Campaigns for global brands including Airbnb, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Finish, Harpic and L'Oréal, as well as local brands such as Hungarian Telekom, Maxis in Malaysia and The Times of India, are among the winners in the Effective Use of Brand Purpose category of the WARC Awards, a global search for next-generation marketing effectiveness.
16 campaigns from around the world - one Grand Prix, four Golds, six Silvers and five Bronzes - have won in the Effective Use of Brand Purpose category, rewarding marketing initiatives that have successfully embraced a brand purpose and achieved commercial success as well as a benefit for a wider community.
Airbnb Creative, APAC, has won the Grand Prix for The Country Pub Project. In Australia, Airbnb regained its position as the most popular booking site by creating a project to support rural communities by boosting the country pub, a gathering point for struggling country towns. The campaign used a combination of public policy, paid media, earned media and owned channels in a three-stage strategy to reach more than 15 million people, achieve over 30m video views, and drive increased brand favourability and awareness.
Three special awards have also been given in specific areas of excellence:
• Evaluation Award, for a brand purpose strategy that has gone the extra mile in measuring both commercial and societal impact, has been awarded to FCB India for The Times of India's Out & Proud - India Comes Out of the Closet campaign. The newspaper sparked a nationwide movement to normalise LGBTQ with a special Out and Proud classifieds section.
• Employee Engagement Award, rewarding a purpose-led strategy that is consistent both inside and outside an organisation, has been awarded to FP7 McCann Dubai for The Gift of Mom campaign for children's retailer Babyshop, which increased brand affinity through a multi-channel Mother's Day initiative centred around breast cancer in the United Arab Emirates.
• Sustainability Award, for a brand that has replaced a strategy or business practice with a more sustainable alternative and can prove that it has contributed to long-term brand health, has been awarded to Santa Clara for Native Bees, a campaign for Brazilian craft beer brand Cervejeria Colorado, which highlighted the problem of bee extinction to publicise its production chain and brand values.
An eminent jury of 18 agency- and client-side industry professionals, selected the following full list of winners:
Grand Prix:
• The Country Pub Project · Airbnb · Airbnb Creative, APAC · Australia
Gold:
• Out & Proud - India Comes Out of the Closet · The Times of India · Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd · FCB India · India + Evaluation Award
• The Gift of Mom · Babyshop · Landmark Group · FP7 McCann Dubai · United Arab Emirates + Employee Engagement Award
• The Uncovered · Ahmini · Tunisie Telecom · J. Walter Thompson Tunis · Tunisia
• As far as we go · Almosafer · Seera Group · FP7 McCann Dubai · Saudi Arabia
Silver:
• Native Bees · Colorado's Appia · AMBEV · Santa Clara · Brazil + Sustainability Award
• Job-Hunting in Sneakers · Band-Aid · Johnson & Johnson · BBDO Japan · Japan
• #FinishWaterWaste · Finish · Reckitt Benckiser · DEC PR · Australia
• Senior Gamer Club · Hungarian Telekom · Deutsche Telekom · Uniomedia · Hungary
• Abtal El Shawarea' (The Stars on the Streets) · Clear · Unilever · FP7 McCann Cairo · Egypt
• The Ramadan campaign that didn't launch in Ramadan · Jawwy · STC · FP7 McCann Dubai, FP7 McCann Riyadh · Saudi Arabia
Bronze:
• Meet Me Halfway · SK-II · Procter & Gamble · Forsman & Bodenfors Singapore, Verizon Media · China, United States, United Kingdom
• Glass and a half in everyone · Cadbury Dairy Milk · Mondelēz International · Ogilvy Malaysia · Indonesia
• The Non-Issue · L'Oréal Paris · L'Oréal Group · McCann London, McCann Paris · United Kingdom
• Overcoming India's Toilet Divide · Harpic · Reckitt Benckiser · McCann Worldgroup India · India
• The Unheard Prayer · Maxis · Leo Burnett · Malaysia
Commenting on the winners, jury chair, Ivan Pollard, Senior Vice President, Global Chief Marketing Officer, General Mills, said: "As you can see from these powerful case studies, purpose is not just the right thing to do, it is the best thing to do for business. Those brands that really do act purposefully and not just talk about it will prosper - not by chance but on purpose."
