Asian Marketing Effectiveness and Strategy Awards honour 2015 winners

After a full day of strategy and insights showcasing Asia Pacific’s most successful brands, the AMES Conference & Awards 2015 ended on a high note at the Grand Hyatt Singapore last week with a celebration of the most effective marketing campaigns in the region.  

The AMES Awards applauded a total of 144 winners across 12 countries with 3 Platinum, 26 Gold, 44 Silver and 70 Bronze trophies at the awards ceremony. India led the region with 31 trophies, followed closely by China, Australia and New Zealand.

Saatchi & Saatchi Australia swept 2 Platinum and 3 Gold trophies for their “Penny the Pirate” campaign for Luxottica. BBDO Pakistan collected 4 Gold awards for the “Not A Bug Splat” campaign for Reprieve/Foundation for Fundamental Rights, while MRM/McCANN Singapore took home 3 Gold trophies for the Singapore Red Cross campaign.

The Effectiveness jury selected 9 Gold, 18 Silver and 34 Bronze winners from the shortlisted entries. “The best work at AMES this year did not respect ‘discipline’ boundaries such as advertising, digital, or experiential, but instead integrated them into campaigns based on how consumers live,” said Jury President James Thompson, Managing Director, Global Reserve, Diageo. 

“I was pleased to see more independent, smaller Asian agency work especially from India, China, Vietnam and Cambodia, but my provocation is we need to be open-minded to much more. To continue to push the limits of marketing, we need to create a much clearer understanding of the drivers for success, clarity on return on investment, and importantly, use the dynamic cultural nuances in Asia to develop great creative work that is effective.”

The Media Strategy jury, chaired by Rahul Welde, Vice President of Media at Unilever Asia awarded 1 Platinum, 8 Gold, 9 Silver and 12 Bronze trophies. Rahul says, ““The jury was very impressed by the standard of the entries. We were pleased to see many campaigns that focused on delivering value for both the brand and consumers. They demonstrated real, quantifiable commercial results from solid strategic thinking and great creative execution.”

Headed by Jayant Murty, Marketing Director for Intel, the Digital Strategy jury gave out 1 Platinum, 7 Gold, 15 Silver and 12 Bronze awards. 

Jayant says, “There was range of entries starting from local executions of global strategies to local reinterpretation of global strategies to completely local strategies to make it more resonant in the market. They ranged from attempting to grow market share and markets to share of voice and share of mind. The entries that captured the imagination and the attention of the jury this year were broadly in 4 areas. First, remarkably simple and effective but unhindered by executional complexity. Second physical met digital in interesting ways, Third where content and response was agile and personal and Fourth where the strategy and execution was social by design.”

Dr. Elaine Rodrigo, Global Director of Consumer Insights & Strategy in Biscuits Category, Mondelēz International led the Data & Analytics and e-Commerce jury which picked out 1 Platinum, 2 Gold, 2 Silver and 9 Bronze awards for Data & Analytics, and another Silver and 3 Bronze awards for e-Commerce. Elaine says, “I was very encouraged to see so much interest in the Data & Analytics track, which is only in its second year in AMES.  My fellow judges and I were impressed at the quality and breadth of submissions, particularly in the areas of mobile, digital ROI, and e-Commerce, all which are burgeoning areas of interest in the world today.”

Agency of the Year awards were given in Effectiveness, Media Strategy and Digital Strategy to the best performing individual agency offices. Lowe Lintas + Partners, India won Effectiveness Agency of the Year, BBDO Pakistan took the Media Strategy Agency of the Year while BBDO/Proximity China brought home Digital Strategy Agency of the Year.

Commenting on the awards, Andrea Hayes, Festivals Director, says, “It is incredibly exciting to see the breadth of the entries in this year’s AMES Awards, and the winners are all exemplary cases of value creation for their businesses through their marketing strategies. I would like to thank our distinguished jury members for their time, insights and dedication to the Awards, and congratulations once again to the winners.”