Mobile advertising from Asia honored in GSMA Global Mobile Awards 2013

The winners were presented on Tuesday at the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2013, the world's largest mobile phone trade show, held in Barcelona from 25 to 28 February.

The Global Mobile Awards recognise and celebrate all the contributions made to the ever-evolving and developing mobile industry. This year, more than 600 entries and nominations competed for the 37 awards, which were judged by a panel of independent experts, analysts, journalists, academics and, in some cases, mobile operator representatives.

The Chok! Chok! Chok! app also won Most Innovative Mobile App award this year.

In the campaign, Coca-Cola Hong Kong transformed the traditional TV experience for the digital age with a smartphone app that let teens catch tumbling bottle caps straight from the TV screen to win instant prizes.

According to the agency, 400,000 downloaded the app in six weeks and 9 million people saw the TV spot. The campaign has scored numerous awards internationally and regionally since it launched in summer 2011, including Cannes 2012, AME 2012, MMA 2011, Campaign's Digital Media Awards 2011 and the Hong Kong Effies in 2012.

Several other Asian brands or work won awards at Tuesday's ceremony.

NTT Docomo for Hanashite Hon’yaku, billed as the world’s first automatic voice translation service, won the Best Network Product or Solution for Serving Customers award. The service provides simple, convenient and high-quality automatic interpretation without expensive fees.

The Best Use of Mobile in Emergency or Humanitarian Situations award was given to Vodafone Foundation’s Vodafone Instant Network. The technology has been deployed in several emergency situation, including, in 2012, the Philippines after Typhoon Bopha.

Etisalat, Qualcomm, D-Tree International and Great Connection won the Green Mobile award for "Mobile Baby project” from Indus Towers. The project aimed to reduce or eliminate the use of diesel generators for power backup of network infrastructure in India.

Ver Se Innovation for NewsHunt won the Best Mobile Publishing Product or Service award. NewsHunt is billed as India’s No.1 mobile newspaper app, which brings together news and best jobs from more than 85 regional newspapers and has 20 million users.

Comviva for Mahindra Comviva’s mobiquity MFS platform powering mTicketing service for Bangladesh Railways won the Best Consumer Mobile Service award. The service enables Bangladesh Railways to digitise ticketing transactions.

Samsung was the biggest winner among brands at the awards, winning Best Smartphone for its Galaxy S3 and Device Manufacturer of the Year, while Samsung Electronics for Smart LTE Networks won Best Mobile Infrastructure and Outstanding Overall Mobile Technology – The CTO’s choice.