, beachy music filled the air and Hawaii-related video clips were projected on the wall. Our bartender, Pascal, was kept busy serving up Mai Tais, Blue Hawaiians and the very popular Strutini, our signature, brand-coloured, mango martini while the self-serve tubs were filled with icy Molson Cold Shots and the odd Corona thrown in for good measure.

Our 60+ guests appeared to have a great time as the sipped and noshed throughout the evening, with a few stragglers staying late into the night.

As the headline says, thanks to everyone who could make it out to help us celebrate. For those who could not, be sure to pop by for a visit – our door is always open.