YouTube announces winners of first India edition of YouTube Works Awards

The inaugural India edition of the YouTube Works Awards has announced its winners. The Awards recognise how leading brands are effectively leveraging YouTube as a platform to engage audiences to drive business goals and drive consumer engagement at scale across the country.

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Launched earlier this year in association with Kantar for advertising released between October 2019 and February 2021, the winning campaigns represent a range of popular advertising formats across seven categories, from six-second storytelling to multi-video storytelling, and were selected by a 12-member jury comprising some of the most respected business leaders and marketers in the country.  

During a time that was marked by several lockdowns and restricted creative production, the jury picked campaigns by Mondelez, which bagged both the Ruby and the Grand Prix for its ‘Not just a Cadbury’ ad, InMobi, Amazon Prime, Puma, Motilal Oswal, and upGrad as the winners.

Aditya Swamy

Aditya Swamy, Director, Marketing Partnerships, Google India, said, “Online video is the gateway to the Internet for India. With four in five Indian consumers valuing YouTube deeply, and viewership growing both in rural and urban India, YouTube has emerged as India's favourite destination for video content. I raise a toast to the game-changers across brand, creative, media, and creator ecosystems that are shaping digitally supercharged India’s shift towards YouTube. With these awards, our effort is to spotlight the most incredible work across the industry, using data-driven insights and tech-powered storytelling to deliver real impact for every kind of business. I want to express my deep gratitude to the Jury for their thoughtful analysis of the entries and picking the stand-out work done in India on YouTube. I look forward to all of us creating magic for brands by mixing creative, data and technology together.”

Anil Viswanathan

Speaking about the key role YouTube served in the execution of the ‘Not just a Cadbury’ campaign, Anil Viswanathan, Senior Marketing Director, Mondelez, said, “We are thrilled for the ‘Not just a Cadbury’ campaign to be judged winner in two prestigious categories of the YouTube Works Awards, the Ruby and the Grand Prix. This is yet another fabulous moment of celebration for the team.

“Our campaign idea was to support small business owners impacted by the Covid-19 lockdowns through hyper personalisation and hyper localisation. Both these would not have been possible without YouTube, which powered it to achieve the levels of customisation never achieved before. YouTube’s personalisation capabilities helped bring together thousands of small business owners across thousands of pin codes together with customers in their neighbourhoods, all on a single ad.”

Jury member and Head of Marketing, Bajaj Auto, Narayan Sundararaman, said, “It was a great experience to be on the Grand Jury of these Awards and view such a large number of outstanding creative executions across businesses. The winning campaigns stand out for their ability to harness audience insight and storytelling with the advantage of content and context that YouTube uniquely provides to brands.”

Josy Paul

Josy Paul, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, BBDO India, said, “Being on the jury of the first ever YouTube Works awards in India was a mind-altering experience. The experience opened my mind to the immense possibilities that YouTube offers. I came as a judge and left as a student.”

Nandini Dias

Nandini Dias, CEO, Lodestar UM, said, “The craft-agnostic nature of the jury put together for the YouTube Works Awards resulted in a fresh cross-pollination of perspectives, which made the discussions enriching and stimulating.”

Agnello Dias

Agnello Dias, Creative Chairman, Dentsu, added, "The YouTube Works judging experience was a fascinating experience because some of the categories were such a clear indication as to where the world of marketing communications is heading. Besides, a lot of the work threw up completely fresh insights into how creativity is being consumed by target audiences in the contemporary era."

The winners of the YouTube Works India Awards are:

Grand Prix: Demonstrates excellence throughout the entire process, from identifying critical consumer insights and building creative idea, to executing the campaign through effective media buying and powerful messaging in all assets and formats.

• Campaign name:  Not just a Cadbury ad
• Winners: Mondelez | Wavemaker & DeltaX | Ogilvy India

The Ruby: The most creative, innovative and data-driven work with demonstrable business results.

• Campaign name: Not just a Cadbury ad
• Winners: Mondelez | Wavemaker & DeltaX | Ogilvy India

Media Innovation: Brilliant media planning that drove business results.

• Campaign name: Glance - Baar Baar Dekho
• Winners: Glance | In-Mobi | DDB Mudra

Best Multi-Video Storytelling: Demonstrates a keen understanding of the audience, and an ability to bring a story to life through exceptional copywriting, creative direction, and flawless production across multiple videos

• Campaign name: Mirzapur S2 ka Bhaukaal
• Winners: Amazon Prime Video India | PivotRoots | SoCheers

Best Long-Form Storytelling: Demonstrates a keen understanding of the audience, and an ability to bring a story to life through exceptional copywriting, creative direction, and flawless production in a video beyond 30 seconds.

• Campaign name: PUMA Propah Lady
• Winners: Puma | Digitas

Six-Second Storytelling: Demonstrates a keen understanding of the audience, and an ability to bring a story to life through exceptional copywriting, creative direction, and flawless production in a 6 second YouTube bumper ad.

• Campaign name: Poor Quality Hurts – Motilal Oswal
• Winners: Motilal Oswal Financial Services | Social Kinnect | Mullen Lintas

Best Collaboration: The best strategic and creative collaboration between Brand & Creator that drove incredible buzz & positive brand associations.

• Campaign name: BeYouNick x upGrad Originals - The Office Canteen
• Winners: upGrad | Monk Entertainment | Be YouNick

The Jury also included: Aditi Shrivastava, Co-founder, Pocket Aces; Amer Jaleel, Group CEO and Chairman, MullenLowe Lintas Group; Anita Nayyar, COO-Media & Communications, Patanjali Ayurved Limited; Harman Dhillon, Vice-President, Haircare, HUL; Sukesh Nayak, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy India; Priti Murthy, CEO, OMD India; Rajdeepak Das, Chief Creative Office & CEO, South Asia, Leo Burnett; Ravi Santhanam, CMO, HDFC Bank.

The Awards, held in 20 countries, including the US, UK, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and Vietnam, are differentiated by their emphasis on showcasing the impact of a creatively, strategically and effectively leveraged YouTube in achieving demonstrable business results.

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