BUSINESS MARKETING CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR
INNOVATION was the key for this year’s shortlist. Microsoft proved that it is still an innovator with “Cloud Power”; Barclays Stockbrokers and American Express brought novel techniques to bear in their campaigns; Locog kindled new enthusiam for 2012; and NatWest showed that a new enthusiasm for better service is the best ad of all.
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AMERICAN EXPRESS
The credit card giant has been shortlisted for “Realise the Potential”. Starting in late 2009, this was the largest marketing campaign from Amex in more than four years. Stressing the benefits of the company’s reward programmes to affluent consumers, it represents a bold fightback against the contraction of borrowing demand following the financial crisis. Innovative print shapes caught the reader’s eye and challenged designers to new levels of creativity in response. The results have been rewarding: American Express achieved a striking 33 per cent increase year-on-year for their first quarter profits in 2011.
BARCLAYS STOCK-BROKERS
The first integrated campaign from Barclays Stockbrokers launched its Contracts for Difference and Financial Spread Trading iPhone app. Seeking new ways to engage with its audience and to distinguish the product in a crowded marketplace, the 360 campaign combined print ads, online, mobile, direct mail and more, even using a media partnership to bring in user-generated content through its “when inspiration strikes” photo competition. With an impressive download record, the innovative campaign’s success helps to prove the potential of rich forms of customer engagement.
LOCOG
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog) faced a difficult and very public challenge. Its biggest marketing spend since London secured the Olympic bid was released into the full glare of media scrutiny, and was an overwhelming success. Controversies have arisen since around ticket allocation, but only because the campaign to promote the tickets did its job so well. Locog’s place on the shortlist honours its inspiring imagery that gave the nation a taste of what is to come in 2012, while avoiding the sort of early criticism endured by the 2012 logo and mascots.
MICROSOFT
With its largest ever marketing campaign aimed at businesses, Microsoft announced its determination to seize control of the next wave of technological disruption: the cloud. “Cloud Power” operated across many media channels, reflecting the ability of cloud computing to synchronise across devices and formats. The once-unquestioned tech giant has had plenty of competitors nipping at its heels recently thanks to trends like open source software and mobile computing. But Microsoft now has a great story to tell about its products, with an acclaimed new version of Windows and now an aggressive push into cloud computing services. With this campaign, it announced to the world that it was ready for the future.
NATWEST
At a time when the public reputation of banks and bankers has fallen so low, it is cheering to find a company working to repair its own – and by extension the sector’s – image. NatWest was the first bank to admit there was a problem by running ads promising it was trying to serve its customers better. Its “helpful banking” campaign from M&C Saatchi featured a 14-point customer charter. The campaign was able to publicly celebrate 20 of 25 targets being met in March this year. NatWest’s place on the shortlist recognises both the strategic intelligence of their campaign, its execution as a story unfolding over time and its continued wider benefits for the rehabilitation of banking services in the public eye.