Warc Asia Strategy Prize 2014: 'Kan Khajura Tesan' wins Grand Prix

India leads with eight of the 19 winning entries originating from the market 

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | November 7, 2014

This is the first time an Indian campaign has won the Grand Prix at 2014 Warc Prize for Asian Strategy while India led the list of the winners with eight out of 19 winning coming from the market. Now in its fourth year, the Prize received 186 entries in 2014, a record high for the competition.

Warc, the marketing intelligence service, awarded the $5,000 Grand Prix cash prize to 'Kan Khajura Tesan', an initiative for Hindustan Unilever developed by Lowe Lintas & Partners and PHD, at an event in Singapore on Thursday evening. The campaign also won the $1,250 Asia First Special Award, for insight the rest of the world can learn from.

Three other campaigns picked up Special Awards, each of which came with a cash prize of $1,250. Judges decided not to award the Special Award for Research Excellence, as no paper stood out in this area. A total of 19 papers, from a shortlist of 40, won Gold, Silver and Bronze awards (see below for full details).

The Grand Prix-winning paper was authored by Anaheeta Goenka and Abhijit Panicker of Lowe Lintas & Partners. Their case study described how Hindustan Unilever had set up a mobile platform based on missed calls – consumers phoned a number, then would be called back and played 15 minutes of entertainment content, interspersed with ads for the company's brands. The service gained 24 million calls and 8 million unique users in six months.

“The Kan Khajura paper was a clear winner,” said Freddy Bharucha, Chief Marketing Officer of Procter & Gamble Asia and Chairman of Judges for the 2014 Prize. “The reason is that it started with the consumer. How do you reach and engage a consumer who does not see most of the media that are out there? The results were very strong, but it all started with a rich media insight that led to the creation of a media platform. It allowed the brand to engage consumers in a very entertaining way.”

Joseph George

Joseph George, CEO, Lowe Lintas + Partners India said, “KKT is a true innovation where a business problem was addressed with a platformic solution. The recognition it continues to amass at a global scale is a great testament to Lowe Lintas' culture of creative effectiveness. The first Grand Prix for India at WARC makes it a little more sweeter.”

For Anaheeta Goenka and Deepa Geethakrishnan, the team from Lowe Lintas + Partners that led the KKT initiative, the awards are a reiteration of the fact that no matter how small or simple an idea be, the true measure of its success is the change it brings about in the marketplace. Sharing their thoughts, they said, “This win is a crucial milestone of the global journey of creative effectiveness for Kan Khajura Tesan. From Europe to the US to now Asia. The WARC win further demonstrates that 'solving real problems for real people' is what the industry celebrates, in any part of the world. We are humbled and delighted by the honour conferred on us, by some of the best in the world.”

“This year the spread of entries, in terms of the companies entering, the markets represented, and the types of activity being discussed, was wider than ever,” said David Tiltman, Warc's Head of Content. “That's a sign of the growing importance of smart strategic thinking within Asian marketing.”

The Prize was judged by 20 senior client-side marketers and agency-side strategy experts. More details on the winners and the judging are available on the Prize website, www.warc.com/asiaprize.

Further details on the Prize, including the full judging panel, can also be found there.

Winning entries (Agency / Client / Market of Origin)

GOLD

Kan Khajura Tesan: Unilever's mobile media channel

(Lowe & Partners and PHD India / Hindustan Unilever Limited / India)

Also winner of the Grand Prix and the Asia First Special Award

Gillette: Scandal Shave

(BBDO / Procter & Gamble / China)

NetEase: Your thinking DNA

(BBDO & Proximity China / NetEase / China)

Also winner of the Market Pioneer Special Award

Pampers ZZZ: Giving Filipino moms and babies the gift of sleep

(Ace Saatchi & Saatchi / Procter & Gamble / Philippines)

Also winner of the Channel Strategy Special Award

The Akanksha Foundation: How a brand got celebrities to work for it for free

(Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai / The Akanksha Foundation / India)

Also winner of the Local Hero Special Award

(The Research Excellence Special Award was not awarded this year)

SILVER

A political tsunami in Cambodia: Using social media to mobilize the youth and change the political game

(Pro bono initiative / Cambodia Opposition Leader Sam Rainsy / Cambodia)

AIA: Real life never stops

(TBWA Hong Kong / AIA Group / Hong Kong)

Coca-Cola: Adding fizz to the Indian family meal time

(McCann Worldgroup / Coca-Cola / India)

Google: How Google Search brought hope to 1.4 billion people

(Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai / Google / India)

Old Spice Smell Mantastic: Local relevance on a limited budget

(Wieden + Kennedy / Procter & Gamble / India)

Pantene: Women Against Labels

(BBDO Guerrero / Procter & Gamble / Philippines)

Repositioning Mizone: How an idea sustained business and brand success

(Young & Rubicam China / Danone / China)

TrueMove H: Giving is the best communication

(Ogilvy & Mather Thailand / True Corporation / Thailand)

BRONZE

Ariel and Downy: Aid Couture, the preloved clothing sale

(Leo Burnett Manila / Procter & Gamble / Philippines)

Dyslexia Association of Malaysia: Dyslexia did not stop me

(Geometry Global and Grey Malaysia / Dyslexia Association of Malaysia / Malaysia)

Hewlett Packard: Ink Advantage – Help your child shine

(BBDO Singapore and PHD / Hewlett-Packard / India)

Lifebuoy Soap: Roti - The unlikely reminder

(Geometry Global / Hindustan Unilever Limited / India)

Nike: Hacking Jakarta for running

(BBH Asia Pacific / Nike / Indonesia)

Park Avenue Beer Shampoo: Stealing a lead from the giants in men's hair care

(Publicis / JK Helene Curtis / India)

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