Australia tops Social Strategy category in Warc Awards

Jury chair, Quinn Kilbury, senior brand director, Heineken US.

Of the 13 winning campaigns, three are from Australia, two are global campaigns, two UK and two US, alongside one each from Germany, North America, Singapore and UAE.

A 17-strong panel of senior industry experts chaired by Quinn Kilbury, senior brand director, Heineken US, judged the Social Strategy category, currently one of the most important issues in marketing and communications.

Gold winners

• BT Sport • #GoalsRecreated • BT (in-house) • UK
• Reese’s • Creating Cupfusion • Ketchum • US
• Headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation • Reword – Changing Online Bullying Behaviour • Leo Burnett Melbourne, Studio Pancho • Australia 
• JetBlue • FlyBabies • MullenLowe Boston • US
• KFC • Dirty Louisiana, Don’t Make Dirty Good, Make Clean Bad • BBH • UK

Broadcaster BT Sport’s Gold winning entry shows how it successfully kicked off its summer programming in the UK with a campaign that recreated famous football moments and asked fans to submit their own.

Commenting on the #GoalsRecreated campaign, jury member Lex Bradshaw-Zinger, regional digital director, MEA, L’Oréal, said, “It was well done with different layers and talked around the content. It was very interesting and really social.”

Reese’s ‘Creating Confusion’ Gold winning campaign by Ketchum shows how the chocolate brand was able to successfully launch its newest product in North America despite a major information leak.

Warc judge Glen Kushner, senior strategist, Advanced Analytics, Converseon, said, “This brand had the courage to see where the conversation took them and a lot of brands have a tough time giving up that control.”

Gold winner ‘Reword’ by Leo Burnett Melbourne and Studio Pancho in Australia, shows how Headspace, an Australian youth mental health foundation, successfully tackled cyber bullying by putting in place a social media rewording tool.

David Wilding, director of planning, Twitter UK, said, “It was a simple solution to a real, difficult and complex problem. They’ve done something that makes a tangible difference to the way people behave.”

MullenLowe Boston’s campaign ‘FlyBabies’ for airline brand JetBlue, won a Gold for increasing brand awareness and sales in the US by showing flyers and mothers alike that they understand the hardships of a crying baby on a flight.

Judge Mobbie Nazir, chief strategy officer, We Are Social, said, “They turned a negative into a positive and the topicality of it was great.”

Bartle Bogle Hegarty (UK) Gold winning entry ‘Dirty Louisiana - don’t make dirty good, make clean bad’ for the fast food brand, KFC, created a humorous fake ‘clean eating’ campaign to successfully launch its newest product in the UK.

Rachel Mercer, vice-president, head of digital strategy, Deutsch NY, said, “Their insight, storytelling and results were impressive. They really nailed the irreverent nature of the brand and I liked how data-driven it was, using the sentiment analysis around clean eating.”

Silver winners

• Always • Girl Emojis #LikeAGirl • Starcom UK, Leo Burnett Chicago • Global 
• Bic • The Bic 4 Colour World Champenships • McCann Melbourne • Australia
• Dubai Foundation for Women & Children • Stop Tapping • FP7 Dubai • United Arab Emirates 
• Gucci Guilty • Dark to Light • MediaCom • Global

Bronze winners

• Maybelline • #BeYourOwnFilter • TBWA\Group Singapore • Singapore
• JetBlue • Reach Across the Aisle • MullenLowe Boston • US
• Seeing Eye Dogs Australia • Free Puppies Forever • McCann Melbourne • Australia
• Unknown User • Unknown Potential • PHD Germany • Germany

The winners of Best Use of Brand Purpose will be announced on 18 September. The winners of all the Grands Prix and Special awards will be revealed at a free-to-attend ‘Learnings of the Warc Awards’ event in London on 20 September.

To view the Social Strategy Gold, Silver and Bronze winners as well as the winners of the Effective Content Strategy category, click here.