GLOBAL: Campaigns for BT Sport, Headspace, JetBlue, KFC and Reese’s have been awarded Golds in the Effective Social Strategy category in the 2017 WARC Awards which recognise next-generation marketing effectiveness.

The Effective Social Strategy category rewards effective use of social media. WARC subscribers can read the full case studies here.

In addition to the five Golds, four Silvers and four Bronzes were awarded to campaigns from across the world, including one global campaign, three each from the UK, the US and Australia, one each from Germany, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

With #GoalsRecreated, sports broadcaster BT Sport recreated famous football moments and asked fans to submit their own. “It was well done with different layers and talked around the content,” said Lex Bradshaw-Zanger, Regional Digital Director, MEA, L’Oréal and one of the judges. “It was very interesting and really social.”

Headspace, an Australian youth mental health foundation, successfully tackled cyber bullying by putting in place a social media rewording tool that prompted young people to reconsider abusive language.

“It was a simple solution to a real, difficult and complex problem,” noted David Wilding, Director of Planning, Twitter UK, on Headspace: Reword. “They’ve done something that makes a tangible difference to the way people behave.”

JetBlue’s FlyBabies saw the US airline increase brand awareness and sales by showing flyers and mothers alike that it understood the hardships of dealing with a crying baby on a flight. “They turned a negative into a positive and the topicality of it was great,” said Mobbie Nazir, Chief Strategy Officer, We Are Social.

KFC created a humorous fake ‘clean eating’ campaign for the launch of its Dirty Louisiana burger in the UK. “They really nailed the irreverent nature of the brand,” said Rachel Mercer, Vice-President, Head of Digital Strategy, Deutsch NY, “and I liked how data-driven it was, using the sentiment analysis around clean eating.”

US confectionery brand Reese’s responded to a leak about a new product launch with the #Cupfusion campaign, playing into consumers' speculations about the new product by posting cryptic images and GIFs on social media pages.

“This brand had the courage to see where the conversation took them and a lot of brands have a tough time giving up that control,” observed Glen Kushner, Senior Strategist, Advanced Analytics, Converseon.

The Grand Prix and Special Awards winners will be announced at an event in London on 20th September. Register now.

Got a case study demonstrating effective channel planning? Enter it into the WARC Media Awards by 19th September.

Data sourced from WARC