DMA PRESENTS 2008 INTERNATIONAL ECHO AWARDS DURING DMA08 IN LAS VEGAS

This year’s awards were entered, categorized, judged, and presented in a dozen primary business categories. Twenty-seven (27) went to nonprofit campaigns.

Of the nearly 1,000 campaigns submitted for this year’s ECHO honors, 15 campaigns were honored with Gold, 32 with Silver, and 39 with Bronze. In addition, six campaigns received special awards.

Reflecting the increasingly global nature of multichannel direct marketing, DMA’s 2008 ECHO Awards were presented to campaigns from 23 countries: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, UK, and USA

Listed below are the recipients of the 2008 Special International ECHO Awards.

Consumer

Not-For-Profit

Client: Action Against Hunger

Agency: Shackleton — Madrid, Spain

Campaign: Niger Luxury Club

The Diamond ECHO, which is presented to the campaign that is considered "best in show," was presented to Shackleton for its campaign, "Niger Luxury Club," which helped Action Against Hunger raise money for its project in Niger.

Using its database, the organization sent an email inviting recipients to learn more about an exclusive resort in Africa. When prospective donors arrived at the website, they saw images of luxury and fine dining, but were soon disturbed by a realistic fly on the screen. Pictures quickly transitioned to the alarming realities of poverty, drought, and malnutrition in Niger. In one month, the campaign beat fundraising goals by 81 percent.

Consumer

Insurance

Campaign: Russian Doll Houses

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 in cooperation with the DMA Broadcast Council and the ECHO Committee.

The 2008 A. Eicoff honor was presented to stephens francis whitson for their "Russian Doll Houses" campaign to encourage and increase customer loyalty. The company developed a product that rewarded customers with free coverage of their home’s contents every year they went without a claim, and customers received a 20 percent discount for online signup. To illustrate that the plan’s benefits served year after year, the campaign used images of a model house that opened like Russian dolls to reveal one house after the other. The results were a record number of calls and sales 40 percent above target.

Consumer

Publishing/Entertainment

Campaign: "The Tudors" New Series Launch

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 year’s award was presented to Outrider for their campaign promoting Showtime Networks’ New Series Launch for The Tudors. Among their many tactics, paid search attracted the maximum amount of Web surfers, by making sure that the searches relevant to the show held top positioning in rankings when cast members appeared on talk shows, at events, and in the press. Online searchers were taken to a variety of landing pages to encourage further engagement. Lead generation and Showtime subscriptions surpassed results for the three previous show launches, and the strategy yielded 25 million impressions in two months.

Consumer

Automotive

Campaign: The Search for Europe's Unsung Heroes.

Selected by Hoke Communications, this annual award reflects the campaign with the most courageous solution to a difficult sales marketing problem.

Proximity Germany GmbH was honored with the Henry Hoke Award for their campaign, "The Search for Europe’s Unsung Heroes." To arouse interest in Daimler AG, smart’s new smart fortwo 451, and generate orders before its official launch, smart created the smart-and-the-city tour. In 27 European cities, smart fortwo 451 drivers were invited to meet with their city’s secret heroes, and a website took applications to select drivers and local heroes. A filmed tour diary for each city drew website visitors who hoped to learn about their city’s heroes. Some 50,000 people applied as drivers or city heroes, and the site generated millions of page views. As a result, smart gained 45,000 leads and 30,000 advance orders.

Consumer

Retail/Direct Sales

Client: National Jean Company – Bethesda, MD

Agency: SearchAdNetwork – Denver, CO

Campaign: Designer Search Campaign

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.

The 2008 award was presented to SearchAdNetwork for its Designer Search Campaign, which it launched to help National Jean Company (NJC) establish a presence online and generate customers using pay-per-click management and search engine optimization. The company optimized its site’s structure for search engines and bid on relevant keywords, based on up-to-the-minute celebrity news.

By monitoring headlines and relying on Google Alerts, the company was able to bid on relevant words and alter site pages when celebrities spoke about or were seen wearing one of the company’s fashions. The company also used geo- and demographic targeting to tailor ads to specific regions and improve keyword bidding strategies. Total sales grew 1570 percent and clicks increased 715 percent by year’s end.

Business-to-Business

Business Consumer and Services

Campaign: Chocolate letter

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.

Proximity London received the USPS Gold Mailbox Award in recognition of its "Chocolate Letter" campaign for Royal Mail, to fight the UK’s lagging direct mail volume and win a portion of advertisers’ brand budgets. The campaign emphasized direct mail’s unique ability to appeal to the senses with a personalized letter made entirely of chocolate. Accompanying the letter were a paper copy — in case recipients ate the chocolate letter without reading it — and a directory of direct mail case studies highlighting other truly sensory campaigns. Recipients were directed to a dedicated phone number for more information. The campaign produced sweet results, with an ROI of 6. Royal Mail even received envious inquiries from Australia Post about the campaign.

In 2008, marketers — commercial and nonprofit — will spend $176.9 billion on direct marketing, which accounts for 52.1 percent of all ad expenditures in the United States. Measured against total US sales, these advertising expenditures will generate approximately $2.057 trillion in incremental sales. In 2008, direct marketing accounted for approximately 10 percent of total US gross domestic product. Also in 2008, there were 1.6 million direct marketing employees in the US. Their collective sales efforts directly support 9.3 million other jobs, accounting for a total of 10.9 million US jobs.

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