The FMBE awards – my personal top100 (85-81)

85 REL, Sainsbury’s (2006, Merchandising and Compliance)

It was a major reveal, the culmination of work that had started in 2004 and which saw REL strongly bonded to the store in a relationship that has lasted and gained ground year on year since. The judges believed it would go forward. REL had been entrusted with major corrective therapy, filling a lost revenue hole of £50M by massively improving Sainsbury’s promotional compliance. It was good enough to edge out a silver award to CPM and GSK, surely the strongest opposition available.

84 The Lounge Group, Alliance and Leicester (2008, Campaign Evaluation)

Not even in the top 3 in category in 2008, sadly this work just fell unevenly between the available categories. Its success was part targeting and part evaluation, part strategy.

But a brand experience to get successful young people (not students) to open accounts? This was quietly brave and cutting edge work, cleverly targeting successful young people who were not in further education – a missing group that any bank would love to recruit and keep for life. The Lounge helped Alliance and Leicester to do so with classes led by celebrity role models, encouraging furtherance and betterment. The creative excellence dispelled cynicism about the bank from the target group .

With strong regulation in the sector, the odds are stacked up against financial services brands embracing the experiential route. Direct mail seems a safer spend, although this work proved that to be a misconception. This could have been a major breakthrough case study showing how to do financial+experiential if it hadn’t done so just ahead of the banking crisis.

83 INITIALS, Doritos (2010, Integration/Amplification)

Launch giant tennis balls at people in an arena using a cannon, controlled by your computer at home! It was such a great idea and it won Brand Experience overall gold at the Event Awards. And no one on our judging panel quibbled with the fantastic results.

It makes my top 100 for the idea and the devious use of the emerged technology.

Unfortunately this was a case where the video let the entry down slightly. The brand experience itself seemed a little less exciting than the concept, and truly, perhaps you had to be there.

Our judges felt that the evidence available pointed towards executional brilliance in digital and sales promotion marketing as the key sales drivers, rather than a success story that was primarily driven by the thrill of participation.

Nevertheless a great campaign with legacy to build on for Doritos and a multitude of brands. Let’s hope a custard pie brand gets hold of the idea…

82 Carat Sponsorship, adidas (2010, Immersive Event – by Invitation)

Carat turned the category on its head on the way to gold here. The event was the finale here, the prize, a chance for the hometown of the filmmaking competition winner to have a VIP adidas party.

EXCEPT that the finale wasn’t the end as adidas had a shed full of marketing collateral, goodwill and PR leftover at the end with which to start up the next part of its marketing cycle.

It did so whilst meeting a challenge of its own making as this was a campaign that set itself a high bar with its own strapline, Celebrate Originality.

They managed to do this by creating a platform that gave the consumers a good measure of control over their own reward and their own film content whilst adidas remained subtly in control of key elements of the proceedings before, during and after the event.

81 Mitchell Stephenson, R&R (2008 Sales Campaign)

Selling ice cream in 2007’s cold wet summer was a huge challenge, let alone increasing sales by 11 per cent vs. a sector that was down 18 per cent.

Focussed on the independent sector, Mitchell Stephenson delivered ongoing growth that was directly attributed to the campaign – a campaign that also came in £15,000 under budget.