The WARC Awards 2018, an annual International case-study competition in search of the smartest campaigns that best use emerging marketing disciplines, is now open for entries.
Organised by WARC, the global authority on advertising and media effectiveness, the WARC Awards are free to enter and are open to submissions from any country and communications discipline. Work can be entered into four categories, each one with its own high calibre judging panel and set of Special Awards.
Effective Use of Brand Purposecategoryis for marketing initiatives that have successfully embraced a brand purpose and achieved commercial success as well as a benefit for a wider community. This category will be chaired by Claudia Willvonseder, CMO, IKEA. Claudia’s main goals are to position the IKEA brand in all its markets and to mastermind the digital and data-driven marketing transformation of the brand. Additionally she inspires and encourages the 700 marketeers across the markets with whom she works.
Effective Innovation recognises innovative thinking that has transformed a business or disrupted category conventions to deliver tangible results. Christopher Yu, Vice President, Integrated Marketing Strategy, Innovation, and Technology, U.S. Bank has been appointed jury chair. Christopher collaborates with teams across the company to define the digital and direct marketing roadmap for the enterprise, focusing on new opportunities to optimise customer experience and improve marketing results.
Effective Social Strategy, a search for the most effective campaigns that link social strategy to business success, will be chaired by Elizabeth Windram, Director, Brand and Advertising, JetBlue Airways. Elizabeth joined US airlineJetBlue as its Director, Brand and Advertising in February 2016. During her tenure so far, she has been responsible for, among other memorable campaigns, FlyBabies and Reach Across The Aisle, which took a gold and a bronze respectively in the 2017 WARC Awards / Effective Social Strategy category. Elizabeth was named one of Adweek’s Brand Genius Winners in 2016.
Effective Content Strategy, which rewards branded content strategies that can demonstrate a business outcome, will be chaired by John Dokes, Global Chief Marketing Officer and General Manager, AccuWeather Network. John oversees strategic branding and marketing of the largest and fastest growing weather media company in the world. With over 25 years of experience in digital and traditional marketing and a history of driving multi-million dollar revenue gains, he has worked with world-renowned brands including Marvel Entertainment and MTV Networks – Viacom.
Lucy Aitken, Case Study Editor, WARC, comments: “Winning a WARC Award is a sign that you are ahead of the curve – mastering new techniques and delivering business results for clients.
“As such, we welcome and look forward to working with our high-calibre jury chairs who will be searching for best-in-class campaigns which focus on next-generation marketing effectiveness.”
There is a $40,000 prize fund for thewinning papers, spread across the four categories. The top entries will be awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze awards. TheGrand Prix for the best overall paper in each category will receive $7,000 and three Special Awards in each category, recognising specific areas of excellence, will be presented with $1,000.
Entry deadline is 12 February 2018.
