New Zealand Showcase 2010 RSVP & Nexus Award winners

In the past decade, some of the world’s most innovative direct ideas have come out of New Zealand. A relatively small country, it punches far above its weight at international awards shows. The reasons for this are to do with attitude – Kiwis are rarely passive. They like to ‘give it a go’. Also, size does matter. In most companies and corporations there are fewer layers of middle management for an agency to wade through to get approval to their ideas. The creative director can, and often does, get to talk to the client CEO.

So, we are thrilled to be able to showcase here some of the winners of the RSVP and Nexus Awards, presented on February 25^th.

It was one night of celebration – but in three categories.

1. The RSVP Awards recognize outstanding marketing campaigns that stimulate conversation, ask for a response or prompt some deeper brand involvement that leads to a sale, or some other measurable change in behaviour.
2. The RSVP Craft Awards speak for themselves.
3. The Nexus Awards recognize excellence in creating the foundations on which measurable campaigns are based: strategy, insight, innovative techniques or tools, products that make one-to-one communication easier and more rewarding.

10 awards for one campaign

One of the big winners of the night was DraftFCB’s ‘The Journal’ for the New Zealand Ministry of Health, which we featured in Directory 17. This is what Sue McCarty, Chief Executive of the Marketing Association, had to say about it.

“It’s often the way that one agency scoops the pool on Awards night. But never before has one agency with one campaign for one client achieved so much in the 23-year history of the RSVP and Nexus Awards.

DraftFCB and their client, Ministry of Health, took out both the RSVP Grand Prix and the Supreme Nexus Awards for 2010, on top of which they scored three RSVP Golds, two Nexus Golds and won three of the eight RSVP Craft categories with their entry, The Journal.

As part of the Ministry of Health’s ongoing National Depression Initiative, it is an entirely new way to help people get through depression, one small step at a time by engaging them in an online mentoring programme that includes personalised support and medical expertise.

Strategic vision, innovation, customer engagement and retention – every element a winner in its own right. What an outstanding achievement!”

In her remarks to the great and the good of direct marketing in New Zealand, Sue McCarty went on to say:

“2010 was a watershed year for many organisations. The tough economic climate still prevailed and it seems to me that it was the innovators and those who seized the opportunity to ramp up their customer communications who continued to grow and prosper.

Customer engagement is very much the name of the game these days, and the increasingly wide range of media channels opens up new and clever ways to hook the attention of potential customers in innovative and clever ways, as demonstrated by many of this year’s entries.”

She also made the important point, that even before the fees are paid there are substantial costs in submitting work to awards shows – and, for that matter, to Directory. But the benefits to successful agencies are more than acquiring kudos and bolstering agency morale. The truth is the very process of preparing the entries can in itself “highlight the importance of analyzing results as the basis for future decision-making.”

Hear hear!