2021 Winners

Case Summary

This paper details how Huggies used its position as an authority in parenting to take aim at the horrendous issue of ‘mum-shaming’ within culture and social media. By taking a stance against the atrocious behaviour and reminding people that there’s no shame in being a parent, Huggies' positive approach to marketing delivered three consecutive quarters of sales growth, putting an end to their long-term sales decline.

Case Summary

A JOINT STATEMENT TO FREE JOB-HUNTING HAIR IN THE NEW ERA. With the power of cultural conversations, Pantene liberates job-hunters who were forced to conform to hair rules in Japan. The brand led the Joint Statement to free job-hunting hair with 139 major companies and organizations, including the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. This activation was featured on 166 media platforms, earning 1.2 billion impressions and 2.3 million social engagements. But most importantly, we observed that many job-hunters embraced the freedom to express themselves through hair and were accepted by the companies.

Case Summary

Apple customers are loyal. But despite “Mac-heads” making up 80% of the Premium PC segment, the tide was turning. Apple had stopped listening to what its audience wanted. HP had a way in. But with Apple perceived as ‘cool’ and HP as ‘corporate’, we had a job to do to revitalise brand perception. To show HP tech in a new light, we created a short-form content series, counselling our “Mac-wobblers” to move to HP. For extra disruption, Susan Bennett, the real voice of Apple’s Siri, played a starring role. It worked.

Case Summary

Our challenge was to sell the S20, Samsung’s most expensive S series phone ever, at a time when excitement around new phone launches was dwindling. Like all major Samsung launches, price, product, placement and promotion were all directed by global HQ playbooks. Using an ancillary budget of 300k, we created an immersive product demonstration by hiding Microcodes inside the global creative and challenging audiences to find them. We’ve isolated the effects of Microcodes within the broader media mix and demonstrated that a tiny idea generated gigantic results: an incremental $3.49m.

Case Summary

The average NZ home has over $116,149 worth of contents in it. But 45% of Kiwis don’t believe they have enough stuff to warrant insurance. To help ‘too busy’ Kiwis get a better idea of how much their stuff is worth, we created a ‘reality checker’ tool called Tally. Tally uses a custom data set that generates accurate average values to help people understand the true value of their stuff. State saw the highest contents insurance sales of 2020, with Tally users being 6x more likely to get a quote.

Case Summary

This is a classic case of a large brand facing the challenge of either being relevant to all or taking sides and risking business. Shan Foods took the visionary route to future-proof its business. While women emancipation may be taken for granted in the world, having perfect culinary skills is still the only yardstick to measure a woman’s true worth in Pakistan. Shan, a culinary brand, risked its existence by challenging society to celebrate a woman’s worth outside the kitchen. Consequently it led volume share by +8% and lifted brand differentiation by +24%.

Case Summary

A new initiative with a micro-budget set out to mobilise dismally participating overseas Kiwi voters—who believed their vote didn’t matter and that it wasn’t any of their business—in New Zealand’s 2020 Election. Every Kiwi Vote Counts enlisted a Russian national to wake them up to their collective influence and incite them to MEDDLE IN THE NEW ZEALAND ELECTION. The provocative and cut-through ‘Meddler’ social campaign helped drive the largest overseas voter turnout in history, a 42% increase in overseas resident voters and a disproportionate shift in Australia.

Case Summary

Against a backdrop of falling donations and economic turbulence, we faced a big challenge: to deliver a stream of new, predictable revenue for Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation (SCHF). We found a dramatic new insight to spearhead our cause: to cure the homesickness suffered by all kids in hospitals. We developed a fundraising initiative involving children’s hospital charities that included the co-creation of an entirely new brand: Coles Mum’s Sause. In the process, we’ve created a new, long-term, sustainable and accessible revenue stream to help participating hospitals.

Case Summary

For Whitelion to continue to rehabilitate at-risk youth, they needed to drive donations during 2020. However, with the worst bushfire season since 1938, COVID-19 at our shores and the worst unemployment rates in decades, Australia's generosity was understandably hindered. In light of this, we needed to change Whitelion's traditional approach to fundraising—so we pitched to a myriad of household brands, asking for them to donate their “home address" for 24 hours, re-skinning it to become a donations portal for Whitelion.

Case Summary

This is the story of how Bonds, Australia’s most famous underwear brand, overcame girls’ extreme menstrual shame to get them literally singing out loud about their periods. For the launch of their period underwear, Bonds tapped 6 of Australia’s rising music stars to create Unplugged, the world’s first acoustic album written about periods by women on theirs. Through this innovative approach, Bloody Comfy Period Undies brought period underwear into the mainstream, sent sales skyrocketing, and got girls seeing their periods as a source of strength, not shame.

Case Summary

ALDI's fresh produce is too cheap to be good.” said the doubters due to ALDI’s historic perception as a ‘discount’ supermarket combined with its German heritage. To increase penetration and consideration, we had to prove that ALDI’s fruit, veg and meat came from the same Aussie farms as the big Aussie supermarkets. The Fresh Migration is a ‘Good Different’ provenance story that challenges the category convention of showing earnest farmers. We hero-ed flying bananas instead! We beat targets for fresh sales, consideration and quality perceptions, maintaining our low price credentials.

Case Summary

Tourism New Zealand has been selling brand-NZ to the world since 1906. However, with COVID-19, NZ quickly closed its borders to keep the country safe. With borders closed, and no tourists entering, Tourism New Zealand needed to ensure that NZ’s 480,000 tourism workforce weren’t put out of business. So they pivoted, and for the first time in 30 years advertised to New Zealanders. We successfully convinced Kiwis to stop holidaying like locals (constantly returning to the same place), and instead act like international tourists who are constantly trying to do something new.

Case Summary

New Zealand’s closest neighbour—Australia, is NZ’s single most important tourism market and the largest contributor of annual international visitors. But by 2019, visitors from Australia had plateaued. TNZ’s “100% Pure New Zealand” campaign was no longer 100% effective. Our approach needed reinvigoration. Our Good Morning World global campaign returned the brand to growth in Australia, delivering an immediate, short-term ROMI of 13:1 and did so with an ambitious gesture of welcome and an idea that was as hardworking and pragmatic as it was creative and original.

Case Summary

Skinny didn’t have a massive marketing budget. But they did have an army of customers who loved them. Considering that word-of-mouth is 92% more effective than advertising, we attempted to reach every Kiwi by casting our customers in ads targeting people they knew. We asked heaps of them to star in their own campaigns, imploring their friends and family to join them on Skinny. Then we handed over our media budget, enabling each spokesperson to reach their friends, family, workmates and acquaintances.

Case Summary

IKEA is known for its furnishing inspirations and gallery-style display and brings an element of imagination into one's shopping experience. However, enhancing quality perception is a huge challenge with the stereotype of its low-price and fast furniture image. To upend consumer's expectation, we allowed them to experience solutions with more inspirations in real life by designing a series of experiential activities by cooperating with an existing hotel, and creating unique recommendations for IKEA solutions for every family. And this managed to increase double-digit growth on store visitation, sales, and quality perception.

Case Summary

NRMA Insurance’s brand had lost its way. After rediscovering its true essence of Help, the brand, which was known for automotives, still needed to turn around a home insurance business which was in multi-year decline. By protecting the homes of Australia’s iconic koalas, NRMA Insurance successfully created new and distinctive brand assets, and resulted in +$96M in brand value. The revitalised brand delivered sales, doubling targets with 10,912 incremental policies, and an incremental profit of $27.53M at a ROI of 382%. It was NRMA Insurance’s most successful home insurance campaign ever.

Case Summary

This paper details how Huggies used its position as an authority in parenting to take aim at the horrendous issue of ‘mum-shaming’ within culture and social media. By taking a stance against the atrocious behaviour and reminding people that there’s no shame in being a parent, Huggies' positive approach to marketing delivered three consecutive quarters of sales growth, putting an end to their long-term sales decline.

Case Summary

A JOINT STATEMENT TO FREE JOB-HUNTING HAIR IN THE NEW ERA. With the power of cultural conversations, Pantene liberates job-hunters who were forced to conform to hair rules in Japan. The brand led the Joint Statement to free job-hunting hair with 139 major companies and organizations, including the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. This activation was featured on 166 media platforms, earning 1.2 billion impressions and 2.3 million social engagements. But most importantly, we observed that many job-hunters embraced the freedom to express themselves through hair and were accepted by the companies.

Case Summary

A JOINT STATEMENT TO FREE JOB-HUNTING HAIR IN THE NEW ERA. With the power of cultural conversations, Pantene liberates job-hunters who were forced to conform to hair rules in Japan. The brand led the Joint Statement to free job-hunting hair with 139 major companies and organizations, including the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. This activation was featured on 166 media platforms, earning 1.2 billion impressions and 2.3 million social engagements. But most importantly, we observed that many job-hunters embraced the freedom to express themselves through hair and were accepted by the companies.

Case Summary

Covid-19 caused some businesses to down-size—for Tourism New Zealand, they had to change their whole business model. With national borders closing, seeing no tourists entering NZ, Tourism New Zealand needed to ensure that NZ’s 480,000 tourism workforce weren’t put out of business. So Tourism NZ pivoted, and for the first time in over 30 years advertised to New Zealanders. We successfully convinced New Zealanders to stop holidaying like a local and returning to the same place, and instead act more like international tourists who are constantly trying to do something new.

Case Summary

When COVID forced lockdowns around the world, and travel became impossible, airlines were grounded, and most were forced to eliminate staff. Working with Thai Airways, we launched Destination Menu. A new service that transformed the airline's catering function into a food delivery provider with dishes inspired by destinations around the world. Grossing $600k USD+ per month and keeping over 2,200 people employed, Destination Menu was an idea born from crisis, but which continues to deliver meals and salaries today and into the future.

Case Summary

2020 was a watershed year for the lifesaving act of handwashing and an opportunity for Dettol to drive both business and societal impact fast and at scale. Through the use of memorable lyrics and music, the power of influencers and a strategic partnership with TikTok, the brand launched a Handwashing challenge that focused on not just washing hands, but doing it the right away, and most importantly for the right duration. This campaign was able to disseminate the message to a mass unimagined—clocking more than 125 billion views.

Case Summary

This is a story about how you should always reach higher, even when you think you've reached your peak. For the very first time in 2020, Lotto's annual 'Imagine' brand campaign went a step further than previous campaigns to bring viewers closer to the thrill of winning Lotto. Future-proofing the longevity of Lotto, while retaining the spirit of what makes Lotto so special to Kiwis. Marking a new chapter for a much-loved brand. And in doing so, increasing the amount of money Lotto could give back to NZ communities.

Case Summary

Over 33% of Bangladesh’s population are financial outcasts and most of them are farmers. They live off the land, without the ability to access credit or savings and are stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty due to the unfairness caused by middlemen. Now, inequality and poverty are often accepted as age-old parts of society—impossible to change, but Project AgroBanking challenged that and paved the way to break this cycle by disrupting the typical banking model and turning fresh produce and vegetables into bank accounts.

Case Summary

Just 2 years ago, Menulog was a desktop-based business, with computers representing 70%+ of order take. But as young people embraced their phones as an extension of their lives — there was a danger that we would be permanently trapped in the dark ages. We needed to transform the business to being App-first, and fast. Our imperative: To seize fingertips, displacing Menulog’s previously uncontested rival, UberEats, by capturing their inner-city youth stronghold. We created the TikTok #DeliveryDance Challenge, garnering 10.4 million views during the 2-week campaign period, with spectacular growth.

Case Summary

To reverse a worrying trend of declining youth appeal and sales, The Coca-Cola Galactic Bottle campaign engineered an epic cultural crossover between Star Wars and Coca-Cola. Our innovation—the world's first light-up PET bottle instantly became a pop culture sensation and a must-have collectible for the Singaporean youth. The integrated campaign triggered an avalanche of organic Coke-branded Star Wars coverage and conversations—briefly making Singapore the center of the Star Wars universe. Even Lucasfilm’s President Kathleen Kennedy singled out our campaign as a “best-in-class example of a brand partnership use of [our] assets".

Case Summary

People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it - Simon Sinek. India is a country where diversity co-exists with discrimination, making it a breeding ground for a lot of societal stigmas. This is the story of Red Label, a tea brand who made tea common ground for togetherness by debunking the ostracism that exists around. With consistent purpose-led messaging throughout the past decade, it kept strengthening its equity in the minds of consumers, making Red Label the no. 1 tea brand in India.

Case Summary

This is ALDI Australia‘s coming of age story. The story of how a German supermarket grew out of being a “discount supermarket” to become the nation’s most trusted supermarket brand in Australia. Three years in a row. After 15 years of category-defying growth, ALDI’s success wobbled. To grow, it had to grow up to become a legitimate supermarket. So, over the last three years ALDI unapologetically embraced its difference. ‘Good Different’, a long idea that has served as its compass in business, marketing and beyond, generating a huge ROI.

Case Summary

A mental health crisis is engulfing our Kiwi men. Anxiety, depression and suicide are hitting record highs. Movember needed to help but was itself in crisis: Lost in NZ’s cluttered charity market with engagement and donations at all-time lows. But armed with a new strategy and disruptive new campaigns, we set out to “regrow the Mo”. Today the Mo’ is back, bigger and bushier than ever: setting donation records every year, cleaning up in effectiveness, and helping save the lives of men.