YouTube Works Awards India Announces Winners of Its Second Edition

India Winners of YouTube Works Awards 2022 announced

• Connected TV Award recognises YouTube streaming by ~60 Mn Indians

• Mondelez wins Grand Prix for second successive year, bagging a total of four Awards

Over the last decade, marketers and brands have redefined how they communicate with consumers. From the heartwarming to the heart-racing, and everything in-between, we have seen how incredible digital content can drive equally powerful results.

Here are the winners of the second edition of the #YouTubeWorks awards under their respective categories.

Listerine | Media Innovation - Conceptualised by Blink Digital and Interactive Avenues for J&J, the brand released the ‘Be Proud of Your Mouth’ campaign for Oral Health Day. It aimed to raise awareness and find the right audience, while showing people how their oral health can be akin to great health.

Cadbury Dairy Milk | Big Screen, Big Results – A piece for Mondelez by Ogilvy and Wavemaker India won the award in this category. The campaign took a classic and iconic ad and reimagined it for the modern era. They used the big screen of YouTube enabled TVs to amplify diverse perspectives and challenge stereotypes. It became one of the most viral ads during the 2021 IPL season, generating $670K worth of earned media, 330M+ impressions in one month, and 18% increase in sales.

Knorr | Local Connection - HUL and media agency, Mindshare, teamed up with an aim to establish a foothold in the local market. The Knorr campaign brought together celebrity chef Damu (1.26M subscribers) and YouTube influencer Mr MaKaPa (1.02M subscribers) for a live cook-along show, which garnered 9.1M views and connected with a younger audience.

HP India | Force for Good – Brought to you by MediaMonks and HP India, the “Diye se Diya Jalao” campaign promoted the wonderful idea of lighting up someone else’s life. It was a thoughtful initiative by HP to celebrate small businesses in a beautiful way. It also reinforced HP’s continuous promise of ‘bringing thoughtful ideas to life.’

CottonKing | Long-form Storytelling - Fifth Estate Agency and CottonKing’s ‘Bhaubeej’ campaign tackled an important social issue and put a spotlight on gender norms, particularly the role of the modern woman and her day-to-day life. Attracting a whole new audience, it generated 1L+ hours of viewing, 8M+ views and increased store visits from women by 25%.

Alexa | Brands X Creators - Interactive Avenues and Amazon partnered with popular YouTube influencer Janice on her digital show – Social Media Star with Janice. The campaign aimed to get more people to choose Alexa as their preferred voice assistant. Depicting Alexa’s fun side, the campaign got 25M+ views and 400M+ impressions organically. 

Cadbury also went on to win awards in two more categories for Perk (6 Seconds Storytelling) by Ogilvy and Wavemaker, and for Cadbury (Tech Meets Creative). Throughout its 25-year-old strong legacy, Cadbury has brought to life not only the brand’s youthful persona but has showcased the human bond through some of the best heartfelt campaigns.

Speaking on the massive win, Anil Viswanathan, Senior Marketing Director, Mondelez, said, “Overall, we’re are thrilled that three of our campaigns were judged winners in three prestigious categories at the YouTube Works Awards, and are elated that Cadbury Celebrations SRK-My-Ad went on to win the special Grand Prix. This is a fabulous moment of celebration for the team. Akin to last year, in 2021-22 too, we were keen on supporting local businesses and stores to help them bounce back. Our campaign ‘Not just a Cadbury Ad’ was about highlighting the spirit of generosity and understanding that enables each of us to prosper. We are very happy to associate with YouTube via our partner agencies to facilitate this campaign that has helped us build this first-of-its-kind, self-serve ad creation platform for small businesses that allows them to work feature a mega celeb like SRK in their ads.''

The second edition of the YouTube Awards considered campaigns released between 1st January 2021 and 31st December 2021. The winning campaigns represent various popular advertising formats across eight categories, including the Grand Prix.

The #YoutubeWorks winners were shortlisted by an elite 11-member Grand Jury comprising the best minds from the marketing and advertising industry. On the jury were Chair of the Jury, Josy Paul (Chairman & CCO, BBDO India), Kainaz Karmakar (CCO, Ogilvy India), Dheeraj Sinha (CEO - Leo Burnett South Asia & Chairman - BBH India), Prasun Basu (Head - Growth & Digital transformation, Kantar), Gayatri Yadav (CMO, Sequoia India and SEA), Vikrant Mudaliar (CMO, Dream11), Gautami Kale (Founder, Slayy Point), Prajakta Koli (Founder, Mostly Sane), Atique Kazi (President - Data , Performance, Digital GroupM), Vikram Sakhuja (Group CEO, Madison Media) and Sidharth Rao (CEO, Dentsu McGarryBowen).

Speaking on the quality of campaigns for this year’s event, Jury Chair,  Josy Paul (Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, BBDO India) said, “The quality of nominations we have reviewed in this second year of my chairing the jury has been fantastic and our discussions were made more valuable with perspectives from within YouTube’s creator ecosystem. It's great to see that brands are keeping in lock-step with the possibilities and potential of YouTube’s dynamic growth, not just in viewership, but in the range of opportunities – from smartphones to the living room and from Shorts to podcasts – the platform now provides brands to make creativity a lever for business growth.”

YouTube Works Awards was first launched in 2021 in association with Kantar. The event highlights how leading brands in India are effectively leveraging YouTube as a platform, with the aim to engage audiences to help drive business goals and consumer engagement.