Australian agencies swept 11 of 12 Golds awarded in the 1999 Asia-Pacific World PRO of Excellence competition, but it was Korea’s Cheil Communications that copped the Best in Region Award – for the second year in a row. Judging took place on June 15 in Sydney.
Cheil’s program for Mvio, a new apparel brand, and 11 other campaigns were given the Gold award of excellence by a panel of 10 client-side marketers representing organizations such as Levi Strauss, Coca-Cola, Nestle, Nickelodeon, and the Sydney Olympic Organizing Committee. Twelve promotions were honored with Silver Awards.
The winners were selected from among 52 campaigns, the highest number of Asia-Pacific entries received in the nine years World PROs have been awarded. The judging was hosted by B&T Weekly, the Sydney-based national marketing publication that is the Australian media partner for the World PRO Awards. The day-long process was supervised by promo and World PRO co-sponsor Association of Promotion Marketing Agencies Worldwide (APMA). The judges’ scores were tallied by Price Waterhouse.
Cheil Communication’s Mvio University Music Contest served to establish the youth-oriented brand among college students and young professionals. (Mvio is a line of fashion coordinates influenced by American and Italian designs and marketed by a sister company of Cheil.) Young contestants were encouraged to write songs and perform them in six competitions at Korean universities. Finalists staged a battle of the bands in Seoul last September, where celebrity judges deliberated the grand-prize and runner-up awards. The competitions housed Mvio fashion shows, where audience members received free T-shirt coupons that drove them to retail. Nationwide television coverage of the finals drew a 35 share and some 75,000 people attended the competitions. Cheil estimated the promotion reached about 70 percent of Mvio’s target audience.
Other big winners included Australia’s The Marketing Store Worldwide (three Golds) and ad agency EURO RSCG (two Golds, two Silvers). Other multiple award-winners were Kaleidoscope Marketing Communications, Mike Da Silva & Associates, Integrated Options and Solterbeck Jackson Marketing, all of Australia.
All Asia-Pacific Gold Award winners are automatically entered into contention for the World PRO Awards of Excellence, to be awarded in September during promo Expo in Chicago.
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