The finalists for the inaugural GRAMA awards to recognise the Aussie marketers, campaigns and products making it big on the global stage have been announced – and the calibre is high.
International CEOs, global roll outs and transformational products for McDonald's, Mondelez, Beam and Yum! Brands, all have their roots in Australia and Coca Cola's Share a Coke, R/GA creative director Nick Law and addictive mobile game Fruit Ninja by HalfBrick are all in the running.
Highly addictive mobile game Fruit Ninja, McDonald's McCafe and U by Kotex are finalists in the category celebrating some of the best Australian-conceived products or services that have achieved major international success.
HalfBrick's Fruit Ninja is the number two top downloaded app of all time on the iPhone and set a benchmark that inspired countless game developers. The majority of the Aussie-based company’s revenues come from the US and Asia and HalfBrick went on to be named the number two game developer in the world by PocketGamer.
McCafé was born in Melbourne in 1993 after a licensee on Swanston Street decided to make the most of the passing trade by ramping up its coffee business. The concept now operates in 32 countries and its expansion was driven by Charlie Bell, an Australian and the first non-American and youngest person to hold the position of global head of McDonald's.
Kimberly Clark wanted a new way to market feminine care products to young women and wanted to replace its staid Kotex brand with something else. The U by Kotex project revolutionised the way fem-care brands talk to their customers and has grown from a local brand to a global one.
Finalists for the Great Australian-conceived marketing campaign that has gone global are Coca Cola and Beam.
Share a Coke was a phenomena for Coca-Cola and it all started in Australia. By 2013 it had rolled out to 20 countries and was being planned to launch in 60 more making it one of the biggest campaigns run by Coke in more than a decade.
Beam wanted to launch a new premium bourbon in Australia and focus on the story of how the product was made. The Australian-created Devil's Cut campaign was so successful that the product was launched in the US, Germany and New Zealand.
Finalists in the great Australian Marketing Talent making it overseas category are Yum! Brands' Greg Creed, Mondelez' Leanne Cutts and R/GA's Nick Law.
Creed, a former chief marketer of KFC and Pizza Hut Australia, is now International CEO of Taco Bell working out of the US.
Cutts, the president and managing director of Mondelez International's Japan business, has a bachelor of Economics from Sydney University and started her marketing career at Unilever Australia. She has also led a number of FMCG businesses including GSK and Mondelez across Asia and headed up the launch of Stride gum into China.
Sydneysider Law, now the global chief creative officer of R/GA working on brands such as Nike and Nike Fuelband, is also a finalist. Law features in the forthcoming AdNews print edition (published 21 March), where you can read more about his views in the Australian and global creative industries.
AANA CEO Sunita Gloster said: “In its inaugural year we have received some outstanding ideas and marketing prowess entered. It is with great pride that the AANA can shine the spotlight on Australian marketing achievements on a global stage.”
The GRAMAs were developed by the AANA to elevate Australia’s marketing profession locally and on a global stage. The winner in each category will be announced at a cocktail party at the Museum of Contemporary Art on the eve of the Global Marketer Conference on 25 March. David Droga, founder and creative chairman of Droga5 will be the guest speaker.
The jury panel included members of the AANA board, Stephan Loerke, managing director of the World Federation of Advertisers and was chaired by Nigel Marsh from The Leading Edge.
The Awards are sponsored by Starcom MediaVest Group, Suncorp Group, Vegemite and strategic research company The Leading Edge.
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