As tough times loom, marketing effectiveness becomes more important than ever. Not only for clients, but also for agency professionals who don’t want to be shown the door, their creative awards packed to go.
Now on its 5th year, the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards (AMEs) benchmark the efforts of marketers and agencies across the region. Significantly, a campaign can be entered by either agency or client.
This year’s AME winners were announced on Sept. __ in Singapore. Entrants were advised to submit “concise, effective and intelligent entries”. Atifa Hargrave-Silk, Editor-in-Chief of competition organizer Media, said that “marketing is a considerably more complex business than it used to be, and its constant evolution is driving the brands in this region to rethink approaches and recast ideas and insights to spur positive results.”
Rising to the top of the pool of entries, Leo Burnett Sydney’s WWF “Earth Hour” won the plum Platinum award, having previously won in Cannes and the Spikes. The Earth Hour campaign demonstrates how an entire city and 50 million people from around the world joined hands to turn off their lights for an hour and do their part for the planet. This resulted in a 10.2% energy-reduction across Sydney. The symbolic event was picked up extensively by local and global media, large corporations took part, and the citizenry felt empowered to do their bit. In 2009, more cities will mount Earth Hour; the effort has expanded into the www.earthhour,org website, where kits can be downloaded to help make Earth Hour a community-owned brand. Tips are also offered to practice “Earth Hour everyday” and help reduce individual climate change impact.
Gold winners were JWT India’s “Lead India” campaign, for National Brand Development; Earth Hour, which won separate Golds for best idea, integrated marketing xampaign, small-budget marketing Ccampaign and eco/ereen marketing campaign; TBWA\SC’s “Malaysia’s Truly Asia” Tourism, long-term marketing and branding campaign; Ogilvy & Mather India’s Cadbury “How Bournvita Let Children Be Differently Capable and Differently Successful” for its insight and strategic thinking; JWT Japan’s loopy but addictive Schick “3D Beard Simluator” interactive marketing campaign; Proximity Live’s “Fendi On The Wall” events marketing campaign; OgilvyAction’s Kool Boost product and design packaging campaign; and JWT Vietnam’s Knorr Tet “Taste of Good Luck” sales promotion and point of purchase.
Starcom MediaVest Group was the Philippine’s sole winner, with a Bronze for the “Max By Revicon Direct Marketing Activation” campaign for United Laboratories. For the male-targeted supplement with a very adult image, Starcom created a targeted activation drive where “sexy, sophisticated Max female ambassadors went to venues the target market frequents [to] give free samples in exchange for calling cards. Premium items were also given away for referring five friends or colleagues. The campaign achieved a 30% response rate.”
Rosanna Ho, this year’s jury chairwoman, said, “We have to work harder. It is not negotiable to do mediocre work. It’s up to the client and the agency to take risks and to focus on objectives to present amazing results to consumers.”
The AME Awards jury were represented by a spread of Asia’s advertising marketing communications experts – Philip Brett, Chairman, TBWA\Group Singapore; John Cahill, Regional Director, McCann Healthcare, Asia-Pacific; Kevin Clayton, Principal, Strategic Marketing; Jeff Cresall, President, Universal McCann Asia-Pacific; Damien Cummings, General Manager, Neo@Ogilvy; Edward Dixon, Managing Director, Porter Novelli, Singapore and South Asia; George Gallate, Global Chairman, Euro RSCG 4D; Charu Aggarwal Harish, Communications Planning Director, Grey Global Asia-Pacific; Rosanna Ho, Head of Customer Experience, HSBC PF; Christoph Peter-Isenberger, Head of Marketing, Puma; Aditya Kapoor, Director, Commercial PC Business Unit, Hewlett Packard Asia-Pacific; Ken Mandel, Vice-President and Managing Director, Yahoo! Southeast Asia; Dan Pan, Senior Account Director, brandRapport Asia-Pacific; Chris Thomas, Chairman and CEO Asia, BBDO Asia-Pacific; and Michael Wood, Chief Executive Office, Leo Burnett Greater China.
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