Communication is at the core of what we do. Our ability to effectively communicate thoughts, ideas and messages in a way that is authentic and meaningful is the lifeline of the industry today. What’s more, communication has the ability to build relationships, grow business and change our perspective.
The Communication and Interaction category at the D&AD Impact Awards celebrates ideas that improve the way individuals, groups or companies communicate and interact with information and each other. The winning Communication and Interaction products or initiatives are able to create, build or maintain relationships in order to grow business, and are exemplary in creating new platforms, sharing content in a creative way, and increasing accessibility to specific content or complex information.
During the 2016 Impact Awards, the projects, products and initiatives that walked away with a Pencil award utilized communication and interaction in many forms. Winner of the Wood Pencil, Headspace, in creative partnership with Leo Burnett Melbourne, created the world’s first real-time spell checker for online bullying which doubled as an educational tool to develop a child’s moral compass when they become active on social media. The new technology, called Reword, detects insults and alerts the child with a red strikethrough, making them instantly reconsider what they write. With the support of the Australian government, which said the app had the “real potential to achieve behavioral change online,” Reword received a positive response around the world, with over 150 million media impressions and 150,000 installs of the Google Chrome extension. What’s more, Reword resulted in a 67 percent reduction in bullying behavior per user, with more than 84 percent of insults reworded when prompted.
Winner of the prestigious White Pencil award for Communication and Interaction at the 2016 Impact Awards, the Purity Test campaign was created by Cohn and Jansen JWT for client Valvis Holding. The idea was to create a paper strip that would test the nitrate levels in water in Romania, which is number one in Europe for nitrate pollution, though civilians are largely unware of this. The results? 1,600 waters, 127 rivers and lakes, and over 680 wells tested for nitrate and shared through the online app. The campaign also achieved 3,141,366 in reach from free PR and saw +40 percent of sales. What’s more, the campaign directly and immediately changed the lives of people in Romania by offering an actionable, useable solution to water pollution in the area.
Have a project or initiative that seeks to impact the world through communication or interaction? Learn more about the Communication & Interaction Category, other Impact categories, and how to enter to win a D&AD Impact Award during Advertising Week New York this September.
