The awards were judged based on these criteria:

  • Objectives and strategy.
  • Creativity and innovation.
  • Effectiveness and business results.

In this post I’ll take a closer look at three of the award-winning entries, beginning with the automotive category…

Automotive

Winner: Kia and Reevoo

Kia’s customers know that it makes reliable, affordable cars, but the company found it was struggling with weak brand perception among non-customers in the UK.

The challenge was to alter people’s opinion of the Kia brand and make them more likely to buy one.

To achieve this Kia partnered with Reevoo to create a multichannel independent review initiative.

From dealers through to direct marketing, ATL, social media and online, the strap line of, ‘Our cars speak for themselves. Our customers speak for us,’ was communicated nationally. 

The campaign went on to collect thousands of unbiased, unedited customer reviews, which were then fed back into the campaign.

The interactive element of the initiative gave potential customers the ability to read reliable, insightful feedback from Kia’s existing customers.

The results

In less than 12 months more than 10,000 reviews had been posted to the website, with an average car rating of 9.1 out of 10.

Car sales rose year-on-year from 66,629 to 72,090, which was the highest volume of sales ever achieved in a year.

As a result of the campaign’s popularity, Kia shifted all of its advertising and marketing focus to ‘Our cars speak for themselves. Our customers speak for us.’

Charities, government and non-profit

Winner: The Royal British Legion and BPL

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War One the British Legion wanted to pay tribute to the 1.1m servicemen and women who died during the conflict.

The result was Every Man Remembered, which aimed to engage a new, more digitally aware audience who would not normally consider engaging with The Legion.

The functional objective of the brief was to create an online experience where users could search a database of 1.1m soldiers, select one, write a commemoration and make an optional donation. 

Additionally, the site would need to educate and inspire, whilst also being reflective in tone, simple to get involved in and offering easy social sharing options.

And finally, the project had a commercial objective. The site needed to acknowledge the importance of The Legion’s continuing work and deliver at least £30,000 of donation income over the site’s six-year life expectancy.

The results

The official launch was at the end of July 2014 and within just six weeks the £30,000 donation figure had already been beaten.

In the same period the website received around 300,000 visits and generated over 65,000 commemorations, though there’s clearly some way to go to reach 1.1m.

Average dwell time for the site is more than six minutes, and the average session is proving to be between seven and eight pages. 

The most popular pages are also the most important ones:

  • Home/search
  • Commemorate
  • Register
  • Donate

Retail

Winner: Mothercare and RAPP

New mums-to-be carry out a lot of online research before they make their big purchases, and while 80% of first-time mums visited Mothercare stores, the retailer wasn’t part of their multichannel journey. 

The retailer was perceived as being out of step with the digital age, and a bit too traditional and frumpy for today’s generation of new mums.

Additionally, Mothercare was locked in a price war with supermarkets, online retailers and other baby and toddler specialists.

So the retailer set about analysing their spending data, and discovered a purchase pattern from early pregnancy right through to changing toy demands as children grow. 

This knowledge positioned it as an authority across the whole pre and post-natal journey.

Work began in store, with the introduction of a new e-receipts service so mums could easily return and exchange goods using a receipt scanned straight from their smartphone. 

At the same time, staff had the opportunity to opt customers in to the new My Mothercare loyalty scheme.

The My Mothercare loyalty programme launched in February, providing support and advice on what mums buy at each stage of the motherhood journey. 

It was tailored specifically to the needs of the customer from week four of pregnancy all the way to their child’s sixth birthday. 

This was delivered through emails, social content on blogs, as well as forums and comments on the Mothercare TV channel on YouTube.

The results

In just six months, Mothercare had seen dramatic results. The e-receipt rollout went from a single store pilot to full rollout across 200 stores in undersix weeks, involving 1,000 tills and 5,000 staff.

Within six weeks of launching electronic receipts, stores became a bigger source of customer data than the website.

Starting from zero in February 2014, it has built a database of 650,000 active loyalty club members who have given a due date or child DOB. 

The customer-centric nature of the My Mothercare club means Early Learning Centre products are now cross-sold as the child develops.

Projected break-even has been slashed by two thirds, from 36 months to 12 months.

Expectant parent event revenue (October 2013 vs. June 2014) has increased by 192%, and Mothercare’s weekly orders attributed to direct marketing campaigns have increased by 1,431%.

Early Learning Centre’s weekly orders attributed to direct marketing campaigns have increased by 1,617%.