Light Up A Village – APPIES Asia Pacific 2016 Gold Winner

Light Up A Village was one of the Gold Winners of APPIES Asia Pacific 2016.

McCann World Group India, the agency behind the “Light Up A Village” campaign, was the most awarded agency at the 2016 APPIES Asia Pacific awards held at Singapore.

The agency picked up three Golds and three silvers from a shortlisted 73 campaigns from 12 countries in the region.

McCann’s gold winning work included the successful re-launch campaign for Maggi, the ‘Light up a village’ campaign for Western Union and the Culture-inspired idea of ‘Dettol Ka Dhula’ to promote hygiene in India.

During Diwali 2015, money transfer player Western Union had pledged to donate 2 Million Rupees towards lighting up the lives of some of the 300 Million Indians who live in villages without electricity.

In addition, they donated an amount per remittance made to India during the festive period which was from the 15th of October to the 30th of November, 2015.  

The initiative was part of a global effort themed ‘The Chain of Betters’ from Western Union.  

Communicating the effort in India was an online film, which tells the story of Manoj Pandey, who returns home after 10 years to his village, to witness something special: his village getting electricity.

The Presenter of the campaign was Rajesh Sharma, Group Planning Director of McCann World Group India.

The challenge: Generating higher remittances to India from blue-collar Indian workers living abroad.

Targeting this audience was difficult because media does not reach beyond borders.

McCann World Group India decided to do consumer activation rather than an ad campaign.

The insight: The further away you are from the more important it becomes.

The idea: For every rupee an Indian blue-collar worker sent back through Western Union, they would contribute a small percent of it towards bringing electricity to villages back home.

The result: The spike in remittances was huge enough for them to contribute 3 million INR and bring electricity to not just 1 but 4 villages.

Credits:

APPIES Asia Pacific 2022 will be hosted by Malaysia!

APPIES Asia Pacific is an annual event that presents a rare opportunity for creative, media, digital and marketing agencies or brands to present their best campaigns to the industry.

Despite hosting this event virtually due to the ongoing battle against COVID-19, this is the only event in the region where Live Presentations meets Live Judging.

Similar to TED Talks, APPIES is the chance for great presenters with outstanding work to show it off to some of the region’s most important industry leaders.

This year’s winners will receive Gold, Silver or Bronze trophies for 10 categories, and 7 special Best of Best categories (red trophies) that require no submissions!

For more details visit https://appies.asia/