Ogilvy and BBDO do India proud at AME 2013

Ogilvy bagged a silver for its work for Vodafone, while BBDO won a bronze for its Gillette campaign.

The results of the 11th edition of the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Festival are out and two Indian agencies have come home victorious. While Ogilvy India won a silver award, BBDO India won a bronze award.

Ogilvy India won its silver in the 'Financial Services, Commercial Public Services, Business Products & Services' category for its 'Made for You' campaign for Vodafone India. BBDO India won its bronze in the 'Most Effective Use of Public Relations' category for its 'Everyday Soldier' campaign for P&G's Gillette.

Ogilvy's winning campaign for Vodafone was aimed at increasing the brand's revenue. Though Vodafone is a very popular brand, it was found that its users were not spending much. The big question for the team was how to get value conscious consumers to spend more and consequently increase the company's revenue.

The answer was simple - to focus on how the product could be better suited to individual consumer needs. The insight here was that consumers seldom hesitate before spending a little bit more than planned if the result is a product that is personalised to their needs. Aptly titled 'Made for You' the campaign bore favourable results: The usage plans of 22 per cent of Vodafone's user base (35 million users) were personalised and the revenue generated from it increased three times over.

For BBDO, it was its effort on Gillette, a very 'winning account' as previous records suggest, that did the trick. The brand problem was that barring its young loyalists, Gillette was being perceived as superficial and shallow by many, especially those for whom having stubble meant an expression of manliness.

The agency then developed a campaign that strengthened the brand's inner manliness -- its values of courage, integrity and discipline. The Indian army jawan was perceived to embody these virtues perfectly. The 'Everyday Soldier' campaign drew attention to these very qualities in the Indian civilian male. A robust multimedia campaign later, the brand sold 12.3 million razors in a single quarter, reaching the highest market share for Gillette in India at 50.6 per cent.

Overall, BBDO, an agency that has significant presence in India, won the Network of the Year award at this year's AME.

At the AME 2012, Indian agencies had performed noticeably better. BBDO India's Shave Sutra campaign won three metals, including a gold, a silver and a bronze. Wieden+Kennedy won a gold metal for IndiGo's 'Coolest Airline' campaign, in the Best Sustained Success category. Lastly, Ogilvy India won three metals, including one silver (Cadbury) and two bronzes.

The AME Awards recognise marketing strategies that are both creative and successful. The two-day festival is a collaboration between the Lions Festivals and Haymarket and witnesses participation from marketing, advertising and media industry executives.

This year, 10 Indians were on the 50-member jury panel of the AME, eight of whom are India-based, while three are based in Southeast Asia.

The awards show was held on May 8-9 at Shanghai, China.