The IDM BPA 2008: Diamond and Facet Winners
The IDM Business Performance Awards are without a doubt one of the hardest awards for marketers to win, because entries have to demonstrate a long-term, strategic and sustainable contribution to the business, be convincingly argued and factually substantiated and show an excellent appreciation of the pertinent marketing issues. Our warmest congratulations go to every winner of the 2008 BPA!
Headline Sponsor
The IDM would like to thank its Headline Sponsor DQM Group whose support of the 2008 BPA is greatly appreciated. Facet Sponsors
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DIAMOND WINNERS
The top award, the much-coveted BPA Diamond, is reserved for the direct marketing programme judged to have made the most outstanding strategic contribution to overall business success.
BPA DIAMOND WINNER
Client: Thomson
Agency: WDMP Communications and CreatorMail
Campaign: Personalised Thomson Holiday Mailing
The holiday mailing for Thomson was expected to perform well. Instead, it turned into the most successful mailing ever, with incremental sales of over £1 million in a single month. Plus it changed the marketing culture at Thomson forever. The judges noted how it set the standard and delivered impressive return on investment, but equally praised the fact that its was the “sort of work within reach of all direct marketers. It indicates future direction and furtherance of the programme.”
Holiday makers are generally not a loyal group of customers and the travel market is intensely competitive. January is also the most important booking month, leading to a crowding of communications. Thomson had been using a predictive model for ROI that worked, but their agency argued that, by utilising more of the customer data and spending more per pack, returns would be improved.
Data on bookers over the past five years was analysed to identify people with a high propensity to book at the same time every year. This insight became the basis for the creative idea of the calendar. This involved using images of their previous destination which the customer immediately recognised and the question, “Mr Sample, isn’t it time you booked your holiday?”. Data on previous holidays was used throughout the pack and defined recommendations. In a mailing of 900,000 items, this led to 200,000 variations per mail pack and 150,000 per email. Follow-up mailings and email were used to incentivise non-bookers, again using propensity models to define the content and imagery. In January alone, incremental margin of over £1 million was achieved, compared to control. Open rates for email hit 48 per cent and a ROI of 550:1, while incremental profit from direct mail rose by nearly 400 per cent compared to the previous year. ROI on direct mail was 5.7:1 with incremental conversion to sale of 2.3 per cent. Thomson’s head of direct marketing noted that it was the strongest and most personalised direct mail piece the company had ever produced.
As a result of the success of this campaign, the agency was invited to pitch for sister brand First Choice, which chose to adopt a similar personalised approach. TUI Group is looking to roll out the approach across its brands. This year will see data models used to identify customers with a propensity to upgrade. For the judges, this was a simple creative idea with great use of personalisation. They noted, “it was one of the few mailings you’d like to receive.”
SILVER WINNER
Client: Virgin Media
Agency: Rapier
Campaign: The launch of Virgin Media
Virgin Media was formed by the £962m merger of Virgin Mobile with NTL:Telewest. That not only created the biggest Virgin brand, but one which faced considerable challenges – customers disappointed by their previous experience with the service and aggressive spending by competitors.
What Virgin Media was able to offer consumers was low-cost quadruple-play services: broadband, TV, landline and mobile. From research, it found a service which should be easy and fun was viewed as complicated and painful. So the launch focused on cable franchise areas it could service best. Campaigns targeted interest groups (gamers, sports fans), trigger events (movers, mums) and switcher activity.
Creative executions aimed to position Virgin Media as the consumer champion. Some 5 million consumers were mailed and directed to a microsite. Integrated communications explained the benefits of the provider.
Prompted brand awareness passed 80 per cent in three months, while Virgin Media has consideration rates of 40 per cent and acquisition calls have improved by up to 30 per cent. Total sales rose against the previous year by 27 per cent, while cost per sale fell 17.7 per cent. Virgin Media has achieved net growth in customer numbers since launch.
BRONZE WINNER
Client: BT Business
Agency: OgilvyOne Worldwide
Campaign: BT Business Total Broadband
Broadband provision is highly competitive and business customers defect on price. For firms with up to 50 staff, consumer provision competes with business-specific services. With a 40 per cent share, BT Business needed to focus on its usefulness to users, such as online business applications and VoIP.
Although all targets were broadband users, they have different issues through the lifecycle of their 12-month contract. The push focused on the value of IP technology as a platform for business.
A change was made to the communications strategy by moving from a fixed lifestyle approach to one based around Moments of Truth. Email was the primary medium, with direct mail used if a renewal did not happen at a critical moment of truth. Customer engagement rose to ten times the level typical for SME communications.
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Client: RSPCA
Agency: Mike Colling & Co and Whitewater
Campaign: Home for life
The Facets
This is the collective name for the 11 awards under the sub-categories of Direct, Data and Digital. They are awarded in recognition of excellence in a specific marketing discipline.
Direct – Acquisition
Winner
Client: COI/Department for Children, Schools and Families
Agency: CMW
Campaign: Active Kids
As part of a long-term strategy, this campaign tested how to get low-income parents to enquire about childcare. This audience is often sceptical about Government communications, so the illustrative treatment delivered the message in a positive and uplifting manner. Door drops were targeted to areas with a high density of parents in the profile, with direct mail targeted using Bounty data and Acorn clustering. Inserts, advertorials, bus shelters, phone boxes and face-to-face were all chosen to provide sufficient time to engage. Phase one delivered over 22,000 responses, while a 57 per cent budget increase for phase two drove overall response up by 214 per cent.
Runner up
Client: RSPCA
Agency: Mike Colling & Co and Whitewater
Campaign: Home for life
Direct – Retention
Winner
Client: Thomson
Agency: WDMP Communications
Campaign: Personalised Thomson Holiday Mailing
This was the most successful mailing ever for Thomson, with incremental sales of over £1m in a single month. As a result, it changed the marketing culture at Thomson Holidays forever. By using data on bookers across five years – and persuading the client to spend more per pack – a 900,000 item campaign involved up to 200,000 variations per mailpack and 150,000 per email. Customers immediately recognised the images of their last destination used in the pack. Open rates for email hit 48 per cent and a ROI of 550:1, while incremental profit from direct mail rose by nearly 400 per cent compared to the previous year. ROI on direct mail was 5.7:1, with incremental conversion to sale of 2.3 per cent.
Runner up
Client: Evening Standard
Agency: HH&S Group
Campaign: Eros Rewards Card Launch
Direct – Creative
Sponsored by Barraclough Edwards Chamberlain
Winner
Client: Royal Mail
Agency: Proximity London
Campaign: Chocolate Letter
Royal Mail needed to persuade sophisticated brand marketers to include direct mail in their media plans. To demonstrate the unique tangible qualities of the medium, targets were sent a personalised letter made out of chocolate. The campaign targeted UK advertisers spending over £1m, but with below average spend on direct mail. Creative and media agencies were included as a secondary audience. Some 6,000 targets were mailed with the letter, created using fine chocolate. They also received a bespoke edition of The Directory, a quarterly showcase of direct mail. Nine out of ten recipients opened the mailing and seven out of ten have taken or plan to take action.
Runner up
Client: Tourism Ireland
Agency: Mabox
Campaign: The Dream Reward
Direct – Innovation
Winner
Client: The Army
Agency: Tequila\London
Campaign: Pathfinder
Pathfinder is the UK’s biggest youth research panel, collecting over 400,000 completed online questionnaires since launch in April 2007, providing The Army recruiting departments with key data on their target market’s lifestyle, motivations and attitudes. National and regional ads, together with search marketing, drive traffic to the site. The questionnaire is presented as a visual multiple choice, using input from psychology professors. Data has been run through cluster analysis to develop four typical profiles. Together with the answers given online, these are used to deliver a profile to the user at the end of the session. The tool is being developed for ongoing engagement, while the data is helping to define segmented marketing.
Runner up
Client: Royal Mail
Agency: Proximity London
Campaign: Mr. Complete
Data - Customer Insight
Sponsored by EuroDirect
Winner
Client: Help the Aged
Agency: Tangible Data
Campaign: Maximising Raffles Income
Raffles are an important income generator for the charity, but were run via a standalone business unit with a separate database. By integrating both the mechanic and the data with the core supporter universe, all-time high results were achieved. Propensity models were built using data on 1 million-plus donors to identify targets for Raffle ticket books, while maximising revenues from existing supporters.
RFV segmentation was used to score existing banked raffles supporters. This was used in combination with a propensity model which was applied across the remainder of Help the Aged’s supporter base. The models were assessed, rebuilt and reapplied to take account of results from each campaign.
Runner up
Client: LV=
Agency: Occam DM
Campaign: Overcoming data issues
Data – Targeting
Sponsored by Occam DM
Winner
Client: Barnsley Primary Care Trust
Agency: Dr Foster Intelligence
Campaign: Barnsley Healthy Breathing Campaign
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is a debilitating condition which relates partly to coal mining and to prevalence of smoking. It also costs the NHS in Barnsley over £2m a year to treat. Using research into risk groups and how to reach them, backed with focus groups, the PCT achieved a 88 per cent response rate. Barnsley has above average incidence of the disease and for emergency admissions. Using postcode area data on past hospital treatments, target areas were identified and a poster and telemarketing campaign carried out. Out of 7,238 homes called to offer an information pack, 6,368 requested it. A further 1,264 also requested a stop-smoking pack. Cost per response was £8.69 and total campaign costs would be covered if just 32 admissions were prevented. The judges were impressed by the conversion rates and the use of telemarketing.
Data - Best use of data in B2B marketing
Sponsored by B2B Magazine
Winner
Client: Rapid Racking
Agency: Blue Sheep
Campaign: Pathway to Success
Storage solutions supplier Rapid Racking needed to continue to attract new customers. Prospect data from a previous supplier was suffering from quality and service level issues. Working with Blue Sheep, the business has been able to achieve an 11 per cent increase in sales, delivering a 30 per cent increase in profits in 2007, against a target of 7 per cent. The company licenced The UK Business Universe of 4.5 million sites, with Blue Sheep profiling existing customers to introduce a sophisticated scoring model. This ranked each prospect according to its potential value to Rapid Racking. As a result, the prospect pool was found to be 20 per cent larger than previously assumed. With quarterly updates and and monthly matching to existing customers, the company’s marketing became more effective with a higher ROI. The judges were impressed by the increase in profits, driven by a single point of access for marketing data.
Digital – Acquisition
Winner
Client: Cushman & Wakefield
Agency: Concep
Campaign: Cushman & Wakefield Knowledge Center
Global property consultant Cushman & Wakefield wanted to drive users to register at its newly-developed Knowledge Center and position the company as thought leaders. Journalists and existing clients were targeted to gain registrations for the center and its RSS feed. In combination with search, email and a microsite, the first month saw 6,701 registrations, with new users joining at 119 a day. Using the client’s database, targeted snippets of content were emailed as a teaser, while the microsite offered samples of what was on offer in the Knowledge Center. As a global campaign, emails were customised to local language while retaining consistency with the brand.
Runner-up
Client: Alliance & Leicester
Agency: Greenlight
Campaign: Natural Search Campaign
Digital – Retention
Sponsored by Concep
Winner
Client: Scottish Widows
Agency: In-house
Campaign: Scottish Widows Adviser Extranet
A major re-launch of the financial advisers’ extranet aimed to stop a decline in traffic. By allowing users to customise the way they view information on the site, a significant impact was made. Given that a high percentage of new business comes from advisers and paraplanners, this channel was critical to both parties. Through workshops, difficulties with the previous site and desired features were identified. The site was made searchable and content personalised according to user preferences. Email preferences were also offered to users. An increase in registrations of 21 per cent resulted, while online sales rose in the six months after launch. The judges noted the good results that came from listening to advisers.
Runner up
Client: Barclays
Agency: Dare
Campaign: Woolwich Intermediaries Fantasy League
Digital – Branding
Sponsored by Lorien Unique
Winner
Client: The Carphone Warehouse
Agency: CHI & Partners
Campaign: X-Factor Challenge
The judges were impressed by this example of engaging brand building fitted around programme sponsorship. The Carphone Warehouse needed to keep its relevance among key audiences. On the back of its TV sponsorship of X-Factor, it ran an integrated mobile and online talent contest. Research showed that consideration levels increased, brand preference strengthened and the company led on all aspects of brand imagery following the campaign. Viewers were invited to enter a virtual talent contest by recording an audition via a freephone number. A text code response gave them access to the site where performances could be rated. More than 1,800 auditions were recorded and over 150,000 votes cast on the site.
Runner up
Client: Cadbury
Agency: CMW Interactive
Campaign: Cadbury's Creme Egg - Goo Play
Digital – Creative
Sponsored by CHI & Partners
Winner
The Carphone Warehouse
Agency: CHI & Partners
Campaign: X-Factor Challenge
To make its sponsorship of The X-Factor more engaging, The Carphone Warehouse ran a mobile phone-based competition that integrated on air sponsorship, web and mobile. Against high-spending competition, the company needed to re-energise the brand and engage consumers. The campaign needed to cover all mobile users, as well as teenage music fans. Viewers were invited to enter a talent contest by recording an audition via a freephone number. A text code response gave them access to the site where performances could be rated. More than 1,800 auditions were recorded and over 150,000 votes cast. Brand preference and imagery rose as a result of the sponsorship.
Runner up
Client: The Army
Agency: Publicis Modem
Campaign: One Army Recruiting
