Asia-Pacific is currently leading the way on the global WARC Awards shortlist with 38 entries, closely followed by North America (37), Europe (27), Middle East and Africa (18) and Latin America (10).
Five regional juries made up of a total of 74 industry leaders from both agencies and brands have shortlisted a total of 130 campaigns from 26 countries.
VML Sydney’s ‘Fitchix’ for Honest Eggs features on the shortlist for the Channel Pioneer category.
VML Brisbane’s ‘If It’s Flooded, Forget It’ for the Queensland Government and Ogilvy’s ‘Til It’s Done’ For Football Australia make the shortlist for Cultural Impact.
The Customer Experience category features VML Sydney’s ‘Virtual Pro’ for Rip Curl and The Monkeys’ ‘Hello Christmas’ for Telstra.
In the Instant Impact category, The Monkeys’ 2024 Lamb Ad makes the cut, as does Special’s ‘Never Eat Dirt Again’ for Uber. Thinkerbell’s ‘How XXXX turned “The Pride of Queensland” to gold’ also features.
The Long-Term growth category sees Special’s ‘Get Almost, Almost Anything’ for Uber Eats on the shortlist, as well as the 2024 Lamb Ad.
In Partnerships & Sponsorships Edelman Sydney’s enlistment of Abbie Chatfield for Tourism NT is the only Australian fianlist.
And, finally, Special’s ‘Australia’s Second Car’ for Uber Carshare is the only Australian shortlist in the Strategic Thinking category.
Our friends across the ditch only had one finalist: FCB Auckland’s ‘Pak’nSave’ for Foodstuffs in the Long-term Growth category.
Strategic Thinking, has the most shortlisted campaigns (24), followed by Cultural Impact (16), Instant Impact (15), Long-term Growth (13), Partnerships & Sponsorships (12), Channel Pioneer (12), Customer Experience (10), Brand Purpose (8), Use of Data (7), Business-to-Business (6), Channel Integration (5), and Path-to-Purchase (2).
Commenting on this first stage of the judging process, John Bizzell, awards lead, WARC, said: “Guided by the universal frameworks of the Creative Effectiveness and B2B Effectiveness Ladders, our five amazing regional juries have drawn on their expertise and knowledge to judge diligently and with rigour to select the shortlists. Winning a WARC award isn’t easy, so all shortlisted entrants should be hugely proud of their work getting to this stage.”
The winners of the Bronze, Silver and Gold awards across all five regions will be revealed from 29 April.
All Gold winners from the five regions will progress to compete at a Global level to be awarded the coveted Grands Prix, the ultimate recognition for marketing success.
The Grand Prix winners, to be announced online on 13 May via WARC’s Effectiveness Show, will be selected by a panel made up of all the regional jury chairs together with other regional judges:
- Matt Che, Chief Marketing Officer, Budweiser, APAC – APAC jury chair and chair of the Global grand jury
- Christoffer Rönnblad, Chief Marketing Officer, Nordics, McDonald’s, Nordics – Europe jury chair
- Diana Frost, Global Chief Growth Officer, Kraft Heinz, Global – North America jury chair
- Gabriel Barrio, Commercial Manager, UNACEM, Peru
- Marina Prieto, Sr Director Brand, Insights, Media and Trade Marketing LATAM, PedidosYa, LATAM – Latin America jury chair
- Maurice Igugu, Chief Marketing Officer, Sterling Bank, Nigeria
- Nthabi Motsoeneng, Chief Marketing Officer Africa and Middle East, Pernod-Ricard, Africa and Middle East – Africa & Middle East jury chair
- Talitha Rutten, Global Client Partner, Meta, Global
- Teman Evans, Global Chief of Design, General Mills, Global
- Venus Teoh Kim Wei, Executive Vice President – Marketing, Suntory Pepsico Vietnam Beverage, Vietnam
