Ogilvy, Surf Excel among winners at Kantar Creative Effectiveness Awards 2024

Ogilvy emerged victorious in four of the thirteen categories at the Kantar Creative Effectiveness Awards 2024. They also won the award for the most creative and effective TV ad for the Pond’s Dreamflower advert that reverses the genders in the most iconic scene from Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. McCann Worldwide won the award for the most creative and effective digital ad for the #DilMaggiMaggiHoGaya ad. Hindustan Unilever’s Surf Excel was judged the most consistently effective advertiser.  

In the fourth edition of the awards, the leading marketing data and analytics company tested 12,000 ads from around the world for their effectiveness and creativity. More than 1400 (~11%) of the ads were from India. This year, the awards were given out in fourteen categories, twice of last year. The new categories included original as well as adapted advertisements for the southern market and the award for the advertiser. 

For the category awards, Ogilvy won in two verticals- food & beverages and personal care. The winning campaigns were Chhote Chhote Cadbury for Mondelez and Doctor for Colgate Max Fresh respectively. Lowe Lintas won in the home care category for Surf Excel Gokul for Hindustan Unilever. Meesho’s Sahi Quality Sahi Price by Moonshot won in the services category. In the two new categories that tested the South Indian market, the Politician ad for Godrej Fab made by their in-house creative studio Lightbox for the original creative for South and McCann Worldgroup’s work for Complan’s Strong Motherhood campaign was awarded in the adaptations for south category.

Under the unstereotype head, both the male and female stereotyping awards went to Hindustan Unilever products. Lowe Lintas won it for VIm’s Masala Kadhi Pakoda ad in the former category while Ogilvy won for Dove’s Dafoe Y2 ad for the latter. In the digital awards, Eicher Motor’s in-house production Bullet Meri Jaan for Royal Enfield won in the under 15 seconds category, Licious’ Juicy. Delicious. Must be Licious! won in the 15-30 seconds category and Tata Group’s in-house production for Croma Bahana won in the over 30 seconds category.

Sharing the lessons from Kantar’s Blueprint for Brand Growth that was launched earlier in the year, Soumya Mohanty, Managing Director & Chief Client Officer- South Asia, Insights Division points out that creativity was ranked second, next only to brand size, among the most important drivers of advertising profitability. “Ads that demand greater attention of the viewer are more likely to build brands as well as increase sales. A highly creative ads can take up the profits of the brand upto four times from base level,” she said. With more technical intervention in ads, it is observed that while AI generated copies may be efficient they are not necessarily effective, she added. 

Talking about the new categories about the South Indian market, Mohanty said that there is a renewed focus on the southern states. Marketers, she said, are now more aware of the need to change their content to the regional cultural nuances.   

Prasanna Kumar, Head of Creative Domain & Executive Vice President- South Asia, Insights Division shared the learnings from this year’s testing about what makes an ad effective. “65% of Indians will buy brands that stand for something they can identify with, whether in terms of values or causes. We realise that today’s consumer is open to being surprised by advertisements. They react positively to hyper creative ads that break the established category codes,” he said. 

While pan-India releases may be making it big at the box office, it is not the same in the adland. Kumar informed that only 33% of the Indian ads transfer well across regions as per the findings of more than 25 years of Kantar Link™ ad evaluation. This can be changed if brands pay more attention to adapt to every market they are targeting. “The insight, creative idea and treatment can be pan-India but the execution with some nativity elements to amplify the resonance with the regional markets,” he said. He added that the exercise also concluded that ensuring that the brand is well-embedded in the story of the adfilm in a well-meaning way is important. 

Talking about the importance of consistency, Kumar said that good marketing requires a brand to be consistent with certain branding devices while still being meaningfully different. “In the digital space, precision or target marketing is on its way out as consumers have expressed concerns over their privacy. Despite that the spend on digital ads is increasing consistently,” he said.