A campaign by Grey London for The United Nations which encouraged people to have their say on climate change has won the Grand Prix for Effective Social Strategy in the 2019 WARC Awards.

The People’s Seat, which also picked one of the three Special Awards (The Live Award), tapped into grassroots activism around the COP24 climate change conference in Warsaw, gathering thoughts and opinions from social media to craft a speech that Sir David Attenborough then delivered to world leaders in a plenary session that was streamed live via Facebook.

In addition to the Grand Prix, the judges, chaired by Christine Xu, vice president and chief marketing officer at McDonald’s China, awarded three Golds, seven Silvers and four Bronzes in the category that links social strategy to business success. The winning papers can be read in full on the WARC Awards site.

Starcom and MRY picked up a Gold and the Path-to-Purchase Award with a campaign for footwear and clothing brand Vans. Not Just One Creator capitalised on the increased customisability of Vans shoes over its competitors and sought out new communities of creatives (Expressive Creators), beyond just action sports and music, who predominantly share their content through Instagram.

The campaign increased ad awareness and word-of-mouth exposure by 22% and 24% respectively, directly generating $895k in revenue and an ROAS of 390%.

Closer Than You Think, by Wunderman Antwerp, won a Gold and the Smart Spender Award. In Belgium, Child Focus, a centre for missing children, used findings from a social experiment to inspire citizens to actively contribute to the cause of finding missing children.

The campaign increased sharing of missing child posters on social media by 387% and resulted in a missing child being found and returned home safely.

The winners in the remaining two categories – Brand Purpose and Content – will be announced in the coming weeks.

Sourced from WARC