The AME Awards went live on Warc this morning. The AME Awards for advertising and marketing effectiveness honour work that demonstrates ground-breaking solutions to marketing problems. There were 47 case studies in total, which Warc subscribers can browse here. EXIT-Deutschland, an anti-fascist charity, won the grand trophy. You can find out more about the AME Awards here but if you’ve only got time to read a few I highly recommend the following.

EZDK Zentrum Demokratische Kultur: Nazis against Nazis - Germany's most involuntary charity walk

EXIT-Deutschland, an organisation that fights right-wing extremism in Germany, used an ambush marketing strategy to raise awareness and donations. During an annual Nazi march through a small German town, participating neo-Nazis were surpised to find their protest march has covertly been turned into a charity walk. Thus, for every metre the neo-Nazis walked, €10 went to the charity. Digital and social media magnified the campaign’s impact which successfully delivered against two business objectives: driving donations and engaging potential neo-Nazis quitters.

IKEA: The Great Sleep

IKEA, the home furnishing brand, wanted to encourage customers in Germany to give their bedrooms and bathrooms some much needed attention. To raise awareness of its various sleeping solutions, IKEA asked people about their own sleeping habits pointing out that only products suited to their very individual needs can guarantee a good night’s sleep. The "Where good days start" campaign generated 18 million virtual visitors to the bedroom section pages of IKEA.de and a 16% increase in bedroom sales.

Aetna Inc.: The 11 Initiative

Aetna, the US-based healthcare company, shunned fear tactics in favour of a positive message, for this experiential stop-smoking campaign. Studies claimed that for every cigarette smoked one's expected lifespan decreases by 11 minutes; in other words, not smoking added 11 minutes, giving Aetna the idea to give people memorable 11 minute experiences. The “Life Earned Back” message was conveyed via a booth in New York City. Tumblr was the lead media and was supported by a variety of partnerships including Jimmy Kimmel's Saturday Night Live, Buzzfeed and influential Viners. The campaign gained substantial social and earned media exposure: combined video views of 1.7M in 24 hours, with a 68% completion rate and 81% like ratio.

SPC: #MyFamilyCan

SPC, the Australian tinned fruit brand, put packaging at the heart of its campaign to fight a Hepatitis outbreak due to contaminated imports, under the #MyFamilyCan title. The emotive and informative message had an activist tone: SPC began a national conversation; families began questioning everything they were consuming and also passionately supporting Australian farmers. 1 million SPC Family Cans were sold in the first month - a 17% uplift on the sales target. SPC is now the #1 Australian FMCG brand for engagement.

Sting (PepsiCo): Everyday Hero

PepsiCo used local knowledge of the Egyptian market and everyday life in Egypt as part of its launch for its new affordable energy drink. Sting was positioned as the drink that would give young Egyptians the energy to get through ‘Everyday Egyptian Life’. A year after launch, Sting grew the Egyptian market of energy drinks by 1400% and established itself as the market leader with over 60% market share.

The Glenlivet: Squadron 70

Glenlivet, the Scottish whisky brand, embarked upon a loyalty program to engage with brand enthusiasts – the Glenlivet Guardians – in Canada. A single cask was set aside just for the Guardians. Highly personalised emails drove traffic to a personalised microsite where those who ordered a bottle could track its journey and dig into content about its origins, including videos, tasting notes and more. The program built brand affinity, gained 402 new Canadian Guardians – 57% of all registrations for that year; and email open-rates doubled the industry average.

REI: Dynamic Weather

REI, the outdoor retailer, leveraged programmatic technology to create a personal experience for its US customers. Using programmatic, REI created an advertising campaign that used local weather information – combined with other customer information – to distribute personalized ads for outdoor enthusiasts in real time. The campaign boosted the brand’s relevance among its core consumers, it saved money and significantly increased ROAS.

Alone: Sound Selective Billboard

TV channel HISTORY created a soundboard to cut through the clutter of out-of-home advertising executions to advertise its new reality survival-show ALONE. HISTORY installed a selective sound billboard, in the SOHO area of New York, which pinged random passerby's with strange wilderness-inspired sounds such as wild animals & contestant screams. Street teams amplified the Billboard and sound projection on the two days before the premiere episode. ALONE ranked as the #1 non-fiction program in its time period amongst its key target audiences.

Volvo all-new XC90 Virtual Launch

Volvo, the automaker, used a virtual reality platform, Oculus Rift, to sell 1,927 of its XC90, a mid-size luxury SUV. The cars were sold solely online, in just 47 hours, even though the car didn’t actually exist. Targeting existing Volvo customers, and influencers, a virtual showroom was built where people could virtually test-drive the car. “We created an ecosystem of experiences, from personalized stories and outreach, to a virtual test drive to e-commerce - designed to create desire for a product that couldn't be physically experienced” wrote the authors of this case study. The personalised communication campaign started many months before the actual launch, leveraging owned and earned channels, namely PR, social media and microsite.

IKEA hej Community

IKEA, the home furnishing brand, engaged with customers in Germany through its Hej co-creation platform which invited consumers to get involved in every stage of the customer journey: from design to purchase. Customer’s homes became portraits of various styles and were turned into real-life product showrooms. Month-on-month, Hej's audience grew by 60%, and Hej referrals saw a 10% increase in online order value.

As always Warc subscribers can view the full case studies here.