Global Mobile Awards laud Mnet Mobile app for Kia

'Game on' allowed fans to interact with TV ads that aired during the Australian Open; users who managed to return a virtual serve by tennis ace Sam Groth got the chance to win a new Kia. (Please see "Kia app challenges TV viewers to return tennis pro's serve" for our coverage at the time, including videos.)

Mnet, part of IPG Mediabrands, won the awards for both "Best Mobile Advertising or Marketing" and "Most Innovative Mobile App" at the prestigious awards, hosted by Monty Python legend John Cleese.

Judges called the app, "A really engaging and innovative app with the potential to change the world of sports advertising and sponsorship that leveraged automatic content recognition, sensors and perfect timing to get people asking for more commercials."

The proprietary technology driving the app is adaptable to "almost any TV program or content on any screen", according to the agency.

While Mnet won in the only category explicitly devoted to advertising and marketing, several other awards went to Asia-based companies (details on all the winners are available here):

• BPI Globe BanKO of the Philippines won "Best Use of Mobile in Emergency or Humanitarian Situations" for a platform that enabled emergency e-transfers for Typhoon Haiyan survivors.
• The GSMA Chairman's Award was given to Dato’ Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim, managing director, president and group CEO of Malaysia-based Axiata Group Berhad.
• Sri Lanka's Dialog Axiata won the "NFC & Mobile Money Award" for its eZ Cash product.
• China-based ZTE had the "Best Mobile-Enabled Consumer-Electronics Device" with its ZTE for Smart Projector.
• India-based Bharti Airtel's One Touch Internet won "Best Mobile Service or App for Consumers".
• Indus Towers won the "Green Mobile Award" for work that converted cell sites in areas without stable grid power from diesel generators to more environmentally friendly power sources.
• Smart Communications of the Philippines won "Best Mobile Music App" for Spinnr, a service with a "bite-sized revenue" model.
• Huawei won "Best Mobile Infrastructure" for its LampSite Solution.
• Dialog Axiata's Dialog Ideamart was named the "Best Technology Enabler".
• Australia's Telstra won "Outstanding LTE Solution" for its LTE Advanced Network for Emergency Services (LANES).