A total of 15 gold, 20 silver and 18 bronze awards were handed out on the night hosted by committee chair and global CEO of Ogilvy PR Worldwide Chris Graves.
Clemenger BBDO Proximity Melbourne won the coveted Platinum award in addition to a further six awards for its 'How hiding a restaurant proved that Yellow Pages worked better than ever' for Yellow Pages Australia. The campaign won gold in the Best integrated marketing campaign, Most innovative use of media and Best idea categories.
Speaking at the judges feedback session, Rob Campbell, regional head of strategy at Wieden & Kennedy, said, “We’ve got to make sure we can quantify effectiveness in the right way. It’s not just about sales. Clients are paying money to enhance their brands and build future strength. Anyone can achieve sales, but unless you can quantify against a longer-term vision as opposed to a campaign vision then it doesn’t deserve Platinum.”
Other big winners on the night were Lowe Asia-Pacific with six awards including four silver, one gold and one bronze. The agency took home two silver, a bronze and a gold award for its 'Say it with kids' and 'Bad timing' campaigns for Unilever Vietnam. A further two silver awards went to 'Paddle pop hits the world' for Unilever Indonesia and 'Citizen coffee' for Nestle Vietnam.
In a strong night for India, Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai won six awards across six different clients and BBDO India four, including two bronze, one gold and one silver, for its 'Women against lazy stubble' campaign for P&G. The former won three gold awards for Vodafone Essar's 'Blackberry boys', Kraft Cadbury's 'How we sold chocolate bars equaling more than 2.5 times the Great Wall' and human rights organisation Breakthrough's 'How ringing the bell can reduce violence against women'. The agency took home a further two silver awards for Bajaj Auto's 'Pulsar & Stunting: Creating India's best selling sports bike' and Unilever India's 'Dove - Damage expert'.
Another notable gold winner on the night was MEC Beijing and its 'Smart: From buzz to buy' initiative for Mercedes Benz, winning gold in both the Most effective use of direct marketing and Most effective use of interactive marketing categories.
Click here for the full list of winners.
The Asian Marketing Effectiveness Festival took place on 12 and 13 May at the Pudong Shangri-La in Shanghai. Close to 400 delegates were in attendance for the first day of sessions which focused on marketing insights from around the world. McCann Worldgroup's Dave McCaughan kicked off day two with a talk on changes in Japan since the earthquake. McCaughan drew on research to show that encouragingly, while a greater sense of caution has entered the public mindset, the overall sentiment points to a relatively fast recovery. Catch more highlights from the Festival in Campaign's selection of galleries.