Despite the tomato motif used to promote this year’s competition, kudos and not produce were the focus at the Direct Marketing Association’s 70th International Echo Awards, presented last month in Toronto.
The DMA diamond Echo, which goes to the top direct response campaign among all entries, went to the gold winner for television commercial: The Martin Agency’s “The Sensible Alternative” campaign for its longtime client, Geico Direct auto insurance of Washington, DC. This latest pair of awards probably makes the Richmond, VA-based shop’s campaign among the winningest in marketing history. Perhaps it’s time to retire any and all parts of Martin’s Geico campaign and let other companies and agencies have a chance.
Aim Direct Ltd.’s “Fence Post” campaign for the Bank of New Zealand won the U.S. Postal Service Gold Mailbox award for the most innovative use of direct mail. The Echoes judges didn’t quite agree, giving the campaign a silver for dimensional mail. Both agency and client are based in Auckland, NZ.
Amway of Ada, MI and C-E Communications’ Tdah! Digital Solutions Group, Warren, MI, won the Henry Hoke award for the Quixtar Countdown Web site (www.countdown9199.com). The Hoke award goes to the campaign with the most courageous solution to a difficult sales problem. Winners are selected by both Hoke Communications and the Echo Committee.
In this case brave reviews are rave reviews. C-E claims the el-cheapo-cheapo $50,000 site attracted some 1 million hits the month it launched and has averaged 30 million hits each month thereafter. Nevertheless, it only took a silver in the Internet/ interactive category.
The winner of the Leonard J. Raymond Collegiate Echo competition, sponsored by BankOne, was the team from the State University of New York’s Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome, Boonville, NY.
Other gold winners included:
– “Birthday Bounce-back,” for flat mail. Client: World Vision U.S. Agency: Russ Reid Co. of Pasadena, CA.
– “Partners for the Long Climb,” for dimensional mail. Client: The CIT Group, Livingston, NJ. Agency: Janine Miller Inc., Tenafly, NJ.
– “A Sparkling Opportunity” for dimensional mail. Client: Aer Lingus, Dublin, Ireland. Agency: Dialogue Marketing Communications, Dublin.
– “AT&T World Traveler” for Internet/interactive. Client: AT&T, Basking Ridge, NJ. Agency: Modem Media.Poppe Tyson, Norwalk, CT.
– “Away from Civilization,” for flat mail. Client: Land Rover U.K., Birmingham, England. Agency: Craik Jones Watson Mitchell Voelkel Ltd., London.
– “Envoy,” for flat mail. Client: Pontiac/GMC, Detroit. Agency: McCann Relationship Marketing, New York.
Of the silver winners, we liked one particular Internet/interactive winner: www.sony.com/zorro – the official movie Web site for the summer 1998 release “The Mask of Zorro,” with Anthony Hopkins and Antonio Banderas. DNA Studio, Los Angeles, created the site for Columbia TriStar Interactive of Culver City, CA.
We would have marked it with an A rather than a Z and apparently some 3 million visitors a month agreed. Personally, we liked the sword-fighting games, but we suspect the Echo awards committee took more notice of the 260,000 opt-in names generated for the studio’s database.
Another silver winner ready to thank the academy is Universal Studios’ Direct Partners’ dimensional mail campaign to lure Los Angeles restaurants into opening branches in a new food court. Six of the eight slots were filled within a month. The festive piece featured Lucy and Ethel among other “Universal characters.”
The Echoes received 956 entries this year. Seven gold, 20 silver and 25 bronze awards in 11 vertical industry segments and 10 advertising media categories were presented.
The big winner in this year’s competition was McCann Relationship Marketing, New York – which designed the tomato-themed Echoes marketing campaign – with five awards, including two for its overseas subsidiaries in Sydney, Australia and Copenhagen, Denmark.
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