Saatchi & Saatchi Australia wins Grand Prix at Warc Innovation Awards

Hugo Pinto, Warc Innovation judge

Its ‘Emergency Network’ campaign for car manufacturer Toyota brought emergency communications to the 5.3m square kilometres of Australia’s landmass that currently receives no mobile signal, by installing signal-providing devices in its Land Cruiser models.

Warc Innovation judge, Hugo Pinto, Innovation Services leader EMEA, IBM Interactive Experience, described why this innovation on the part of Toyota was such a standout case study. “There is nothing like this particular car to get you through rough terrain. Toyota is leveraging an asset here, creating a crowdsourced emergency network, where Toyota Land Cruiser owners can sign up to do their fair share and give back to their communities. This shows people that they can have a much bigger impact because they own a specific vehicle. It blurs the boundaries between personal and professional. This will be the next stage of the sharing economy.”

In addition to the Grand Prix, the 25-strong eminent judging panel of client- and agency-side experts, chaired by Dana Anderson, senior VP and CMO for Mondelēz International and soon to be CMO of MediaLink, also awarded six Golds, four Silvers, three Bronzes and four more Special Awards recognising specific areas of excellence. The winners of the Warc Innovation 2017 Grand Prix and Special Awards share a $10,000 prize fund.

Winners

Grand Prix + Special Award for Product Innovation

• Saatchi & Saatchi, Australia, Toyota, Land Cruiser Emergency Network (LEN) 

Gold

• McCann, Australia, Vision Australia, Free Puppies Forever + Special Award for Non-for-Profit
• Kindred, UK, Penguin Random House, Tim Weaver’s Missing + Special Award for Channel Innovation
• J. Walter Thompson Beirut, Lebanon, Bou Khalil Supermarché, The Good Note
• AMV BBDO / Blue 449, UK, Currys PC World, Drop A Hint + Special Award for Co-Created Content
• DigitasLBi, US, Whirlpool, Care Counts
• AMV BBDO, UK, Bodyform, No Blood Should Hold Us Back + Special Award for Category Innovation

Silver

• Formitas BBDO, Slovenia, Spar Interspar, Start It Up Slovenia
• BBDO Bangkok, Thailand, Helpmet - Thai Health Promotion Foundation, Injury Detecting Helmet
• FP7/DXB (a part of McCann Worldgroup), UAE, NHI-Daman, Giving People Vitamin D
• FP7/CAI, Egypt, Baheya Cancer Hospital, The Sweet Donation

Bronze

• FP7/DXB (a part of McCann Worldgroup) / MediaVest Spark , UAE, Emirates NBD, The A/C Vests
• Livity, UK, Dyson, Rethinking Recruitment
• FP7/DXB (a part of McCann Worldgroup), UAE, MasterCard, ‘A Priceless Delivery’

To view the case studies of all the winners, click here.