SINGAPORE: The 2013 Warc Prize for Asian Strategy has been won by a campaign developed by BBDO Guerrero for the Philippines Department of Tourism.

The $5,000 Grand Prix was awarded for "It's More Fun in the Philippines", which revitalised tourism through the use of social media and the involvement of Filipinos themselves in the creation of the campaign. It helped drive visitors to the country to a record high, even though the country's marketing budget was far smaller than those of rival markets.

Leanne Cutts, the 2013 Prize chair and President & Managing Director Japan at Mondelez International, said 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," she said. "We felt that this was an enormously valuable idea that could be sustainable and grow over time."

A total of 18 papers were awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze at an event in Singapore last night – all the winning case studies can be browsed here – with eight from India, four from China, three from the Philippines, and one each from Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. Five papers were also given $1,000 Special Awards.

In addition to the Grand Prix winner, Golds also went to "THPF Smoking Kid", developed by Ogilvy & Mather Thailand for the Thai Health Promotion Foundation; "Voltas All Weather AC" by Ogilvy & Mather for Tata; "Milo Cans: Twisted Football", by Ogilvy & Mather Kuala Lumpur for Nestlé; and "Gillette: Shave Sexy", by BBDO China and @PR for Procter & Gamble.

Two of these also won Special Awards. "THPF Smoking Kid", a digital anti-smoking campaign, took the Asia First award for insight or innovation that the rest of the world can learn from. And "All Weather AC", for Indian air-conditioning brand Voltas, won the Local Hero award for Asian challenger brands.

The Market Pioneer award for the best paper targeting an underserved market segment went to "SMART TXTBKS", an initiative to load school textbooks onto phone SIM cards, from DDB DM9 JaymeSyfu in the Philippines.

The Cultural Connection award was given to the reworking of Nike's "Greatness" campaign for the Chinese market by Wieden & Kennedy, Mindshare, Razorfish and AKQA.

And the Channel Insight award was taken by "The Tagging Drive", a Facebook campaign by Ogilvy & Mather for Indian not-for-profit Once Again.

"The winning campaigns stood out for the simplicity of their creative ideas, clearly articulated strategies and genuine Asian insights," said Cutts, adding that they had also shown "remarkable persistence in the face of all sorts of competition". She also noted that the winning campaigns "were determined to take a disproportionate share of culture and be around for years to come".

Data sourced from Warc