Ogilvy: Network of the Year 2024

German Rail positioned its trains as a means to escape Zoom fatigue, encouraging workers to replace dropped connections and awkward echoes for in-person meetings. Turning video conferences into calls for help, it achieved 6.5m ad views and more than double its average engagement rate. It demonstrates how to find a relatable pain point and offer your service as the solution.

Brooke Bond-owned Taj Mahal tea connected India’s monsoon season, an existing association with classical music and a hot cup of tea through a rain-powered musical instrument. It was officially named the world’s largest environmentally powered interactive billboard by Guinness Records and boosted the brand’s Google search traffic by 5000%. “Each shower sounded slightly different. The rain was literally the maestro,” said Harshad Rajadhyaksha, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy India.

Another musical innovation – this time for Coke Studio in the Philippines – turned vinyl records into music you can watch. Crafted using a vintage animation technique, the limited edition discs celebrated eight years of Coca-Cola’s music platform and lifted social mentions by 63%. It shows how to satisfy Gen Z’s penchant for nostalgia with a modern twist on a retro channel.

Beyoncé can break the internet, but can she break Verizon? The mobile provider put its network to the test by teasing and then announcing the star’s new album in a series of Super Bowl spots. Despite 30 million people flocking to stream the content, the network remained intact – boosting Verizon sign-ups by 35% year on year. It shows how to build a product demo into a pop culture moment to capitalise on the buzz.

Two animated gonads front these 40-second ads from the De Alba Cancer Foundation, encouraging men to take a pregnancy test to screen for testicular cancer. A reminder that humour can gently address avoidance, the characters achieved more than 17.5m impressions, 36,000 interactions and 19,000 website visits in a month.

IKEA increased accessibility in the Philippines by converting 927 everyday spaces into stores. By featuring its products in gyms, nail salons and restaurants, it boosted e-commerce transactions by 20% year on year. “This took the store to the consumer,” said Media Lions Jury President Prerna Mehrotra, Chief Client Officer and CEO, Media, at dentsu Asia-Pacific. “It gave people a chance to touch and feel the products in all the right spaces and shortened the path to purchase.”