Campaigns for Harley-Davidson in Canada, Google Assistant in Indonesia and Nescafé Dolce Gusto in MENA are among the 21 that have been shortlisted for the WARC Awards’ Effective Content Strategy category.

The panel of 16 judges, chaired by Namita Mediratta, Global CMI Director, Content Centre of Excellence, Unilever, has chosen campaigns from around the world: Asia supplies eight papers, the Middle East and North Africa seven, with the remainder coming from Europe and North America.

WARC subscribers can read all the shortlisted entries here.

“In the cases we’ve selected, we’ve look for hard evidence and creative magic,” explained Mediratta.

“We wanted cases that consumers wanted to engage with, and that marketers would be proud to learn from. We wanted to shift the dialogue from great digital content to great content maximized by a digital world”.

Motorbike brand Harley-Davidson used a 12-part documentary series to connect with young people in Canada, telling stories of the different kinds of people around the world who ride Harley-Davidsons and boosting sales as a result.

Google, the tech giant, realising that that many people in Indonesia did not understand or use the range of features their mobile phones offer, used digital video, a collaboration with a TV show, OOH and digital ads, and partnerships with influencers to show how Google Assistant could make everyday life easier; daily active users increased by 400% and daily queries increased by 52%.

Nescafé Dolce Gusto, seeking to establish relevance, built on Middle Eastern traditions of hospitality to inspire consumers with culturally relevant and personalised content, both on- and offline. As well as achieving an increase in sales and penetration, the coffee brand delivered its most culturally relevant campaign to date.

The aim of the WARC Awards’ Effective Content Strategy category is to reward branded content strategies that can demonstrate a business outcome. There is a $10,000 prize fund for the best papers and the winners will be announced in late May.

Sourced from WARC