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Mindshare dominates Mobile Marketing Association’s APAC Smarties awards

GroupM’s Mindshare was a clear winner at the Mobile Marketing Association’s Smarties APAC awards, held in Singapore on November 9.

Entering the contest with the largest number of shortlists — 35 of the 88 entries that made it to the final round of judging — Mindshare won 24 trophies including ‘Agency of the Year’ for China and ‘Network of the Year’ for the APAC region.

The bulk of the trophies were won for work on Uniqlo from Mindshare China and Rexona from Mindshare Indonesia.

Uniqlo was judged ‘Advertiser of the Year’ and Unilever was deemed to be ‘Marketer of the Year’. Other key winners included Toaster for Google Maps, Interaction 1 for Indian political party Makkal Needhi Maiam and WAT Consult for Mahindra Rise/Project Nanhi Kali.

Speaking to Mumbrella, Mindshare’s Asia-Pacific chief executive officer and executive chair for Greater China Amrita Randhawa said: “The work we are doing with clients today has transformed from what might be traditional media agency territory.

“Whether it’s working on go to market strategies like e-commerce or planning for how a brand’s purpose comes alive, our engagement with clients and the body of work is expansive.

“It naturally leads to being able to have work that we consider good across a range of categories; and being able to put that forward to see if it stacks up with the best of the best from everyone else.”

The entries Mindshare submitted were taken from the best entries in its internal campaign of the month competition.

Randhawa added: “I really loved the fact that work from across our region was recognised. We had a couple of dominant campaigns, but the agency won for work from India to Indonesia to China. It shows that the depth of the network is strong.”

Elaborating on Mindshare’s approach to mobile, she said: “The customer journey is first. Is what we are trying to do natural within the context of that journey?

“A force fit never works. Are we using it to connect an online journey to offline seamlessly? Are we using it to help consumers make easier choices?”

MMA’s managing director for the Asia-Pacific Rohit Dadwal said: “It is encouraging to see industry players bringing their A-game as data connectivity becomes more widespread across APAC.”

Procter & Gamble’s associate director for brand building and integrated communications Dominique Touchaud, who was on the Smarties jury this year, said: “This year’s winners exhibited strategies that make the best of the existing mobile marketing landscape.

“Their campaigns were original and showcased creative concepts and innovative technology that led to real business impact.”

The jury at the Smarties this year included:

  • Dhiren Amin, Kraft Heinz head of marketing and research & development for South East Asia
  • Anupama Biswas, Kellogg APAC regional director for digital acceleration, media and analytics
  • Sapna Chadha, Google head of marketing for India and Southeast Asia
  • Rohit Dadwal, Mobile Marketing Association Asia managing director
  • Richa Goswami, Johnson & Johnson APAC chief total brand experience officer
  • Graham Kelly, Origniate founder
  • Sea Yen Ong, Spotify regional head of sales for South East Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan
  • David Porter, Unilever vice-president of global media Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Turkey and Russia
  • Matthias Schuecking, Schuecking consulting director
  • Cassandra Tan, Kantar Millward Brown director
  • Josephine Tan, McDonald’s global media director
  • Dominique Touchaud, P&G Asia associate director for brand building and integrated communications
  • Pham Nha Uyen, Coca-Cola Indochina regional marketing manager
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