Wispa and Hovis showed the power of big ideas to engage consumers in 2010, and attracted considerable attention from warc.com's European audience as a result.

Cadbury's Wispa, which picked up a Gold at the 2010 IPA Effectiveness Awards, headed the list of the region's downloads for the year, followed by Hovis, the IPA's Grand Prix winner.

Originally discontinued in 2003 due to poor sales, Wispa actually returned to UK store shelves as a result of popular pressure on Facebook.

Its relaunch strategy exploited this existing fanbase, with the "For the Love of Wispa" campaign asking people to pledge their time, talent or belongings in exchange for chocolate.

Hovis - As good today as it's ever been is another story of a brand revival in Britain, albeit one employing a very different media mix.

Communications included a TV spot lasting for 122 seconds, using this time to tap into the brand's long history.

Hovis also generated extensive PR support and ran a mixture of product-specific initiatives.

Warc's European users looked more widely for their third most popular case study of the year, taking inspiration from Axe in Japan.

Shortlisted for the Warc Prize for Ideas and Evidence, the Axe Wake Up Service created a mobile alarm clock application that embedded the brand in the morning routine of young Japanese men.

Sponsorship formed the bedrock of the next case study on the list - the mobile brand O2's adaption of London's Millennium Dome into a music and entertainment venue.

The O2: a new blueprint for sponsorship estimates an ROI of 14.5:1, based on projected incremental new customers over the expected lifetime of the campaign.

Finally, fifth-placed Frito-Lay also adopted an innovative communications channel - a web-based comedy series - to tempt Canadian women back into the potato chip aisle.

Data sourced from Warc