The APMA Star Awards, which celebrate the past year’s finest promotional efforts, took place last week in Oz, with New Zealand marketing agency Belowtheline the only Kiwi agency to take home a gold, winning the top award in the ‘best sponsorship leverage’ category for its ‘Game Plan’ promotion for Sanitarium’s sponsorship of the All Blacks before and during the Rugby World Cup.
Pitching Weet-Bix as the preferred breakfast brand fuelling the ABs throughout the cup, the campaign resulted in a major lift in sales over the period, with an unprecedented number of New World stores and Countdown stores putting up the five metre high goal post displays.
The agency also received a bronze in ‘best small budget’ for its ‘Win A Designer Experience’ promotion tying Kapiti into the WOW Wearable Art Awards. Involving the creation of ‘instore theatre’ at point of sale and a major presence at the event, this campaign also saw an impressive increase in sales across all categories.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3_e-U4B7C8
Aegis Media-owned Trans-tasman operation Apollo Marketing took home six awards, including three golds (best brand building, best activity generating brand loyalty, most innovative idea/concept) for the VB Best Cold Gear for Carlton United Breweries and three silvers.
Apollo NZ won two silvers, one in best integrated campaign over $1m for Heineken’s Rugby
Taking out the Grand Prix was new entrant Urban, which scored the top award for its ‘Coca-Cola Share a Coke’ campaign for Coca-Cola South Pacific, an idea that saw the agency personalise Coke in the summer of 2012.World Cup campaign and one for Tiger’s Year of the Dragon free t-shirt in best small budget campaign under $75. Paul Dobbin, creative director for Apollo in NZ, topped it off by winning best dressed man.
At total of 31 agencies were shortlisted as finalists, with a 35 percent increase in the number of agencies and companies entering this year.
