Campaigns with large geographical diversity and for a wide range of brands, including IHOP, KFC, Lifebuoy, Toyota, UNIQLO, and Virgin Trains, are among the winners of the Best Use of Data category of WARC's global Media Awards 2018, recognising communications planning which has made a positive impact on business results.

Twelve winners - One Grand Prix, four Golds, three Silvers and four Bronzes - have been awarded in the Best Use of Data category, recognising the role of data in an effective communications strategy.

The jury, chaired by Nicole Kane, VP of Media & Performance, Epsilon, also awarded three Special Awards for particular areas of expertise: Personalisation Award for the best example of a campaign that used data to segment effectively; Attribution Award for the best example of a channel attribution model; and Data-Driven Insight Award for a campaign where data helped to identify the right audience at scale.

The Grand Prix winner is Mindshare, India, for 'The Adaptive Data Lighthouse' campaign for Lifebuoy, India's largest soap brand owned by Hindustan Unilever.

Lifebuoy continued to face problems reaching rural consumers, working with the challenges of low literacy rates and low traditional media penetration. The brand created an infection warning system by crunching government data to predict outbreaks, and then targeted marketing on a micro-local level to spread awareness of the importance of hand hygiene. As a result, Lifebuoy increased its rural brand metrics, penetration and sales, and helped to reduce infection rates.

Commenting on the Grand Prix winning campaign, Ian Forrester, SVP, Research & Analytics at Whalar, said: "It was a lovely story. There is a lot of social value around what they're doing and it's a complex model that was implemented by calling people up on the phone, which is what you need to do India. That was a nice mix of old and new."

The full winners list of WARC's Media Awards 2018 -- Best Use of Data is:

Grand Prix
 

• The Adaptive Data Lighthouse - Lifebuoy - Hindustan Unilever Limited - Mindshare - India

Gold
 

• Hot Spots and Hell Spots - Virgin Trains - Manning Gottlieb OMD - United Kingdom + Data-Driven Insight Award
• A data-fuelled solution that rises to the occasion - IHOP - Dine Brands Global - Initiative - North America
• Finding a buried treasure - SAP - PHD Singapore - Asia + Personalisation Award
• Flu Tracker - Theraflu - GlaxoSmithKline - MediaCom Russia, GlaxoSmithKline Healthcare - Russian Federation

Silver
 

• The Power of Data - KFC - YUM! - Hearts & Science - MENA + Attribution Award
• If you can dream it, you can Pylox it - Nippon Pylox - Nippon Paint Malaysia - Ensemble Worldwide - Malaysia
• Hijacking the largest shopping festival in the world - UNIQLO - Fast Retailing Co. - Mindshare China - China

Bronze
 

• We Choose Hybrid - Toyota - Toyota Motor Europe - m/SIX - Europe
• Smart Search - Big Bazaar - Future Retail Limited - MediaCom - India
• A full media mix based on machine-learning technologies - First Ukrainian International Bank (FUIB) - OMD Media Direction Ukraine - Ukraine
• Belanja Berbagi - 1001 Inspirasi Ramadhan - Unilever - Unilever Indonesia - Mindshare Indonesia - Indonesia

The winners of the Effective Channel Integration, Effective Use of Partnerships & Sponsorships and Effective Use of Tech categories will be announced later this month.

The top winning case study papers of the WARC Media Awards will share a $40,000 prize fund.