Billie Eilish and Apple's 'Share Your Gifts' Wins Grand Clio in Music

DDB's 'The Uncensored Playlist' tops Music Marketing

Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision for Clio Awards/AP Images

Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O'Connell, along with Kobalt Music Group, accepted the Grand Clio for Use of Music at the 60th anniversary Clio Awards on Wednesday for their wonderful collaboration with Apple and TBWA\Media Arts Lab on the 2018 holiday commercial "Share Your Gifts." 

Eilish, 17, and O'Connell, 22, wrote the original track "Come Out and Play" for the three-minute spot, which the Clio Music jurors decided at judging in August was the best use of music in advertising over the past year. 

"Creating that song was the cutest little process," Eilish said on stage while accepting the Grand tophy. "Thank you to Apple for letting us be involved in the most adorable little video. And thank you to the Clios for this—it's very sweet of you." 

O'Connell thanked the slew of partners involved in the project—including Kobalt, Interscope Records, TBWA and Universal Music Publishing—and also thanked "our mom and dad for letting us make this song all night long in our bedroom." 

Jeannette Perez, president of global synch and brand partnerships at Kobalt Music Group, accepted the award with Eilish and O'Connell. 

" 'Share Your Gifts' exemplifies how a great creative vision can be amplified by music," she told Muse. "Finneas and Billie Eilish helped bring Apple's visual creative to life by writing a song that gave emotional context to the story line. As a brand, Apple has proven to be the best at creatively incorporating music into their campaigns and pride themselves at choosing the best music and/or collaborators possible for every project. It makes them a great partner for artists, songwriters, publishers and labels." 

The Use of Music jurors voted unanimously in August to give the Grand to "Share Your Gifts." They applauded the artistry and Apple's willingness to give Eilish and O'Connell creative control of the music. 

"Even coming from a brand like Apple, which has such an illustrious history with music, this one is just undeniably special," said juror Alec Stern, director of music at DDB and We Are Unlimited. "It checks every box imaginable—they got the exact right artist at the exact right time, but its power comes from giving Billie and Finneas the freedom to express this notion of sharing your voice in such an authentic, compelling and heartfelt way. It's the new set of taillights we should all be chasing." 

"It was beautiful piece of music, elegantly helping to tell the story," added juror Rich Robinson, evp of sync and creative services at Warner/Chappell Music. "It works as a lovely standalone piece of music, but completely fit the spot too." 


Music Marketing

The other Grand Clio in the Clio Music competition—for Music Marketing—went to DDB Group GmbH in Germany for "The Uncensored Playlist," a project for Reporters Without Borders that took censored articles by journalists and turned them into songs—which were uploaded to music streaming sites in their respective repressive countries. 

"The Uncensored Playlist was a clear winner because it used music to remind us that—now more than ever—journalists are our rockstars," said Alex Bodman, global executive creative director at Spotify and a member of this year's Music Marketing jury. 


Specialty Awards

Sheryl Crow was honored with the Clio Music Impact Award for her activist work through the years. And Joan Jett accepted the Clio Music Lifetime Achievement Award and performed "Bad Reputation" with some of the Blackhearts. 

"I didn't get into this business to win awards. But I'll take it," Jett said during her acceptance speech. 

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Tim Nudd
Tim Nudd was editor in chief of the Clio Awards and editor of Muse by Clio from 2018 to 2023.

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