Mindshare India Wins Big at Spikes Asia 2012

26/09/2012

Mindshare India, the flagship media agency of GroupM, confirms its number one status with yet another victory. The agency walked away with the ‘Media Agency of the Year’ award at the Spikes Asia 2012. The agency also won the Grand Prix in the media category for its campaign 'Where What You Grow Is What You Eat' for Hindustan Unilever's (HUL) ketchup brand Kissan.

The agency also picked up a Gold Spike for ‘Tomato Ketchup Grows Tomato Farmers’ for the same brand. The media agency also won two Silvers – one each for its work on Rin ‘Chamkat Raha Keep Shining’ and ‘If Mornings Had An Aroma, It Would Be Coffee’ for Bru Gold.

Commenting on the win, Ravi Rao, Leader, South Asia, Mindshare said, "It was indeed an honor to win the ‘Media Agency of the Year’ award at the Spikes Asia 2012 and an even bigger honor to win it for a client like HUL. We’re thrilled to be recognized for our work, especially since we had 5 shortlists and they were spread across three of our brands, all of which went on to win some award at Spikes. These wins along with Agency of the Year accolade are a stunning achievement to be shared with all of our team and our client HUL.”

For the title of Agency of the year, points were calibrated at one for a shortlist, three for a Bronze, five for Silver, seven for Gold and 10 for Grand Prix. In this tally, Mindshare India emerged Media Agency of the Year.

For its ‘Tomato Ketchup Grows Tomato Farmers’ campaign which won the Gold Spike, the agency executed an idea which encouraged consumers to interact with nature while actively participating in the ketchup-making process and engaging with the core ingredient of Kissan ketchups. With the communication, “what you grow is what you eat”, consumers were inspired to plant tomatoes at home by sampling tomato seeds through print. Children were directly engaged in schools where they planted tomatoes and pledged their support to the Kissanpur movement. They also visited tomato plantations and learnt about farming practices employed in growing tomatoes. A microsite, www.kissanpur.co.in, was created for children to share pictures of their plants. Weekly contests, gardening tips, games and blogs discussing 100% real living kept children actively engaged throughout. Kissanpur culminated as the first ever crowd sourced farm, housing over 7000 plants sent in by participating children. The top 100 participants will be rewarded with customized ketchup bottles made from their home grown tomatoes.

“We feel wins like these are extremely important for us as it reinforces the level of confidence that the industry has in us and demonstrates our ability to consistently deliver outstanding results for our clients,” he added.

The innovation for Hindustan Unilever's Bru Gold which won the Silver Spike was such that readers of The Sunday Times in Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru, quite literally, 'woke up and smelled the coffee' while reading their morning paper, as each copy of the newspaper was sprayed with the smell of coffee.

For its Kissanpur (farmers land) campaign which won the Grand Prix, the agency executed an idea where mothers and children were involved in the ketchup-making process through relevant touch-points. While kids are largely engaged online, mothers are best reached through print and radio. The campaign ‘call for action’ started with a print innovation where the agency sampled tomato seeds through a leading publication and inspired consumers to plant tomatoes at home. Seeds were further made available through www.kissanpur.co.in and the subsequent journey rested on the digital platform where kids were encouraged to upload pictures of their plants. A shared learning environment was created through a robust school contact program where children planted tomatoes in schools and enjoyed field trips to tomato farms. Families shared their experiences at our outdoor culmination where we created the first ever crowd sourced tomato farm housing participants’ plants. The campaign’s momentum was sustained through print, radio, SMS/Email reminders, digital ads, social media activity and PR releases.

Mindshare India has had an exceptional run of success this year and quite recently, also bagged the title of ‘Best Media Agency of the Year’ at Emvies 2012 for the fifth straight year.