A DONKEY called Truffles was the face behind Wallace Barnaby’s award-winning Island Games advertising campaign. The local company made his face fit the human bodies of athletes in action to make a series of attention-grabbing images.

Art director Joseph Smith said that it tried to create something memorable in a way that was fun for everyone.

‘We tried to come up with an idea to get Guernsey people behind the Island Games. The donkey has always been an icon and we wanted to make it the main focus of the campaign. We felt it was something that the general public would get into.’

Truffles, who belongs to Mr Smith’s neighbours, Sue and Barry Vaudin, featured in 10 different adverts. As well as appearing in the Guernsey Press, the ads took the form of 20-foot posters at prominent sites around the island.

Mr Smith and photographer Tim Langlois knew exactly what shots they needed to fit their pictures of sportspeople in action and the images were put together digitally in post-production.

The combination of technology and creativity took first place in the newspaper category of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Awards earlier this year. Wallace Barnaby had also entered its Drugline campaign into the section, in which it was up against Hamilton Brooke’s Norman Piette entry and The Partnership’s work for Activhair.

Judges said that the Island Games campaign ‘simply ﾓnailed the briefﾔ and had strong marketing initiatives and ambitious ideas that worked’.

‘It was a successful campaign that united the local community and visiting competitors. A key word for the two weeks was fun,’ said the judges.

Mr Smith said that working on the campaign was great fun.

‘It was amazing to be able to really touch people and do something which we knew so many Guernsey people could relate to and have a laugh about,’ said Mr Smith.

He said that it was a team effort between him, creative director Ian Langlois, photographer Tim Langlois and copywriter Chris Le Poidevin.

They were all ‘really chuffed’ to win the award, he said. ‘What really pleased us was that the industry had never come together before as a whole. To be first on stage to receive an award was really special. We were not expecting it and it makes it really worthwhile.’