2022 Winners

Case Summary

FEATURING TWO TRANSGENDER JOB-SEEKERS AS ROLE MODELS, PANTENE IGNITED A CULTURAL CONVERSATION FOR A MORE LGBTQ FRIENDLY SOCIETY. “As a male or female, which gender should I present myself while job-hunting?” – while most job-seekers worry about their career path, LGBTQ candidates also have to worry about their gender. In the country where uniformity and conformity are considered virtues, LGBTQ job-seekers are ignored by society. By featuring two successful transgender job-seekers as role models, Pantene not only inspired future LGBTQ job-seekers, but also motivated Japanese companies to become more LGBTQ-friendly.

Case Summary

Many people are still hesitant to try online grocery deliveries simply because they don't trust someone else to pick their fruits, vegetables and meats on their behalf. The solution? Position GrabMart shoppers as Thailand's choosiest grocery pickers - even more choosy about picking produce than they are in picking a life partner.

Case Summary

Victorian farmers represent 3% of the workforce, but approximately 30% of all workplace deaths. This incredibly dangerous industry is highly resistant to change with only 39% of Victoria farmers believing that safety is a priority for them. This culture change campaign focusses on the hardest to engage audience – family farmers who believed they were bulletproof and didn’t need to be told what to do. The campaign has started a 5-year culture change within the industry and has seen dramatic changes in how farmers see their role in workplace safety.

Case Summary

Australian insurance customers had become conditioned to look for the lowest priced quote and switch until they found it. AAMI was being bypassed by migrating high value customers on their way to cheaper insurance – it was stuck in the mucky middle. The AAMI Does campaign reframed AAMI’s value equation and created an off-ramp for switchers. It reversed five years of market share decline and stole back category leadership from NRMA. It shows us you don’t have to be stuck in the middle; you can win from the middle.

Case Summary

Most product innovations are designed to LEAD the user. Very rarely do tech companies stop to LEARN how users are creatively using our tech in unexpected ways. This Effie case is inspired entirely by Grab users creatively lifehacking our app in a way we never expected. We noticed an odd trend during the pandemic: ordinary users were "hacking" GrabFood and GrabMart deliveries platform to send on-demand gifts to friends and families living in other countries and cities. This "hack" inspired us to create a new 100+ cities Intercity Gifting

Case Summary

After decades of discount prices & package deals, Fantastic Furniture had a problem, with 64% of consumers seeing them as poor quality and cheap. Even their own customers referred to them as ‘plastic fantastic’. We needed to stop Aussies from being ashamed of buying Fantastic Furniture. Our campaign proved that with everyday low-prices and on-style furniture, Fantastic enriches Aussie homes, allowing life's precious moments to play out to the backdrop of our furniture. We turned shame to fame, grew consideration, smashed our targets and saved the brand from devalued disaster.

Case Summary

This is a case about how a native Indian cola brand, Thums Up, went against all odds to become a market leader at a time when COVID-19 tore through the carbonated beverage industry. The secret to Thums Up’s success was an outcome of the brand’s courage to overturn traditional cola marketing conventions on their head. Instead of delighting the over-delighted urban youth, Thums Up went all out to appeal to the upcountry Indian youth. The efforts led to a 56.91% increase in Quarterly sales compared to the corresponding pre-pandemic quarter

Case Summary

#CHANGEDESTINY is at the heart of the SK-II brand philosophy that celebrates how destiny is not a matter of chance, but a matter of choice. As an official sponsor of the Olympics, we brought to life the different aspects of toxic social pressures that women athletes face on and off the playing field, through the power of film and storytelling. Women around APAC connected to SK-II’s storytelling, identifying with the trials these Olympic medalists undergo. Resulting in 1.4 Billion views, 99% positive sentiment and an impressive 11% increase in sales!

Case Summary

Kao Magiclean is a Japanese kitchen cleaner brand that entered China in 2021. After 11 months of modest business results, we radically repositioned the brand and launched a campaign on Tmall’s Double12, the second biggest eCommerce festival of the year. The challenge was to draw eyeballs and generate sales in a low involvement category dominated by legacy brands. We did this by talking about something that every competitor ignores: Germs. We created the world’s smallest warning signs for germs and made an invisible problem visible.

Case Summary

Adidas Originals launched Forum 84, a reinvention of the original iconic sneakers that sparked sneakerhead culture. But its cultural heritage is lost to China’s Gen Z; who perceive sneaker value based on hype, resale price, celebrities. It aims to revive the original sneaker culture that champions Originality, Creativity, and Inclusivity. The idea “Open to Clash” means “Open to Diversity”. The sneaker became a platform for creative dialogue. Makers challenged friends to reinvent together Forum 84s into one-of-a-kind originals. Brand Favorability shot up despite there’s a nationwide boycott on western brands.

Case Summary

How KFC Australia secured sustainable ecommerce growth through an Augmented Reality game that asked Aussies to find virtual buckets in exchange for winning bucketloads. The game employed behavioural science theory to get players to value rewards more and encourage ‘sticky’ behaviour within KFC’s ecommerce channel. Shying away from superficially branded, promotional games that deliver short-term sales to a fully gamified brand experience which brought new customers in and drove bucketloads of incremental value to the business.

Case Summary

Despite efforts to reconcile, systemic racism continued to oppress Indigenous Australians. To start to overturn this, we needed to connect with First Nations cultures, like never before. We threw out the rule book and tackled an issue seemingly outside our remit: over 60% of teens were suffering from sleep deprivation caused by excess online consumption. It was the ultimate Trojan horse manoeuvre. Dreamy fused the ancient tradition of storytelling, with modern-day podcasting. The stories disconnected teens from the addictive virtual world; consequently, connecting them to First Nations cultures and Country.

Case Summary

How do you get GenZ excited about the Big Mac when they saw it as their “dads’ burger”? The answer: rather than promoting the Big Mac, you create a shared cultural moment, fueled by social media, that gives this generation a chance to remake something that belonged to their parents into their own icon. With the help of Hong Kong’s rising pop idol Keung To, we turned an old-fashioned burger into the sandwich of Hong Kong’s GenZ, reconnecting the brand with with a younger generation and breaking viral records.

Case Summary

We needed to increase awareness and understanding of Motor Neurone Disease for MND NZ. So, we took ‘put yourself in their shoes’ literally and simulated the experience of MND in way that’s relatable to anyone. This led to David’s Unsuables – an idea that hijacked NZ’s leading e-marketplace TradeMe, where we charted the ‘real-life’ digital-decline of David Seymour by selling items he could no longer use. It was the first time that the platform’s auction functionality became a central storytelling device, that helped to educate NZ and raise awareness for.

Case Summary

Social Impact reports were originally created to help customers make better-informed choices about supporting those companies with the greatest social, economic or environment in their communities. Alas, they’re usually too boring to be read and thus, fail in influencing socially-impactful consumer choices. The Reinvention of Social Impact Reports was long overdue - and this Effie case is about how Grab got millions of ordinary people to read a report by using data to personalise a unique report for every single Grab user.

Case Summary

India has one of the lowest female labour forces in the world. A big reason for this is periods! Yes, periods make 23 million girls drop out of school; crushing their dreams of becoming a doctor, nurse, teacher someday. Whisper, passionate about ‘Keeping Girls In School’ wanted to change this. We organised a pad donation drive, a petition (with UNESCO) to add period education in schools and provided period education online. Resulting in 12% top line growth, 11 million packs donated, 1 million+ petitions; 3 million girls educated on periods.

Case Summary

The Donation Dollar is a $1 coin specially created to give, not spend. It was designed to help improve the fortunes of all charities and causes at once, at a time when coin donations were severely impacted. With up to 53% of Australians donating a Donation Dollar when found, a commitment to creating 25 million Donation Dollars in total, and each coin staying in circulation for for 30 years, this idea will continually prompt Australians to give more to charities, more often, for decades to come.

Case Summary

What does an impending death bell sound like to a brand? For Campus, India’s largest shoe brand, it was the realisation that the youth in the world’s youngest country would rather buy fakes of international brands than be associated with a brand uncool to their generation. This case illustrates how Campus was able to prop itself as a legitimately fashionable brand and increase sales by 34% for the festive quarter by communicating to the youth in India’s national language – dance. Just one that has never been seen before.

Case Summary

Despite Head & Shoulders being Australia’s leading anti-dandruff shampoo, young Aussie Dandruff Sufferers were rarely using it. We aimed to dramatically increase Head & Shoulders sales and share in overall Australia’s haircare category by making it an integral part of Aussies’ day-to-day lives. To achieve that, we pivoted from the final dandruff symptom of flakes to the early symptom of annoying scalp itch. Our efforts led to massive increase in brand’s sales, sales value & volume share in haircare category, brand awareness and purchase intent scores.

Case Summary

Magiclean is a kitchen cleaner brand that entered China in 2021. To compete with giants like Mr.Muscle, we had to establish a disruptive positioning that would draw eyeballs and drive sales in a low involvement category dominated by legacy brands with deep pockets. We did this by talking about something that every competitor ignores: Germs. We created the world's smallest billboards warning germs of Magiclean's deadly efficiency. A small budget campaign with big results, including a 331% increase in unique visitors to our eCommerce store and sales up by 30%.

Case Summary

How do you sell Nescafé in a country like India where for every 1 cup of coffee Indians drink, they drink 60 cups of their beloved tea or chai as it's called here. For decades, no coffee brand was able to get true mass usage in India. Until Nescafé arrived at the hard truth. It couldn't convert Indians to coffee-drinkers. It would have to create a new coffee generation.

Case Summary

"Despite efforts to reconcile, systemic racism continued to oppress Indigenous Australians. To start to overturn this, we needed to connect with First Nations cultures, like never before. We threw out the rule book and tackled an issue seemingly outside our remit: over 60% of teens were suffering from sleep deprivation caused by excess online consumption. It was the ultimate Trojan horse manoeuvre. Dreamy fused the ancient tradition of storytelling, with modern-day podcasting. The stories disconnected teens from the addictive virtual world; consequently, connecting them to First Nations cultures and Country."