Four Indian advertisers win at Internationalist Awards for innovation

Godrej's GoJiyo campaign by Customer Centria, Siemens' Dialogue Engagement by RK Swamy BBDO/Digital Direction, HSBC India's IPL sponsorship on YouTube and Maruti Suzuki's 'iSerial Stars' by Lintas bagged awards.

At the recently held Internationalist Awards, four Indian advertisers won awards for innovative digital marketing solutions.

Godrej's GoJiyo campaign by Customer Centria managed to bag one silver. GoJiyo is a 3D virtual world where users can interact with one another, creating an experience which combines online gaming and social networking in the context of the brand, in order to create a memorable engagement and help position the company as younger and more vibrant.

Dialogue Engagement by RK Swamy BBDO/ Digital Direction India won a silver metal for India.

World Water Day and World Environment Day were chosen as the foundations for creating awareness through the particular campaign. The campaign focused on CSR, creating an eBook and a microsite in partnership with Web18 to focus on water conservation. A live chat on NDTV.com and an energy summit with Hindustan Times during the World Environment Week rounded out the campaign.

HSBC India's IPL sponsorship on YouTube managed the third silver.

Given the popularity of the Indian Premier League, HSBC looked at capitalising on it in an affordable fashion. The company also wanted to establish an online presence for HSBC India, and so advertising on the live webcasts of the IPL telecast on YouTube meant that not only did it reach its target group, but also spread online branding.

Finally, Maruti Suzuki's 'iSerial Stars' by Lintas managed to bag a bronze for India. Maruti Suzuki iSerial Star was a combination of online soap opera emerging out of a talent show. Each element of the soap - actors, directors, writers - was chosen through an online talent hunt on Ibibo.com.

The activity created tremendous buzz and also built strong recall and interaction with Maruti Suzuki as the videos received more than 2 million views. People voted for their favourite writers, directors and actors and shared links beyond the expectations of the advertisers.

The awards were based on criteria such as innovative use of media, breakthrough communication thinking, tactical elements for solving marketing problems through media strategy, demonstrating sustained cross cultural understanding of marketing issues and providing solutions worthy of world class standards.

The winning case studies will form a part of the teaching material at the Oxford University for its Business School programme.

The awards, held in New York, were instituted by the Internationalist magazine and recognise digital campaigns that change the way marketing can connect with the audience and involve winners across the globe.