The FMBE awards – my personal top 100, number 1

Posted April 18, 2011 by Harriet Cramer

1. CPM, GSK (2008, Client/Agency Relationship Award)

‘Relationship’ was a special award in many ways. It was a one off award that meant that some mega-teams could show off the whole of their history rather than just that of the proceeding year.

It was an eye opening long and arduous session for the judges, with Momentum and P&G and Sure with 20^thCentury Fox also putting up especially convincing case studies.

CPM’s entry was unique and special in many ways. When compiling my top 100 I asked myself which entry spoke for the merits of all types of face to face sales and marketing, and this was it. Just look at the headline data:

300+ sales team
High Street and Independent team with 260,000 calls in a year
Take Home and Convenience team
Events team delivering brand experiences including 22 major running events for Lucozade and 25 Harvestivals for Ribena
£500M in sales value across 3 brands, breaking records and targets
CPM had just secured a further £35 million deal across three years

It looked really good then. It looks just as good now, looking back. Since CPM’s 2009 acquisition of the experiential events business TRO, the experiential work has gone from strength to strength and the sales team has continued to deliver strong results and NPD.

When people ask me what is the link that makes field and brand experience marketing come together as a set of awards at one event then I say:

– The field teams and staff handing

– The big decision makers at the top of organisations

That is exactly what was at play in this relationship, a complete understanding of the people behind the consumer facing events and dynamic action in stores, overseen by the then VP Sales for GSK’s Nutritional Healthcare, Ian Forshew (now Business Unit Director, Britvic).

This team showed bright creativity and determind results. All the events are supported by a sales team who call on all retailers within a five mile radius. It is local and national sales and marketing delivered fantastically well.