KitKat bags Platinum at Marketing Effectiveness Awards

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent
A highly innovative marketing campaign in which KitKat founded its own record label to get closer to teenagers in Japan has emerged from hundreds of entries to take the top prize at this year's Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards, held last night in Hong Kong.

The chocolate bar brand emerged with the top prize in a battle against a record 446 entries from 15 markets across Asia. The jury for this year's awards comprised some of the region's most respected advertisers and marketing specialists, chaired by Darren Marshall, The Coca-Cola Company's Group Marketing Director, East, South Asia and Pacific Rim Group.

Setting up a virtual record label called Breaktown proved to be a masterful way to give KitKat's famous line 'Have a break, have a KitKat' added depth in Japan, breaking new artists with a string of best-selling CDs while providing a musical break for its target audience of Japanese chocolate lovers in their teens and early 20s.

The awards jury praised KitKat's foray into the music business as an ingenious new business model that was spot on target. The marketing push helped generate massive publicity totalling an estimated US$9 million of free PR as special promotional CDs sold with promotional packs of chocolate triggered a buying frenzy, with one release just missing out on the number one spot in the Tower Records charts. The campaign, devised by Nestlé and its agency JWT Japan, helped lift KitKat from the second best selling chocolate bar in Japan to become the country's favourite, prompting judges to rate it Asia's most effective piece of marketing in 2005.

"As a judging panel, we have had a fantastic opportunity to look at some of the best work from across Asia, It's inspired us, motivated some great debate, and helped us benchmark our own work." said Marshall.

The jury of this year's awards comprised marketers representing some of the world's best known brands including Japanese auto titan Toyota, US mobile giant Motorola and world-renowned whisky brand Johnnie Walker.

The twelve strong jury of experienced marketers and senior agency executives met for two days to deliberate, debate and argue their way through the hundreds of entries to agree on finalists across a range of categories, and one overall show winner, the Platinum award.

The winning entries in all the categories were revealed in a gala dinner in Hong Kong on June 28, 2006 hosted by Media magazine, Asia's leading media, advertising and marketing publication.

"This region-wide competition seeks to honour clients and agencies that have shown how inspired marketing can help grow businesses, building world-class brands through their innovative spirit, creativity and effectiveness," said Tim Waldron, managing director of Haymarket Media Limited, publisher of Media magazine.

In its fourth year, the competition has undergone a significant revamp. 2006 boasts a new logo and name for the competition and an all-new category - Best Innovative Media Campaign.

"These changes have been made to drive home the importance of marketing ROI. The award is unique in its vision to recognize communication campaigns that deliver real value for the marketing spend," Waldron added.

In addition to the platinum, five golds, eight silvers, 17 bronzes and 13 commendations were handed out on the night, with India, Japan, Malaysia and New Zealand judged to be the overall strongest performers. Further information on the winners is available on request.