Success for MediaCom at the Campaign Media Awards 2011

In a blow to the newly active Chairman and Chief Executive of ITV, the Competition
Commission have this morning definitively ruled that the CRR remedy, (which allows buyers
of advertising airtime to renew their existing contracts with ITV, with investment adjusted to
reflect the change in ITV1’s audience share), will be maintained for the foreseeable future.
The only concession that the Commission has made to ITV’s extensive lobbying is an
amendment to include viewers delivered by the ITV1+1 and ITV1HD channels.

The Campaign Media Awards happened on 23rd November in London - MediaCom was successful, with two awards and one highly commended.

Firstly for the work that the team on Merlin have done with Alton Towers and Facebook Places, which came first in the Best Travel and Leisure Category. - Alton Towers was faced with the challenge of winning press coverage without the advantage of having any new rides to promote at the launch of the 2011 season. MediaCom decided to harness the power of Alton Towers fans and use them as the primary media channel. MediaCom's strategy, working with Frank PR, was to open Alton Towers a day early and allow free entry - as long as the visitor had a smartphone and a Facebook account. Working with Facebook Deals, anyone 'checking in' at Alton Towers that day. From the 5,500 'check ins' on that day, the Alton Towers Facebook page earned more than half a million interactions over the campaign period - for a tiny media spend. The campaign has transformed Alton Towers' approach to Marketing.

The T-Mobile team were also succesful in the Best Finance, Telecoms and Utility category for their efforts with the T-Mobile Royal Wedding campaign. T-Mobile has in recent years made a huge impact with its 'life's for sharing' advertising strategy and the hype around the Royal Wedding provided a great platform to bring this brand proposition to life. A short film was created spoofing the rotal wedding entrance on a low budget. The film tapped in to our love of celebrity culture and capitalised on free media such as YouTube and Facebook. Bloggers who had previously written about T-Mobile events were invited to the shoot of the film, and a teaser was made to fuel interest in the project.

Within a week of going live, it had been watched eight million times on YouTube, rising to 21 million views over the first month. As well as being endoresed by celebrities, including Prince Harrym the film featured on mainstream broadcast media programming - an amazing return on a low budget investment.

Also, the Lucozade 'Yes' Campaign got an honourable mention in the Best Grocery, Soft Drinks and Household category, coming in just behind Yeo Valley.


Well done to everyone involved!