2017 Winners

Case Summary
Most Motorcycles in India were sold on mileage alone, and Bajaj was losing to the market leader, Hero, for over a decade. We helped Bajaj to re-invent the Platina, a bike way below its peak to challenge Hero’s mileage proposition, with Bajaj Platina’s ‘Comfort.’ And we told the story using the oldest trick in the book – the side by side demo – with a creative cultural twist. This campaign was quirky yet so effective and delivered the message as well as we had hoped.

Case Summary
As market leader, Intel is maximizing PC chip revenue in China through promotions that cause spurts in PC sales. Our insight nudged emotional drivers to upgrade over the rational urge to let old PCs die. An entertainment partnership with the Warcraft movie was brought to life with original digital content and supported by experiential and in-store activation to convert and shorten the purchase decision journey. This campaign drove an 8.1% increase in PC sales, reversing the 8% decline of 2015.

Case Summary
This is the story of how Huawei, perceived as a Chinese value brand overtook Apple in premium phone sales with its P9 smartphone. Huawei challenged Apple’s photography capabilities even when it had lower purchase desire, contesting the Goliath in its stronghold territory and beating it. With the launch of P9, Huawei revolutionised smartphone photography when the category was becoming jaded with incremental tech changes. Within 3 months of launch, the Huawei P9 campaign generated historically high sales resulting in a sales ROMI of 1:23.

Case Summary
In a bid to build women’s financial strength ANZ bank first needed to address its reputation if it were to engage an audience largely disenfranchised by not just the brand, but the category itself. By provoking the uncomfortable truth of financial gender inequality, ANZ significantly shifted its brand perception and realised growth in female customers ahead of category. Invited to make the opening submission at a Senate Inquiry into the financial gender gap ANZ has had a tangible impact on creating a more equal financial future for Australian women.

Case Summary
Teens ”don’t give a rat’s arse about banks”. Yet for banks, this segment represents a critical entry point. In 2015, rather than trying to impress this audience, ANZ decided to be useful to them. Delivering an above baseline sales result nearly 200% higher than the year prior and a decrease in cost per acquisition of 39%, the ANZ Job Ready campaign has seen ANZ jump from 4th to 2nd in ‘main bank’ rankings amongst this critical youth segment.

Case Summary
NAB is one of 30 sponsors of the AFL, Australia’s homegrown and increasingly corporate football code. In 2016, instead of focusing on the big time, NAB celebrated the grassroots of the sport by creating the Mini Legends, under-12 lookalikes of some of the AFL’s biggest players, and bringing them to life in TV, content, a custom Snapchat filter, and more. In doing so, NAB stood out from the sponsorship clutter and became the most talked about sponsor of the AFL and increased brand consideration.

Case Summary
‘Operation Boomerang’ smashed all targets, becoming MLA’s most successful Lamb campaign ever. Combining insightful strategy with a provocative creative idea and departing from the typical media approach generated phenomenal ‘earned media’ and sent Aussies to their butchers and BBQs in droves. ‘Operation Boomerang’ increased retail Lamb sales by +37%, generated incremental sales uplift of +$12m and ‘Farmers ROI’ of 232%. All this despite reduced budget, sky-high retail prices, the ‘World Health Organization’ labelling red meat “probably carcinogenic” and Australia Day falling on historically the worst day for sales – Tuesday.

Case Summary
Recruiting the elusive Millennial that seemed to care more about chocolate bars being cheap than the story it told? SNICKERS wanted a bite of that challenge. It developed the HUNGERITHM, a hunger-algorithm that monitored the mood of Twitter and priced SNICKERS at 7-Eleven accordingly. The angrier the Internet was, the cheaper SNICKERS became. HUNGERITHM was an engaging and topical way for SNICKERS to talk to Millennial’s, and this ground-breaking partnership with 7-Eleven helped grow the category, increase sales of SNICKERS and reach Millennials. A satisfying result in a stagnating category.

Case Summary
India, a country where noodles aren’t staple food, had been in love with Maggi for 33 years. In 2014, Maggi was voted ‘India’s Most Trusted Food Brand’ .But in May 2015, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) deemed Maggi noodles ‘hazardous for human consumption’,engulf its market share and consumer trust. Courts banned production, sale and advertising of Maggi. his case study demonstrates how Maggi successfully employed crises communication strategies at various touch points to rebuild brand love and consumer trust to win back market share.

Case Summary
New Zealand’s biggest killer is Heart Disease. Scores of New Zealanders die every day because they don’t even know that they’re having a heart attack and fail to get help. The Heart Foundation created their first awareness campaign with the goal of increasing awareness of heart attack symptoms and ambulance calls. But changing behaviour can take years, and we only had two weeks. So instead of lecturing people, we created a simple challenge called The Heart Attack Act. It went global, smashed our objectives, and is still saving lives now.

Case Summary
Stop It At The Start is a rally-cry to all people who influence young Australians, to help break the cycle of violence by encouraging them to reflect on their attitudes, and have conversations about respect with young people. In a few short months, the campaign has started to shift the behavior of over 8 million Australians in a way that aims to help reduce violence against women in future generations.

Case Summary
"This Bike has MS" reached over 24 million people, raised $440,000 for MS treatment and garnered $7M in earned media by putting a disease into a bike. It had symptoms designed into its build and was then ridden at a charity event by an Olympic cyclist, shocking spectators as he struggled to finish the ride. By hiding the debilitating symptoms in a bike, we turned "another" fundraising campaign for a disease that only affects 0.001% of the Australian population into something which started a new conversation around the world.

Case Summary
Flordis, a relatively small natural medicines company approached us to re-launch their newly acquired remedy – Prospan, a kids cough syrup. Prospan was facing increased competition from larger more established players. So we used a combination of big data and programmatic advertising to find a way to specifically target the mums of children who were about to come down with a cough. The activity resulted in a 27% increase in sales by delivering significantly more powerful engagement at a lower cost.

Case Summary
This is the story of a campaign in the holiest month of Islamic calendar – Ramazan. However, Surf Excel’s Philosophy “Dirt is good’ looked out of place in a month of purity. Besides the TV space was crowded with brands focusing on praying, fasting and eating, the outward manifestations of Ramazan. So we delved into the inner meaning of Ramazan and created a campaign that went beyond brand and category to establish an almost spiritual connection with people.

Case Summary
In 2016, the only thing Indian telecom subscribers talked about was 4G, thanks to Airtel’s (Market Leader’s) high decibel campaign. 4G became the criteria to select a network. Vodafone (2nd largest player) responded by shifting the paradigm of evaluation from numbers to quality of network. Vodafone relaunched its improved network as Vodafone SuperNet via a campaign that showed how SuperNet could help people be their best for their loved ones. This helped Vodafone regain leadership in intention to purchase and increased share of broadband subscribers, despite having limited 4G capability

Case Summary
We discovered that ALDI’s extreme brand lovers were pushing the doubters further away. Our switch platform showcased sceptics and lovers side by side, bravely going where no retail brand has gone, revealing barriers and pain points. Our sceptics could run wild with their doubt as long as they went through a series of challenges from blind taste tests to lie detectors. ALDI’s most effective campaign to date delivered 9.8% revenue growth, ROI of 220% and 661k new households shopping ALDI. Sometimes letting the haters hate can turn into something good.

Case Summary
Virtual Reality (VR) reached a tipping point early in 2016. Sales of VR headsets on eBay.com.au jumped 700% year on year (Source: eBay.com.au), it was everywhere at CES in Las Vegas in January, and PSFK predicted it would “make a powerful impact across variety of retail contexts”. Realising the potential of this new retail platform, eBay Australia led the world by launching the world’s first virtual reality department store in May 2016. The campaign ignited conversation around VR in retail and drove significant sales and traffic to the eBay site.

Case Summary
On 11.03.2011 the Great Japanese Earthquake sent shockwaves to the Fukushima nuclear power station. It had seismic effects on Japanese consumers’ attitudes for water. This spelt disaster for Coca Cola’s ilohas brand, whose overnight success from ‘Eco-Crush’ bottle was already showing signs of plateauing - lacking the quality credentials, heralding 3 years of stagnating sales. The ‘Water that loves Water’ campaign reclaimed ilohas’ position as the category’s champion, generating 27.6% in incremental monthly sales vs the pre-campaign period (20% growth in Mineral Water market), to yield a revenue ROMI 228%.

Case Summary
Due to the continued dominance of home-grown Chinese payment systems like China Union Pay and Alipay, outbound tourist spending on VISA cards was supposed to slow down from 10% growth in 2015 to just above 3% in 2016. Through the use of compelling mobile content delivered at the right moments along tourists’ travel journey, ‘The Chase’ reversed the downward trajectory of VISA - propelling the brand to grow 538% faster than all Chinese giant payment systems combined

Case Summary
"This Bike has MS" reached over 24 million people, raised $440,000 for MS treatment and garnered $7M in earned media by putting a disease into a bike. It had symptoms designed into its build and was then ridden at a charity event by an Olympic cyclist, shocking spectators as he struggled to finish the ride. By hiding the debilitating symptoms in a bike, we turned "another" fundraising campaign for a disease that only affects 0.001% of the Australian population into something which started a new conversation around the world.

Case Summary
"This Bike has MS" reached over 24 million people, raised $440,000 for MS treatment and garnered $7M in earned media by putting a disease into a bike. It had symptoms designed into its build and was then ridden at a charity event by an Olympic cyclist, shocking spectators as he struggled to finish the ride. By hiding the debilitating symptoms in a bike, we turned "another" fundraising campaign for a disease that only affects 0.001% of the Australian population into something which started a new conversation around the world.

Case Summary
How do you get people to stop running away from traffic violations? To stop Filipino motorists who were prone to escaping, the Metro Manila Development Authority created a self-policing platform that made them want to turn themselves in. It launched isthereaproblemofficer.com, a website that used humor to attract every motorist, whether they had a violation or not. By dishing out traffic violation advisories that were too funny not to be shared, violations became a source of amusement instead of aggravation.

Case Summary
This is the story of how Huawei, perceived as a Chinese value brand overtook Apple in premium phone sales with its P9 smartphone. Huawei challenged Apple’s photography capabilities even when it had lower purchase desire, contesting the Goliath in its stronghold territory and beating it. With the launch of P9, Huawei revolutionised smartphone photography when the category was becoming jaded with incremental tech changes. Within 3 months of launch, the Huawei P9 campaign generated historically high sales resulting in a sales ROMI of 1:15.

Case Summary
Amnesty International Unblocker is a media partnership between Amnesty, using Ad Blocker’s platform - designed to prohibit messages being presented to a user, to promote freedom of speech through activists Edward Snowden, Ai Wei Wei and Pussy Riot. Our campaign hit 330,000,000 people in 48 hours and saw the highest web traffic in history to Amnesty International’s site.

Case Summary
Recruiting the elusive Millennial that seemed to care more about chocolate bars being cheap than the story it told? SNICKERS wanted a bite of that challenge. It developed the HUNGERITHM, a hunger-algorithm that monitored the mood of Twitter and priced SNICKERS at 7-Eleven accordingly. The angrier the Internet was, the cheaper SNICKERS became. HUNGERITHM was an engaging and topical way for SNICKERS to talk to Millennial’s, and this ground-breaking partnership with 7-Eleven helped grow the category, increase sales of SNICKERS and reach Millennials. A satisfying result in a stagnating category.

Case Summary
In a bid to build women’s financial strength, ANZ created the Equal Future campaign, provoking the uncomfortable truth of gender inequality. Shifting perceptions of the brand, the campaign realised growth in female customers ahead of category, stimulated a national conversation and quantifiably improved the financial futures of ANZ’s own female employees. Impressively, ANZ was invited to make the opening submission at a subsequent Senate Inquiry into the retirement savings gender gap, seeing ANZ’s campaign have the real potential to create a more equal financial future for all Australian women.

Case Summary
HIV is not a death sentence. Early detection and treatment can help people living with HIV lead normal, healthy and productive lives. BUT, Filipinos weren’t getting themselves tested. And HIV-infected people compounded the problem by spreading the virus. The #staynegatHIVe campaign aimed to spread the word, not the virus. Through a simple script, “HIV” typos were created in online articles and sites showing readers that HIV could be part of their story. People themselves spread the word, making 2015 the year with the highest testing rate in Love Yourself’s history.

Case Summary
Every year, Seeing Eye Dogs Australia (SEDA) struggles to find carers for their Seeing Eye Dog puppies. Each puppy needs a home for the first 12-15 months before becoming a Seeing Eye Dog. Rather than SEDA endeavoring to find a new batch of dedicated carers every year, we found a way for people to commit to fostering puppies. We created the first puppy subscription service, Free Puppies Forever. We found enough puppy carers for 2016’s litter, but incredibly, we created a waiting list that can hopefully solve the problem forever.

Case Summary
The Myer Give Registry is an innovative Corporate Giving initiative that’s driving significant retail return. In a world where Corporate Giving and CSR are ‘in vogue’, the Give Registry is a best-practise case study for how to deliver big brand impact, drive incremental sales and make a genuine difference without breaking the bank. It’s creatively brave, emotionally engaging, delivered increased store-visitation, increased average spend-per-customer and drove a host of reputational benefits. It captured the imagination of customers and employees, and leaves a lasting legacy in the fight against Family Violence.

Case Summary
Bullying has moved from schoolyards to social media, but kids don’t realize the effect their words can have. We created Reword, the first real-time online bullying alert. Using a red strikethrough to prompt young people to reconsider abusive language, Reword teaches them to self-regulate hurtful comments before hitting send. Within six weeks, Reword was installed on 150,000+ computers; 84% of insults were reworded; and most significantly, we saw a 67% reduction in bullying behaviour per user. With Reword, we’re educating kids to respect each other online and in real life.

Case Summary
This public awareness campaign on palliative care for IAPC was the association’s biggest step ever to ensure palliative care access in India rises from the current 1%. Using real last words heard by >200 nurses to raise awareness and build consideration with consumers and doctors in a market where talking about death is taboo; trending #3 all-India on Twitter and generating over 100 million impressions, 5 million organic video views, thousands of personal last words heard by our audience, and 120,000USD of earned media – all with a 29,000USD budget

Case Summary
This is a story of how Maybelline disrupted conventional cosmetic product advertising by cleverly demonstrating the efficacy and finish of our new Dream Velvet foundation, without needing to say a single word. By tapping into young Singaporean women’s obsession with Snapchat selfies, we positioned our new foundation as a real life Snapchat filter, gaining instantaneous resonance with our audience. As a result, we successfully broke through clutter, with our launch video reaching 1,096,031 unique audiences, equivalent to 23.5% of Singapore’s digital population, due to the many video engagement and shares.

Case Summary
NAB is one of 30 sponsors of the AFL, Australia’s homegrown and increasingly corporate football code. In 2016, instead of focusing on the big time, NAB celebrated the grassroots of the sport by creating the Mini Legends, under-12 lookalikes of some of the AFL’s biggest players, and bringing them to life in TV, content, a custom Snapchat filter, and more. In doing so, NAB stood out from the sponsorship clutter and became the most talked about sponsor of the AFL and increased brand consideration.

Case Summary
Brooke Bond Red Label, once the market leader lost its thunder to Tata Tea Premium in the mid 90’s and despite all efforts wasn’t able to regain it. Our challenge was to stop consumers from downgrading to cheaper teas by becoming the ‘most often used brand’ in their repertoire despite our price premium. Our culturally insightful campaign ‘Hospitality that melts hostility’ with socially relevant messages resonated with consumers, thus creating brand salience and helping us regain lost leadership & growing faster than the category.