LONDON, UK — The World Media Group, an alliance of leading global media organizations united in championing trusted journalism, announced Johnnie Walker as the Grand Prix winner of the 2022 World Media Awards.
The awards, supported by Smartology this year, are the only global awards to recognize brands, agencies, and media partners who, together, create the most effective cross-platform, cross-border, content-driven advertising campaigns.
Brands including Accenture, Citi, De Beers, Forbes, Hyundai, Lombard Odier, Mærsk, Reuters, Samsung / Samsung Galaxy, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Visit Sweden, and Volkswagen were amongst those receiving accolades for their impressive category entries this year during the awards celebration at the Ham Yard Hotel in London.
The Grand Prix-winning campaign from Johnnie Walker was built around a feature documentary directed by Amarachi Nwosu, which sets out to explore what the spirit of Keep Walking means for creative and change makers in Africa. The film features more than 20 defiantly optimistic voices from the artists, designers, and musicians shaping the cultural scene in Africa today. It delivers an insight into how fresh creative energy, sheer determination, and a pioneering spirit is bringing authentic African expression to the world.
“Despite a raft of strong contenders, the judges were unanimous when it came to voting for the Grand Prix. This disruptive campaign demonstrates the power of storytelling through content-driven advertising in the right media environment,” said World Media Group Chief Executive Belinda Barker. “It uses storytelling to reimagine how we see Africa and the creative renaissance taking place there, highlighting those who embody the spirit of Keep Walking by igniting collective progress across Africa.”
A panel of 37 senior jurors from leading international advertisers, agencies, and publishers co-chaired by Hamish Goulding, Head of Global Brand Strategy for HSBC, and Ritu Lakhanpal, Managing Partner, IPG MEDIA BRAND, were tasked with selecting winners from the many global submissions. The full list of judges can be seen here.
The full case studies for this year’s winning entries, along with the winners of previous years, are available to read in the World Media Group’s Creative Vault here.
The winners of the World Media Awards 2022 are as follows:
AUTOMOTIVE
Winner – The New Polo Challenger Series: Conquering New Stadiums
Brand: Volkswagen
Entered by: PHD Germany
Credits: Twitch, DDB/Voltage
Judges’ comments: The campaign addresses the issue of ad-blocking by its target market by going to where the younger audience is concentrated; the product is at the heart of the campaign.
CORPORATE INFLUENCER
Winner – The Upside Of Integrated Logistics
Brand: A.P. Moller – Mærsk,
Entered by: Havas Business
Credits: Creative Agency: &Co.
Judges’ comments: A creative use of media, beautifully integrated with an elegant internal and external application. The campaign demonstrates humour in a potentially dry category and achieves excellent results.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Winner – Revealing The Unexpected Value Of Nature
Brand: Lombard Odier Group
Entered by: Banque Lombard Odier & Cie SA
Credits: VMLY&R, Wavemaker, RS Solutions
Judges’ comments: A nice concept brought to life making the financial services category beautiful and interesting. The campaign stands out in the sea of the sameness; the choice of media highlighted the campaign and delivered results.
Highly Commended – Treasury & Turbulence – Sanctions: The Makers & The Breakers
Brand: Citi
Entered by: Euromoney Institutional Investor
Judges’ comments: This campaign creates emerging content for a niche audience but transferable to others and leveraged audio as distribution strategy.
LUXURY & LIFESTYLE
Winner – The Ones Who… Keep Walking
Brand: Johnnie Walker
Entered by: OMG Africa
Judges’ comments: A meaningful and disruptive campaign; a smart way to navigate regularity challenges and a strong brand alignment.
MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT
Winner – The Source
Brand: Reuters
Entered by: Reuters
Credits: VMLY&R
Judges’ comments: A highly competitive strategy. A strong sense of authenticity, a smart media mix based on strategy, using simple visuals, propelling the brand into the future.
Highly Commended – Spider-Man Swings To Global Success
Brand: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Entered by: OMD EMEA
Judges’ comments: A strong targeted strategy with a clear impressive result of being the most viewed trailer.
TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMS
Winner – The Phone Of The Year Captures The Man Of The Year
Brand: Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
Entered by: Starcom Worldwide
Credits: Conde Nast, Edelman
Judges’ comments: Smart integration of premium editorial and premium commercial strategy; strong distribution across all platforms.
Highly Commended – Creating Sustainably
Brand: Samsung
Entered by: T Brand, the content studio of New York Times Advertising
Judges’ comments: They found a unique angle to launch the campaign. A robust audience strategy as the backbone of the campaign and smart use of targeting.
TRAVEL & TOURISM
Winner – Discover The Originals
Brand: Visit Sweden
Entered by: Mindshare
Credits: Forsman & Bodenfors, Hill+Knowlton, B-Reel Films, Ljudbyrån
Judges’ comments: A clever device that made people engage, comment and amplify the campaign, and possibly add Sweden to the bucket list! A real crowd pleaser and perfectly on brand.
GRAND PRIX
Winner – The Ones Who… Keep Walking
Brand: Johnnie Walker
Entered by: OMG Africa
SPECIAL CATEGORIES:
BRAND & MEDIA OWNER PARTNERSHIP
Winner – Okavango Eternal
Brand: De Beers Group
Entered by: National Geographic
Judges’ comments: Brave and innovative way to talk about addressing brand perception head on, potentially a controversial issue. Highlights a new topic and is educational. Played to strong sustainability.
Highly Commended – Accenture Exchange Series And Partner Content
Brand: Accenture
Entered by: Financial Times
Credits: UM
Judges’ comments: A thoughtful insight-led, multiplatform strategy with longevity.
SOCIAL GOOD
Winner – Journey To Ithaca
Brand: Hyundai
Entered by: BBC Studios (BBC StoryWorks)
Credits: Havas Media Germany, Innocean Worldwide
Judges’ comments: A well-considered, well-executed campaign that generated a genuine positive and demonstratable impact for Hyundai and Ithaca. The project paves the standard for sustainable short-form content production at the BBC.
Highly Commended – State Of Black Entrepreneurship
Brand: For(bes) the Culture
Entered by: Forbes
Judges’ comments: The project is highly commended for its ambition to rewrite history through the use of media today and going forwards.
RISING STAR
Winner – Ella Solomon
Wavemaker
Judges’ comments: Ella really impressed us with her entrepreneurial and sustainable efforts. She behaves as a leader in her agency and community. As such, we are keen to see where this takes her and expect Ella to help our industry progress on her net zero agenda.
Highly Commended –
Aimee Carpenter
Carat UK
Cristina Correa
POLITICO Europe
Georgina Marshall
BBC Studios (BBC Global News Advertising Sales)
Judges’ comments: All highly competent and an asset to their organisations. We fully expect to hear more about all over the next few years.
CONTENT LEADERSHIP & INNOVATION
This award is for the individual recognised by peers for their talent in creating exemplary content-driven campaigns with brand bravery, creativity and innovation.
Winner – Khaled AlShehhi, Executive Director of Marketing and Communication for the UAE Government Media Office
