MEC, Mediacom work in WARC list of innovations 2012

A campaign for Citibank and two for Procter & Gamble (‘Ambi Pure Freshness Drive’ and ‘Shiksha – Unlearning to Educate’) have made it to the Warc list of innovations 2012 - a compilation top 20 innovations globally.

MEC India conceptualized and executed the Citibank EMI Chasers campaign while Mediacom is credited with the work on the two Procter & Gamble campaigns. The results were declared in April 2012, and these were the three Indian entries were in the top 20.

Citibank EMI Chasers

The Citibank EMI Chasers Campaign ran during the Diwali festival in 2011 where it maximised advertising impact by placing adverts in close proximity to the goods that could be purchased via EMIs.

The campaign focused on executing consumer touch points through malls, multiplexes and retail outlets while banking on product features such as interest free equated monthly installments which encourage consumers to spend more on high-end products during the festive season. It helped Citibank post a 36 percent growth in value for EMI and a rise in the value of an EMI transaction by 48 percent from Q3 to Q4 2011.

In a statement, Sanjeev Kapur, chief marketing officer, Citi India, said, “This is an outstanding example of how Citibank along with MEC devised a truly innovative communication approach in order to deliver our EMI product proposition during the festive season. This helped us engage with our consumers in a clutter breaking fashion and helped deliver fabulous business results.”　

T Gangadhar, managing director, MEC India, added, “This campaign was one of the most challenging campaigns as it is tough to innovate in the banking, financial services and insurance segment. We are extremely pleased with our efforts and achievement. The innovation stayed true to delivering the business objective and that makes it even more special.”

P&G Shiksha

Shiksha, P&G’s corporate social responsibility initiative, was undertaken in 2005. The idea was to educate children in rural India. Five years into the initiative, urban consumers had become apathetic to the cause. The strategy was to rebuild awareness, credibility and familiarity for the cause, while also getting the most likely consumers to immediately take action and support the initiative.

To shock the consumer into realising the plight of the uneducated, key homepages of popular web portals displayed their text as illegible gibberish, placing the elite, educated Indian consumer in the shoes of an illiterate child. The result was a phenomenal increase in the awareness of Shiksha as well as in the sales of the large packs used to contribute to the cause. Shiksha as of now contributes to over 160 schools in Indian villages and 280,000 children.

Ambi Pur Freshness Drive

Mediacom also worked on the Ambi Pur Freshness Drive campaign. The agency came up with the idea to feature Bollywood actor Neha Dhupia accompanied by radio station presenters to assess the freshness of cars. She went out on Indian roads asking for lifts from passing male drivers on busy weekends. She stayed in or got out of the car based on how fresh it was. Live coverage by RJs and subsequent PR and print campaigns were used to create impact on the minds of consumers.

Debraj Tripathy, managing director, Mediacom India, commented on the two entries: “Both these entries have also won at Emvies 2012. I’m delighted that they’ve also been featured in the WARC list of innovations. This is a global recognition and means a lot to us.”