DMA Presents 2009 International Echo Awards During DMA09 in San Diego; Diamond ECHO Goes to Tourism Queensland and CumminsNitro Brisbane

October 20, 2009 — The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) this evening presented its 2009 International ECHO Awards during a ceremony hosted by former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno at Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel. DMA presented a total of 85 ECHO Awards to multichannel direct marketing campaigns from all over the globe.

This year’s awards were entered, categorized, judged, and presented in a dozen primary business categories. Fourteen (14) went to nonprofit campaigns.

Of the nearly 1,000 campaigns submitted for this year’s ECHO honors, nine campaigns were honored with Gold, 37 with Silver, and 39 with Bronze. In addition, nine campaigns received special awards. This year, three new Special ECHO Awards debuted: the ECHO Governors Award for Strategic Innovation, the ECHO Green Award, and the ECHO People’s Choice Award, to be chosen by DMA09 attendees via text message.

Reflecting the increasingly global nature of multichannel direct marketing, DMA’s 2009 ECHO Awards were presented to campaigns from numerous countries including: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Malaysia, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, UK, and USA.

Listed below are the recipients of the 2009 Special International ECHO Awards.

Diamond ECHO

Consumer

Travel & Hospitality/Transportation

Client: Tourism Queensland — Brisbane, Australia

Agency: CumminsNitro Brisbane — South Brisbane, Australia

Campaign: The Best Job in the World

The Diamond ECHO is presented to the campaign that is considered “best in show.” This year was presented to CumminsNitro Brisbane for its campaign, “The Best Job in the World,” which was a tourist campaign masquerading as a recruitment effort. This now famous campaign had global reach and generated high-volume, impassioned responses among tens of thousands of applicants and hundreds of thousands of voters.

A. Eicoff Broadcast Innovation Award

Consumer

Travel & Hospitality/Transportation

Client: Tourism Queensland — Brisbane, Australia

Agency: CumminsNitro Brisbane — South Brisbane, Australia

Campaign: The Best Job in the World

The A. Eicoff Broadcast Innovation Award recognizes a campaign for the most innovative use of the direct broadcast media. This award is chosen among the Gold, Silver, and Bronze ECHO Award winners by the DMA Broadcast Council.

ECHO Digital Innovation Award

Consumer

Publishing/Entertainment

Client: Random House Mondadori S.A. ― Barcelona, Spain

Agency: CP Proximity ― Barcelona, Spain

Campaign: The Signal

The Digital Award is presented to a campaign that applied information technology (e.g., email, search, mobile, the Web, and other digital channels) in a creative or innovative way to deliver outstanding results. This extremely creative and well targeted campaign attempted to bridge the link between the online and offline worlds. By integrating both the product and its marketing into the structure of the internet, the innovative and perfect use of the internet’s viral nature truly got the hearts and minds of its geek audience. This award is chosen by the DMA iDirect Group.

Henry Hoke Award

Consumer & Business-to-Business

Communications/Utilities

Client: The Yellow Pages Group ― Auckland, New Zealand

Agency: Aim Proximity ― Auckland, New Zealand

Campaign: The Yellow Treehouse

Selected by Hoke Communications, this annual award reflects the campaign with the most courageous solution to a difficult sales marketing problem. The Yellow Treehouse campaign was a great solution to a product that had become irrelevant due to the Internet and search engine providers. It was a runaway success in terms of business results and engagement, capturing the imaginations of consumers and media all over the world.

Search Marketing Award

Consumer

Pharmaceutical/Healthcare

Client: BabyCenter, LLC — San Francisco, California

Agency: Greater Than One — New York, New York

Campaign: Baby Center – Pregnancy and Parenting Information

The Search Marketing Award, which was introduced in 2007, lauds the best campaign in one of the fastest-growing direct marketing specialties: search engine marketing. Keyword search, meta tag copy, etc. are all standard practices for SEO. This campaign’s use of social media optimization was extremely innovative. This award is chosen by the DMA Search Marketing Council.

USPS Gold Mailbox Award

Consumer

Financial Products and Services

Client: SulAmérica Seguros ― Sãu Paulo, Brazil

Agency: SUN/MRM Worldwide ― Sãu Paulo, Brazil

Campaign: Picasso Painting

The campaign that earns the USPS Gold Mailbox Award, which is sponsored by the United States Postal Service (USPS), employs mail in a ground-breaking way.

ECHO Governors Award for Strategic Innovation

Business-to-Business

Insurance

Client: Gjensidige Forsikring ― Lysaker, Norway

Agency: McCann Direkte MRM Partners ― Oslo, Norway

Campaign: The Brick

This award is given to a campaign that took strategic thinking to a whole new level. The Brick campaign was unique in that the product was parity, yet the marketers were able to capitalize on a news story to heighten the relevance of their insurance offering, as well as build urgency and drive sales from their target audience of small businesses and retailers.

ECHO Green Award

Business-to-Business

Business & Consumer Services

Client: United States Postal Service ― Washington, DC

Agency: Campbell-Ewald ― Warren, Michigan

Campaign: Environmailist Campaign

The new ECHO Green Marketing Award recognizes the most creative and strategic use of eco-responsible marketing tactics that deliver outstanding results, from a response or a return on investment perspective, while producing impacts that affect the environment in positive ways. The Environmentalist campaign successfully integrated sustainable, creative, and strategic environmental considerations, including DMA’s Green 15, throughout the life cycle of the direct marketing process — all while making a positive impact on the environment, delivering outstanding results, inspiring eco-action, and promoting green awareness among marketers.

ECHO People’s Choice Award

Consumer

Financial Products and Services

Client: SulAmérica Seguros ― Sãu Paulo, Brazil

Agency: SUN/MRM Worldwide ― Sãu Paulo, Brazil

Campaign: Picasso Painting

Voting for this award was given via text message or online, and was completed at noon today. This award represents the first time DMA attendees participated in the selection of an International ECHO winning campaign.

For a complete list of 2009 DMA International ECHO Awards winners, please click here.

About Direct Marketing Association (DMA)

The Direct Marketing Association (www.the-dma.org) is the leading global trade association of businesses and nonprofit organizations using and supporting multichannel direct marketing tools and techniques. DMA advocates standards for responsible marketing, promotes relevance as the key to reaching consumers with desirable offers, and provides cutting-edge research, education, and networking opportunities to improve results throughout the end-to-end direct marketing process. Founded in 1917, DMA today represents more than 3,100 companies from dozens of vertical industries in the US and 48 other nations, including nearly half of the Fortune 100 companies, as well as nonprofit organizations.

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