Warc launched 2017 Innovation Awards

Cristina Blanaru Ads, Creativity

Warc launched its 2017 Innovation Awards, a global search for effective innovation in marketing with a $10,000 cash prize fund for the winning papers.

The Warc Innovation Awards seek innovative strategies that might use new technology, or familiar technology in a new way. A winning entry might show how a brand’s products or services were transformed, or show how innovative thinking disrupted category conventions.

“The need for brands to evolve and innovate has never been more critical,” according to Jeremy Basset, head of Unilever Foundry and chair of last year’s judging panel.

Now in its fifth year, the competition is free to enter and open to all forms of marketing and communications from any country. Entrants must submit a case study of marketing innovation that delivered tangible results for a brand.

The work should have been in-market at any time between January 1 2015 and January 11 2017, with full entry details and entry form available here. The deadline for entries is January 12th 2017.

Several judges have already been appointed to this year’s panel, including:

  • Bill Cecil, Director, Silicon Valley Office at State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, USA
  • Frances Ralston-Good, CEO, Hearts & Science, United Kingdom
  • Lizzie Shupak, Head of Innovation, DigitasLBi, United Kingdom
  • Lucie Greene, Worldwide Director, The Innovation Group at J. Walter Thompson New York, USA
  • Mike Medeiros, SVP, Executive Strategy Director at McCann New York, USA
  • Roland Harwood, Co-founder and Managing Director of 100%Open, United Kingdom
  • Will Harvey, Innovation Lead for VCCP Partnership, United Kingdom
  • Will Higham, behavioural futurist and founder of Next Big Thing, United Kingdom

More judges will be announced in coming months. They will decide which entries will be awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze awards. The Grand Prix for the best overall paper will receive $5,000. Warc will also present five $1,000 Special Awards that recognise specific areas of excellence: innovation in a product or service, channel innovation, category innovation, co-created innovation and innovation in a not-profit-campaign.

“The Innovation Awards is an exciting global competition that recognises the role played by innovative thinking in achieving best business results,” says Lucy Aitken, Case Study Editor at Warc.

All winning entries will be published and promoted in the Warc Innovation Casebook 2017, Warc’s annual report on the world’s freshest communication ideas.

The 2016 Innovation Awards Grand Prix was won by Bediz Eker and Arif Emre Perçin of Y&R Team Red Istanbul for ‘Between Us’, a campaign for Vodafone Turkey which addressed the issue of domestic violence, and which the judges described as clever, powerful and true innovation.

Warc.com is an online service offering advertising best practice, evidence and insights from the world’s leading brands. Warc helps clients grow their businesses by using proven approaches to maximise advertising effectiveness. Warc’s clients include the world’s largest advertising and media agencies, advertisers, research companies and universities.

Warc also publishes leading journals including Admap, Market Leader, the Journal of Advertising Research and the International Journal of the Market Research Society. In addition to its own content, Warc features advertising case studies and best practices from more than 50 respected industry sources, including: ARF, Effies, Cannes Lions, ESOMAR and IPA. Warc hosts three annual case study competitions: Warc Prize for Innovation, Warc Prize for Social Strategy and Warc Prize for Asian Strategy. Founded in 1985, Warc is privately owned and has offices in the UK, U.S. and Singapore.