Verizon Media unveils winners of Asia Big Idea Chair Awards

In a year fraught with uncertainties and challenges, some brands have managed to overcome the difficulties and rolled out impressive campaigns to engage customers and drive business growth. Celebrating the remarkable advertising campaigns and ideas on Verizon Media in Asia throughout 2020, Verizon Media's announced the winners of the Asia Big Idea Chair Awards at Grand Hyatt Hong Kong on 23 February with CSL Mobile leading the pack, taking home seven awards.

Originating from Yahoo! Inc., the Asia Big Idea Chair Awards is a leading event which has travelled around the world and was launched in Hong Kong in 2009. It continues to honour marketers’ and advertisers’ brilliant digital campaigns that never cease to charm audiences with ingenuity and cutting-edge technology. Among the 21 award categories, 15 were for Hong Kong and six were for Asia.

CSL Mobile was the big winner of this year's awards, winning in the categories of the Best Branded Content Campaign Outstanding Award; Best Innovative Experience Outstanding Award; Best Partnership Strategy Outstanding Award; Best Branded Content Campaign Merit Award (Asia); Best Innovative Experience Merit Award (Asia); Hong Kong Big Idea Chair Champion Outstanding Award and Asia Big Idea Chair Champion Merit Award.

The company worked with Verizon Media last year to host the city’s first immersive 5G VR media event that featured memorable events from Hong Kong’s past, plus a meet-and-greet with Verizon Media’s leaders from around the world.

“5G is becoming much more mature with extending 5G coverage throughout Hong Kong right now. Inspiration and education are, therefore, paramount in not only convincing them to make the jump to 5G, but also see CSL Mobile as the market leader," said Bruce Lam, managing director of consumer mobile from CSL Mobile.

"The partnership between CSL Mobile and Verizon Media was a true success, with the branded content hub reaching over 2.8 million pageviews, leading to 139% increase in new website visitors to CSL's 5G website," said Lam.AXA Hong Kong took home four awards, including the Hong Kong Big Idea Chair Champion Merit Award; Best Branded Content Campaign Outstanding Award; Best Video Strategy Outstanding Award; and Best Partnership Strategy Merit Award for their “Ask Dr Chiu” content series.

Leveraging its in-house chief medical officer, AXA published over 20 articles, eight videos and two live broadcast programmes to educate the public on health and hygiene during the outbreak of COVID-19.  Relevant content was developed based on the development of the pandemic, covering topics like prevention, myths and mental wellness tips to address the public concerns and to demonstrate their professionalism and their expertise in health and protection.

"We are very pleased that our timely and useful content effectively reached and supported nearly 120,000 viewers during the two live broadcast events, while the ‘Ask Dr Chiu’ articles garnered over 650,000 page views during this difficult time. We will continue to be a true partner to our customers, stand by and support our community," commented Andrea Wong, chief marketing and customer officer of AXA Hong Kong and Macau.Also, Bupa (Asia) won five awards, including the Best Acquisition Campaign Outstanding Award, plus merit recognitions for Best Branded Content Campaign, Best Video Strategy and Best Native Ad Campaign. Its branded content campaign, launched in partnership with Yahoo’s BetterMe, took a soft approach that turned the concept of insurance from a protection during rainy days into a necessity in different life stages through editorial and micro-films themed around companionship, trust, friendship, as well as love during times of woe.

“We wished to add a soft, lifestyle-oriented angle to something as technical and practical as insurance to reach the group of younger audience, and Yahoo’s BetterMe has long been reputable for its heartfelt stories among the younger generation. This campaign was launched with a great success, drawing more than four million eyeballs with over 560 total engagement," commented Jimsun Lui, Marketing Director from Bupa (Asia).

"In 2020, we had a very challenging and disruptive year, but yet it was also a year of reflection. To the media industry, it was a year of digital acceleration and dramatic uplift of user engagement across digital platforms. To the advertising industry, it was a year of more digital innovations, more performance-driven and more technologies enablement," said Rico Chan, co-head of Verizon Media for APAC.

Please check out the full list of winners here.

This article is contributed by Verizon Media.