Warc Awards announces 2020 Effective Innovation winners

Jane Wakely, lead chief marketing officer, Mars & Mars Pet Nutrition.

Campaigns for global brands including KFC, Nestlé, Pedigree, Tanqueray and Xbox, as well as local brands such as Master Kong Express Noodle in China and Donner Sang Compter in Lebanon, are among the winners of the category.

whiteGREY and Mindshare in Australia have won the Grand Prix for their Omtanke - Rethinking Volvo initiative, which highlighted the car manufacturer's sustainability credentials leading to the creation of the Volvo Living Seawall, an ocean conservation project in Sydney Harbour. Volvo experienced an unprecedented 113% average uplift in brand attributes across its key target audiences and record sales.

Three special awards have also been given in specific areas of excellence:

• Partnership Award, for the best collaboration that helped a brand rethink a solution to a business challenge, was awarded to PS21 Madrid for gin brand Tanqueray's colourful multi-channel campaign in Spain. #FFAB60 - Searching for the special colour of Seville, launched to drive the growth of its new product and stand out from the crowd.

• Channel Innovation Award, for the best example of innovative use of media, has been awarded to McCann London for travel-themed campaign Visit Xbox - the Birth of Gaming Tourism, to engage a new audience of non-gamers worldwide.

• Category Innovation Award, for the best example of a brand defying category norms or creating a new category, was won by The Brand Agency for Hungry Puffs, an initiative for hunger charity Foodbank Western Australia, which created a new cereal brand, consisting of an empty box, to raise awareness and funds in Western Australia.

Commenting on the winners, jury chair, Jane Wakely, lead chief marketing officer, Mars & Mars Pet Nutrition, commented:

Amidst the current challenges faced by the world, it's never been more critical that brand innovations deliver tangible IMPACT for consumers. The true innovations are the ideas that can meet the needs of consumers, address their pain points or provide added-value in a creative and surprising way. Against the backdrop of an impressive line-up of submissions, it was this ability to fuse creativity with deep consumer insight that truly set this year's Innovation winners apart.

Grand Prix

• Omtanke - Rethinking Volvo · Volvo Cars Australia · Volvo Cars · whiteGREY, Mindshare · Australia

Gold

• #FFAB60 - Searching for the special colour of Seville · Tanqueray · Diageo · PS21 · Spain + Partnership Award
• Visit Xbox - the Birth of Gaming Tourism · Xbox · Microsoft · McCann London · United Kingdom + Channel Innovation Award
•  Hungry Puffs · Foodbank WA · Foodbank Australia · The Brand Agency · Australia + Category Innovation Award

Silver

• SelfieSTIX · Pedigree · Mars · Colenso BBDO · New Zealand
• Blood Unity · Donner Sang Compter (DSC) · FP7 McCann Dubai · Lebanon
• Colonel KI · KFC · Yum! China · Mindshare China · China
• OMO Tag · OMO · Unilever · TBWA\RAAD · Lebanon

Bronze

• Ok Nestlé! Tell me more about food · Nestlé · McCann Worldgroup · India
• The Makeover of the Four Immortals · Master Kong Express Noodle · Ting Hsin International Group · BBDO China · China

View here the winning case studies in the Effective Innovation category.

The winners of the remaining categories - Effective Content Strategy, Effective Social Strategy and Effective Use of Brand Purpose - will be announced shortly. The Grands Prix and Special Awards winners across the four categories of the Warc Awards share a $40,000 prize fund.

More information on the Warc Awards is available here.