Welcome to the 2004 Best Media Plan issue of Strategy MEDIA. Yes, an entire year has passed since we last showcased the ingenuity of our country’s top media planners. And yes, a lot has changed since then. But, unlike our regular fare, this issue is not about the changes which aid and challenge the media buying and selling community.
This issue is once again a celebration of the greatest achievements in media planning – the increasingly intricate and creative orchestration of the media mix.
Our eighth annual competition saw it all, from a MINI Cooper captured in a cage and Campbell’s Soup hinging its entire campaign on an unseasonably cold winter, to Special K blurring editorial lines and Nicorette motivating TV viewers to quit smoking.
This year’s winning plans and runners-up are a testament to the growing vitality and prominent role of media planning in the development of successfully integrated marketing campaigns. One judge put it best: ‘Almost all the submissions had strength in their understanding of consumers, understanding the way consumers interact with the media and clever executions.’
How the winners were chosen
This is how it worked: Any media planning operation or division in the country was allowed to submit as many plans executed during 2003 as it wanted. Each plan could only be entered in one of the categories listed below.
Each submission was sent out to three judges, and each judge awarded it a mark out of 10. The marks from the judges were then averaged. The plans with the highest marks in each category won those categories, and the second-highest scorers won ‘runner-up’ status.
There was no Best Plan Overall category. Rather, this award was reserved for the plan that received the highest score in any of the regular categories. The judges did not rate any plans that were worked on by their immediate operations. The judges worked independently, and none of the judges or participants knew who won the competition until the results were released to the public.
Our distinguished 21-member panel can be found on page 19. All of them volunteered to spend a weekend grading media plans. For this we offer our most sincere thanks.
THE WINNERS
Best plan overall – Winner
Campbell’s ‘Own Cold Weather’
Media: OMD Canada
Client: Campbell Company of Canada
Runner up
MINI ‘lifestyle media plan’
Media: Gaggi Media Communications
Client: MINI Canada (a division of BMW Canada)
Best plan for less than $1 million – Winner
Campbell’s ‘Own Cold Weather’
Media: OMD Canada
Client: Campbell Company of Canada
Runner up
Microsoft Windows XP (Tablet PC Edition)
Media: M2 Universal
Client: Microsoft Canada
Best use of multiple media – Winner
MINI ‘lifestyle media plan’
Media: Gaggi Media Communications
Client: MINI Canada (a division of BMW Canada)
Runner up
Energizer ‘Road Trip’
Media: OMD Canada
Client: Energizer Canada
Best use of out-of-home – Winner
Vector’s ‘Fuel for performance’
Media: Initiative Media
Client: Kellogg Canada
Runner up
Esso ‘On the Run’
Media: OMD Canada
Client: Imperial Oil
Best use of television – Winner
Nicorette ‘Loft Story’
Media: Le Groupe TMC
Client: Pfizer Canada
Runner up
M&M characters
Media: MediaVest Worldwide (Canada)
Client: Effem
Best use of newspaper – Winner
Rogers AT&T Cup Tennis
Media: Media Buying Services (MBS)
Client: Rogers AT&T Wireless
Best use of interactive media – Winner
Smirnoff Ice Triple Black Hockey Game
Media: Starcom IP
Client: Diageo Canada
Runner up
FedEx’s Super Box III Sweepstakes
Media: OMD Canada
Client: Federal Express
Best use of magazine – Winner
Special K’s ‘Keep It Simple’
Media: Initiative Media
Client: Kellogg Canada
Runner up
Neutrogena ‘Operation Cover’
Media: OMD Canada
Client: Johnson & Johnson
