Wavemaker Wins Big at China Advertising Marketing Awards (CAMA)
Wavemaker was named Media Agency of the Year at the recent 2022 China Advertising Marketing Awards (CAMA). We also picked up gold, silver and bronze awards, and five team/ individual awards.
Forty experts from various backgrounds comprised the judging panel at this year’s CAMA, organised by China Advertising magazine, with Wavemaker winning in 50% of the categories for which it submitted entries.
Now in its fifth year, Wavemaker maintains a unique spirit of Positive Provocation and fearless growth, while the CAMA awards are an affirmation of its potential and ambition to overcome challenges and break new ground.
Media Agency of the Year – Wavemaker China
Wavemaker China recorded double-digit growth in 2020 and 2021, despite the impact of COVID-19, and achieved 20% business growth for four consecutive years. In the 2021 RECMA rankings, we were named the most competitive agency for our stellar new-business performance.
We take pride in being real partners to our clients by creating value and building trust. Wavemaker received the highest score in the Vantage Customer Satisfaction ratings across WPP APAC, demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach in working with clients in an ever-changing and uncertain market environment.
Jose Campon, CEO, Wavemaker China, said: “We attach great importance to helping brands achieve success in the Chinese market. Wavemaker China and our outstanding partners never stop exploring new models of growth, whether it’s in innovation, digital transformation, or continuous optimization. We are constantly pushing boundaries and hope to play a more influential role in innovative and sustainable growth.”
Brand Leader of the Year – Eva Huang – AXA
Eva Huang has more than 20 years of marketing experience across industries and continents. She joined AXA in 2020.
Eva is undoubtedly an expert in brand building, especially in the finance industry. With her solid professional foundation, forward-looking vision and leadership abilities, she has successfully led the company and the team to one achievement after another. Meanwhile, she has earned recognition and affirmation from partners. In 2021, AXA’s marketing campaigns helped brands achieve high increases in first-mention rate, popularity, and purchase intention, with health insurance achieving the strongest sales growth.
Eva Huang, chief marketing and communications officer of AXA, said: “I’m very grateful to CAMA for giving me this award. Throughout my career, whether it was starting at P&G or later in the finance industry, close win-win cooperation with outstanding partners has always been the key to success. This award is not just for me; it is for the joint efforts of all our teams and partners – AXA, Wavemaker, Publicis, and Atcomm. A successful marketing campaign cannot be separated into isolated components: From unique ideas based on consumer insights to precise, effective targeting and, more importantly, providing real value to business. In this campaign, the Wavemaker team played a vital role, acting as the ‘glue’ to integrating resources and fully leveraging the advantages of stakeholder companies. We significantly raised AXA’s brand awareness, favourability, and sales performance.”
Marketing Leader of the Year – Nicole Yang – Pernod Ricard China
Nicole Yang has more than 15 years of experience in brand management and marketing across Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States. She joined Pernod Ricard in 2020 as head of Pernod Ricard China Consumer Engagement. She now manages Pernod Ricard’s portfolio of more than 30 brands as well as media strategy and execution, the customer data platform (CDP) database, customer relationship management, consumer insights, marketing effectiveness analysis, and the creative studio.
Nicole continues to lead the way in promoting digital transformation of PRC’s retail in China. Under her leadership, PRC initiated: the Moment Of Influence (MOI) project to make a valuable connection between the CDP database and enterprise; the industry-first Federated Learning, which set a new benchmark for innovation while improving effectiveness; and a new model of cross-brand matrix content marketing that unlocked growth potential as a brand-performance integration campaign.
Nicole Yang, head of consumer engagement, Pernod Ricard China said: “Modern marketing has more than 30 years of history in China. We must continue to improve and make breakthroughs, standing on the shoulders of our predecessors. The opportunities are at the boundaries of different marketing fields. Together with Wavemaker, we made ourselves into a ‘hexagonal warrior’ that constantly transcended what traditional media agencies could do, and with in-depth integration of big data and consumer insights we made gratifying breakthroughs."
Sustainable Innovative Brand of the Year – AXA
A member of AXA Group, AXA Tianping (registered in China as AXA Tianping Property & Casualty Insurance Co., Ltd.) is one of China's largest and most diversified global insurers, providing a comprehensive range of high-quality, personalized products and services to meet the evolving needs of customers across Health, Commercial Lines and Property & Casualty. The company currently serves over five million individual and commercial customers nationwide, and boasts a footprint of 25 branches in 20 provinces across China.
Transitioning to a focus on Health, AXA Tianping is today leveraging a customer-centric 'Payer-to-Partner' strategy in China, along with innovative technology and distribution, to empower clients in every aspect of their daily lives. In 2019, China Banking and Insurance Information Technology Management (CBIT) recognized its award-winning services with an "AA" rating, the highest in the country. In 2021, the company was awarded The Insurance Brand of the Year at the 16th Annual Finance Summit of Asia and in 2020, the company was recognized with an 'International General Insurer of the Year' award from Insurance Asia and was also recognized in 2021 and 2020 with an "A- rating" from S&P Global Ratings, reflecting the company’s strong global influence and firm commitment to the local market. AXA Tianping first became a member of the AXA Group as a Joint Venture company in 2014, before becoming fully-owned in 2019. Headquartered in Paris, France, AXA Group itself is today one of the world's leading insurance and asset management groups. In 2021, it was ranked 46th on the Fortune Global 500 List of the world's largest companies. It has been operating in China for over 20 years offering the full range of insurance and protection solutions to its local and global clients.
Eva Huang, chief marketing and communications officer of AXA, said: “For all the brands I manage, whether it’s for the general public, HNWI customers, or for corporate business, the power of the brand is prevalence. A strong brand leads the value, making business more efficient. At the same time, marketing methods must constantly innovate, and the source of innovation comes from in-depth consumer insights and a deep understanding of business.”
With “Protect love and go forward with confidence,” AXA Tianping grasped the increasing sense of, and need for, security among China’s new middle-class families, and in a light-hearted way created a confident family that constantly explores various life possibilities. The campaign not only was novel for the finance industry but also was impressive and resonated with consumers, winning high praise from the industry. More importantly, it has good scalability and is an IP for AXA. After launching the “AXA Confidence Family” campaign, AXA Tianping looked for “100 Confident Children” in China this year, sharing stories of protected and confident children who explore the world freely. The marketing campaign featuring “Confident Children” was another big win, increasing AXA’s brand awareness by 5% and sales by 272% year-on-year.
A vital brand is never separated from consumers and businesses. It is the responsibility and honor of marketers to understand consumer needs and business painpoints, to continuously innovate, to build sustainable and innovative brands, to bring positive value to consumers, and to achieve growth for companies.
AXA | 100 Confident Families
This cooperation has become the best integrated marketing campaign in the history of AXA Tianping.
1. The new brand video received 1.1 billion views and 610,000 social interactions;
2. Sales of AXA health insurance increased by 256% compared with 2020, and performance indicators across the communication journey all exceeded expectations.
Innovation Team of the Year – Wavemaker China Content Team
Amidst ongoing digital transformation, more companies are facing the dilemma of how to balance brand and performance – and many may choose only performance media due to sales pressure. In light of this challenge, Wavemaker China’s Content Team has leveraged industry insights in the Chinese market, dived deep into the real business problems of brands, used data empowerment and innovative ideas, and built up the industry-first Brand-Performance Integrated Content Solution.
Based on changes in consumer communication touchpoints and empowerment of big data, this content co-creation solution is a whole new brand experience, making “brand” campaigns more precise. At the same time, it combined media data ecology, based on the agency’s unique perspective, to launch FRONT, a refined brand growth model that dissects the connection between brands and consumers to make “effective performance” more resonating.
Riki Li, Head of Content at Wavemaker China, said: “I’m really proud of the Wavemaker China Content Team and grateful to each member for their continuously innovative attitude and hard work over the past five years. They’ve maintained sharp insights, explored new marketing topics, and solved clients’ marketing challenges with solid solutions.”
“Facing the challenges brought by digital transformation, we have been constantly thinking about how we can truly use big data to measure and evaluate the performance of abstract concepts such as brand, content, and creativity. Among the endless new concepts, we start with client business and consumer behavior, and built up the growth model in the field of content marketing based on massive analysable data. We really did it. It’s a real combination of science and art.”
“In adherence with Wavemaker’s provocation culture, we will not stop innovating. We hope that with more cutting-edge studies and insights, by accumulating solid marketing experiences, we will embark on a journey of content marketing that belongs to the digital transformation era of China.”
Wavemaker X Ocean Engine | Co-Creation of FRONT, a Refined Brand Growth Model
Going beyond the limitations of traffic and the traditional “resource-oriented thinking mode,” FRONT has evolved to “user-oriented thinking” by placing people at its core.
Gold Award: Event Marketing
Wavemaker × Zhihu丨Our Questions to the Future
1. By focusing on a community of creators, the campaign made breakthroughs incrementally in response to a macro issue;
2. The brand role of the two parties is clear: Zhihu believes that “if there’s a question, there will be an answer,” while the vision of Wavemaker is “Provoking the Future” – the road to the future is never the same, so be actively provocative and keep asking questions;
3. Build up long-term brand equity, such as spearheading social innovation projects and publishing the book Our Questions to the Future.
Linna Zhao, Thought Leadership, Wavemaker China, said: “Some people live in the present and walk the road with their heads down; some people ask about the future and know how to look ahead. There’s no road at the start. Only with forward-looking eyes will there be footprints that journey ahead bravely.”
Silver Award: Media Effectiveness Integration
Wavemaker × Xiaohongshu丨The Guidebook of Lovin’ Life
Through small but precise angles, we unlocked countless potentials, and attracted 200 million people to share their experiences on the media platform:
1. “Shake to receive a red envelope” was well-received by a large number of young people;
2. “200 million people’s life experience” and “your living guidebook” became popular phrases.
Lai Ke, Head of Brand Refresh Team, Xiaohongshu said: “We are thrilled to collaborate with Wavemaker to promote the new brand image and value of Xiaohongshu on WeChat’s social landscape. We have been experimenting with new social communication strategies to increase Xiaohongshu's exposure and popularity. Currently, ‘Shake to Get a Red Packet Cover’ is popular amongst many young people. Therefore, concepts such as ‘200 million people's collective life experiences’ and ‘lifestyle guides’ have both become identities that Xiaohongshu is now known for. We will continue to explore new and authentic modes of communication.”
Bronze Award: Integrated PSA
Wavemaker × Mercedes-Benz丨How We Helped Mercedes-Benz Empower Creators in 2021
By fully utilizing the power of storytelling, we created a social welfare project that doubled as a fully integrated campaign:
With Mercedes-Benz’s She’s Mercedes 2021 “Creators Program,” we helped and encouraged quinoa cultivation. Firstly, brand members and consumers adopted 71,800 square meters of quinoa, with related topics gaining 26 million views. Secondly, we strengthened the relevance of key scenarios, and at the same time, fostered community loyalty to increase brand influence, communication resources and the power of public welfare.
On Wavemaker’s achievements at CAMA, Gordon Domlija, CEO of Wavemaker APAC, said: “The advantages of Wavemaker come from agility and inclusiveness, even more so at Wavemaker China. The source of our growth is the continuous exploration of business, talents, capabilities, and processes suitable for our goals and a forward-looking mindset that adapts to market changes. Such ability helps us identify potential opportunities and clients.”
The Organizing Committee of CAMA 2022 said: “Wavemaker's continuous pursuit and exploration of growth has made its cases very powerful. Not only is it focused on its business goals, it also takes full advantage of insights and the value of communication. We are committed to working with Chinese advertisers and brands to unleash infinite possibilities and promote the core competitiveness of domestic brands. We hope to work with more marketing partners, and interpret Chinese advertisements from multidimensional and eye-opening dimensions.”
