Warc Prize for Asian Strategy 2013: Ogilvy India strikes Gold for ‘Voltas All Weather AC’, bags two Special Awards

Ogilvy & Mather India won one of five Golds and two of five Special Awards at the Warc Prize for Asian Strategy 2013 competition, winners of which were announced in Singapore on 26 September.

Its entry ‘Voltas All Weather AC – How a pure play Indian brand turned a giant killer’ authored by Neha Chopra, for client Voltas ACs from the house of Tata, won Gold and a Special Award titled ‘Local Hero Special Award’.

A Facebook campaign ‘The Tagging Drive’ (Manasi Trivedi, RS Siju and Venkataraghavan Srinivasan) by the agency for not-for-profit Once Again, won a Silver and a ‘Channel Insight award’.

The Special Awards carry a cash prize of US $ 1,000 each.

Four of the nine Silver awards on the night went to Indian entries. Other Silver winners from India were:

• ‘Lifebuoy: Help A Child Reach 5’ (Lowe Lintas & Partners, PHD, Unilever, India, Indonesia)
• ‘Taking on a Religion Called Cricket’ (JWT India, PepsiCo)
• ‘Women For Women’ (McCann WorldGroup, Stayfree).

Indian campaigns also accounted for three of the four Bronzes awarded. These were:

• ‘Mediker Anti-Lice Treatment: The Journey from Lice Negative to Life Positive in Rural India’ (BBH Communications India, Madison Media Group, Radiowani, Perfect Relations, School, Marico)
• 'Mission Kerala: Times Of India's Final Frontier' (JWT India / Bennett Coleman)
• 'Vat Man' (BBH Communications India, Diageo)

Leanne Cutts, the 2013 Prize chair and president and MD Japan, Mondelez International, said, “The winning campaigns stood out for the simplicity of their creative ideas, clearly articulated strategies and genuine Asian insights. The winners this year were a mix of leaders and challengers in their own industries, but stood out for demonstrating remarkable persistence in the face of all sorts of competition.”

He added, “Finally, the winning campaigns were determined to take a disproportionate share of culture and be around for years to come.”

‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ from BBDO Guerrero won the $5,000 Grand Prix.

Cutts explained that the Grand Prix winner stood out due to the simplicity of the idea, and its potential to evolve across media and across time: “The winning campaign was not only an idea for its own category, but it spilled over into other parts of life. We felt that this was an enormously valuable idea that could be sustainable and grow over time.”

View the full list of winners here.