Award Categories
1. Excellence in Advertising
This category recognises the best advertising campaign or individual spot which engaged the target audience through strong creative thinking and media use to achieve a specific marketing outcome or result.
2. Excellence in Branded Content
This category recognises the conceptualisation of high quality, innovative or unexpected content commissioned by a brand. This can include text, infographics, film, video games, music, online, competitions, and TV, running across all forms of marketing channels. Judges will be looking at the originality of the content and how the content stimulated interest in the targeted audience and drove customer engagement.
3. Excellence in Content Marketing
This category recognises exceptional strategies which utilised content as the key element of marketing. Judges will be looking for a clear vision about how the content was used to enhance the overall marketing strategy which led to a significant growth in brand awareness.
4. Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility
This category recognises the best marketing campaign, initiative or programme that addressed social, economic or environmental issues on behalf of the organisation. Judges will be looking at how the initiative raised awareness and encouraged social change in order to bring positive effects and outcomes for society, and the involved parties, while simultaneously raising brand reputation.
5. Excellence in Creative Design
This category recognises the most creative design that formed a critical focus for the branding of a product. Judges will be looking for entries which demonstrated a tangible link between the design (for example, product packaging, premiums, POSM, collaterals, in-store design) and the marketing strategy for the product.
6. Excellence in Customer Engagement
This category recognises the best campaign, initiative or programme that engaged new or existing customers to connect with the brand through smart and relevant communications. Judges will be looking for effective engagement strategies that went beyond advertisements to encourage consumers to actively interact with the brand to generate positive business outcomes.
7. Excellence in Customer Experience
This category recognises the best campaign, initiative or programme that demonstrated a customer-centric approach, giving consumers a seamless and intuitive experience. Judges will be looking at how the project was carefully developed with the customer in mind, and the ease of how the targeted audience was able to interact with the brand, or respond to a call to action without a hitch.
8. Excellence in Data-Driven Marketing
This category recognises the best marketing campaign, initiative or programme that drew unique insights from effective business insights, research, data planning, measurement and analytics tools or database developments to drive the brand’s core business objectives. Judges will be looking at how the brand used that data in a campaign to understood its customers and their behaviours.
9. Excellence in Digital Marketing
This category recognises the best marketing campaign, initiative or programme that used digital channels such as web, social media, mobile and email to deliver an engaging consumer experience while successfully driving core business objectives. Judges will be looking at how the campaign stood out in the competitive digital space to achieve a specific marketing outcome, be it branding or prompted consumer engagement.
10. Excellence in Event Marketing
This category recognises the organisation that best used events to achieve a specified marketing outcome. Events can be live, virtual and/or hybrid. Judges will consider events of all sizes and scope and will be looking at how the event performed, how it engaged its audience, and the strength of the idea.
11. Excellence in Exclusive Event
This category recognises the organisation that best used events or a specific event dedicated to an exclusive audience in order to achieve a specified marketing outcome. Judges will be looking for events that created a positive brand experience for the targeted audience and left a lingering impact on the audience.
12. Excellence in Experiential Marketing
This category recognises an organisation that best used a hands-on brand experience to take the target audience inside a brand or product through an innovative or creative idea. Entries could be anything from a mass-market launch to a smaller more exclusive experience for customers. Judges will be looking at how the campaign was created and implemented to allow consumers to get involved in, feel, enjoy or respond to a specific experience.
13. Excellence in Financial & Insurance Marketing
This category recognises the best financial and insurance marketing campaign or individual spot which engaged the target audience through strong creative thinking and media use to achieve a specific marketing outcome.
14. Excellence in Gamification
This category recognises the best marketing campaign, initiative or event that utilised gamification or gaming to entertain consumers and to enhance the brand experience while driving core business objectives. The campaign could have been carried out both online or at a live gaming event.
15. Excellence in Health & Beauty Marketing
This category recognises the best marketing campaign or individual spot in the health and beauty marketing sector which engaged the target audience through strong creative thinking and media use to achieve a specific marketing outcome.
16. Excellence in Innovation
This category recognises the best marketing campaign, initiative or programme that pushed boundaries and utilised a new, unique or an especially creative manner in advertising and marketing. Judges will be looking at how the outside-the-box ideas were implemented in the campaign to engage the customers, strengthen the brand’s value, and at the same time, deliver positive marketing outcomes.
17. Excellence in Integrated Marketing
This category recognises an organisation that most effectively engaged its consumer markets through an integrated marketing strategy, which employed a suite of marketing tools and media channels (at least five channels) to drive core business objectives. Judges will be looking at how the unified and seamless integrated experience innovatively and effectively promoted a brand, product or service while achieving a positive marketing outcome.
18. Excellence in Interactive Marketing (*NEW)
This category recognises the best marketing campaign, initiative or event that successfully engaged consumers using entertaining and engaging content in the form of a game, competition or other interactive media forms such as virtual and augmented reality. Judges will be looking for how an interactive solution enhanced the brand experience and drove business objectives. We welcome entries from sophisticated gaming, VR, AR and related apps created by highly creative developers, agencies and client marketers.
19. Excellence in KOL Partnership
This category recognises the most outstanding and refreshing partnership between KOLs (key opinion leaders) and brands in a campaign. The campaign should show evidence of effectively using KOLs within a marketing campaign to enhance awareness and successfully achieve business objectives. Judges will be looking at how the partnership helped the brand to engage and delight the target audience, resulting in an increase of the brand’s awareness, and which generated benefits for both parties.
20. Excellence in Launch/Rebranding
This category recognises an exceptional marketing strategy to support the launch/rebranding of a new product or brand. Judges will be looking at the impact of this launch/rebranding strategy created on the product, brand or organisation’s success.
21. Excellence in Lifestyle & Entertainment Marketing
This category recognises the best marketing campaign or individual spot in the lifestyle and entertainment service field which engaged the target audience through strong creative thinking and media use to achieve a specific marketing outcome.
22. Excellence in Loyalty Marketing
This category recognises the best campaign, initiative or programme that demonstrated a cohesive customer loyalty strategy and effective CRM programme to grow and retain existing customers through incentives while enhancing the customer proposition. It should also have encouraged greater spend, resulting in positive business outcomes.
23. Excellence in Mass Event
This category recognises the organisation that best used events or a specific event targeted to the mass public to reach a specified marketing outcome. The campaign can be offline, online or hybrid. Judges will be looking for events that created a positive brand experience for the mass public and left a lingering impact on the audience.
24. Excellence in Media Strategy
This category recognises the organisation that best utilised media channels as their key strategic tool to execute a powerful marketing campaign, while driving core business objectives. Judges will be looking at how the effective use of media channels engaged the targeted customers and ultimately boosted business performance.
25. Excellence in Out-Of-Home Marketing
This category recognises advertising campaigns that utilised the out-of-home (OOH) medium in a way that was innovative, creative, and successful in raising brand awareness. OOH can include media such as billboards, digital billboards, digital screens, transit media, mobile platforms designed for an OOH audience, or any other media that targets audiences outside the home environment. Judges will be looking at how the use of the OOH strategy was planned and executed.
26. Excellence in Omnichannel (*New)
This category recognises the most effective approaches to omnichannel marketing, including how the entire customer experience was aligned across all touch-points in order to drive a customer-centric experience. Judges will be evaluating the effectiveness and results of the campaign. Entries should demonstrate how the use of omnichannel marketing increased conversion rates and helped meet campaign and business objectives.
27. Excellence in Partnership
This category recognises the organisation that best develops and activates a brand-relevant partnership in the form of a crossover, sponsorship or product placement. Judges will be looking at how the partnership reached a mutual benefit for the involved parties, thus, delivering strong business returns.
28. Excellence in Performance Marketing
This category recognises the best marketing campaign, initiative or programme that maximised performance and attained the desired business objectives. Judges will be looking at how the campaign optimised the performance, which includes, but is not limited to, an increase in customer engagement, the raising of the brand’s awareness, and a better ROI.
29. Excellence in Personalisation Marketing (*New)
This category recognises the best marketing campaign in perfecting the consumer journey which created more personalised marketing or one-to-one marketing to deliver individualised content to recipients across channels, and the buying stages. Judges will be looking at how the strategy was developed and how the organisation leveraged omni-channel advertising to drive personalised customer experiences in real-time.
30. Excellence in Public Relations
This category recognises the organisation that has best enhanced its corporate branding, image or identity with consumers, other businesses or internal stakeholders, through an effective implementation of strategic communications to deliver core business objectives. Judges will be looking at how the campaign managed the brand’s reputation, promoted brand values and strengthened communications with the targeted audiences.
31. Excellence in Retail Marketing
This category recognises the best strategy by a brand designed to attract customers and drive transactions via the following channels such as traditional or digital media, sampling, couponing, POSM displays, use of new technology or retail spaces.
32. Excellence in Social Media
This category recognises the best campaign, initiative or programme that optimised social media channels to build strong relationships with customers, recruit new customers or engage existing customers, while driving core business objectives. This can be a one-off campaign or a longer term strategy. Judges will be looking at how the campaign innovatively and effectively communicated with the audience, drove customer engagement, and obtained the business objectives.
33. Excellence in Targeted Event
This category recognises the organisation that best used events or a specific event dedicated to a targeted audience (for example, age, gender, demographic) to achieve a specified marketing outcome. Judges will be looking for events that created a positive brand experience for the targeted audience and left a lingering impact on the audience.
34. Excellence in Use of Technology
This category recognises the use of any innovative technology to activate or enhance a marketing strategy, long or short-term campaign or a one-off execution. Judges are seeking the strategic use of technology as opposed to gimmickry.
35. Excellence in Video
This category recognises the most effective and innovative use of online video to achieve a specific marketing outcome, be it branding or a call to action. Judges will be looking at the creativity behind how the video helped raise brand awareness, drove customer engagement, and reached the brand’s marketing objectives.
36. Excellence in Viral Marketing (*New)
This category recognises the best campaign, initiative or programme that successfully captured its target audience and subsequently turned into a self-replicating viral process with its results meeting the organisation’s core business objectives.