In the 2022 edition of Effie India hosted by The Advertising Club, Mondelez India, Ogilvy Group, and Leo Burnett India won big. Mondelez India picked the Client of the Year title. Ogilvy Group became Agency of the Year. Leo Burnett India took home the Grand Effie for Whisper India’s Whisper: Changing the education system to keep girls in school’ campaign. This year, Effie India received 986 entries, the highest ever in 22 years, and saw participation from 53 agencies. The awards were given across 44 categories.
The awards acknowledge the impact of success through work done by agencies and clients that set new benchmarks in effectiveness in marketing and advertising communication.
In a press statement, Partha Sinha, President, The Advertising Club, said, “It is extremely heartening to witness Effie become the most coveted trophy within the marketing and advertising fraternity. Like every year, this year too, Effie has witnessed significant patronage from industry veterans and category leaders. I’d like to congratulate all the winners for crafting impactful campaigns that are now sheer examples of innovation and effectiveness.”
The Agency of the Year award was picked up by Ogilvy India with 354 points on its report card followed by Leo Burnett with 342 points. McCann Worldgroup stood third with 303 points.
Ogilvy India won big for Cadbury Celebrations’ ‘Shah Rukh Khan – My Ad’. In 2020, as a part of the brand’s ‘Iss Diwali Aap #KiseKhushKarenge?’ campaign, Mondelez India’s ‘Not Just A Cadbury Ad’ leveraged artificial intelligence to create hyper-personalised spots for local businesses in and around 260 pin codes. It married creativity and tech with a purpose: to promote local businesses at a time when they were worst hit by the pandemic and lockdowns. The campaign tied in with Cadbury’s global brand positioning centred on genuine acts of kindness and generosity.
In 2021, in addition to the hyper-personalised brand films that reached the end-consumers, local retailers got a chance to make a version of these ads for their stores, using the AI-powered technology developed by Rephrase.ai. Small businesses that are pinned on Google maps could share their custom-made ad featuring Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan through WhatsApp. In these ads, Khan was seen nudging consumers to shop from various local stores. Wavemaker India was the media agency behind the campaign.
Mondelez India took home the Client of the Year title with 218 points. Whisper India and Spotify India got 144 and 110 points respectively.
Leo Burnett India won the title of Grand Effie for their campaign on Whisper India’s campaign ‘Whisper: Changing the education system to keep girls in school.’
In a previous conversation with Storyboard18, Dheeraj Sinha, CEO Leo Burnett, South Asia & Chairman BBH India, said that this campaign is been recognised because “it balances creativity and purpose while also helping the brand scale up and meet its business objectives. It is an impactful campaign that makes a real difference to both consumers and the business itself.” He further indicated, “one of the biggest problems holding girls back is a lack of period education. 23 million girls fall out of the education system because they don’t understand what’s happening to them. The missing chapter is another initiative towards keeping girls in school. It’s real in its impact.”
When this campaign won big at Cannes Lions 2022, Rajdeepak Das, CEO and chief creative officer, South Asia, Leo Burnett, told Storyboard18 that the campaign also took a granular approach. “We decided that if the girls don’t have access to the chapter on period education, we will take the chapter to them. Thus evolved the idea of using one of India’s oldest communication forms – ‘wall-art’ to spread period education by taking this chapter to India’s smallest towns and villages,” he explained.
After identifying 28 art styles specific to the geography of each state, the agency worked with local artists to create custom hand-drawn paintings centred around ‘The Missing Chapter’ on periods. Hyper-localized in 28 different languages, slogans with catchy lines were crafted to bust period myths along with a 3-step visual aid on how to use a pad. These paintings have been put up on school and village walls – a place no girl can miss seeing these.
The ‘Meta presents Special Award for creator marketing’ was awarded to Mondelez India, Wavemaker India, and Ogilvy Group.