GLOBAL: A campaign by 22squared for the Ad Council has won the Grand Prix in the of the Effective Innovation category of the 2018 WARC Awards, a global search for next-generation marketing effectiveness.

Its 7-Second Resumes initiative for the Grads of Life programme run by the Ad Council in the US worked with unemployed young people who don't have a formal education or work experience to create short videos that promoted their skills, changed employer perceptions, and helped them secure work.

This campaign also won the Partnership Award for the best collaboration that helped a brand rethink a solution to a business challenge

The jury of 15 agency and client-side industry professionals, chaired by Christopher Yu, Vice President, Integrated Marketing Strategy, Innovation, and Technology, US Bank, awarded 13 campaigns from around the world in the Effective Innovation category which recognises innovative thinking that has transformed a business or disrupted category conventions to deliver tangible results.

In addition to the Grand Prix, three Golds, four Silvers and five Bronzes were awarded. The full list of winning papers can be read on the WARC Awards website.

McCann WorldGroup won a Gold with a campaign for India’s IDFC Bank. Bank in a Box set up 700 micro-ATMs in grocery stores in remote locations to enable people in rural communities to open bank accounts.

A second Gold went to TBWA\RAAD’s campaign in the United Arab Emirates for Pril, a dishwashing detergent brand. This highlighted the brand promise of ‘the power of one drop’ by using tiny bottles – with literally one drop in each – and in-store promotion to improve brand scores and sales.

The third Gold was taken by a campaign for the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, by whiteGREY, which involved the creation of Hello in Elephant, a world-first human-elephant translator, in order to raise awareness of the current threat to the species.

The Channel Innovation special award went to Denmark vs Trump, in which UncleGrey developed a strategic bus ad campaign for the Socialistisk Folkeparti in which Donald Trump’s face with rotating eyeballs featured on the bus wheels.

A digital radio that came pre-loaded with themed playlists as well as a radio functionality, created by The Womb for Indian music company Saregama in order to grow revenue from its back catalogue, won the final special award for Category Innovation.

Commenting on the winners, jury chair Christopher Yu said: “From a field crowded with exciting initiatives, the 2018 WARC Innovation Award judges chose the very best and most ground-breaking ideas from the perspective of originality, planning, and execution. Each of this year’s winners dispenses with convention and demonstrates the boldness of thinking that leads to sustainable, substantial results.”

The winners in the remaining three categories will be announced in the coming weeks.

Sourced from WARC