Warc announces Effective Innovation winners

Though the Grand Prix went to a US agency, DDB Group New Zealand took home a gold and APAC-based agencies won six out of 13 total awards in the Effective Innovation category of the WARC Awards.

DDB's Gold came for 'Re:scam - The World's Most Unhelpful Chatbot' on behalf of Netsafe New Zealand.

The other APAC winners were McCann Worldgroup India (two silvers and one bronze), Ensemble Worldwide and Universal McCann Malaysia (a bronze) and BBDO China (a bronze).

Three special awards were also given: a Channel Innovation Award, for the best example of an innovative use of media; a Category Innovation Award, for the best example of a brand defying category norms or creating a new category; and a Partnership Award, for the best collaboration that helped a brand rethink a solution to a business challenge.

Dan Burdett, former CMO for EMEA at eBay, chaired the jury of 14 agency and client-side industry leaders.

Here's the full list of winners, with APAC work in bold:

Grand Prix:

• Prescribed to Death · National Safety Council · Energy BBDO · United States

Gold:

• Re:scam - The World's Most Unhelpful Chatbot · Netsafe New Zealand · DDB Group New Zealand · New Zealand
• My Line · The Colombian Ministry of Technology & Communication · MullenLowe SSP3 · Colombia
• Monty · Fox Cricket · Foxtel · Mindshare · Australia + Channel Innovation Award
• Flu tracker based on AI · Theraflu · GlaxoSmithKline · MediaCom Russia · Russian Federation

Silver:

• The Woman Behind The Veil · Al Rajhi Bank · FP7 McCann Riyadh · Saudi Arabia + Category Innovation Award
• India's Digital Locker · Paytm Gold · One97 Communications Pvt Ltd · McCann Worldgroup India · India
• Block Wish · Alepa · HOK-Elanto | S Group · SOK Media · Finland
• Missguided Styles Love Island · Missguided · MediaCom · United Kingdom + Partnership Award
• Noon Assembly · Kwality Dairy · Kwality Limited · McCann Worldgroup India · India

Bronze:

• Anything is better with KFC Golden Egg Crunch · KFC · QSR Stores Sdn Bhd · Ensemble Worldwide, Universal McCann · Malaysia
• Hunger-Free Airlines · Snickers · Mars China · BBDO China · China
• The world's longest drive-through furniture catalogue · IKEA · McCann Worldgroup · India

The winners in the remaining categories—Effective Content Strategy, Effective Social Strategy and Effective Use of Brand Purpose—will be announced shortly. The Grand Prix and Special Awards winners across the four categories of the WARC Awards share a $40,000 prize fund.