The BIC Awards attracted an overwhelming response with over 420 entries, double the number of entries received last year. Event host Alfred Tsoi, Vice President and Managing Director, kicked off the event with nine of the other award judges.

Awards were given in four major categories – “Search”, “Display”, “Integrated” and “Agency”, in recognition of advertisers and agencies for their remarkable online advertising campaigns and their outstanding performance in the areas of ad copywriting, ad engagement, creating a WOW effect, ROI, integrated planning and more. A total of 19 awards were given to 46 advertisers and agencies at the event.

The Outstanding Winner of the Integrated Big Idea Chair Award went to Estee Lauder Hong Kong. International brands from Taiwan, such as Cerebos International Health Ltd, Coca-Cola Far East Limited and Pepsico Foods dominated the Regional category awards.

Taiwanese singing sensation Lin Yu-chun was invited to entertain the guests at the award presentation dinner. Using his rendition of the classic song “I will always love you” by Whitney Houston on which he gained his fame, Lin adapted the lyrics to croon “I will always love Yahoo!” as the last stanza of the song.

The Yahoo! Big Idea Chair Awards is a leading global event which has travelled around the globe from the U.S. to U.K, Canada, Russia, India, Japan, Brazil, Italy, Mexico, Taiwan and was successfully launched in Hong Kong last year.

For more information of the campaign, please visit the 2010 Yahoo! Big Idea Chair Awards website

Then her dream came true — as it has for dozens of other young women, thanks to the emergence of a new Taiwanese job description: Ecommerce Model.

Jia-Jia entered and won the “EC Model Contest,” hosted by Yahoo! Taiwan Auctions. She is now not only a celebrity to the more than 300,000 people who participated in the voting process and is coveted by media for interviews and photo shoots, she regularly models women’s wear for online stores on our auctions platform.

This unique new profession was born essentially from the Yahoo! Taiwan Auctions platform, as sellers sought new ways to market their wares. We launched our first contest in 2005, and today there are 30 full-time professional online mannequins like Jia-Jia modeling for the e-stores on our platform. Many are college students fitting the shoots between classes. Some earn more than US$6,000 per month.

What’s fueling the demand? They dramatically impact sales. Items that are modeled by these young women are viewed 30 times more often and sales are 30% higher than merchandise that’s merely displayed via product images. As a result, more than 95% of our VIP sellers are now using these models. And that is, in turn, fueling the growth of online sales across Taiwan.

Within less than two years, women’s wear sales have increased from 550,000 items sold per month to 800,000 — a purchase every 5 seconds. That’s a lot of clothes, accessories, bags, shoes, and beauty products. And the market is expected to grow 36% this year, according to the Market Intelligence Center.

The growth of the industry, on the backdrop of an expanding virtual market economy, is a good indicator of the change in Taiwanese shopping behavior. Not only are people gradually embracing virtual shopping over traditional street-shopping, the competition among suppliers is now driving marketing innovation. The birth and growth of the online mannequin industry is clear evidence that consumers want a better shopping experience — demanding the same visual experience that they get while perusing shelves and racks.

This trend is setting off a positive growth spiral: As virtual shopping gets closer to replicating offline shopping, delivering goods as well as the experience, the number of regular online shoppers is bound to surge. And, after browsing the nicely put-together outfits displayed on the mannequins, how can you just buy the skirt… and not the top, the bag, the boots, and the necklace as well?

Charlene Hung
General Manager, Yahoo! Taiwan