LONDON – Campaigns for brands including BiP – Turkcell’s messaging and content app, chocolate brand M&M’s®, supermarket chain Sainsbury’s, powdered drink brand Tang and pre-mixed/ready-to-drink Vodka Cruiser are amongst the winners of the Effective Use of Partnerships & Sponsorships category of the global WARC Media Awards 2017, recognising communications planning which has made a positive impact on business results.
One Grand Prix, two Golds, three Silvers and three Bronzes as well as three Special Awards for particular areas of expertise, have been awarded in the Effective Use of Partnerships & Sponsorships category, which sets out to show how collaborations with third parties, including native advertising and sponsorships, have helped brands meet business goals.
Brazilian agency Almap BBDO is the Grand Prix winner for their ‘Do not watch Game of Thrones!’ campaign for which chocolate brand M&M’s® used sponsorship of Game of Thrones and amusing posts on social media to increase sales in Brazil.
M&M’s® wanted to increase its association with entertainment snacking, and especially ‘watching moments’. Its enormous popularity made TV show ‘Game of Thrones’ the ultimate ‘watching moment’, and so M&M’s® decided to sponsor the new series.
A mobile-first strategy saw M&M’s® characters declare war against Game of Thrones, urging people to avoid the show and save M&M’s®. Every week the characters went online to suggest things people could do instead of watching the show and shared fake spoilers to discourage fans.
People got into the spirit of the campaign, interacting with M&M’s® on social media, increasing M&M’s® association with watching movies and series, and increasing the brand’s value share to 3.3%.
Commenting on the Grand Prix winner, jury chair Jerry Daykin, Head of Global Digital Media Partnerships at Diageo, commented: “The M&M’s® activity pushed Game of Thrones with strong integration. So the two partners worked together to help each other’s objectives very strongly.”
A Gold has been awarded to PHD, United Kingdom, for ‘Batman Barges In’, whereby Warner Bros promoted its ‘The LEGO Batman Movie’ to people aged 16-34 in the UK by partnering with broadcaster Channel 4 to take over continuity announcements.
A second Gold has been won by independent media agency the7stars and Suzuki for ‘#SuzukiSaturdays’. Suzuki Cars UK achieved sales growth and brand recognition by partnering with UK broadcasting channel ITV’s Saturday Night Show.
All winners of WARC’s Media Awards 2017 – Effective Use of Partnerships & Sponsorships category are:
Grand Prix
- Do not watch Game of Thrones! · M&M’s® · Mars · Almap BBDO · Brazil
Gold
- Batman Barges In · The LEGO Batman Movie · Warner Bros. · PHD · United Kingdom
- #SuzukiSaturdays · Suzuki Cars · Suzuki GB · the7stars, Suzuki · United Kingdom + Successful Sponsorship Award
Silver
- Getting Gogglebox animated about Sainsbury’s Christmas food · Sainsbury’s · PHD · United Kingdom
- Touch of Magic · Tang · Mondelez International · Starcom Mediavest Pakistan · Pakistan
- Live on Facebook · Vodka Cruiser · Asahi Premium Beverages · Vizeum, The Story Lab · Australia + Collaboration with an Influencer Award
Bronze
- Ultimate Badger Beer Sheds · Badger Ales · Hall & Woodhouse · Joint, UNILAD · United Kingdom
- Reimagining “My Job, Your Job” · Petplan Insurance & The Secret Life of Pets · Allianz Insurance & Universal Pictures · Brand Culture, NOW · United Kingdom
- Habit Injection · BiP · Tukcell · BPN Istanbul · Turkey + Successful Sponsorship Award
To see the winning case studies or for more information on the global WARC Media Awards please view here
The winners of the Effective Use of Tech and Best Use of Data categories will be announced shortly.
WARC will be holding a free-to-attend ‘Lessons from the WARC Media Awards’ event in London on 6 February, where attendees can hear from winners and judges. Register here to attend.
