Judgement day 2010: behind the scenes

It was another record-breaking year for the annual Thinkbox TV Planning Awards. A total of 56 campaign papers were received – up 10 per cent on last year – from which the judges picked 20 worthy finalists across six categories.

The awards recognise and celebrate inspired uses of TV, and, overall, it was felt that there was an increase in both quality and quantity, with most papers providing clear objectives, outlining the strategic solution, providing details of the implementation and giving results to help evaluate success. However, one area of weakness was identified by the judges – a number of papers weren’t able to provide client sign-offs. The judges felt that this tends to dent the legitimacy of a paper.

Judging took place on Tuesday, 11 May 2010.

Best use of TV in an integrated campaign

These entries feature the use of broadcast TV alongside any number of other media, including non-broadcast TV. Judges were impressed with Walker Media’s work for Barclays on its bonds campaign. Following two years off TV, Barclays had been facing a decline in brand affinity. Its response was a TV-led campaign encouraging people to “take one small step” to managing money better.

Russell Place, the chief strategy officer at UM, appreciated the way that the campaign’s use of top and tail ad breaks helped tie the bond promotion into the broader brand campaign story. Zoe Fuller, the head of planning at Thinkbox, added: “It was a smart move by Walker Media to create Finance Fortnights, spanning the turnof-month period when money matters loom large in consumers’ minds.”

There was also praise for MediaCom’s work on the Dulux “What would you change?” campaign, which was driven by commercial partnerships with ITV and The Sun.

Kelly Williams, Five’s director of sales, said: “MediaCom devised a phased, integrated campaign with TV at its heart, designed to put colour into every part of consumers’ lives.”

But the prize was scooped by MEC and MCBD for their joint NHS Smokefree entry. In recent times, the Department of Health’s marketing has helped drive a steady decline in smoking. However, the hardest-toinfluence audience has been blue-collar (routine and manual) workers – and that’s what this campaign set out to address.

Stuart Bowden, the deputy managing director of Vizeum, liked the way that the TV component “really lifted” the other channels and noted some powerful results for one of the market’s most rigorous clients.

Nicola Mendelsohn, the chairman and partner at Karmarama, added: “An innovative TV buying strategy introduced ads that referenced the programmes being watched, complemented by some powerful creative from MCBD. This contextual TV communication strategy was then extended to radio, print, out of home and online.”

Best ongoing use of TV

This award recognises the fact that TV keeps delivering value years after campaigns have aired, so consistent TV advertising can produce exponential returns. Entrants need to explain how they have used TV over three or more years for their advertiser, and how the activity has evolved to produce the best results. Entries must use broadcast TV in every calendar year over the period featured (including the most recent calendar year, January to December 2009).

The winner was MediaCom for Sky. In 2005, Sky set an ambitious growth target of achieving ten million subscribers by the end of 2010, despite the fact that an increasing number of competitive offerings, not least from the likes of Freeview, were coming to the market. But Sky has always had faith in the power of TV as an advertising medium – and MediaCom helped to fine-tune its strategy.

Russ Lidstone, the chief executive of Euro RSCG, noted that Sky’s content had been brought to life by MediaCom using a mix of the “heart” where TV drives emotion, the “head” for rational messaging and the “hand” to push and drive DRTV. Nicki Hare, the managing partner, client service, at Walker Media, added: “Sky and MediaCom have constantly reinvented their approach to deliver the best results.”

Two other campaigns were shortlisted: Starcom MediaVest’s work for Ginsters and OMD UK’s for McDonald’s. In 2007, Ginsters decided to shift its focus from its traditional sales channels of forecourts and convenience stores to a bigger prize: supermarkets. This meant convincing housewives to purchase the brand. In other words, as the entry paper put it: “This is a story of how TV gave a brand a sex change.”

As for McDonald’s, the challenge was that, in the mid-noughties, its sales seemed to be in long-term decline. OMD UK’s solution was to rethink TV – and by 2007, the business had started to turn around.

Michael Bates, the marketing director of Morrisons, said: “By understanding the role TV played, and increasing its influence on four key occasions – lunch and evening meal, cheap eats, visiting with kids, breakfast – OMD UK introduced new layers of activity which allowed even greater levels of profitable investment.”

Best newcomer to TV

Three entries contested the award for best newcomer. This category is for new brands or brands that haven’t used broadcast TV since January 2004 until doing so in 2009.

The judges were impressed with the manner in which Carat rose tothe challenge set by Very to launch a new online retail brand in the cluttered Christmas market. And they were also rather taken with work for Pets at Home by Edwards Groom & Saunders. The client has always wanted to be the best pet shop in the world, and was curious to find out if growth could be turbocharged through TV advertising.

Mendelsohn liked the way that Edwards Groom & Saunders developed a rigorous programme of Test-Learn-Refine to measure TV’s effects. And Robert Ffitch, the managing director of Manning Gottlieb OMD, added: “From just one burst of national TV, Pets at Home significantly increased awareness and consideration. The sales objective was smashed by 100 per cent and the potential of the business was unlocked with its sale for £955 million.”

But in the end, the winner was MediaCom, for the way that it met the brief in establishing Laterooms.com as the “go to” brand of choice for people searching for accommodation – and also helped to improve payper-click profitability.

The key element that shaped the 2009 plan, Avril Gallagher, the group client managing director EMEA at Starcom MediaVest, noted, was the addition of TV for the very first time.

Richard Warren, the joint chief executive of Delaney Lund Knox Warren, concluded: “MediaCom made a rock-solid case, citing TV’s strengths of scale, audience, targeting, flexibility and accountability. The results met and exceeded all objectives.”

Best use of sponsorship or content

There is now a wealth of rewarding ways to integrate brands into the fabric of TV programming – sponsorship, branded content, advertorials, advertiser-funded programming, promotions, prizes, televised branded events, public relations… Entrants must outline how their particular strategy worked for them.

Hare was impressed by Carat’s “It’s a girl thing partnership” devised for Mattel. Warren agreed: “TV sponsorship with web-driver spots, incorporating third-party retail brands, spoke to girls within trusted editorial and drove dramatic results in terms of affinity and recall of Barbie products.”

MediaVest was also commended for its “Simple food, made delicious” work for Philadelphia. The agency engaged the core audience with an ad-funded TV show, Simon Rimmer’s Dinners, and reached a mass audience with celebrity chef TV advertorials.

But the winner was “Great Adaptations” by OMD UK for Waterstone’s and Film4. The agency spotted an opportunity to bring two of its clients together to create a film season on Film4 featuring book adaptations.

The campaign comprised a season of 34 films, promoted by cobranded trails across Channel 4’s entire channel portfolio and a six-week nationwide promotion of the season in-store. Online activity included dedicated sections on both Film4 and Waterstone’s websites and an e-mail campaign to more than 800,000 Waterstone’s customers.

Jeremy Found, the head of media at COI, concluded: “The partnership was a great success for both parties, with Film4 viewing up, Waterstone’s experiencing increased footfall and, most importantly, selling books.”

Best use of TV innovation

In this category, entrants must explain how they used TV innovation for a brand to good effect. From new technology to live ads and events, innovative thinking in media planning and the clever use of technology is liberating TV and adding new dimensions to the medium every year.

This was demonstrated no more powerfully than in ZenithOptimedia’s winning entry for O2. The client needed a powerful campaign idea for its entry into the financial services sector with the launch of a pre-pay card (with Visa capability) for teenagers, called Load & Go.

Gallagher summed up the power of the winning strategy: “Twenty TV ads were broadcast exclusively during Hollyoaks’ centre-breaks, each tailored to complement the ongoing storylines. They drove viewers online to a website designed to reflect the airtime activity, creating deeper engagement and product comprehension. A challenging target was smashed by 300 per cent and Load & Go became the fastest-growing card launch in the UK.”

This was a particularly hotly contested category and the winner, ZenithOptimedia – for its groundbreaking O2 work – garnered enough votes to carry it to the Grand Prix. But the other shortlisted entries pushed it hard.

These included MEC’s work for Orange, which sought to expand the base of people taking part in Orange Wednesdays by driving interest in the proposition in a timely way. It wanted, in short, to make Wednesday the new Friday.

Caroline Marshall, the executive editor of Haymarket Brand Media, liked the way that each Tuesday night break, packed with trailers for the latest film releases, is topped, tailed and interspersed with the Orange Wednesdays messaging and a direct call to action.

Manning Gottlieb OMD’s “Do more good stuff” work for Lastminute.com was also commended. The challenge here was to help Lastminute.com differentiate itself from competitors and reignite passion for the brand.

Place said: “The Lastminute.com Mexican wave made TV history and it encouraged viewers to make a seamless three-minute journey across three commercial TV channels: ITV1, Channel 4 and Five.”

And there was a third well-placed runner-up: “The X Factor big nights in with Sainsbury’s”, devised by PHD and Drum PHD. The brief was to demonstrate that Sainsbury’s represents good value for the family shop – PHD and Drum PHD focused on the symbiotic relationship between event TV programming and associated content online.

Best use of TV for response

TV builds brands but the medium can also be used to very powerful effect for short-term and tactical objectives. Those hoping to win this award must specify the nature of the desired response and reveal how successful the campaign was in delivering it.

Three campaigns were shortlisted: Everest by Mindshare; Juvéderm ULTRA by UM for Allergan; and Just-Eat by Edwards Groom & Saunders.

2009 was a pivotal year in the history of Everest, with the home-improvement market hit hard as homeowners deferred house moves and held on to their savings. Multiple competitors failed – and yet in the face of this, Everest grew revenue and increased market share, thanks in no small part to its determination to stick with TV when backers and banks were screaming for costs to be cut.

Meanwhile, UM and Allergan used TV to change the rules of engagement in the “aesthetic beauty” market, which had previously relied on business-to-business channels via medical practitioners.

And of the Just-Eat campaign, Williams noted: “The challenge for Edwards Groom & Saunders was to introduce this site to new customers and drive response. They identified a web-savvy, takeaway-loving audience that loves TV. Business analysis highlighted key days of the week, hours and regions for takeaway orders and led to a clever strategy called TV Dinners.”

But the winner was a campaign by ESP-Marketing for the album Coming Home by The Soldiers, released by Rhino UK, a division of Warner Music. This is a particularly difficult market; each year, the number of albums sold drops, profit margins are squeezed by retail and there is less money for marketing.

Using its sophisticated analytic systems, ESP spotted an opportunity to build on a backbone schedule of proven high-response programming, with “intelligent roadblocking” of digital channels adding flesh to the campaign.

Coming Home sold more than 500,000 copies, exceeding client expectations by several hundred per cent – and despite its early release date, it remained in the top 20 for the whole nine weeks to Christmas.

Found said: “By identifying the cost-per-unit limits and the likely responses, ESP Marketing isolated key high-response, low-cost programming which had been proven to work before. This, aligned to an intelligent roadblock strategy, meant it could deliver high reach at low cost.”