Kan Khajura Tesan wins Grand Prix at Warc 2014

HUL's mobile innovation won a prize worth $5,000 at Warc 2014. Seven other Indian entries have also won accolades. Overall, of the 19 papers from eight markets that picked up Gold, Silver and Bronze awards, India led the pack with eight.

Hindustan Unilever's award-winning mobile campaign Kan Khajura Tesan (KKT) has won yet another award - the Grand Prix at the '2014 Warc Prize for Asian Strategy'. Marketing intelligence service Warc awarded team KKT a $5,000 prize at an event held in Singapore last week. The same entry has also scooped up a prize worth $1,250, the Asia First Special Award, one that recognises insight and strategy.

KKT is HUL's radio station for media dark areas. The campaign was conceptualised by creative agency Lowe Lintas and media agency PHD.

At Warc 2014, the Grand Prix-winning 'paper' was authored by Anaheeta Goenka, executive director, Lowe Lintas + Partners and Abhijit Panicker, senior brand services director at the agency. The paper describes exactly how KKT was created and how it works (http://www.afaqs.com/news/story/41226_Kan-Khajura-Tesan:-The-Full-Story). The service gained 24 million calls and eight million unique users in six months.

"The Kan Khajura paper was a clear winner," said Freddy Bharucha, chief marketing officer of Procter & Gamble Asia and chairman of Judges for the 2014 Prize, "The reason is that it started with the consumer. How do you reach and engage a consumer who does not see most of the media that are out there? The results were very strong, but it all started with a rich media insight that led to the creation of a media platform. It allowed the brand to engage consumers in a very entertaining way."

Of 19 papers from eight markets that picked up Gold, Silver and Bronze awards, India led the pack with eight winning entries.

Gran Prix-puller KKT, of course, is one of them. The other seven include:

One Gold - won by Ogilvy & Mather and Akanksha Foundation (for 'The Akanksha Foundation: How a brand got celebrities to work for it for free').

Three Silvers - won by Ogilvy & Mather and Google (for 'How Google Search brought hope to 1.4 billion people'), Wieden + Kennedy and Procter & Gamble (for 'Old Spice Smell Mantastic: Local relevance on a limited budget') and McCann Worldgroup and Coca-Cola (for 'Coca-Cola: Adding fizz to the Indian family meal time'.

Three Bronze awards - won by Geometry Global and HUL (for 'Lifebuoy Soap: Roti - The unlikely reminder'), BBDO Singapore, PHD and HP India (for 'Hewlett Packard: Ink Advantage - Help your child shine') and Publicis and JK Helene Curtis (for 'Park Avenue Beer Shampoo: Stealing a lead from the giants in men's hair care').

"This year the spread of entries - in terms of the companies entering, the markets represented, and the types of activity being discussed - was wider than ever," said David Tiltman, Warc's head of content, "That's a sign of the growing importance of smart strategic thinking within Asian marketing."