2005, at East Wintergarden, London, with Joe Wadsack
Year one saw CPM lead the way in Field Marketing and a notable win in client relationship with Asda. That one has stood the test of time amazingly well. A win for Gekko in the ‘Instore demo’ with Toshiba proved a benchmark case study that looks like it could still win now. Client handler of the year saw a win for Sophia Green who successfully runs FM agency Mirror Marketing these days.
In Brand Experience a win for TRO and Mini is another that has stood the test of time. Might we see TRO and Mini back at FMBE in 2025 after a great event at Goodwood Revival? TRO also won with motoring school, BSM. Imagination and Ford and RPM with Lipton Ice Tea and Strongbow were also year one winners.
The year also saw wins for brands P&G and Red Bull, two of the most successful in the last 21 years.
We didn’t award agency of the year back then, but retrospectively the accolades would surely go to CPM in FM and either TRO or RPM in BE.
2006, at East Wintergarden, London, with Rufus Hound and Richard O’Brien
REL Field Marketing’s alliance with Sainsbury’s saw the standout field marketing work and took them to FM agency of the year. In BE a quiet revolution came about as agency Ignition took BE plaudits for events including Coca-Cola’s global World Cup tour, still one of the most ambitious brand experience projects ever undertaken.
The year also saw Infinite FMS and T-Mobile taking the Team category to a level as yet unseen, a high standard that went unrivalled in category for a few years,
Gold for Sense with BA was a very memorable actor driven piece delivered on the Heathrow Express.
Gold for Circle Agency and a piece of instore cleverness for NiQuitin announced the full arrival of one of FMBE’s finest agencies.
A new agency called Space appeared on the scene with a win with Nivea, a client they would hold onto for years following.
Momentum (US) won the International agency award and Sense took the Developing Agency prize after being founded the previous year.
2007, at Ibis, Earl’s Court, with Garry Richardson
Reach announced themselves at FMBE with a win in merchandising and compliance with Energizer Wilkinson Sword.
Octagon and Vodafone landed gold in BE Brand Strategy as did Imagination for an in depth B2E event engagement for Sony Europe. Both were benchmark case studies in category.
Infinite and T Mobile defended their Team gold in style, and since closed agencies The Blue Water Agency and Channel Advantage showed real quality in their wins. Channel Advantage’s experiential location for Microsoft was a real groundbreaker.
IQFM Poland took the International award, beating Cross Marketing of Nigeria.
2 PMs won Agency of the Year, CPM (pictured above) and RPM.
2008, at Marriott, Grosvenor Square with Bob Mills and Four Poofs and a Piano
Mitchell Stephenson swooped into the awards for a memorable win with ice cream manufacturer R&R. The agency has been absent ever since but will be putting their 100% record on the line in 2026!
Logobrand announced the agency’s arrival at FMBE with gold in Data with Sara Lee.
Gekko and Toshiba saw gold again after that aforementioned 2005 benchmarker. It was an incredible year for the consumer electronics expert agency who launched Apple’s Store in Store retail concept. This led to outstanding new ideas in retail as Apple emerged as major powerbrand and carried the team to FM Agency of the Year status.
Sense (pictured below) hit gold with Cadbury’s Easter Egg Trails. The concept for this national campaign – that would run for years supported by a range of agencies – was born as a talking point during FMBE judging in a previous year.
Circle scored a win with the brilliant EA Games team. The agency-client partnership would have several ‘unstoppable’ years.
Out of the Blue, an agency that isn’t trading now, set down a real marker for charity and cause work with a staggering emotional art installation detailing sex trafficking for charity Helen Bamber Foundation. The work opened government doors around the world.
Retail Marketing Group, that launched in 2005, won Developing Agency of the Year and celebrated agency wide with field staff getting tokens for dinner for 2 so that they could join the winner vibe.
Field Sales Solutions celebrated their arrival with gold for their launch of Cadbury’s Trident Gum.
Agency Carbon, nowadays closed, won gold and silver in Sampling with Sharpie and Galaxy and also took BE agency of the year honours.
REL and Red Bull completely stormed the Team of the Year category, a significant marker for the next several years.
2009 at Marriott Grosvenor Square, with Rich Hall
CPM fought back to the top of the tree, starting the evening with a field sales win with Black and Decker. The power of the agency came across in multiple categories with clients including GSK.
It was a happy night TRO too, being named BE Agency of the Year. The agency had been purchased into CPM in 2008 and both were and are Onmicom agencies. TRO duly added Diageo and GSK to its brand roster, with lead campaigns for Tanqueray and then GSK brand Ribena allowing it to flourish its expertise alongside its work for BMW and Mini. Rumour has it acquiring TRO was a decision first appraised at FMBE Awards in a previous year…
REL took the Team prize again with Red Bull.
Logobrand followed up its success in 2008 with Tactical gold with Douwe Egberts.
Gekko challenged again for agency of the year, picking up bronze behind CPM and REL. The team won gold with Digital UK, advising shoppers about the loss of analogue TV.
Kreate won Staff Supplier of the Year.
Emotions ran high as Kevin Parkes won BA of the year for the P&G brand Pringles, with agency Momentum. We didn’t know that Kevin was dying of cancer and was presented the award in his hospital bed soon after the ceremony.
I2i Marketing took gold in immersive event with a chilled dairy treats win using Legoland for Dr Oetker.
Finally, there was gold for an agency called CMW who spooked everyone by sending faceless people to attend prominent events, including Wimbledon. Googling ‘Faceless People’ led to a mysterious digital campaign that was finally revealed to be for the new Lotus Evora.
2010, at Marriott Grosvenor Square, with Brian Blessed and Milton Jones
Field Sales Solutions increased their gold tally with a major Cat A win with Cadbury in a year when Kraft’s acquisition of the confectioner would see the advent of the Mondelez brand.
Service Innovation Group struck gold with hair and personal care appliances brand owner Conair.
There was also a first win for CPM’s sister agency Cosine, with Sainsbury’s.
Small agency Willow Park marked these awards with a superb gold win in retail training for SanDisk.
It was also a great year for iD Experiential and iD Staffing with golds for their work for Fruit Shoots and Lipton Ice Tea – and for iD Staffing in promotional team.
Field Team saw a remarkable third win for REL Red Bull who also took the Tactical gold.
Ignite (no longer Ignition) won with Vodafone, one of many FMBE golds they would win by activating the brand’s involvement with F1 Mercedes Mclaren.
Haygarth had won gold before but the wonderful pop-up shop for Signet for Valentine’s Day was a game changer for pop up experiential retail.
Ludwika Grochowska set us alight in Brand Ambassador with a win for the relatively nascent Elevate.
Sense, buoyed by more success with Cadbury took the BE agency of the Year prize and Team success with Red Bull and Motorola ushered in an FM Agency of the Year win for REL FM.
JWT Milan took a memorable Audience Award for their Heineken Auditorium hidden cameras Champion’s League piece edging out TBWA/Chiat/Day and Gatorade who replayed a US High School football match 15 years after a draw, retraining the original players and cheerleaders and captured America in the week-by-week story. The result reversed fortunes at the Cannes Grand Prix won by Gatorade.
SpaecandPeople upped the stakes for FMBE sponsors partnering with us to find an industry rising star to take the lead for a real campaign. The winner, Carmen Byers has gone on to create amazing campaigns for Penguin and Brompton Bicycles and has since been a judge at FMBE.
Part 2 to follow – 2011 – 2015