Carat was the big winner at last week's Internationalist and Festival of Media Asia Pacific Awards, both recognizing Innovation in Media.
Carat US picked up two Gold Internationalist awards for MasterCard's Priceless Table and Evian's #EvianBottleService campaigns. Carat Hong Kong won the coveted Internationalist Grand Prix award for the emotional MasterCard's Mother's Day campaign.
Carat China also won big at the Festival of Media Asia awards, walking away with the Gold award for their "Play Together" Oreo mobile campaign.
Congratulations to the teams who worked on the campaigns and continue to Redefine Media and deliver real business results for our clients. Summaries of the winning campaigns are included below:
MasterCard Priceless Table
To reinvigorate its Stand Up To Cancer partnership and to evolve MasterCard's brand positioning, Carat helped MasterCard enable priceless moments and meaningful experiences for cardholders. When restaurant-goers paid with their MasterCard, the brand donated to SU2C. To drive top-of-wallet behaviour among consumers, Carat partnered with Posterscope to create a truly Priceless experience for consumers by building a high-end restaurant located high above the neon lights of Time Square on top of a billboard. Priceless Table generated a unique and shareable experience that captured the spirit of New York and the attention of the nation. It was a ground-breaking activation that reinvented how we use out-of-home and amplified that experience socially and through radio to drive exponential exposure. Using a strategic partner ecosystem to drive awareness of Priceless Table, cardholders booked reservations through OpenTable and enjoyed a five-star meal catered by world-famous chef Marcus Samuelsson. In total, MasterCard donated $4 million to SU2C. During the promotion, MasterCard's growth in the dining category grew more than 2.5X greater than the competition, shattering the industry's 3.9% average growth for credit cards within the restaurant category.
Evian #EvianBottleService
Despite being the Premium Water category leader throughout the 80's and 90's, Evian steadily lost market share in the 00's to 12% overall share. To win over Millennials, Evian drove trial through a social media-powered sampling event in NYC to provide VIP experiences in such a way that consumers shared their experiences with peers. On a hot day in August, Evian offered VIP "bottle service" to whoever tweeted to the brand's pink bicycle-riding, chic Parisian-styled street team. Messages were pushed out encouraging users to tweet #EvianBottleService in order to get a free bottle of Evian delivered right to them, served on a silver platter. Evian generated 2.9 million impressions, engaged more than 75,000 Millennials and brought in more than 1,100 new followers.
MasterCard Mother's Day
Mother's Day has become increasingly commercialized, but MasterCard asked consumers to share stories of their mother for a chance to win a Priceless experience for her on Mother's Day. The winning family revealed how they grew up poor in the 1950s and would celebrate New Year's by going to the movies, squeezing into a couple of seats to save money. Realizing it's been 20 years since their mom went to the movies, the children wanted to give her a Priceless surprise and show her she's the lead actress in their family story. MasterCard invited the family to the theatre and revealed a heartfelt surprise: photos and family videos played during intermission, followed by speeches from the children letting their mom know how much she was loved and appreciated. Adding to the surprise, MasterCard gave the entire family a Priceless dining experience at the Spring Moon Chinese Restaurant in Hong Kong's Peninsula Hotel. More than 35,000 Mother's Day conversations were created on Facebook and MasterCard's Hong Kong Facebook fan base increased 325% in three weeks.
Oreo Play Together
Chinese parents and younger people are finding it more difficult to spend quality time with their loved ones. Fast paced modern lifestyles had hindered the deep, personal connections that Oreo values. In order to be a catalyst for childlike moments of connection, Oreo wanted people in China to Play Together, simply by using their mobile phones.
Working with China’s biggest mobile platform WeChat, Carat and Mondelez enabled people to create and share Oreo ‘Emojies’ – animated digital templates that allow people to play with their own face and the face of someone they care about. On-pack redemption codes unlocked new content and extra Emojies to drive sales. Outdoor placements were built for people to use their mobile as a remote control to display and print Emojies as stickers. Bus stops were turned into Oreo Play Zones, where people could use WeChat to display their Emojies and print them as stickers. The Emojie craze spread like wildfire, even making it onto TV entertainment news after celebrities posted their own personal Oreo Emojies via social media.
In just five weeks, 25 million Emojies were created, out of which three million were shared with friends and family directly from WeChat. The campaign generated 1.7 billion impressions across all the leading social networks in China, including WeChat and Weibo – best proof that China’s appetite for those childlike moments of connection was insatiable. It also saw 330,000 redemptions, worth $1m, all of which led to 50% sales growth for Oreo.
