What was the key takeaway from SpikesAsia 2014, for me?
What is the essence of great creative work? Is it, a combination of the right client, the award winning creative team, the supportive agency and of course the big idea. Or is it, just a plain old idea meeting the brief thing and that it was so good that it just won!
Just to go back a little and see how these things were developed, would they have created the idea with the key objective that they have to win big? Or did the idea transform itself to serve the client objective and by the way turned out into a stunner.
Some of these questions do not have any answers, they are just so surreal and mind blowing to think of what it has achieved and how they have achieved it.
When Coca-cola partnered the Singapore Kindness Movement and created the “Happiness from the Skies” and dropped free cans of coke to foreign workers, it met the brief, it delivered happiness, the audience was apt, they really needed that happiness, the brand created an emotional connect with the audience, stood for a greater purpose for the rest of Singapore and it could have even moved people to pick up a coke to celebrate happiness. But, when it actually air dropped off through remote controlled drones of boxes of Coke to more than 2500 workers around Singapore it became instantly award worthy. It created the relevant magic. And the consistent quality of such campaigns inspire innovative marketing
Watch the entire activation here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj4A6g2GP30
Dentsu’s ‘Sound of Senna’ won the Grandprix in digital, film, outdoor and promo & activation categories. Even if you were not a Honda aficionado like me, you will still fall in love with this ‘thought’ – the thought of using data points to recreate something in sound and light to showcase the sheer magnitude of thought leadership. The campaign was to promote Internavi – a vehicle telematics (telecommunications + information technology) service, which Honda tested and perfected in the racing cars of the 80’s and uses in its cars today. And to see that the team, was so focused at what they did to deliver this is mind blowing. I also feel such executions would have only been possible by Dentsu, because its not one of those ideas where the end is clear, you have to do it to see the end and to bank all possible might into it and ensuring its done is award worthy itself.
Catch the entire work here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKj1RdsG8as
Catch the making of the film here :
Another predictable winner JWT India’s Nike Film – One Action is worth a thousand pictures – quite literally this cricket world cup film was composed from a crowd sourced image bank of a staggering 225001 frames of cricket crazy athletes. The final split second action is threaded together using 1440 images featuring one “seamless action across a thousand playing fields” . But the sheer energy, the music, the editing will surpass any film done by Nike so far or by any brand today. The idea behind showcasing the roots behind a cricket loving nation, the cultural aspects, the realism in the portrayal just makes Nike more Indian, than Global. And inspires every youth across India to stay with Nike. The use of vocal percussionists and sound designers for the sound track to replicate the actual sounds of the cricket field, its players and the fans is just legendary! Well that’s something to expect off, from this particular creator 🙂
Watch the Nike India film here:
A nice touch to the entire awards scenario is the Innovation Award and rightly so innovations that saved lives were selected. The first Grand Prix was the ‘Clever Buoy’ by M&C Saatchi, Sydney – a smart ocean buoy that detects sharks and sends real time alerts to lifeguards via the Optus network. Optus, obviously the client, being the second largest telecoms provider wanted to change conversations from the size of their network to what it can do to improve peoples lives. So through this exercise the brands objective was to achieve both consumer awareness and brand perception around the country.
The other Grand Prix, Ogilvy India’s Motorbike ignition through the helmet, if the helmet is not worn the bike will not start. This idea if incorporated actively will change the face of motorbike accidents in India. This particular innovation has had to connect with so many departments, to see the light of the day. Speaking to its creator I realised that it was not as easy as it seems and its creator have had to put all their might to see that this one really gets executed in a big way. The idea is hugely relevant for India and commendable effort by its creators.
Watch the:
Clemenger BBDO Melbourne’s ‘Melbourne Remote Control Tourist’ won for Branded Content & Entertainment. To translate the brief to showcase Melbournes’s uniqueness that unlike other Australian destinations it is a destination of hundred little experiences to quite literally taking the power of social media, live streaming, branded content generation to become the world’s first crowdsourced city guide.
In fact it has generated 80 hours of audience generated travel videos, 1500 Instagram pictures and data on 321 locations . To imagine that just five days generated over 43 million social media impressions to an estimated global audience of 150 million people across 158 countries and 3888 cities interacted on the platform directly.
Watch the case study
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg74NzJlGp0
And there was this absolutely brilliant ‘underdog fighting smarter thing’ with Virgin Mobile’s ‘Fair Go Bro’ campaign. How do you fight against competition, in a saturated and a highly competitive market to drive sales through brand awareness? So how do you create Virgin Mobile’s brand awareness with a media budget much smaller that competition? So in all fairness they brought to life ‘Fair Go for All’ – a campaign making Dough Pitt, Brad’s brother a celebrity in his own right. And to generate 160 million viral PR reach, 12 million Twitter impressions and 2 million you tube views and a record 22% increase in new customers and a 40% growth in market share, that was a smart fight indeed.
Watch the case study:
And then there was this super cute Pedigree radio station K9fm, which won under the radio category and this needs no explanation . Just watch.
Watch K9fm :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6VqyfX96o4
So at the end of all the great work and the nice seminars and presentations there are two aspects that are clear.
The first aspect is, whether this recognition is enough for the creators, I think the award boards should insist in a segment where the actual creators explain their creation, of what was the brief, how did they manage to create this, what went on in their minds and the sweat, blood and toil that happened through the work. Because, while there is recognition for the work, a nice looking case study board or AV and kudos to the agency, the creator(s) are still not appreciated enough or heard enough. I only wish there was way to feel their passion.
The second aspect is that one of the underlying thing in almost all of the work that stood out is the domination of technology and its usage across the ideas. It was either an idea inbuilt with the technology (helmet and Clever Buoy), a delivery mechanism of happiness (drones), a few million people guiding a tourist (Melbourne), taking data points to create some amazing history (Senna), or even initiating a huge ‘Like’ campaign (Dough Pitt), technology seems to be inbuilt with the idea and that’s a big difference in this years award scene as compared to yester years. Maybe it is only right and fair, that we embrace it and its good that we are not dated but with technology.
But there were a few maybe just one or two that still won without technology at the centre of the idea and had the sheer experience of the idea and the passion of the message and took the 30 sec idea to explosive heights and am sure by now you would have guessed which ones.
Either way they all won!
*All videos copyrights exist with respective creators and are available for viewership on Youtube, they have been used to show case only for educational purposes.
Anita Daniel Pradeep, the author is an independent communication professional all views are her own and does not represent any organisation.
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