Today Warc announces the winner of the inaugural Warc Prize for Asian Strategy. Congratulations to David Elsworth of Coca-Cola for Japan, who took the $5,000 Prize for the case study on the launch of the I Lohas bottled water brand. Nine highly commended entries were also named – all the details are on the Prize website, including this video of yours truly talking through some of the leading candidates.

David Tiltman on some of the leading contenders (3:18)

Building a billion-dollar brand in little more than two years is no mean feat, and to do so in an established category is remarkable. The I Lohas case shows a marketer looking at all the assets at its disposal, including its own packaging and the ‘earned media’ it could generate.

The response to the Prize has been phenomenal. We had 135 entries from across Asia (all of them now published on the site). These were whittled down to a shortlist of 25, then 10 finalists. Choosing a winner was tough, but the 14 judges, led by Prize Chairman Miles Young (worldwide CEO at Ogilvy & Mather), did a sterling job in identifying the entry that best showcased brilliant strategic thinking.

From the start, we’ve said that we want to use the Prize to build up a resource for Asia’s marketing industry. We’ve made a start today, not just by publishing the 135 cases, but by using them as a base for further analysis. See the breakdown of Prize data, the notes from the judging, and our interviews with planners inside and outside Asia. Watch out for more analysis over the coming months.