Eighteen entries from 15 agencies have been shortlisted for the 2007 IPA Effective-ness Awards, the most rigorous effectiveness awards scheme in the world, sponsored by Thinkbox, for campaigns that have proved the commercial power of their ideas.  The 18 shortlisted entries, chosen from a long list of 42, will be judged by a client panel and awarded at a black-tie gala ceremony to be held at ‘Dynamic Earth’ in Edinburgh on Tuesday 13th November 2007.

Entries shortlisted include well-known brands; Coca Cola Zero, Weetabix and Waitrose, as well as high-profile clients including Channel 4, the Scottish Executive and the Metropolitan Police Service.

The details of these entries include:

• Of the 15 agencies there were: 5 Scottish agencies (3 from Edinburgh, 2 from Glasgow), 8 agencies from London and 2 Manchester agencies
• The most used form of communication was television used in 15 out of the 18 entries
• The second most used form of communication was press (a combination of national newspapers, regional newspapers and magazines), used in 10 out of the 18 entries
• This was followed by internet, PR and out of home which were each used in 9 of the entries
• Other sectors include: radio used in 8 entries, sales promotion used in 5 entries, direct marketing used in 3 entries, sponsorship and word of mouth which were used in 2 entries and 1 entry used interactive advertising.
• The average amount of communications media used by entries was 5 types
• 1 entry used a total of 9 types of communications media, 3 entries used 6 types of communications media and 2 used 1 medium only.
• There were 15 single entries and 3 joint entries
• 6 entries used econometric modelling to prove the ROI of their campaigns.

The shortlisted cases are:

Aqua Optima
Brother
Carex
Coca - Cola Zero
Direct Payment
E4 Skins
Erskine
Historic Scotland
Magners
Original Source
Pilkington Activ
Ryvita Minis
Scottish Executive (x2)
Subway Stores
Trident
Waitrose
Weetabix

Said Richard Storey, Chief Strategy Officer at M&C Saatchi and Convenor of Judges, “The shortlisted cases vary in scope from a small charity, a regional government agency and a component brand to a major national supermarket, a Government initiative of unprecedented scale and a global powerbrand. The one thing that unites them is a forensic approach to proving the commercial return of their communica-tions.”

Said Tess Alps, CEO, Thinkbox, “Thinkbox is dedicated to effectiveness, so supporting the IPA Effectiveness Awards, the most rigorous awards in the world, is a no-brainer. We are delighted to see that TV remains at the heart of most of this year's shortlisted campaigns.”

The 2007 IPA Effectiveness Awards are sponsored by Thinkbox and are supported by WARC, Royal Mail, Xtreme Information and Campaign.
To view the shortlisted case summaries and for further information on the Effective-ness Awards visit www.ipaeffectivenessawards.co.uk
To view the creative work of the shortlisted entries, visit the Xtreme Information website:  
To book tickets for the 2007 IPA Effectiveness Awards Ceremony and Dinner call Sophie Walker on 020 7201 8224 or go to www.ipaeffectivenessawards.co.uk

Shortlisted case summaries:

Aqua Optima by BJL Group – ‘How crystal clear thinking stopped a drought’.
Aqua Optima, a manufacturer of the filters used in water filter kettles, was a component brand in a small product category. This category was facing a difficult future with both host brands and key retailers losing interest. Talk of delisting and withdrawal from the market provided the context for difficult sales meetings with partner brands and retailers. By identifying and communicating the key health benefits of drinking filtered water for consumers, the ‘crystal clear thinking’ campaign allowed a component brand with a small budget to make a significant impact on a category with unrecognised potential. The campaign led to the rise of Aqua Optima’s share of the water filter kettle category, taking it from 20% to 55% between summer 2006 and January 2007.

Brother by BDH\TBWA – ‘Taking on the big boys by thinking small’.
As a challenger brand up against large competitors with deep pockets, finding a way to make a smaller budget deliver standout was difficult. This paper demonstrates how Brother was able to achieve this by focusing on a target audience that was overlooked by its competitors; the growing market of small businesses and homeworkers. Furthermore, it shows how when used together, television advertising and sponsorship can achieve a big impact amongst a focused audience. In total the campaign generated £15.2m in incremental retail sales and paid for itself 2.3 times over.

Carex by BDH\TBWA – ‘The same old story? Why the best long- term advertising doesn’t always have to tell the same old story’.
This paper reveals how a long-term commitment to advertising ensured the maintenance of Carex as the UK’s No. 1 hand washing brand and enabled category growth. This campaign also challenged the widely accepted belief that long-term advertising must have a consistent message. Carex has used six phases of successful, but different, creative ideas between the years 1996–2006, but continually gave the market new messages about the brand. It has given customers new reasons to remain loyal and non-users reasons to reconsider. The advertising for this campaign has generated an estimated £35.9m incremental retail sales through an advertising investment of £10.4m.

‘Coca-Cola’ Zero by Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest and Vizeum UK – ‘A new product launch without the downside’.
Coca-Cola Great Britain identified growing consumer demand, particularly from young men, for more choice in the light/no calorie sparkling soft drink/ beverages category. In June 2006, Coca-Cola Great Britain launched 'Coca-Cola' Zero targeting men aged 20–35. This paper outlines how VCCP and Vizeum UK produced a concentrated national media strategy, a clear engaging communication of 'Great Coke taste zero sugar' and a motivated trade launch. The 'Coca-Cola' Zero launch advertising built great awareness and demand for 'Coca-Cola' Zero and, according to ACNielsen figures, is the most successful new food and beverage launch in the past three years.

Direct Payment by Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy – ‘Giving it to you straight’.
For years, millions of Britons had become used to receiving social security benefits and pensions through paper-based methods. However, the Government announced that from 2003, electronic payments would become the norm. This move, unprecedented in its scale and complexity, was met with widespread hostility. This paper shows how an integrated communications campaign neutralised the emotionally charged atmosphere, by providing a stream of straightforward, non-threatening information about the new scheme. After two years, 95% of claimants had switched to electronic payments, compared to 43% previously. Furthermore, over seven years, the campaign is estimated to have delivered an ROI of £29 per £1 spent.

E4 Skins by 4 Creative – ‘How generation “Why should I care?’’ came to care about E4’s Skins’.
This paper is an example of a campaign that 'got it right' with 'Generation why should I care?' As Medialife 2006 put it, this is a generation that “embraces technology as an essential part of their lifestyle. You are a guest in their attention span, bore them and they will ruthlessly filter you out. Get it right and they will actively market to each other”. Rather than just promoting the show, the campaign brought the characters and their lives to life through social networking sites, virals, targeted outdoor, TV, press and PR activities. In the short term, the campaign generated £1.6m incremental revenue. Longer term it is projected that it will generate £4.6m, a return of £1.80 for every £1 spent.

Erskine by The Bridge – 'On the offensive. How marketing helped Erskine increase its relevance'.
This paper demonstrates how a charity for "ex-Service men and women" reduced its reliance on legacies and widened its donor base; how qualitative and quantitative research informed the strategy and measured effectiveness; and how an increase in awareness and understanding increased both the volume and value of general donations. In his introduction to the 2006 Annual Report, the Chairman of Erskine, James Scott, said "Awareness of Erskine reached an all time high in 2006 through a highly successful advertising campaign. This heightened awareness resulted in an increase in people across Scotland keen to support our work". General donations increased from £1.47m to £3.04m, the number of donors increased by 20% and the campaign has produced an ROI of 500%.

Historic Scotland by The Union Advertising Agency – ‘Blasts from the past – bringing history to life for historic Scotland’.
Historic Scotland was faced with a downturn in visitor numbers, waning interest in historical buildings and greater competition from other ‘days out’. Choosing to focus their marketing strategy on meeting the needs of a modern audience, they created a calendar of events which gave them reasons to communicate and reasons for new people to try out Historic Scotland’s properties. This paper shows that by breathing new life into the brand and re-engaging with the Scottish public, Historic Scotland had the highest growth rate in years of lucrative annual memberships. This generated an ROI of £16 for every £1 spent for one of their key events, ‘The 2006 Free Weekend Event’.

Magners by Media Planning Group – ‘The Magners Effect’.
This paper demonstrates how the successful Magners campaign was founded on the combination of a solid product and proposition, which identified an opportunity in the market for ‘premium’ cider, and an integrated sales and marketing programme. Using a high-impact and engaging communications strategy the advertising was used aggressively on a regional ‘colonise and conquer’ basis to generate mass consumer demand. In the three years since it launched, Magners has become the No. 1 selling packaged, long, alcoholic drink in the UK on-trade and has rejuvenated the cider category. The advertising delivered an ROI of up to £26.93 and the Cantrell & Cochrane share price rose from €2 to €12, by the end of 2006.

Original Source by BDH\TBWA – ‘It takes 2,997 words to make one zesty case study for original source’.
This paper explores how BDH\TBWA stimulated the growth of Original Source without diluting its values, nor the strength of the relationship it had with its consumers. They achieved this by creating an original campaign that retained the brand’s ‘cult’ feel. The strategy enabled consumers to discover the brand as they had always done, but discover it in significantly greater numbers. This was done via a bold, disruptive creative idea, exposed in an unconventional manner via a conventional medium – television. The TV advertising generated incremental retail sales of £657k by December 2006, with the eventual total impact of advertising reaching £1.6m over three years.  This paper demonstrates that a disruptive approach can make a measurable difference for smaller brands, both in terms of development goals and, ultimately, financial payback.

Pilkington Activ by BJL Group – ‘Johnny Nash and his crystal ball’.
This paper outlines the advertising campaign for Pilkington Activ, a self-cleaning glass that uses the combined action of rain and daylight to keep itself clean. The campaign successfully integrated the client and agency teams into a single project team united by a clear common goal, and demonstrated how a broader view and coordinated approach can optimise the impact of all communication channels by targeting the critical stages in the sales chain. It also shows how the Pro-Activ team were able to create and implement an integrated communications plan. This plan raised awareness, confidence and propensity to purchase amongst consumers. It also promoted stronger engagement and commitment from the trade. In total, the campaign increased sales by over 360%.

Ryvita Minis, Mortimer Whitaker O’Sullivan Advertising – ‘How the Ryita ‘Big taste mini waist’ campaign featuring Fern Britton created larger than expected benefits for Ryvita’.
This paper demonstrates the power of a creative idea to re-engineer a brand’s destiny, turning the fundamental premise of the brand’s diet heritage upside down. The Ryvita ‘Big taste mini waist’ TV campaign achieved this by using a celebrity well known for being big, Fern Britton and positioning Ryvita Minis as an enjoyable snack you can celebrate eating. By generating consumer reappraisal, Minis exceeded their targets. Following the launch, Minis has grown into a £9m business with over 25% market share, bringing over two million new consumers back in to the Ryvita brand. The campaign generated a £1.91 return for every £1 invested and £4.07m additional profit for Ryvita.

Scottish Executive by The Leith Agency – ‘Continuing the fight against drug dealers’.
Scottish Executive and Crimestoppers wanted to attack the menace of drug dealers by encouraging the public to provide actionable information about dealing in their local area. Using innovative qualitative research, the campaign theme ‘Drug dealers don’t dare’ was identified as the most powerful approach. The campaign consisted of local and national press, bus sides, 48-sheets, 6-sheets, underground posters, bus ticket media, beer mats and washroom posters. Overall, the campaign prompted 73% recall, 5,600 actionable calls, a 429% increase in call volumes over the campaign period, and the seizure of over £2m of drugs. Leads generated have so far led to over 700 arrests and a significant step towards a better quality of life for people living in hard-hit communities.

Scottish Executive by The Union Advertising Agency – ‘Life after death – the difficult business of signing people up for organ donation’.
Most people are ‘in favour’ of organ donation, but few of them sign up themselves. If individuals are not on the register, the likelihood that their organs will be used for transplant is greatly reduced. Using an inventive and brave approach to communications planning and powerful creative, this paper shows how Scottish people signed up faster than the rest of the UK. A rolling road-show took the campaign to regional towns, with media coverage and direct response activity ‘hot-housing’ areas of Scotland on a rolling basis. The campaign produced an ROI of £1.9m on a spend of £340k and has shown why future investment in communications will be crucial if the UK is to address the shortage of organs available for transplantation.

Subway Stores by Frame Agency and MediaCom – ‘Subway on a roll’.
Subway is a US sandwich chain that sells ‘Subs’. This paper outlines how an existing promotional offer was transformed into a successful brand building promotion with a fully integrated marketing campaign. The actual product, the submarine shaped roll, didn’t change, but it was repositioned, re-branded as a ‘sub’ and re-launched. The regional trial became a successful national campaign that went on to be a global proposition. In the first regional test an investment of £400,000 over 11 weeks yielded an uplift of same-store sales of 12% year on year and 12% ROI. A year later, the test region return increased to 30%.

Trident, Metropolitan Police Service by Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy – ‘Making a small budget go a long way’.
This paper tells how the Metropolitan Police Service used communications to tackle black community gun crime in London. Working together, MCBD and MediaCom developed a three-year strategy for engaging streetwise black males, aged 14–24, in selected London boroughs. Using the rallying cry "Stop the guns", communications dramatised the devastating effects of gun crime, encouraged people to come forward with information and challenged the glamorous imagery surrounding guns. Creative media was central to the strategy, incorporating everything from petrol pumps to a music video. As a result of all this activity, calls with intelligence on gun crime were boosted by 86% and hundreds of thousands of young people were engaged with the campaign. Overall, there has been a sea-change in community attitudes, helping reduce gun crime in London by 15% since the campaign began.

Waitrose by Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy – ‘David vs Goliath: The rematch’.
This paper reveals how Waitrose evolved its quality-driven communications strategy, to include an ethical dimension. Using television, press, radio, advertiser-funded programming and in-store advertising, amongst others, the campaign set out Waitrose’s product quality stories within a bigger, ethical picture. For example, one of their ads promoted Waitrose’s citrus fruit by highlighting their support for the South African farmers who grow them. This evolutionary communications approach has generated £99.2m incremental profits over five years and an ROI of £5.57 per £1 spent, proving that an ethical approach can be financially rewarding too.

Weetabix by WCRS – ‘The Weetabix week: Turning a barrier into a benefit’.
With an array of almost 300 different cereals to choose from, by 2005 plainer cereals such as Weetabix were suffering by being less ‘exciting’ than the newer entrants. The paper reveals how ‘Weetabix Week’ transformed the plainness of Weetabix from a product barrier to a benefit by showcasing how the subtle taste was the ideal companion for a range of toppings such as fruit, yoghurt, honey, nuts and more. The campaign was able to incorporate trends such as ‘superfoods’, including blueberries and brazil nuts and the Government’s ‘5-a-day’ initiative. The campaign brought over 100,000 new users into the brand and increased rate of purchase amongst existing consumers from 1.9 times a year to 2.4.

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Note to editors:
Judges for the 2007 IPA Effectiveness Awards include:
Chairman: Lord Gordon of Strathblane, CBE, and former Chairman of RAJAR
Convenor of Judges: Richard Storey, Chief Strategy Officer, M&C Saatchi
Deputy Convenor of Judges: Andy Nairn, Planning Director, Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy

Client judges:
Andy Barnes, Sales Director, Channel 4
Richard Davis, Head of Procurement & Development, RHM
Rob Furness, Former General Manager Non-Floorcare, Dyson Ltd
Alison Jones, Marketing Director, Debenhams
Marc Lawn, Head of Marketing Services, Britvic
Chris Harley Martin, Vice-President, Marketing & Innovation, GlaxoSmithKline UK
Chris McLeod, Head of Group Marketing Communication, Transport for London
Catrina Sheradon, Former Marketing Director, BT
Phil Smith, Managing Director of Musgrave Budgens Londis UK
Roger Williams, Head of Marketing, Scottish Executive

Industry judges:
Ross Barr, Former Joint CEO, DDB London
Merry Baskin, Founder, Baskin Shark
Claire Beale, Editor, Campaign
Andrew Blazye, Group Customer Engagement Director, Dunnhumby Ltd
Ian Fairbrother, Managing Director, Fairbrother Lenz Eley
Professor Derek Holder, Managing Director, Institute of Direct Marketing
Mike Holmes, Founder, Holmes & Cook
Dr Richard Howells, Reader in Cultural and Creative Studies, Kings College
Martin Jones, Director of Advertising, AAR
Peter Mouncey, visiting Fellow, Cranfield University School of Management
Suki Thompson, Managing Director, Suki Thompson & Associates
Gary Stolkin, Global Chairman & CEO, The Talent Business
John Zealley, Managing Director, Accenture

The IPA is the industry body and professional institute for UK advertising, media and marketing communications agencies. It was established in 1917 as a servicing body and to negotiate on behalf of its members with media bodies, government departments and unions. Its 258 corporate members represent the major part of the advertising agency business, handling advertising with an estimated value of some £13,000 million per year (over 80 per cent of advertising placed by agencies) on behalf of their client companies and organisations nationwide. (note this figure is based on 2005 Advertising Statistics Yearbook figures and excludes classified and television production costs).