The Niger Luxury Club is beautiful, if its Web site is any indication. The club combines sumptuous personal accommodations with breathtaking vistas. Pictures on its site portray an exquisitely detailed spa and health club. Its lounge is furnished with rich wood and warmed with hearth fires.
If there is a fly in the ointment, it’s a digital fly. Or two. Or a dozen, all of which fly up from the bottom of the site’s landing page. And as one scrolls down the page, the opulent photos of the Club are replaced by images of starvation, drought and sickness (http://www.nigerluxuryclub.com/eng.html). An entire nest of flies buzzes at the bottom.
It’s the latter pictures that represent miserable conditions in current-day Niger. The Niger Luxury Club is a fantasy of what could be, a fantasy dreamed up by Action Against Hunger and Shackleton, the Spanish agency that received the Diamond Echo – the Echo’s best in show award – for the fundraising campaign. According to the Direct Marketing Association, which presents the Echo awards, during one month the Niger Luxury Club campaign helped Action Against Hunger exceed its fundraising expectations by 81%.
Other winners of special Echo awards included:
* Agency Stephens Francis Whitson of England, which earned the A. Eicoff Broadcast Innovation Award on behalf of its client More Th>n;
* Outrider of St. Louis, which captured the Digital Echo for work it did on behalf of Showtime Networks;
* Proximity Germany GmnH, which won the Henry Hoke Award – given to a campaign that courageously solves a difficult sales problem – on behalf of Daimler AG;
* SearchAdNetwork, which took home the search marketing award for a campaign for National Jean Company; and
* Proximity London, which earned the USPS Gold Mailbox Award on behalf of Client Royal Mail for innovative mail use.
In addition to the awards listed above, 15 campaigns were honored with gold, 32 with silver, and 39 with bronze. The gold Echo recipients include:
Business-to-Business
Automotive
Client: Daimler AG, smart ¯ Stuttgart, Germany
Agency: Proximity Germany GmbH ¯ Hamburg, Germany
Campaign: think smart
Consumer
Business Consumer and Services
Client: DHL Express (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd ¯ Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Agency: OgilvyOne Worldwide Malaysia ¯ Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Campaign: DHL and Karen
Business-to-Business
Business Consumer and Services
Client: Royal Mail ¯ London, United Kingdom
Agency: Proximity London ¯ London, United Kingdom
Campaign: Royal Mail Chocolate letter
Business-to-Business + Consumer
Business Consumer and Services
Client: Royal Mail ¯ London, United Kingdom
Agency: Proximity London ¯ London, United Kingdom
Campaign: Royal Mail: Direct mail loves Email Mr. Complete
Consumer
Communications/Utilities
Client: Partner Communications Ltd ¯ Rosh Haayin, Israel
Agency: propaganda ¯ Hadar - Am, Israel
Campaign: orange Right for You
Consumer
Communications/Utilites
Client: Cell C ¯ Johannesburg, South Africa
Agency: ProximityTTP ¯ HYDE PARK JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
Campaign: Hummerville
Business-to-Business
Financial Products and Services
Client: Caja Madrid ¯ Madrid, Spain
Agency: Shackleton ¯ Madrid, Spain
Campaign: 'THE WAY I AM' FUNDS
Business-to-Business
Financial Products and Services
Client: Quorum Federal Credit Union ¯ Purchase, NY
Agency: True North Inc. ¯ New York, NY
Campaign: ‘Spread the Wealth’ Referral Program
Consumer
Insurance
Client: Cigna ¯ Wellington, New Zealand
Agency: Rapp Collins, New Zealand ¯ Auckland, New Zealand
Campaign: Distill 08
Business-to-Business
Not-For-Profit
Client: BIANZ ¯ Christchurch, New Zealand
Agency: Blackwood Communications Group ¯ Auckland, New Zealand
Campaign: NZ Bakery of the Year Competition
Consumer
Not-For-Profit
Client: Action Against Hunger ¯ Madrid, Spain
Agency: Shackleton ¯ Madrid, Spain
Campaign: NIGER LUXURY CLUB
Consumer
Product Manufacturing Distribution
Client: Diageo Ireland ¯ Dublin 8, Ireland
Agency: RMG Target ¯ Dublin, Ireland
Campaign: Guinness - It's Alive Inside
Business-to-Business + Consumer
Retail/Direct Sales
Client: The Warehouse Ltd ¯ Auckland, New Zealand
Agency: AIM Proximity ¯ Auckland, New Zealand
Campaign: Get in on the secret
Consumer
Retail/Direct Sales
Client: The Glenmorangie Company ¯ Edinburgh, Scotland
Agency: STORY ¯ Edinburgh, Scotland
Campaign: Ardbeg Corryvreckan
Consumer
Travel & Hospitality/Transportation
Client: Weekendesk ¯ Barcelona, Spain
Agency: CP Proximity ¯ Spain
Campaign: THE GREAT ESCAPE
Additionally, the Direct Marketing Association named EBay as its 2008 Marketer of the Year. The DMA cited EBay’s “outside-the-box thinking and constant search for new concepts and methods for optimally communicating with customers has added an entirely new dimension to the power of direct” when presenting the award to Jed Paulson, eBay’s senior manager of marketing technology.
Recent DMA Marketers of the year include: Microsoft-MSN (2007); Yahoo! Inc. (2006); David Neeleman, JetBlue Airways (2005); and Jason Ackerman, FreshDirect (2004).
The awards were presented Tuesday, Oct. 15 during the Direct Marketing Association’s annual conference, which was held in Las Vegas.
