Beats By Dre, Terra Chips, Samsung, Old Navy: The Drum Marketing Awards USA 2020 winners

The current Covid-19 situation means that The Drum won’t be hosting the usual celebration dinners to announce our winners. Instead, this year we're sharing the exciting news in a variety of ways via our digital channels with all our nominees and winners.

Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Daughters of the Evolution scopped the Grand Prix for their campaign, 'Lessons in Herstory'. Meanwhile PMG, Zambezi, Haworth Marketing & Media and Beats by Dre were awarded New Product or Service Launch and Global Integrated Strategy for the global launch of Powerbeats Pro.

Check out some of the amazing winners or watch the full ceremony below:

powered by Crowdcast

Grand Prix/Cause Related/Best Use of Tech/ Mobile strategy

Campaign: Lessons in Herstory

Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners

Client: Daughters of the Evolution

Daughters of the Evolution wanted to tackle the power imbalance between men and women in society. At the root of the problem: adolescence, when a person's identity is being formed.

Goodby Silverstein & Partners found that less than 11% of stories in US-history textbooks are devoted to women, meaning children are prevented from accessing a balanced representation or stories of how women have contributed to society.

Convincing educational publishers to rewrite, reprint and redistribute textbooks across America was a major hurdle. Together with The New York Times bestselling author Kate Schatz and the power of augmented reality, they 'rewrote' one of the most popular US-history textbooks without changing it at all. The app currently features stories of 75 women from the 19th century. All students need to do is scan any photo of a man in the textbook to unlock a related story about a forgotten woman in history.

Juror's thoughts: "This is powerful! Wresting back control of history from the patriarchy who has controlled is breathtaking. This is using tech to disrupt. This should be in every girl's – and boy's – list of essential school items. Amazing job." Jason Chebib, vice president, consumer planning, Diageo.

New Product or Service Launch/Global Integrated Strategy

Campaign: Global Launch of Powerbeats Pro

Agency: PMG, Zambezi, Haworth Marketing & Media

Client: Beats by Dre

PMG, Zambezi and Haworth Marketing and Media had the opportunity to help Beats by Dre stand out and be taken seriously in a new way, with Powerbeats Pro, the brand's most technically advanced product to date.

The goal was to make a version of performance so compelling that it transcended the category.

However, it wasn't enough to simply talk about product features – everyone else was doing that with similar headphones. By connecting features and benefits to athletes and sports enthusiasts, it sparked emotional connections with the audience and fed their own sense of performance.

Juror's thoughts: "The strategy was clear, the creative was beautifully executed and the product looks great." Ezra Englebardt, brand strategy lead, luxury and lifestyle brands, Wayfair.

B2B

Campaign: Infinity Screening

Agency: Iris

Client: Samsung

For the launch of its flagship Galaxy S10, Samsung challenged Iris to come up with a training program which would educate its Verizon sales representatives on the new handset.

Iris created a fully immersive training program in the form of a film festival, disguising training as a series of immersive and entertaining experiences: 'EnterTRAINment'.

Taking into account what the Verizon sales representatives were passionate about and the cinematic features of the new Galaxy S10, the Samsung Infinity Screening was born.

This festival invited the sales reps to view influencer video content and interactive demonstrations while learning about the phone’s new features. From this, the employees showed solid knowledge of Samsung’s device features.

Juror's thoughts: This was very clever and they totally nailed it for the audience. It really takes internal activation to the next level!" Mike Ruby, creative director, Flexport.

Retail/Social Media Strategy

Campaign: Sky's the Limit

Agency: PMG

Client: Old Navy

Old Navy made its mark on International Women’s Day 2019 by crafting an activation to authentically represent the brand’s commitment to gender equality.

The brand launched to the skies, sharing inspiring messages over major US cities. They encouraged women to look up and be inspired, not only on International Women’s Day, but every day – with empowering phrases in the clouds including 'Shatter the Ceiling' and 'Women's Day Everyday.'

In order to expand on its experiential component’s impact, PMG combined influencer marketing, social amplification and digital editorial extensions.

Juror's thoughts: "Old Navy and PMG created an impactful way to support gender equality that tactfully supported the Old Navy retail business. By leading with standout experiential and supplementing with thoughtful digital marcomms, including influencer and social media execution, they helped drive the conversation surrounding equality. With consumers purchasing and wearing the themed T-shirts, the conversation surrounding equality would last beyond International Women's Day (IWD). The Sky's the Limit campaign is the deserving winner as they thoughtfully increased brand love and retail sales without the use of consumer promotion discounts." Michael Park, director of marketing, Feelmore Labs.

Consumer

Campaign: That's an InnovAsian Occasion!

Agency: Duncan Channon

Client: InnovAsian

InnovAsian, “Coworker Aggravation” from Duncan Channon on Vimeo.

Duncan Channon was challenged to alter the low awareness of Chinese frozen food brand, InnovAsian, which was living in the shadow of category champs PF Chang’s.

To capture people's attention, the agency set out to reinforce the InnovAsian brand name and associate it with key moments when people would really be in the mood for a frozen meal.

The mantra became, 'That’s an InnovAsian occasion,' and led to a series of fast, fun TV spots to gain traction. Awareness jumped by 400% and it begant to outsell PF Chang’s in several key markets.

Juror's thoughts: "Simple but elegant brand awareness and sales campaign. I love the bookend use of 15-second spots that cleanly show the product and drive home the brand name." Margaret Hammer, senior manager, email marketing, Mailchimp.

For a full rundown of the winners, visit The Drum Marketing Awards USA website. You can also watch the live stream of the virtual awards show here, where we announced the highly commended and award winners on Thursday 30 April.