WPP Announces Winners of Inaugural Extraordinary Awards
WPP today revealed the five winners of its first Extraordinary Awards, designed to celebrate and recognise the best work from across the company and its agency brands. This year’s winners were selected from almost 1,000 entries across five categories. Four reflect WPP’s offer: Communications, Experience, Commerce and Technology, while the fifth – the top prize – is for the best example of Creative Transformation for clients.
90 leaders from across WPP, drawn from all disciplines, from creatives and strategists to planners and technologists, came together to review the entries in a global judging process.
The entries, from 100 cities and all WPP’s networks, encompassed everything from inspired art and copy, powerful communications strategies and inventive media planning to hyper-engaging digital experiences, stunningly effective eCommerce platform design and game-changing martech implementation.
Mark Read, CEO of WPP, commented: “Creativity is more than just a great idea. It has the ability to bring about change and to transform businesses. In a year defined by disruption, we launched these awards to celebrate our people and recognise work that demonstrates the power of creativity to build better futures for our clients and communities.”
The five winners, revealed today during an internal award show for all WPP employees:
Creative Transformation
Geometry – London, MediaCom – London, Ogilvy – London, 'Bootiques: Breaking the Mould of Christmas', Boots
This cross-agency team broke the mould of Christmas advertising with a multichannel experience that delivered true personalisation at scale for the whole nation to interact with and enjoy.
Communications
DAVID – Miami and INGO – Stockholm, 'The Moldy Whopper', Burger King
Against all industry aesthetic practices, the team launched an impactful campaign that featured the iconic Whopper rotting over a period of 35 days. This rule-breaking campaign sent a simple and clear message to consumers – Burger King food has no preservatives.
Experience
VMLY&R – Melbourne, 'A Future Without Change', Monash University
VMLY&R Melbourne’s ‘A Future Without Change‘ campaign for Monash University has taken the top prize in the Experiential category. By showing a future that shouldn’t exist, this integrated campaign – supported by digital OOH, online films, social posts and ongoing VR experiences – helped recruit and inspire the next generation to change it. VMLY&R Melbourne also received a further two nominations in the final cut of 20 shortlists in the Communications category, ultimately won by ‘The Moldy Whopper, Burger King’. The two commendations went to ‘Lost in Translation’ for the Royal Australian Navy and ‘The Half Biscuit’ for Legacy Australia / RSA New Zealand.
Commerce
Geometry Global – Dubai, Lifebuoy’s 'Handle on Hygiene 3.0', Unilever
In response to the outbreak of Covid-19, the team re-designed and rolled out 'Handle on Hygiene 3.0', a world-first innovation and impactful shopper activation campaign to improve hygiene, developed in partnership with Barrows.
Technology
MediaCom – Tel Aviv and Grey – Tel Aviv, 'Rabbi Bot by Always', P&G
This customised app, developed in consultation with rabbinical authorities, uses the power of AI to determine the end of a woman’s menstruation cycle, replacing the need for Orthodox Israeli women to undergo uncomfortable, in-person consultations with a rabbi.
Click here for more details on the winning entries, special commendations and the full shortlist, and to hear from the panel of judges.
