BC & F Dentsu wins five medals at the 2019 Effie Awards APAC

The results of the "Asia-Pacific (APAC) Effie Awards 2019" (※1), which compete on the effectiveness of marketing communication activities under the theme "Effectiveness Always Wins," were announced on April 25.

Barnes Catmur & Friends Dentsu (BC&F Dentsu) (※2), a Dentsu Group company based in Auckland, New Zealand, won five awards including a Gold and was ranked third in the "Agency of the Year" category, which selects the agency achieving the highest effectiveness.

*1 The Effie Awards were established in 1968 by the New York American Marketing Association and are recognized as the global standard for marketing effectiveness. The APAC Effie Awards are the Asian edition. In 2019, 131 finalists were selected from 14 participating countries.

※2 A major New Zealand integrated advertising agency established in 1996, now part of Dentsu Inc. It provides comprehensive services encompassing advertising strategy development, creative production, media buying, and digital and social media.

 

BC&F Dentsu's award-winning entries this year are as follows.

■ "The Face of Change" Movember Foundation - Gold Award 1 (Small Budget - Services), Bronze Award 1 (Governmental / Institutional)

New Zealand is known as the country with the world's highest youth suicide rate. How can we help boys who find it difficult to speak up? We proposed encouraging them to express themselves by participating in charity activities and raising awareness about men's mental health.

The campaign chosen this time is for the charity organization "Movember." Movember is a unique charity where growing a mustache (mos) in November (November) is the participation requirement. It functions as a male equivalent of the pink ribbon movement, using the mustache as a symbol of growth and maturity. The charity's work is wide-ranging: spreading accurate knowledge about prostate cancer, supporting treatment, improving depression, enhancing men's overall health, and also focusing on preventing youth suicide.

To enable young people to participate, they sent letters to principals of high schools across New Zealand, requesting the removal of "no beards" clauses from school rules. To ensure schools wouldn't ignore these letters, they also published the content in newspapers, strategically seeking public support.

As a result, donations reached a record $1.7 million, a 40% increase from the previous year. These funds are slated to support Movember's charitable activities.

■ "Declaring War on Norway" Meridian Energy - Bronze 2 (Other Products & Services, Positive Change Environmental - Brands)

New Zealand and Norway are roughly comparable in size and population. While often compared, the general perception is that New Zealand leads in many areas. In response, Norway launched an offensive against New Zealand by highlighting its own strengths, stating, "Norway has over 20 times more electric vehicles than New Zealand."

In response, Meridian Energy, New Zealand's state-owned electricity company, launched a humorous campaign to "fight back." They produced vehicle stickers reading "My next car will be electric" – originally created by Norway as part of their own promotion. This gained significant attention, including a tweet from the CEO of the Norwegian EV Association.

Through this campaign, the company's Net Promoter Score (※3) tripled, and it acquired more new customers than the combined total of several competitors.

※3 A metric used to gauge customer intent to continue using a product

 

■ "How Tower Simplified Insurance" Tower Insurance - Bronze 1 (Single Market – Products & Services Categories: Financial Products & Services)

Tower Insurance launched an advertising campaign to dispel the image of insurance as complicated and cumbersome. Under the tagline "What the world does. We undo." (What the world breaks, we fix), it communicated a brand strategy that customers could perceive as simple, understandable, and relatable. This was achieved through visuals showing broken items being rewound and restored to their original state, and through outdoor advertisements that appeared half-destroyed.

Dick van Motman, CEO of DAN Global (Dentsu Inc.'s overseas network) and head of the creative division, commented: "Dentsu Inc.'s DNA is 'creativity that delivers results'. BC & F Dentsu is one of the offices within our network that truly understands this. Their win immediately after the Dentsu Group was named Network of the Year at ADFEST proves our mission."

Murray Streets, Managing Director of BC & F Dentsu, added, "On behalf of the entire team, I am immensely proud of this victory achieved by everyone at the agency. While we have been named the top independent agency in APAC three times, joining the Dentsu Inc. network has enabled us to achieve even greater growth."