CHICAGO — DeVille 2000 Launch, a direct response campaign created by DraftWorldwide Chicago for Cadillac Motor Car Division, received the Past Presidents' Award from the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing at the 2001 Tempo Awards presentation last night at the Chicago Hilton and Towers.
Draft's program took first place for marketing results and third place for creative achievement in the direct response campaign category. The top award was chosen by a panel of CADM's past presidents, who reviewed all first-place winners before naming the DeVille campaign as best of show.
In addition, the first Jay Gondelman Award, chosen by CADM's e-commerce special-interest group, went to Brann Chicago for Weekly Tips From The Associates, an e-mail advertising series created for a student credit card issued by The Associates. The series took first place in creative achievement and third place in marketing results in the competition's new e-mail advertising category.
Nearly 250 entries, representing work produced between January 1999 and June 2000, were judged by direct marketers who followed a numeric scale to choose first-, second- and third-place winners in 17 categories for creative achievement and marketing results.
Entries were not identified by agency, and judges were precluded from evaluating work created by their own organizations. Including six ties, 104 awards were presented for direct marketing work on behalf of clients ranging from giant international corporations to local entrepreneurs.
The chairman of the 2001 Tempo Awards committee was Sid Liebenson, executive vice president/director of marketing at DraftWorldwide.
The DeVille 2000 Launch campaign ran from February to May 2000. Its objectives were to introduce the 2000 DeVille DTS model, to drive dealership traffic and to motivate sales of new vehicles to younger luxury car buyers who tend to be critical of American-made cars.
The campaign consisted of a series of three mailings that demonstrated the advanced technology of the DTS model, the world's first car with an available night vision system. Prospects were invited to request a DTS Personal Preview Kit by completing a mail or online survey or by going directly to a dealer for a test-drive. The first two mailers were contained in polybag envelopes, and the follow-up was a self-mailer. The Personal Preview Kit arrived in an elegant box that included a video and a CD-ROM detailing the features and advantages of the DTS.
Of the 235,000 mailings, 1.16 percent of the recipients requested the Personal Preview Kit, including 1.02 percent via mail and 0.14 percent via the Internet microsite. Moreover, the campaign pulled 0.72 percent mail-to-sale conversion, with 1,691 vehicle sales tracked directly to the campaign. The numbers were somewhat depressed because the DTS sold out nationally in March 2000, in the middle of the campaign. The campaign is also expected to influence 2001 model sales.
The award was presented to DraftWorldwide by James Carey, CADM immediate past president and chief operating officer at Core Strategies, Northbrook, IL.
The 2001 Jay Gondelman Award was presented to Brann Chicago by a representative of CADM's e-commerce special-interest group, which will choose the winner annually from among Tempo entries in various electronic media categories.
The overall objectives of the e-mail advertising series created by Brann Chicago for The Associates' student credit card were to build positive brand recognition; to position the card as the best credit card for students; to drive traffic to www.studentcreditcard.com; and to provide credit education for college students.
The opt-in e-mail messages provide college students age 18 to 24 with credit tips and offer money-saving promotions on popular products by leveraging a non-financial copy approach that resonates with the college student market. More than 21,700 e-mails are being sent to college students. From January 1999 to June 2000, site traffic increased by 360 percent.
In decidedly mixed results, only three entries were cited as first-place winners for both creative and marketing superiority in the same category among the 17 categories. They were: a business direct mail program for Binney & Smith Inc.'s Crayola products, by LKH&S Chicago; a program in “other” media — such as a CD-ROM or Web site — for Arthur Andersen by OgilvyOne Worldwide Chicago; and an Internet display advertising program for Ameritrade, also by OgilvyOne Worldwide.
DraftWorldwide Chicago won 21 awards, the most of any agency in the competition. FCBi Chicago won 13 awards; OgilvyOne Worldwide won nine; LKH&S Chicago won seven; and TargetCom LLC Chicago won six.
Three agencies won five first-place awards: DraftWorldwide, FCBi and OgilvyOne Worldwide.
