The “Rotating Mayor” of Danzhai Wanda Village Won EFFIE and ONE SHOW Awards
17.11.2018
On Nov. 16, the “52 Rotating Mayors” project of Danzhai Wanda Village won three golden awards for 2018 EFFIE awards in greater China. The project also won 2018 ONE SHOW Creative Award and Cross-platform Experimental Marketing Award for Greater China. In addition, the project won EFFIE’s Most Effective Advertising Campaign Award.
So far, the “52 Rotating Mayors” has won all the top advertising awards in the world: the Cannes Lions, EFFIE and ONE SHOW awards. The three awards are equivalent to the Oscars, Golden Globes and Emmy awards in film and TV.
The rotating mayor program of Danzhai Wanda Village uses mayors’ influence to put Danzhai on the map so that the pro-poor tourism could raise locals’ income and people can pull themselves out of poverty. So far, more than 60 KOLs and influencers have taken up the job as mayor of the Village. As a result, the Village has received more than 7 million visits since it opened in July 2018. More than 16,000 locals living with poverty have seen their income grow.
The ONE SHOW grand prize represents the highest level of creativity
The American ONE SHOW International Award was founded in 1973. It is one of the top three advertising awards in the world. Different from other awards of the advertising industry, ONE SHOW’s most important criterion is the level of creativity. The award came to China in 2014.
With its rotating mayor project, Wanda Group won the only grand prize of the 2018 ONE SHOW awards for greater China. This prize represents the most inspiring creative work of the industry, the highest praise for creativity in the past year.
“During the selection of the grand prize, all the judges have fully exchanged their views on all the nominated works. We decided to give the award to ’52 Rotating Mayors’ because the project again made us feel the power of creativity is able to change people’s lives and solve business problems, making the world a better place. ” says One Club Global CEO Kevin Swanepoel.
Winning the EFFIE
The EFFIE awards were established in 1968 and they entered China in 2003. Different from the Cannes and the Clio Awards, the EFFIEs put more emphasis on practical results of advertising campaigns. Consensus in the industry is that winning the EFFIEs means overcoming commercial challenges.
If winning the Cannes Lions and the ONE SHOW awards only shows the rotating mayor program is creative, wining the EFFIE then shows with fact that this project not only can overcome challenges from the market, it has also made real contribution to Wanda’s the poverty alleviation project in Danzhai County.
52 rotating mayors led poverty relief efforts
A poverty alleviation agreement was signed by Wanda Group and Danzhai County Government in 2014. The Group has donated 2.1 billion yuan to three poverty alleviation projects in Danzhai. Among those, the Danzhai Wanda Village is the core project of the entire poverty alleviation program. Since its opening on July 3 2017, the Village has become one of the top three tourist destinations in Guizhou Province and a national 4A scenic spot.
In order to attract long-term exposure and sustained attention, and utilize social resources from various sectors, the Corporate Culture Center of Wanda Group designed and implemented the “Rotating Mayor” Project in Danzhai.
Danzhai has welcomed 52 mayors in the first season of the project. The mayors come from different countries and have different interests and professions.They are entrepreneurs, photographers, film directors, sculptors, writers, international youth volunteers, British fashion models, triathletes and Miss World. The list goes on.
Every rotating mayor serves as ambassador for Danzhai
A few days ago, rotating mayors appeared on Lehuo China, a variety show on CCTV. They shared their stories and what they have witnessed in Danzhai, introducing this beautiful and mysterious place to millions of viewers.
During each mayor’s administration, they gave full play to their professional knowledge and skills, doing one good deed at a time for Danzhai. When their terms ended, Danzhai is still on their mind. They use all communications channels to promote Danzhai and give feedback to help the development of the county.
For Danzhai and its people, the rotating mayors opened a window onto the whole country and the entire world. Because of mayors’ talent and creativity, Danzhai is now known by the world. Preliminary statistics showed more than 5.5 million visitors have been to Danzhai Wanda Village in the first year of its operation, helping tens of thousands of poor people in the county out of poverty. The comprehensive tourism revenue of Danzhai County reached 3 billion Yuan in the past year.
The award-winning project has made previously little-known Danzhai an internationally famous town. The second season of global recruitment of the “Rotating Mayors” is starting on Nov. 19. Please get your policies ready and submit your application!