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World Media Awards announces 2022 winners

The World Media Group, an alliance of global media organisations united in championing trusted journalism, has announced its 2022 World Media Awards winners, including Johnnie Walker as the Grand Prix winner.

World Media Awards announces 2022 winners
Belinda Barker: “Despite a raft of strong contenders, the judges were unanimous when it came to voting for the Grand Prix.”

The awards, supported by Smartology this year, are global awards to recognise brands, agencies and media partners who, together, create the most effective cross platform, cross border, content-driven advertising campaigns, says World Media Awards.

Speaking of the awards they continued, brands including Accenture, Citi, De Beers, Forbes, Hyundai, Lombard Odier, Mærsk, Reuters, Samsung / Samsung Galaxy, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Visit Sweden and Volkswagen were amongst those receiving accolades for their category entries this year during the awards celebration at the Ham Yard Hotel in London.

The Grand Prix-winning campaign from Johnnie Walker, they expanded, which also won the Luxury & Lifestyle category, was built around a feature documentary directed by Amarachi Nwosu, which sets out to explore what the spirit of Keep Walking means for creative and change makers in Africa. The film features more than 20 defiantly optimistic voices from the artists, designers and musicians shaping the cultural scene in Africa today. It delivers an insight into how fresh creative energy, sheer determination, and a pioneering spirit is bringing authentic African expression to the world.

“Despite a raft of strong contenders, the judges were unanimous when it came to voting for the Grand Prix. This disruptive campaign demonstrates the power of storytelling through content-driven advertising in the right media environment,” said Belinda Barker, chief executive of the World Media Group. “It uses storytelling to reimagine how we see Africa and the creative renaissance taking place there, highlighting those who embody the spirit of Keep Walking by igniting collective progress across Africa.”

According to the World Media Awards, a panel of 37 senior jurors from international advertisers, agencies and publishers co-chaired by Hamish Goulding, head of global brand strategy for HSBC and Ritu Lakhanpal, managing partner, IPG MEDIA BRAND, were tasked with selecting winners from the many global submissions. The full list of judges can be seen here.

The full case studies for this year’s winning entries, along with the winners of previous years, are available to read in the World Media Group's Creative Vault here.

The winners of the World Media Awards 2022 are as follows:

AUTOMOTIVE

Winner – The New Polo Challenger Series: Conquering New Stadiums

Brand: Volkswagen

Entered by: PHD Germany

Credits: Twitch, DDB/Voltage

Judges’ comments: “The campaign addresses the issue of ad-blocking by its target market by going to where the younger audience is concentrated; the product is at the heart of the campaign.”

CORPORATE INFLUENCER

Winner – The Upside Of Integrated Logistics

Brand: A.P. Moller – Mærsk,

Entered by: Havas Business

Credits: Creative Agency: &Co.

Judges’ comments: “A creative use of media, beautifully integrated with an elegant internal and external application. The campaign demonstrates humour in a potentially dry category and achieves excellent results.”

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Winner – Revealing The Unexpected Value Of Nature

Brand: Lombard Odier Group

Entered by: Banque Lombard Odier & Cie SA

Credits: VMLY&R, Wavemaker, RS Solutions

Judges’ comments: “A nice concept brought to life making the financial services category beautiful and interesting. The campaign stands out in the sea of the sameness; the choice of media highlighted the campaign and delivered results.”

Highly Commended – Treasury & Turbulence - Sanctions: The Makers & The Breakers

Brand: Citi

Entered by: Euromoney Institutional Investor

Judges’ comments: “This campaign creates emerging content for a niche audience but transferable to others and leveraged audio as distribution strategy.”

LUXURY & LIFESTYLE

Winner – The Ones Who... Keep Walking

Brand: Johnnie Walker

Entered by: OMG Africa

Judges’ comments: “A meaningful and disruptive campaign; a smart way to navigate regularity challenges and a strong brand alignment.”

MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

Winner – The Source

Brand: Reuters

Entered by: Reuters

Credits: VMLY&R

Judges’ comments: “A highly competitive strategy. A strong sense of authenticity, a smart media mix based on strategy, using simple visuals, propelling the brand into the future.”

Highly Commended – Spider-Man Swings To Global Success

Brand: Sony Pictures Entertainment

Entered by: OMD EMEA

Judges’ comments: “A strong targeted strategy with a clear impressive result of being the most viewed trailer.”

TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMS

Winner – The Phone Of The Year Captures The Man Of The Year

Brand: Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra

Entered by: Starcom Worldwide

Credits: Conde Nast, Edelman

Judges’ comments: “Smart integration of premium editorial and premium commercial strategy; strong distribution across all platforms.”

Highly Commended – Creating Sustainably

Brand: Samsung

Entered by: T Brand, the content studio of New York Times Advertising

Judges’ comments: “They found a unique angle to launch the campaign. A robust audience strategy as the backbone of the campaign and smart use of targeting.”

TRAVEL & TOURISM

Winner – Discover The Originals

Brand: Visit Sweden

Entered by: Mindshare

Credits: Forsman & Bodenfors, Hill+Knowlton, B-Reel Films, Ljudbyrån

Judges’ comments: “A clever device that made people engage, comment and amplify the campaign, and possibly add Sweden to the bucket list! A real crowd pleaser and perfectly on brand.”

GRAND PRIX

Winner – The Ones Who... Keep Walking

Brand: Johnnie Walker

Entered by: OMG Africa

SPECIAL CATEGORIES:

BRAND & MEDIA OWNER PARTNERSHIP

Winner – Okavango Eternal

Brand: De Beers Group

Entered by: National Geographic

Judges’ comments: “Brave and innovative way to talk about addressing brand perception head on, potentially a controversial issue. Highlights a new topic and is educational. Played to strong sustainability.”

Highly Commended – Accenture Exchange Series And Partner Content

Brand: Accenture

Entered by: Financial Times

Credits: UM

Judges’ comments: “A thoughtful insight-led, multiplatform strategy with longevity.”

SOCIAL GOOD

Winner – Journey To Ithaca

Brand: Hyundai

Entered by: BBC Studios (BBC StoryWorks)

Credits: Havas Media Germany, Innocean Worldwide

Judges’ comments: “A well-considered, well-executed campaign that generated a genuine positive and demonstratable impact for Hyundai and Ithaca. The project paves the standard for sustainable short-form content production at the BBC.”

Highly Commended – State Of Black Entrepreneurship

Brand: For(bes) the Culture

Entered by: Forbes

Judges’ comments: “The project is highly commended for its ambition to rewrite history through the use of media today and going forwards.”

RISING STAR

Winner – Ella Solomon, Wavemaker

Judges’ comments: “Ella really impressed us with her entrepreneurial and sustainable efforts. She behaves as a leader in her agency and community. As such, we are keen to see where this takes her and expect Ella to help our industry progress on her net zero agenda.”

Highly Commended –

Aimee Carpenter, Carat UK

Cristina Correa, POLITICO Europe

Georgina Marshall, BBC Studios (BBC Global News Advertising Sales)

Judges’ comments: “All highly competent and an asset to their organisations. We fully expect to hear more about all over the next few years.”

CONTENT LEADERSHIP & INNOVATION

This award is for the individual recognised by peers for their talent in creating exemplary content-driven campaigns with brand bravery, creativity and innovation.

Winner – Khaled AlShehhi, Executive Director of Marketing and Communication for the UAE Government Media Office

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