Entrants are encouraged to review past winning cases as a guide to writing a successful entry. These case studies are typically behind an ARF membership paywall, but these special cases are accessible to the public. (Note that the entrants have the option to create a publishable version of their cases after they are selected as winners. In some cases, more details may have been included in their original entry).
Like other industry awards, the ARF David Ogilvy Awards does not endorse a single formula for constructing an effective entry. Please refer to the entry kit, written explanation, and all other resources on the How to Enter page when preparing your submission.
2023 – GOLD – ELECTRONICS & TECH | |
Brand: Creative Agency: Media Company/Agency: Additional Affiliated Companies: | Unfold Your World Summary: Why weren’t Apple users switching to Samsung? By leveraging the unconventional tools of behavioral science and personality studies of extreme fans in both camps, Ogilvy uncovered something even more underlying and stubbornly true — Samsung users are “prevention-focused” while Apple users are “promotion-focused.” They’re as different as apples and oranges — literally — cut from an entirely different psychological cloth. So, trying to court Apple users with the same techniques Samsung used for its own base, simply wasn’t going to work. Using this insight, Ogilvy helped radically transform how Samsung marketed their third and fourth generation newest mobile devices — Foldables — Fold and Flip, across 2021 and 2022 in 12 of the most lucrative global markets. By changing their product proposition from ‘The Future Unfolds’ to ‘Unfold Your World’, every communication we designed moved Samsung from features, specs, and innovation-by-numbers to outcomes and the art-of-the-possible. Ogilvy helped bring in 3x more Apple switchers to Samsung than any other product in their history. Consumer Insight: Samsung users are “prevention-focused” (afraid to lose; comfortable in objective systems, what’s practical), while Apple users are “promotion-focused” (drawn to winning; emotional and aspirational stories, the improbable and magical here-and-now). In addition to winning GOLD in the Electronics & Tech Category, this campaign also won GOLD in Best Brand Transformation and the 2023 GRAND OGILVY Award. |
2023 – GOLD – RETAIL & RESTAURANTS | |
Brand: Creative Agency: Media Company/Agency: Additional Affiliated Companies: | HERe for Her Summary:Women face significant barriers to prioritizing their healthcare. CVS Health used this insight as an opportunity to improve women’s experience in accessing services and products. The marketing challenges were around education, trust and driving through to sales. Research was conducted expertly and sensitively to shape the campaign platform, ‘HERe’. This concept was the most inclusive and motivating for CVS Health, avoiding politicized language that would overshadow the brand’s message. The campaign proved CVS Health’s commitment to overcoming systemic and societal barriers by highlighting the company’s key actions impacting access, education and inequalities in women’s healthcare. These included working to eliminate the menstrual tax, taking a stance on the “Pink Tax” elimination efforts and providing access to health services at the MinuteClinic. The campaign successfully increased in-store trips for feminine care products and inclusive menstrual products 3-4x more than leading competitors and had a significant impact on overall brand awareness (+4%) and women’s health services awareness (+10%). Consumer Insight: Women face emotional, systemic, and societal barriers that make it difficult to prioritize their own healthcare and wellbeing. In addition to winning GOLD in the Retail & Restaurants Category, this campaign also won GOLD in Social Responsibility. |
2023 – GOLD – HEALTH & PERSONAL CARE | |
Brand: Creative Agency: Media Company/Agency: Additional Affiliated Companies: | Men Have Skin Too Summary: Old Spice has always prided itself on depicting diverse ‘Old Spice Guys’ over the years. The brand received a wakeup call during ethnographic research when they heard that the brand wasn’t relevant to Black men. They weren’t seeing themselves or their culture fully represented. P&G’s Analytics & Insights (A&I) team led with an inclusive learning approach across ALL groups of Multicultural consumers followed by conducting deep dives on life, category, and media insights. Shopper data also revealed that most Black men use women’s body wash and assume it’s better for your skin than men’s offerings. They wanted the perceived functionality and benefits of women’s products. Old Spice launched the Men Have Skin Too campaign: Old Spice products have such amazing benefits; women won’t believe they’re not for them. Old Spice’s Fresher collection answered this need; it was relaunched and upgraded with moisturizing ingredients like shea butter and natural scents like lavender to meet the needs of Multicultural men. The team reapplied this strategy to create programs to win with APA consumers and is now working to grow with USH in 2023. Old Spice has accelerated the brand CAGR and growing households with both Black (+7%) and APA (+2%) men. Consumer Insight: Black men have higher standards, seeking products that are “gentle on skin” and “moisturizing.” They wanted the functionality and benefits of women’s products. In addition to winning GOLD in the Health & Personal Care Category, this campaign also won GOLD in the Multicultural Category. |
2023 – GOLD – BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS | |
Brand: Creative Agency: Media Company/Agency: Additional Affiliated Companies: | Let’s Create a New IBM Summary: IBM had lost relevance with the tech community. Seen as an obsolete tech giant, their vision of the future was no longer resonating with tech audiences. Ogilvy had their work cut out for them: convince a tech community that 110-year-old IBM was positioned for where the industry was headed, not where it has been. Research uncovered a tension between how IT leaders are perceived, and what their job actually is. They’re seen as technicians and plumbers within their enterprise fixing problems, or “frankensteining” legacy systems together. But in fact, they’re innovators and creators: the driving force behind their business. They understand that innovative technology is what keeps their business nimble. This led to the strategic unlock: Let’s create. Together, let’s show the business world what the creative minds inside every company can accomplish. The Let’s Create campaign helped drive reappraisal with an increase in relevance by 8%. For purchase consideration they exceeded expectations for both Hybrid Cloud and AI. Over a quarter of prospective customers were now actively considering IBM for their digital transformation strategy, up 5 points since the beginning of 2022. Additionally, these efforts helped IBM post several consecutive quarters of growth for the first time in years. Consumer Insight:When everyone has access to the same technology, business growth comes from imagination, not just iteration.
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2022 – GOLD – FOOD & BEVERAGE | |
Brand: Creative Agency: Media Company/Agency: Additional Affiliated Companies: | The Lil Jif Project Summary: Jif noticed increased pressure from private label PB products, compounded by its main branded competitor outspending it many times over with a new campaign. Jif needed to ignite brand growth through consideration and conversion, especially among a new, younger audience. Creative agency PSONE brought a seed of an idea rooted in a timely, cultural debate between old vs new hip hop fans. Research was required to not only validate this but to inform new creative featuring this genre. Deep knowledge from ardent rap fans was needed to ensure the message was respectful and authentic. Key guidelines and guardrails would also be needed to steer the creative, ensuring strong appeal, relevance and brand fit for rap & non-rap fans alike. A multi-phase engagement – including an initial stakeholder knowledge sharing workshop, a series of paired in-depth interviews with rap superfans, focus groups, and iterative ‘huddles’ with the creative & client teams – we learned how Jif could authentically land the execution without descending into parody, while amplifying the key takeaway that Jif is best PB on the market. The result: Jif’s highest category share in 10 years, significant lift in social voice share, and achieving its goal of attracting a younger audience. Consumer Insight:: Fans don’t want brands to appropriate hip hop culture for its own gain. Knowing this, Jif added to the conversation representing the hip-hop community, not portraying a ‘stereotyped’ picture of the genre. In addition to winning GOLD in the Food & Beverage Category, this campaign was also the winner of the 2022 GRAND OGILVY Award. |
2021 – SILVER – Best Consumer Experience | |
Case Study Brand: Creative Agency: Media Company/Agency: Additional Affiliated Companies: | Project Understood Summary: For people with Down syndrome, access to voice technology is more than just convenience—it’s life-changing independence. However, voice technology’s algorithm often doesn’t understand the community’s unique speech patterns. Project Understood reimagined the role of people with Down syndrome by turning them into Google’s teachers—proving the capabilities of this much stigmatized community and giving them access to technology that could support their goal to live independently. The campaign resulted in over one million voices being donated to Google’s speech recognition database, changing how the world’s largest technology company’s voice AI works to better serve the 78 million people around the world with atypical speech. Consumer Insight: For people with Down syndrome, access to voice technology is more than just convenience—it’s life-changing independence. To note: Not only is this an example of experiential marketing, but their efforts also had a real impact on improving consumers’ lives. In addition to winning SILVER in the Best Consumer Experience category, this campaign also won SILVER in Data Innovation, SILVER in Government, Public Service & Non-Profit, GOLD in Electronics, Technology & Telecommunications and BRONZE in Social Responsibility. |
2020 – GOLD – Food and Beverage | |
Brand: Category: Creative Agency: Media Company/Agency: Research Company: | No is Beautiful Summary: After years of growth behind the once unique functional benefit, “Real Brewed Tea,” Pure Leaf’s [Pepsi & Unilever] sales were hitting maturity. Through research, Pure Leaf discovered a clear tension in mastering simplicity in an overly complicated world. To grow the brand, they launched a masterbrand campaign with a brand purpose to appeal to a wider audience and their emotions. The first phase of the campaign had nearly 1 billion impressions as well as improved brand distinction for Pure Leaf and a 10.5% sales lift from 2019. Consumer Insight: A need to focus on what’s important in life, however, it’s difficult to block out the “clutter of daily life.” In addition to winning GOLD in the Food & Beverage category, this campaign also won GOLD in Best Brand Transformation and BRONZE in Social Responsibility. |
2020 – GOLD – Best New or Emerging Brand | |
Brand: Affiliated Companies: | Bublé vs. bubly Summary: The marketing challenge for this brand was to expand its presence within a fast-growing category and unleash bubly’s playful personality on the world’s biggest stage AND become the most memorable name in sparkling water. Methodology included consumer interviews, social Listening, quant/qual message testing and google search/trend analysis. Through this research it was discovered that millennials dealing with adulting want an everyday sparkling water brand that felt as fun, colorful, and playful as soda. For its 2019 Super Bowl debut, everything bubly did was with a laser focus on breaking up the mundane and getting consumers to simply ‘crack a smile’. Bubly brought this mission to life by partnering with talent, programming and millennial-driven platforms that shared a similar ‘playful instigator’ role in culture. Positioned at the center of the Super Bowl Stage, bubly successfully gave consumers a much-needed laugh and infused fun and refreshment into millennial routines. As a result, brand awareness grew by 77% among category users, doubled retail sales in FY 2019 and tripled category share Consumer Insight: The main insight from this campaign is that “adulting” is hard for millennials but a little bit of play is a good reprieve. |
2020 – GOLD – Social Responsibility | |
Brand: Category: Creative Agency: Additional Affiliated Companies: | Not a Gun Summary: The marketing challenge for this campaign was to raise awareness of the implicit racial biases in police officers that lead to violence against people of color. By getting people to check their own implicit biases, the goal of this campaign was to push the police officers to also check their biases while trying to not make the situation concerning police violence and racial biases worse. The creative execution of this campaign included making a short film, “Not a Gun” that juxtaposed the perceived danger of people of color with something innocuous like a candy bar. After viewing “Not a Gun,” it was found that people who have had experience with fear-based visual inaccuracies were more likely to see the man as armed. Following the initial launch in Austin, the Austin Police Department began CCGF’s award-winning training protocol, whose goal was to have increased conversations about interracial dialogue. Along with the training program, the campaign was later extended to become “Not a Crime,” which was a short video, billboards, a window exhibit, and a print ad. Consumer Insight: Police officers’ implicit racial biases cause them to misidentify items carried by people of color, which could lead to violent confrontations. In addition to winning GOLD in the Social Responsibility Category, this campaign also won GOLD in the Government, Public Service & Non-Profit category and the 2020 GRAND OGILVY award winner. |
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