Maxus team wins AAAI-Cannes Young Lions Media Competition 2012

Maxus Gurgaon's Abhishek Grover and Ashish Bajaj, both business executives, have won the AAAI-Cannes Young Lions Media Competition 2012. The brief was 'Beat Breast Cancer with Regular Check-ups'.

Bajaj explained their idea, "The TG for the brief was SEC A, female, 30 to 50 year olds. We thought that women are normally burdened with too many things with their families to take care of, and hence decided to give the external push to their husbands. The strategy was contextual targeting, and to hit them where it hurts. We thought of placing advertorials in The Economic Times, because it would never occur to the men that they would see a touching advertorial in a financial daily. The media activation campaign was called 'I care, I'm here', which called upon husbands to register with us. At the end of the six month-long campaign, there would be a big event where the husbands would be invited with their wives, and female celebrities would talk openly about breast cancer. There would also be check-ups at the event which would help induce behavioural change."

The jury for the contest comprised Sam Balsara, chairman and managing director, Madison World; Lynn de Souza, chairman and chief executive officer, Lintas Media Group; Ambika Srivastava, chairperson, VivaKi Exchange; and CVL Srinivas, chairman, SMG India and managing director, LiquidThread – APAC.

Srinivas said, "The entry of the Maxus duo won because it was a great idea combined with a sound strategy. They also put together a very good presentation."

The contest was organised by the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) with the support of The Times Group. The Maxus team will be the official Indian team to take part in the Young Lions Media Competition 2012 at the Cannes Lions.