Reprise wins Warc Grand Prix in social strategy for Malaysia KFC campaign

Reprise Malaysia leads a list of APAC winners that also includes work from China, Japan and Philippines in Warc's Effective Social Strategy awards, which were just announced. 

Warc lauded a total of 13 campaigns (one Grand Prix, two golds, five silvers and five bronzes), among which APAC work won a total of four (the Grand Prix, two silvers and one bronze).

The other APAC winners were McCann Worldgroup China for Amazon, BBDO Japan for Mars and Ogilvy Philippines for Unilever's Lady's Choice (see details in the winner list below).

In Reprise's winning campaign, KFC used a comedic take on a social influencer to drive affinity with millennials in Malaysia. A character called Mat Ayam Free and billed as KFC's "number-one fan" crashed the carefully curated Instagram feeds of local celebrities with shameless KFC plugs. Brand share among teens and young adults increased by 4%, the stunt reached an audience of 20.3 million followers, and KFC added 2.5 million followers of its own. Moreover, the campaign reversed negative sentiment that had arisen around rising prices.

The awards also include three special awards in addition to the metal (noted below).

Full winner list:

Grand Prix:

• How KFC's #1 fan charmed millions · KFC· QSR Stores Sdn Bhd · Reprise · Malaysia

• No Need to Fly - Around the World in Germany · German Rail · Ogilvy Germany · Germany
• Twitter Bait · Burger King · Restaurant Brands International · MullenLowe US · United States

• Celebrating Subcultures · Burger King · Restaurant Brands International · MullenLowe US · United States
• Scroll-Thru · KFC · Yum! Brands MENAPKT · Memac Ogilvy · Middle East (general region) (Path-to-Purchase Award)
• Everyone is an Amazing Book · Amazon Prime Reading · Amazon China · McCann Worldgroup China · China
• Bring Back the Idols · Snickers · Mars Japan · BBDO Japan · Japan
• #WomenRewriteWomen · El Tiempo · MullenLowe SSP3 · Colombia

Bronze:

• Be a Masshole, Not an Asshole · Yes on 3 Coalition · MullenLowe US · United States
• Hesitation · SKODA · RE-MIND PHD · France
• Great Work - WWF's Black Friday twist · WWF · Facebook Creative Shop · United Kingdom (Smart Spender Award)
• The Gift of Social Commerce · Lady's Choice · Unilever · Ogilvy Philippines Inc. · Philippines
• #NotAJoke · Change the Ref · MullenLowe US · United States (Live Award)

You can view all the winners here. The Effective Social Strategy category is the final category in the Warc Awards for 2020. The winners in the Effective Content Strategy, Effective Use of Brand Purpose and Effective Innovation categories have already been announced:

• Colenso BBDO's beer ballad wins top prize in Warc content-strategy awards
• APAC work wins half of Warc's 2020 purpose awards
• WhiteGrey, Mindshare win innovation grand prix from Warc