Best of 2014: Top 5 campaigns

Campaign Asia-Pacific is presenting a new top-5 list every day until we send our last daily bulletin of the year on December 19. We've had fun pulling this annual review together, and we hope you'll enjoy it too.

Please follow along as we spotlight the year's highlights and lowlights. And if you think we've screwed up—either by inclusion or omission—please let us hear about it in the comments and/or on Twitter @CampaignAsia using the hashtag #CampaignBestOf2014.

<< See all 2014 year-in-review top-5 lists >>

Without further ado, here are the...

TOP 5 CAMPAIGNS OF 2014

1 - Sound of Honda

An inspiring use of data and technology helped ‘Sound of Honda / Ayrton Senna 1989’ by Dentsu Tokyo run away with the big awards this year. The campaign for Honda Motor Company used driving data to bring back Formula One legend Ayrton Senna’s fastest lap from 25 years ago, on Japan’s Suzuka race track. After winning the 2014 Titanium Grand Prix at Cannes, it picked up four Grands Prix prizes at Spikes — a haul which led Dentsu Tokyo to also be named Agency of the Year.

2 - Babies from Thailand and Japan

A two-minute-tearjerker for telco Dtac by Y&R Thailand was a viral hit this year, with its English-subtitled version racking up over 17 million views between June and October. ‘The power of love’ tugged at the heartstrings, showing a father’s first display of affection for his newborn daughter, with a tagline that technology will never replace love. Meanwhile, P&G (with Beacon Leo Burnett), also tapped into the emotions of parenthood in a short documentary for its Pampers brand in Japan. The video recognised the extreme effort and dedication mothers put into raising a baby in its first year.

3 - Ikea’s look-alikes

What Ikea product do you look like? It’s not only a great question, but it triggered a hilarious campaign for Ikea Mayalsia and its agency BBH Asia-Pacific. Malaysian Ikea fans dressed up and posted photos on Facebook in a delightful display of creativity and self-deprecating humour. As well as reaching more than 1.5 million Facebook users and generating over 20,000, likes, comments and shares during the two-week campaign. It was also our most viewed photo gallery of the year.

4 - CC Lemon’s muscleman

Featuring a pneumatic muscle suit, romance and a good dose of Japanese bizarreness, this was always going to be a highly entertaining video. Suntory’s second Youth Video Project instalment (the first, 'Japanese schoolgirl chase' was impressive in its own right), developed by Hakuhodo, was the action-packed yet heartwarming tale of a dorky schoolboy who beats the odds to find love, with a little help from some mad scientists, and eventually shares an “indirect kiss” via a bottle of CC Lemon. We especially liked the fact that the product’s only appearance was in helping to facilitate the love scene. That is what you call brand utility.

5 - Mistakes

The New Zealand Transport Agency launched this powerful TVC to remind drivers to slow down when they drive. Developed by Clemenger BBDO Wellington, the video freezes time right before an accident to dramatise the inevitability of the crash—as well as the drivers’ regrets and the consequences. Powerful and intense, the TVC sends a compelling message about the dangers of speeding. Speed is a contributing factor in 20 per cent of all fatal and serious injury crashes in the country.