Global, 22 January 2019 — A campaign by Energy BBDO for American non-profit organisation, the National Safety Council, has won the Grand Prix and the Early Adopter Award in the Effective Use of Tech category of the 2018 WARC Media Awards.
The Prescribed to Death campaign raised awareness of prescription opioid overdose in the US with an innovative live experience supported by a multimedia campaign. Prescription opioids contribute to the deaths of more than 22,000 Americans each year. An NSC survey on drug abuse revealed that one in three Americans taking prescription opioids don’t even know they’re taking opioids, so the campaign targeted household health decision-makers and pain-sufferers.
The campaign launched opioid educational information on Facebook, developed ‘Warn Me’ labels for insurance cards and, using data and images of overdose victims, created a digital memorial wall and drove awareness via ads on social media, OOH and radio.
The campaign attracted close to 2.5 billion earned impressions, built recognition for the NSC and more than one million Americans put the labels on their insurance cards.
Ben Sutherland, Chief Digital Officer, Diageo, who was on the jury for the 2018 WARC Media Awards’ Effective Use of Tech category, commented on the Grand Prix winner: “The way they used the tech to demonstrate the mortality rate was really good. It was an incredibly emotive area and also very impactful — it’s everything I’d like my teams to be creating.”
A Silver and the Most Scalable Idea Award — for a tech-led idea with the scope to make an impact within its sector and, potentially, beyond — has been won by OMD Media Direction Russia, Media Direction Group. The agency took the silver for a multimedia campaign for ride-hailing service Uber that used its own ‘smart out-of-home’ system to grow penetration.
A Bronze and the Platform Pioneer Award –for how a brand found an innovative and effective way to use an existing platform — has been awarded to Colenso BBDO, MediaCom NZ for its Bank of New Zealand campaign The Most Prosperous ATM, in which a modified ATM was used, backed by a multimedia strategy, to transform the Chinese New Year experience and attract Chinese customers in New Zealand.
The full list of winners Effective Use of Tech category is available here.
The winners of the Effective Use of Partnerships & Sponsorships category will be announced shortly. The WARC Media Awards are a comprehensive set of awards rewarding pioneering communications planning which has made a positive impact on business results for brands around the world. The Grands Prix and Special Awards share a total prize fund of $40,000.
