2026 Winners

Case Summary

KERI NZ HAD AN ORANGE JUICE SHORTAGE. SO IT MADE A HIT COMEDY MUSIC VIDEO ABOUT 'PULP FRICTION'. Instead of panicking over a product flaw, we created entertainment that sparked a national debate. The video achieved an 87.6% VTR on YouTube, boosting brand attention by 67%. This entertainment-first approach solved a tough business problem, driving a 22% revenue increase and proving great content moves product.

Case Summary

How do you accelerate growth with only 1/4 of your competitors’ distribution strength? By changing the category paradigm—from insuring against death to stress.With financially-stressed Singaporeans worried about rising cost-of-living, Income reframed life insurance as a powerful savings tool by positioning Gro Cash Series’ capital guarantee as a solution to financial stress.Brought to life through Max, ‘the disgruntled, redundant stress ball’, the metaphor made a complex benefit tangible, driving sustained effectiveness over three years—delivering +947% sales growth, contributing 47% of life insurance growth, increasing +471% customer acquisition.

Case Summary

This story shows how a telco reclaimed its reason for being. In a category obsessed with speed, coverage and deals, the true heart of telco — connection — sat unclaimed. After leaving Vodafone, One NZ looked local, but felt unfinished. A name without a narrative. “Let’s Get Connected” changed that. Not a campaign, but an organising idea that redefined One NZ’s role in people’s lives. By emotionally owning connection, One NZ turned brand into strategy — restoring meaning, momentum, and competitive power in a commoditised telco market.

Case Summary

McDonald’s China needed to break a 30-year chicken autopilot where “KFC” acted like the category shortcut. With fewer stores and less default salience, we couldn’t win by shouting “better chicken”. We introduced CFC, meaning Cage-Free Chicken, turning McDonald’s 100% cage-free sourcing into a rival-looking acronym that interrupted habit at the exact moment of choice. The launch drove 1.5B+ impressions, pulled in 400+ brands, lifted craving +10.6pts, raised favorability +9pts, closed the taste gap by 4 points, and delivered a record 12.1% chicken share.

Case Summary

Flipkart is the market leader in e-commerce in India, yet Amazon’s disproportionate "Prime Day" spends over years conditioned consumers to shop on Amazon during summer sale season. To outsmart their 5x budget, we decoded a cultural "national sport": Tol-mol (bargaining). Our "Flippin Amazin" campaign digitized this instinct, inviting users to share Amazon’s ads for an instant better deal. By hijacking their media spend as our lead-gen engine, we gained 3PP market share, saw a 24% GMV surge, and a 25.4% visitor spike—proving cultural agility can defeat big media budgets.

Case Summary

When the world started travelling again, Hong Kong was left behind. Travellers dismissed it as small and "already done". For Cathay, this perception gap was costing real revenue. To overcome this, we turned its small size into its sharpest selling point. "Hong Kong: The Most Fun Per KM²" reframed density as richness, proving that shorter journeys deliver deeper experiences. Brought to life through a social-first approach, the campaign reignited travel interest and drove business results: +42% ticket sales and +37% revenue growth on flights to Hong Kong from Southeast Asia.

Case Summary

Japan is admired for its healthy food culture, yet one in three people are malnourished and fruit intake is the world’s lowest. Zespri couldn’t lecture as a foreign brand, so it worked within culture. Fruit was long seen as dessert (“mizugashi”), not daily nutrition, reinforced by the beloved bento song “Obentō-bako no Uta,” which never mentions fruit.Zespri rewrote the song to include kiwi, embedding fruit into a ritual. The idea spread nationwide, driving trial, and record sales. By changing culture, the brand turned a small habit into lasting behaviour change.

Case Summary

Millions of Indians were denied access to organised credit. Not for lack of repayment capability-but for lack of documents. Piramal made it easier to avail loans with fewer documents. Problem solved? Not quite. Many still didn’t come. Rejection had become an expectation. Hence, ASKING meant trading away their self-respect. The problem wasn’t just access. It was the power dynamic. Piramal Finance addressed it by saying-'AAIYE, BAAT KARTE HAI.'(Come, let’s talk) A simple invitation. Told millions they were worthy. THE RESULT-CONSIDERATION INCREASED BY 69%, 1.75MN CUSTOMERS ONBOARDED, DISBURSALS INCREASED BY 20%.

Case Summary

Herpes education had long been treated as information to endure, not content to choose. To break stigma, the New Zealand Herpes Foundation built entertainment, not advertising. Make New Zealand the Best Place in the World to Have Herpes took the form of a five-part destigmatisation course blending humour, cultural pride and credible voices into something people actively watched and shared. By turning medical fact into culturally compelling content, the campaign drove voluntary engagement at national scale and delivered a verified population-level shift in perceived support.

Case Summary

During post‐pandemic recovery, Shanghai’s small street bars re‐emerged as a vibrant, fast‐growing channel accounting for significant Hoegaarden growth. In early 2025, new municipal safety barriers unintentionally suffocated this culture, reducing atmosphere, visibility, foot traffic and sales at core venues. Rather than advertise around the problem, Hoegaarden rebuilt the experience, transforming mandatory barriers into warm, compliant extensions where people could sit, gather and unwind. Delivered as a free ongoing service via a B2B app, 70% of bars opted in, reversing decline: foot traffic rose 84% and sales grew 36%.

Case Summary

Facing a retail slump and "anniversary apathy," a self- congratulatory 50th birthday risked alienating consumers. "i’m lovin’ 50" pivoted our strategy from celebrating a corporate milestone to celebrating the shared culture between the McDonald's brand and the city of Hong Kong over five decades. Through a year-long ecosystem of shared footprints, memories, soundtrack, and flavours, we honored our five-decade relationship with Hong Kong. This cemented McDonald's as part of the city's social fabric, surging corporate trust and driving annual sales growth, completely defying the market decline.

Case Summary

Spend on road safety increased year after year, yet driving behaviours worsened. Fatalities rose, risky habits became normalised and decades of fines and fear-based enforcement failed to create lasting change. The traditional playbook wasn’t working. The system punished behaviour but didn’t improve it. AAMI shifted from enforcement to engagement, creating a data driven initiative that gamified safe driving and turned road safety into a national sport. The result was measurable behaviour change, repositioning AAMI from policy provider to road safety champion and proving marketing can deliver meaningful social impact.

Case Summary

For decades, Thailand has been full of rejectors—pukers of Essence of Chicken. Scotch aimed to drive trial of its new launch, Scotch Smartz, by recruiting these pukers and leveraging their shared hate. But instead of criticizing it, they praised it. Their authentic love and surprise ignited nationwide desire. The campaign recruited 4,500 pukers— 800% above target—generated 2 million baht in earned social media value, and drove sales up 64%. Scotch Smartz turned a long-rejected product into one people finally wanted to try.

Case Summary

McDonald’s China needed to break a 30-year chicken autopilot where “KFC” acted like the category shortcut. With fewer stores and less default salience, we couldn’t win by shouting “better chicken”. We introduced CFC, meaning Cage-Free Chicken, turning McDonald’s 100% cage-free sourcing into a rival-looking acronym that interrupted habit at the exact moment of choice. The launch drove 1.5B+ impressions, pulled in 400+ brands, lifted craving +10.6pts, raised favorability +9pts, closed the taste gap by 4 points, and delivered a record 12.1% chicken share.

Case Summary

Wimbledon 2025 was no ordinary year. Alex Eala, a Nike athlete, became the first Filipina ever to qualify. For Nike, it was a chance to turn global attention into a deeper connection with Filipinos. In 14 days, Nike created a white hair tie inspired by the Sampaguita, the Philippines’ national flower symbolising hard work that blooms. The gesture deepened national pride in Philippines, rallying a basketball-obsessed country behind a tennis star, making Nike the most talked-about sports brand and the Sampaguita product line into the best-selling one yet.

Case Summary

For decades, herpes stigma in New Zealand drove shame, silence and measurable mental distress, resisting education alone. The New Zealand Herpes Foundation called it the impossible brief - get a nation to talk about herpes without fear or embarrassment. Make New Zealand the Best Place in the World to Have Herpes reframed stigma as a collective national mission, turning a punchline into a point of pride. In seven weeks, it delivered a verified population-level shift in perceived support and unprecedented public participation, delivering outsized impact relative to spend.

Case Summary

Despite being New Zealand’s largest supplements brand, Healtheries was struggling to grow in the sleep segment, where being perceived as modern and effective mattered most. In a heavily regulated category where we cannot claim or imply product benefits, we couldn’t rely on traditional advertising to message our way into sleep. We launched a social first campaign Sleep vs Sloth that challenged New Zealand’s best sleeper to out-sleep a sloth. We delivered engagement well above our benchmark, improved modernity and efficacy perceptions, and contributed to sales uplift across the total Insomnia.

Case Summary

For generations, Thai youth condemned Essence of Chicken as ‘awful’, with recommendation rates as low as 19%. We knew ads wouldn't work against this deep-seated social bias. Our strategy was to turn the loudest online "rejectors - puker" into our most “influential advocates”. An unscripted social experiment revealed their genuine shock and delight, sparking a firestorm of curiosity. This social-first idea didn’t just change minds; it doubled recommendations, grew sales by 64%, and generated 2 million baht in earned social media value.

Case Summary

Disrespected. Mistreated. Deemed unworthy by the credit industry due to lack of documents. Budget India, asked a simple question: “Have documents ever stopped anyone from defaulting?” A rhetoric that didn’t seek an answer, but pointed to a potent truth-IT IS ‘NEEYAT’ (CHARACTER AND INTENT) AND NOT DOCUMENTS, THAT REPAYS LOANS. A revelation, that inspired us to champion a human virtue - ‘Neeyat’, in an industry where documents reigned supreme. Our work-increased consideration by 25pp. Added 4.4mn+ customers. Increased disbursals by 105%. And more importantly, empowered budget India to access credit with respect.

Case Summary

MasterFoods needed to future proof the brand and ensure relevance for the next generation. As Australia’s #1 tomato sauce, a timely cultural opportunity was identified: the Australian Federal Election. By rebranding as ‘Democracy Sauce’ and hijacking the uniquely Australian ‘democracy sausage’ ritual, we playfully embedded our brand in the national conversation. This culture-first strategy generated massive earned attention, improved brand perception, and grew household penetration by +2.1pts (+0.6 pts with U40s), proving an iconic brand can be successfully reinvented for a new generation.