Winning trends from The Drum Awards for Marketing #3: getting emotional

After hosting the great and the good of the industry at live awards shows in London, New York and Singapore, it is clear from the winning work that key themes have repeatedly hit home with our judges regardless of where they are based.

Emotion mining is one such example, evident at every one of our awards shows, where heartstrings have been tugged, disgust has been deployed and passion put to use in the process of connecting with a wide variety of audiences. We take a look at some examples and catch up with the teams behind the work.

Heart-wrenching warning

Plumbing the depths of grief was the heartbreaking story of 11-year-old Harrison Ballantyne, who was killed by 25,000 volts of electricity at a rail freight depot, and which Storycatchers told as part of a campaign to reduce the number of casualties caused by trespassing on the railway. Working with Network Rail, the British Transport Police, industry partners and the parents of Harrison, the agency created a moving film that had our judges in tears. Taking home the Grand Prix from our EMEA show, as well as winning in the Advertising, Creative, Disruption and Public Sector/Charity/Not-for-Profit categories, the work resulted in a 24% decrease in trespass incidents in campaign target areas.

Here’s what the team at Storycatchers had to say about the project and its award win.

Harnessing hate

Chocolate maker Mars, along with Taylor Herring, turned public hatred of its Bounty bar into an attribute for its 2022 Celebrations campaign. With research having indicated that the Bounty was the most polarizing candy bar in the box, Mars Wrigley had in 2021 launched a return scheme, allowing customers to exchange the unloved coconut-filled treat for a Malteser. For 2022 though, it sought to turn hate into an attribute, with a media announcement highlighting a trial removal due to public demand. Phase two then amplified the campaign’s impact with an emotional seasonal ad urging it to bring back the Bounty. Major news outlets couldn’t resist the story and neither could Twitter where the campaign trended for days, while our judges awarded it in the PR category.

Here’s what Georgie Feldman at Mars had to say about the project and its award win.

Love of the links

Hilton tapped into the passions of golf fans, meanwhile, bringing a fully functioning replica of the Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik hotel room to the Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai, giving lovers of the links a chance to stay in a suite situated on the 15th green to watch all the action from the DP World Tour play out directly outside their bedroom window. The pop-up experiential campaign, which was exclusively available to members of the hotel group’s Hilton Honours program, has since been rolled out at courses on other legs of the tour. It won in the Design/Brand category at our awards.

Here’s what the team at Hilton had to say about the project and its award win.

Read more about all the work that has won at The Drum Awards so far this year over on our case studies hub, and head to The Drum TV to watch more interviews with our award winners.

The Drum Awards Festival takes place from November 27 to December 1 and includes shows dedicated to specialisms such as PR, B2B, search and out-of-home. Find out more.