A campaign by The Womb for Carvaan, a radio with digital music pre-loaded, has won the Grand Prix in the 2018 WARC Prize for Asian Strategy.

The product was designed specifically to exploit the assets of Saregama, India’s oldest music company but one which has not invested in new content for several decades; its back catalogue is firmly focused on Bollywood songs from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Initial, unsuccessful, efforts to persuade a youthful audience to listen to these old songs in a digital format were abandoned in favour of targeting the 250 million people over the age of 50 who would appreciate them – and doing so in a media format that they would feel comfortable with. (Read the full case study here: Carvaan: why not an innovation for the old?)

In the first 11 months, Saregama sold 389,000 units of Carvaan – with virtually no marketing – reaching a total incremental revenue of $38.9m, and is on course to potentially deliver an incremental revenue of $200m over the next three years.

“This entry captivated the judges,” said Shekar Khosla, CCO Kellogg’s, who chaired the judging panel. “One even bought it straight away for her parents after seeing just one ad.”

Judges also admired how The Womb had innovated its way out of the challenge in the brief rather than simply producing a campaign.

“This not only helped people to remember the brand and engage with it, the success filtered through to younger music lovers who bought Carvaan sets too,” said Khosla.

That approach also contributed to Carvaan winning the Category Disruptor Special Award, one of five Special Awards handed out by the judges: Paytm won the Early Adopter Special Award, UNIQLO the Customer Journey Special Award, Nippon Pylox the Research Excellence Special Award and Mokjang Nadeuli Grill Grill Cheese the Local Hero Special Award.

Full details of the winning entries can be read on the Prize website. In addition to the Grand Prix, a total of three Golds, five Silvers and seven Bronzes were awarded.

Sourced from WARC