In Czechia and Slovakia, we have been witnessing marketers redefining ways to communicate with their customers. Over the past decade, we have seen that digital content can generate amazing results, from campaigns that warmed our hearts to those that provoked us to think.
We wanted to celebrate and appreciate all the brilliant ideas behind the most effective and innovative YouTube campaigns in 2019. We asked 12 marketing experts, from creative leaders to founders and CEOs, to help us find these works. Finally, the very first time in Prague, we celebrated them with the YouTube Works Award.
🏆 GRAND PRIX & Best cultural impact through YouTube
Rexona (Unilever) with Zaraguza and Mindshare
Up to 40% of Czechs and Slovaks don’t play sports, which is one reason why these nations are among the most unhealthy in Europe. Rexona wanted to change that. In collaboration with the Slovak rapper, Rytmus, they showed that people can move everywhere, even while being in the middle of the city. Although Rytmus is well-known mostly among young people, the campaign also attracted an older audience — more than 1.4 million unique users have seen the video in Czechia and Slovakia. This work was awarded for trying to change the unflattering sport statistics.
🏅 Best media strategy
AXE (Unilever) with Zaraguza and Mindshare
AXE partnered with GoGo, a Slovak YouTuber. Together they created a music video whose message was to show that there is no need for alcohol to gain self-confidence. According to research, young Czechs and Slovaks drink alcohol to make them feel more confident. AXE shed light on this problem and introduced ways to gain self-confidence in a more natural way. This clip was watched by over 1.7 million unique users both in Czechia and Slovakia. The jury awarded this work for maximizing the potential of YouTube and achieving "Best in class" brand impact results.
🏅 Best audience insight
Ria (Hartmann Rico) with SYMBIO
What do boys know about menstruation? What can they do for their girlfriends? The lack of knowledge leads to prejudice and makes girls and boys shy away from the topic. Ria busted some myths by creating a campaign that speaks openly about an otherwise taboo subject. This campaign reached 80% of the target audience and almost 45% of views were organic. Even the reactions from the audience were positive — the videos received over 13,500 likes and almost 1,500 comments. This work helped the brand stand out from competition and for these reasons, it was awarded by the jury.
🏅 Best YouTube integration
Liptov (Savencia) with THIS IS LOCCO and Wavemaker Slovakia
Like every country has its typical food, Slovakia has “white gold” or bryndza, a sheep milk cheese. So Liptov wanted to show that unexpectedly tasty combinations can be made with this cheese. The jury awarded their courage to show bryndza in a different light and advertise a traditional brand primarily on YouTube. As a result of this campaign, bryndza sales reached the highest they’d been in the last six years — with only a 5% increase in budget.
🏅 Best long-term use of YouTube
Kytary.cz
Kytary.cz is a traditional Czech retailer of musical instruments and audio technology. The brand is known for its systematic content strategy which includes interviews with artists, singers and musicians, or educational videos. Its friendly tone, professionalism, humor and current topics make the brand very accessible to its customers. The channel has over 23.5 million views, 865,000 hours viewed, and over 38,500 subscribers. Kytary.cz is awarded for its long-term work which made the YouTube channel Kytary.cz a respected magazine among music fans.
🏅 Best use of YouTube for performance marketing
Glami with Wollein films
Glami is a search engine for everything related to fashion, making finding and shopping for clothing simple. The “explanatory concept” worked best for them before, so they used it for this campaign as well. The brand created three characters who explained what they liked about the search engine or what features they used. Thanks to the campaign “Everybody shops through Glami” on YouTube, Glami has achieved proven business results — traffic increased by 70%. Glami is awarded because this campaign has helped it in brand building and in awareness building of the unique benefits.
🏅 Best media & creative agency collaboration
Maybelline (L'Oréal) with McCANN Prague, B&T and METS Czech
Maybelline, one of L'Oréal's brands, created a series of tutorial videos on YouTube in partnership with McCANN Prague, B&T and METS Czech. The series features Monika Bagárová and Denisa Pfauserová, entertaining audiences in a fun and unconventional way and inspiring viewers to use Maybelline products in various ways. Individual episodes of the show typically exceed 750,000 views on YouTube, and many of them have over a million views. This work is awarded for a perfect demonstration of how agencies should work with a client. The client is an important part of this campaign and deserves the same prize as creative and media agencies.
🎖 Prize of the jury for the most comprehensive YouTube strategy
Tatra banka with Studio Echt, Performics and Zenith
Tatra banka, a Slovak bank, launches the Tatra Academy every year. This is a campaign to get young people to open a student account. The bank chose an unconventional main character, a 70-year-old Slovak singer and actress Gizela Oňová, who won the hearts of young people. The YouTube Works jury decided to award this strategy because it integrates YouTube tools and delivers great business results. After this campaign, Tatra banka managed to hold its audience’s attention for six months thanks to more than 800 creatives.
Shortlist
