What I Learnt at the PMAA Dragons Awards
Of course, we all go to award functions with the hope to win. It’s that time of the year when all our hard work — our efforts in burning the midnight oil writing the entries and making impactful videos — will either impress the jury, or not. And this year’s PMAA Dragons Awards was no different.
Organizers of such big regional events usually boast of cultural diversity and regional participation in the kinds of entries they receive. I must say they truly lived up to this promise this year. There were teams from large markets like China, India, Japan, Australia, and Singapore — but it was equally encouraging to see participants and a spectrum of cases from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, New Zealand, and even Cambodia.
Obviously, when you are exposed to such juggernaut creative leaders and their illuminating work, you ought to come out inspired.
This year I participated in the MasterClass session as a speaker. I told myself right before the event: winning tonight is a must-have, but what’s equally important is to not get intoxicated by our own success. I briefed myself to listen, absorb, and collect stories from my fellow speakers, participants, and senior industry professionals.
A glimpse into what I observed at this year’s PMAA Dragons Awards
1. Dragons recognized socially driven messages
There was a speaker from India who represented Unilever’s Lifebuoy campaign – ‘Help a Child Reach 5’. The campaign started as a real-life social experiment where a girl child named Chamki came from the future to educate her would-be mom about the importance of washing hands and thank her for doing it.
There was a speaker from Malaysia who used children’s school report cards to educate and instill the importance of health among adults.
2. Dragons encouraged campaigns that infused cutting-edge technology solutions
Tim Cheng, CCO from DDB Group China, spoke about the launch of Alibaba’s Alipay – a cutting-edge face recognition technology. He explained how a tech product used art and science to ease the way credit card payments are done. The fact that a cold technology imbibed a smile as a signature to buy something online was applauded by everybody.
3. Dragons didn’t forget to befriend campaigns that entertained consumers
Astro’s relentless marketing support before the launch of their hit movie Polis Evo, and even after the launch, helped them become one of the biggest movies of Malaysia in 2015. Their marketing armory comprised of digital games, use of big celebs, key opinion leaders, and local musicians — all single-mindedly drove Malaysians to not just watch, but repeat-watch the movie.
Our own in-house campaign Tiger Radler Twistmas received the ‘Dragons of Asia’ Gold award. It surprised me but also solidified my belief that while serious and community-themed campaigns are hot and trending across Asia, people still crave campaigns that are light, humorous, and entertaining. After all, who doesn’t want to be entertained?
4. Dragons were inspired by campaigns that broke the rules
If I were to pinpoint one recurring theme that echoed amongst many of our eminent speakers and the award organizers, then I would say the key word was ‘Acts’, or ‘Initiatives’.
Brand teams of Telekom Malaysia and WWF all made one thing clear — their attempt was never to create just another ad campaign. They all started with the business problem, but their solutions weren’t necessarily business-inspired, but more human and behavior-changing. They refrained from doing advertising and encouraged thinking that helped a brand start a movement.
Besides my own observations, I also reached out to fellow speakers, colleagues from other Geometry Global offices, and the award organizers right after the event — and this is what they had to say about their experiences:
“For me, it was great to see so many brands making a real difference to the world in ways that benefit the brand as well. Building a strong business case for doing ‘good’ will only encourage more brands to invest in CSR. AIA Insurance (Health Report Card campaign) even proved this can come from unexpected categories. I’m always a fan of surprising, fun, mobile content as well — but connecting this directly to an action — using Alipay’s face recognition technology, or trying out Tiger Radler beer — elevated those campaigns above the norm.”
— Michael Agnew, Head APAC, Foresight Factory
“It was an insightful event with many of the winners sharing their brilliant creative ideas and case studies. The PMAA Dragons was a regional event where we had many participants from around the world who attended.”
— Jarrod Solomon, Business Development Manager, Marketing Magazine Malaysia
“The words ‘going through a case study’ can conjure images of audiences at marketing conferences watching presenters glowingly going through, sometimes reading copious slides, like a proud parent at the birth of a child. What delegates don’t see is the DNA of a campaign. How did the idea come about? What happened at the client presentation? Were there any changes made to the original concept, and why? The Dragons of Asia ‘Secrets from the Dragon Masters’ concept was developed in 2014 to address this issue.”
— Mike Da Siva, Director, PMAA Dragons of Asia
“Winning at PMAA tonight means a lot to everyone at the Tokyo office. We were awarded for an entirely proactive effort, which shows that a good idea paired with persistence pays off. Our next goal is to turn our bread-winning work into award-winning work as well.”
— Florence Rau, Traffic Manager, Geometry Global Japan
