Bates 141 is most awarded agency for effectiveness in Greater China

Bates 141 has come out tops at the third ROI Festival Awards, a Greater China award recognizing the best in effectiveness.

The agency also won the Grand Prix award for Creative Agency of the Year. It picked up three Golds – for Buick S Curve (Bates 141 Shanghai), Buick Lacrosse (Bates 141 Shanghai) and Isabelle Wedding Cakes (Bates 141 Taiwan).

The award for Buick S Curve is the result of the successful collaboration of Bates 141 Shanghai and its acquisition partner Bates MeThinks.

“Since we acquired Chinese activation hot shop MeThinks in 2007, we have been working to integrate our partner into the Bates 141 culture and business, so that together we can better deliver integrated, change-building campaigns that drive our clients’ brand and business success. Under the leadership of Barry Leung, this has come to fruition with the recognition of our highly successful Buick “S Curve” campaign for Shanghai General Motors in China. Given the success, this will be turned into a bigger and better program for the years to come,” said Conrad Chiu, Managing Partner, Bates 141 Greater China.

The Buick “S Curve Challenge” is a 20-city race, culminating in the final showdown in Yunnan, where finalists from each city raced down what is dubbed the “Devil’s Turn” –literally a series of 68 “S curves” down a mountain road in Kunming (as shown in the Google satellite picture attached). The Challenge was devised as a way to stand out among the plethora of car showcases and test drive events (which have become commonplace and no longer effective in driving sales), and at the same time strengthen the brand through greater customer interaction.

The event has generated immense interest and word of mouth in social media. It was also highly publicized in local and national media. And all this has resulted in record high sales and a two-month wait list.


About Bates 141 -
Bates 141 is the world’s largest Asia-devoted marketing communications network. Bates 141 is part of WPP, one of the world’s leading communications services groups. Bates 141 is located in 10 countries across Asia Pacific.

Bates 141’s clients include among others, Cheung Kong, Colgate, Diageo, Dell, Fiat, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Heineken, HSBC, Mengniu, Pizza Hut, Proton, Shanghai General Motors, SONY, Virgin Mobile, Vietnam Post and Telecommunications, and Vitalon.

We are The Change Agency. We believe that brands with a future must embrace change. Our clients pay us to understand, leverage and create change, and our currency - ideas - must change people.