BBDO adjudged Asia’s most effective for marketing

Text and Pix by Nisthar

Cassim in Shanghai

World renowned advertising solutions giant BBDO was last week adjudged as Asia’s best for marketing effectiveness, a title vied by firms in 14 countries.

At the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards 2013 held in Shanghai, China, BBDO won the Gold for the ‘Asian Marketing Effectiveness Network of the Year’ whilst Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, won the ‘Asian Marketing Effectiveness Agency of the Year’.

Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) won the Silver in the ‘Network of the Year’ category with McCann winning the Bronze.

In the ‘Agency of the Year’ contest, McCann Melbourne won the silver and Leo Burnett Melbourne clinched the bronze.

The coveted awards ceremony was the climax of the two-day ‘The Festival of Asian Marketing Effectiveness’ (FAME) held at the Pudong Shangri-La in Shanghai.

The event saw a total of 55 winners which included 16 gold, 19 silver and 20 bronze trophies.

The most awarded country was Australia which took home 15 trophies, followed by China wining 10 and New Zealand and Singapore clinching five each.

The Asian Marketing Awards 2013 drew 881 entries in 28 categories, which comprise of 12 Product and Service Categories and 16 specialist categories including: ‘Most Effective Use of Social Media Marketing’, ‘Most Effective Use of Digital Media’, ‘Most Effective Use of Technology’, ‘Best Use of Data / Research’ and the ‘Best Non-traditional Thinking / Non-advertising Idea’.

A dedicated jury of 50 industry specialists initially completed preliminary judging of the work and arrived at a shortlist of 136 entries from 14 countries.

The final jury of 23 specialists led by Lenovo Executive Director, Global Brand Communications - Worldwide Marketing Ajay Kaul, gathered in Shanghai to discuss and vote on the 139 shortlisted entries.

The three categories, ‘Corporate Image and Information’, ‘Best Non-Traditional Thinking/Non-Advertising Idea’ and ‘Pharmaceuticals, Beauty Products, Cosmetics & Toiletries’, weren’t awarded despite there being several in the shortlist.

Speaking at the awards ceremony Kaul said he was privileged to have led an eminent team of jury members who have worked very hard to carefully evaluate some great marketing.

“We saw some amazing work and it was pretty tough picking only a few winners given the overall quality of work, the majority of which was truly world class. Asia is clearly on a trailblazing path driving some innovative use of technology and media,” the head of the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards jury said.

He also noted that the Festival of Asian Marketing Effectiveness has marked yet another milestone for Asian marketers in scaling newer heights towards marketing excellence.

At the festival a selection of shortlisted work was on show providing a showcase of the region’s finest work and giving delegates the opportunity to learn and draw inspiration.

Chairman of the Lions Festivals Terry Savage said: “Every year the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards offer the chance for the next benchmark to be set for marketing effectiveness within the Asia Pacific region.”

“Ajay is right when he says that there was some world class work; it is setting the benchmark for the future of brand marketing and I am sure that delegates have left overflowing with new ideas and inspiration,” Savage added.

Jury

The overall jury included JWT Asia Pacific, Chief Executive Officer Tom Doctoroff; Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific, Chairman and CEO Paul Heath; P&G Asia, Chief Marketing Officer Freddy Bharucha; Young & Rubicam Asia, President Matthew Godfrey; Edelman Asia Pacific, President and CEO David Brain; McCann Worldgroup Asia Pacific, Regional President Charles Cadell; Saatchi & Saatchi Asia, Chief Executive Officer Paul Roebuck; Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai, Regional Head of Strategy Rob Campbell; DRAFTFCB Greater China, Chairman and CEO Pully Chau; BBDO Asia, Middle East and Africa, Chairman and CEO Chris Thomas; Proximity Worldwide, Chairman Chris Thomas; Dentsu Network/Asia, Chairman and CEO Dick Van Motman; Leo Burnett Asia Pacific, Chief Strategy Officer Saurabh Varma; Cheil Worldwide Head of Strategy South Korea Hun Choi; TBWA GROUP, President - International Keith Smith; Mindshare, South Asia Leader Ravi Rao; Shiseido Japan, Executive Producer of Advertising Creation Department Naomi Yamamoto; DDB Group Asia Pacific, India and Japan, Chairman and CEO John Zeigler; Publicis, Executive Vice President Madan Mohan; Grey Worldwide Chief Strategy Officer, South and South East Asia Dheeraj Sinha; Bates, Chief Strategy Officer Mark Sinnock; Dutch Lady Malaysia, Managing Director Rahul Colaco, IPG Mediabrands, Senior Vice President Digital and Innovation, World Markets Gilad Coppersmith; Lowe + Partners, Asia Pacific, Regional President Rupen Desai; Coca Cola, China, Senior Director Integrated Marketing and Communications Stephen Drummond; Vodafone India, Senior Vice President –Brand Communication and Consumer Insights Anuradha Aggarwal; Scarecrow Asia, India Branch Manager and Executive Creative Director Anindya Banerjee; PHD, Asia Pacific, Chief Executive Officer Cheuk Chiang, BBH, China Head of Planning Andy Edwards; Havas Worldwide Siren, Singapore and Malaysia, Managing Director & Principal Consultant Karen Flynn; Volkswagen New Zealand, National Marketing Manager Denise Goodwin; Vizeum Asia Pacific, Chief Executive Officer Seth Grossman; Nestle Sri Lanka, Senior Vice President Commercial Muhammed Hamza; Novartis Consumer Health, Vice President Marketing, Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific Lakish Hatalkar; We Are Social Singapore, Managing Director Simon Kemp; Waggener Edstrom, Senior Vice President Matthew Lackie; AXA Asia, Regional Head of Brand and Insight Mabel Leung; PT Lion Wings Indonesia, Marketing Director Hirajati Natawiria; Curious & Co, Australia, Managing Director Michael Nearhos; Carat, Chief Executive Officer Asia Pacific Sean O’Brien; Regional Director, Prudential Corporation Asia, Brand and Corporate Affairs Sean Rach; Tourism Australia and New Zealand, Marketing Manager Tony Rogers; Laundry for North Asia, Unilever, Regional Vice President Vijay Sinha; Visual Jazz Isobar, Australia, Executive Planning Director Simon Small; Thai Health Promotion Foundation, Director of Social Marketing Support Unit Supatnuj Sorndamrih; Philip Morris, Vietnam Head of Marketing, Indochina Nguyen Dinh Toan; McDonald’s, Philippines Senior Vice President for Marketing and Communications Margot Torres; AKQA China Executive Creative Director Johan Vakidis; IINet Australia, Chief Marketing Officer Wendy Walker; Executive VP, Standard Chartered Chinese Taipei ,Country Marketing Head Ken Woo; and Heineken Chinese Taipei, Marketing Manager Jeff Wu.

Festival

During two-day Festival, nearly 350 delegates benefitted by insights and expertise shared at 19 seminars. Some of the key speakers that took to the stage included Lenovo Executive Director Global Brand Communications Worldwide Marketing Ajay Kaul; Saatchi & Saatchi Chairman & Regional CEO Asia Pacific Chris Foster; BBDO India Chairman & National Creative Director Josy Paul; VML CEO and President Jon Cook; JWT Director of Strategic Planning, Asia Pacific Ratan Mali; HSBC China Head of Marketing (Retail Banking and Wealth Management) Microsoft Greater China Jia Tan and General Manager of Windows Product, Wei Qing; Lowe + Partners President and Chief Creative Officer Leigh Reyes; Leo Burnett Institute of Behaviour, Head of Consulting Joseph Baladi; Tencent National Planning GM Sophia Ong; Mindshare Worldwide Chief Technology Officer/Chief Information Officer Steven Plimsoll; Mars China Senior Media Manager Li Lei; P&G China Purchasing Group Manager, Digital Media Sabrina Tian and Miaozhen Systems Chief Executive Officer Wei Zhu.

Savage said the Festival was fantastic with upbeat experience reflecting that the region and the industry are continuously innovating and driving forward.

Young FAME

A new feature at the 2013 edition, the inaugural Young FAME Competition (vied by those under 30 years of age) was won by team from Cheil Worldwide South Korea which took gold. DRAFTFCB China was awarded silver and BBDO China took bronze.

Helping to nurture talent, ‘The Young FAME Competition’ and ‘The FAME Academy’ launched this year and ran throughout the festival. Led by academy tutor Joe Talcott, the academy aimed to help planners better understand the industry and apply this knowledge to their work. It offered exclusive tailored group discussions from industry leaders and thinkers as well as the opportunity to attend select seminars from the full program.  The ‘Young FAME Competition’ gave six teams of two just 24 hours to come up with a planning strategy to fit the brief given by the UN’s World Food Program.