SINGAPORE — For this year’s APAC Effie Awards, Leo Burnett Mumbai won big by playing on the opposite ends of India’s social spectrum with campaigns addressing an unwelcome taboo and an absurdly engaging superstition. The agency joined the evening’s big winners with several trophies under its name, specifically five Golds, three finalist slots, and second place in the Agency of the Year award.
Its most award-winning work for this year’s show was the “Changing Education to Keep Girls in School” campaign for Procter & Gamble’s Whisper brand, receiving Golds for the Beauty & Wellness, Experiential Marketing – Products, and Positive Change Social Good Brands – Products categories, as well as a finalist place for the Sustained Success – Products category.
The project aimed to correct the cultural taboo surrounding menstruation in India, an alarming issue that has caused over 23 million girls to drop out of school at the onset of puberty, according to the campaign’s case study. Historically, this has been driven by young girls not knowing what to do when they get their first period, and not having anybody to talk to because of Indian society’s general discomfort around the topic, resulting in girls being so afraid and panicked, that they opt to just discontinue their education.
With Procter & Gamble and Whisper, Leo Burnett Mumbai worked to educate young girls by releasing “The Missing Chapter” in schools across the country, an educational chapter explaining the biology behind periods. Amplified by media pickups and social media movements, the campaign banded 12 million voices together to spread awareness on the subject.
As a result, India’s national leaders finally took notice and implemented change, officially adding the chapter into school curriculums and opening up conversations to eliminate the taboo.
Leo Burnett Mumbai also scored two Golds for its “Can A Cookie Help India Win A World Cup?” campaign for Mondelez India’s Oreo brand under the Carpe Diem – Product and Events categories. It also scored a finalist spot under the Influencer category.
The #BringBack2011 entry is a fun campaign that builds on this superstition: “In 2011, India won the World Cricket Cup. But first, Oreo launched in India in 2011.”
With this, the whole campaign revolved around repeating history to reclaim the Cup for India, starting with Oreo relaunching in the country “for the first time.” The project was engaging enough that it enticed the rest of India to join in on the fun: an author rereleased his 2011 book, a news publication reprinted its 2011 front page, and so many more. And in an unexpected turn of events, history started repeating itself on the field with wins and losses identical to 2011 events gracing sports news once again.
Garnering 2.6 billion impressions and $30 million of earned media, the brand effectively took over the conversation surrounding the World Cricket Cup without sponsoring the event or paying for placement.
On top of these wins, Leo Burnett Mumbai also received a finalist recognition for Spotify India with its “Spotify’s Three-Year Race to Category Leader” campaign.
The agency’s award-winning work for Oreo and Whisper illustrates what it means to create advertising work that is strategically sound, socially relevant, and evidently effective — key elements that have earned the agency its well-deserved Gold trophies at the 2023 APAC Effie Awards, and its place as a runner up for the coveted Agency of the Year title.
With this, Leo Burnett Mumbai has once again championed marketing effectiveness with the Effie Awards’ focus on “ideas that work” and “results that matter.”
View the full list of winners here.
adobo Magazine is an official media partner of the 2023 APAC Effie Awards.
