Freedom Air takes top marketing Award for 2002

1 August 2002

Freedom Air takes top marketing Award for 2002

The power of knowing your market and customers’ desires then boldly delivering what they want has earned Freedom Air a brace of firsts, including top honours in this year’s Marketing Magazine Marketing Awards.

Freedom Air takes the Marketing Magazine Supreme Award for its year-long strategy to fill a gaping hole left by defaults in the domestic air services market. It not only provided customer choice, but created a new category of domestic air traveller and established a strong preference for on-line booking, all the while preserving a strategic hold on this market for its parent company in a time of difficulty.

Though a strategic re-allocation of resources by parent Air New Zealand means that Freedom Air will in future focus on trans-Tasman routes, for one critical year the airline kept New Zealanders flying domestically and effectively changed the face of traditional booking methods.

Judges described the Freedom Air strategy and its execution as first-class all the way; big, bold and brassy marketing management at its best. They considered the Freedom Air approach could teach a lot of marketers about courage and about daring to stand up with a clear simple message and shout it out loud.

Colmar Brunton Consumer Services Award:

The Freedom Air campaign qualified for Supreme Award consideration by winning the Colmar Brunton Consumer Services Award category.

Bizam Charity/Fundraising/Non-profit Award:

“Interactive on-line tutoring” is more than just an addition to the educational lexicon, it is now an Award-winning enterprise valued and recognised equally by students, teachers, parents and Marketing Magazine Marketing Awards judges alike.

In a little over a year, MathsOnline has evolved into Scholarnet, expanding its maths base into other subject areas, attracting more than 3000 individual registrations and regularly being accessed by 80 percent of New Zealand secondary schools.

Judges maintain that with Scholarnet, King’s Institute, a non-profit educational trust associated with Auckland’s King’s College, has raised the benchmark for on-line education and support and itself worked the equation of content + access+ innovative database marketing to equal significant success.

School of Business – University of Otago Small Business Award:

Taking on and winning over the best in the world is the hallmark of a top triathlete and now equally, the market position New Zealand brand Orca has achieved for its specialist performance speedsuits.
Last year the company set out to dominate the world triathlon wetsuit market and significantly boost sales of its sports apparel. In a market where performance is measured in tenths of a second, Orca committed itself to leading-edge materials and technology and an absolute focus on fitting out the sport’s elite.

As a result, Orca’s Predator is now the No.1 triathlon wetsuit, and its campaign, featuring hero images of the sport’s elite winning with Orca the winner of this year’s
School of Business – University of Otago Small Business Award.

Scottish Pacific Business Finance Business to Business Award:

In the highly competitive, tight margin and relatively undifferentiated, though specialised agriculture-based banking business, Bank of New Zealand Agribusiness is bringing home – and delivering – the bacon.

In a market where more banks were competing for fewer customers, and often price was the only differentiator, BNZ Agribusiness chose to follow a value-added approach, identifying and satisfying emerging and un-met customer needs.

The result, based on in-depth market and customer research, was a re-defined portfolio of tailored service offerings and the addition of business performance, education and benchmarking services – all delivering greater value to both the bank and its customers.

Judges consider this campaign has all the hallmarks of thoroughly professional marketing. The development of fully researched and unique initiatives has helped BNZ agribusiness become a true leader in its field.

SmartSource Marketing Award for Fast Moving Consumer Goods:

The transformation of a once-viewed budget product line into a vital quality-endorsed brand has won for Foodstuffs NZ, the SmartSource Marketing Award for Fast Moving Consumer Goods.

The mix of new quality specifications, packaging redesign and brand repositioning aided by The Naked Chef, Jamie Oliver has elevated Foodstuffs NZ’s house lines of “Pam’s” products to quality brand status, with dramatic consequential growth in both brand preference and sales volumes.

Judges described the transformation as real marketing bravado and an excellent example of brand building in an intensely competitive category.

Marketing Magazine Consumer Durables Award:

Breaking a price-based deathroll in the competitive bedding sector has won for Sleepyhead Manufacturing the judges’ accolades and this year’s Consumer Durables category award.

Against a background of discounted price-driven strategies used by retailers, bedding was fast becoming a commodity rather than a brand-led consumer category. The challenge for Sleepyhead was to build value back into the brand – value that would be recognised both by retailers and the end consumer.

New Sensorzone technology became the differentiating lynchpin in a campaign judges describe as superbly engineered – and a case study in value-added marketing.

Morton Estate Wines Retail Award:

Creating a ‘category killer computer super store’ to meet the needs of the fast growing home office and small enterprise market, sees Pacific Retail Group win top retail category honours for its Big Byte computer store launch.

Against the trend of low-margin reselling, the company saw and researched a differentiated retail outlet that provided computer solutions – both in product and service. In a defined market worth $800 million currently and growing, two Big Byte outlets were trialled. Rather than cannibalising existing computer business, the outlets served to meet changing market needs and as a result grow the total business category.

Judges consider that this is what category leadership is all about. Big Byte has carved out its own distinct position in a very tough market and has invented a retailing concept that is right for its time.

The Judges:

Judges for this year’s Awards were Park Beede (convenor), director new business development, Australasian Food Holdings Limited; John Macdonald, former business manager infant feeding at Heinz Wattie’s and a finalist in last year’s FCB Marketer of the Year Award; and Duncan Stuart, director of market research company, Kudos Organisational Dynamics.

Ends

NZ Herald’s Pip Elliott named New Zealand’s Marketer of the Year.

The New Zealand Herald general manager of sales & marketing, Pip Elliott has been named New Zealand’s FCB Marketer of the Year at the annual Marketing Magazine Marketing Awards.

Elliott, who joined the NZ Herald – and by dint, the newspaper industry – as marketing manager in 1999, has led and overseen a mission that judges have likened to turning around a super-tanker.

Against recent trends, she has arrested a decline in, then built readership for the newspaper through strategic repositioning and brand promotion initiatives and by transforming a traditional circulation department into a brand-savvy, subscriber- focused, sales and marketing operation.

In the process, she has fostered a marketing-led approach to newspaper management, an approach that just a few short years ago would have been un-thinkable in the industry.

In her role today, Pip Elliott continues the marketing-led, customer-focused approach by pulling together and making work in unison, the advertising sales, marketing, newspaper sales, distribution and customer care functions of the newspaper.

Judges considered that in marketing terms, Pip Elliott has achieved what many would have believed to be the impossible dream. Judging Convenor, Park Beede, says Pip Elliott is a great dreamer who inspires colleagues to visualise a better future for their newspaper. “Thanks to her dream and her vision, the Herald is now a marketing-driven organisation, internationally recognised and delivering a world-class product to its customers.”

Other finalists for the FCB Marketer of the Year Award were:
Merilyn Havler, general manager, Beiersdorf NZ
Jeremy Moon, managing director and chief executive, Icebreaker Clothing
Bart Wright, manager - private label, Foodstuffs (Auckland)

Ends…

Ability and Passion makes Genevieve Tearle Rookie Marketer of the Year

Exceptional strategic vision coupled with excellent communications skills makes Genevieve Tearle one promising young marketer and this year’s young& rubicam.thinking Rookie Marketer of the Year.

Tearle, a brand manager at New Zealand Dairy Foods, has already had her fair share of both excitement and hard graft in her short career in marketing. With a degree in marketing and HR and a dose of selling experience under her belt, judges say she displays a maturity in marketing far beyond her years.

Her work on the Fresh ‘n Fruity brand at NZDF is readily acknowledged as assisting the marketing team change its focus from categories to brands. The judges comment that she is not just technically skilled as a marketer, but her real stand-out strength is that she can work with people in every facet of marketing and get them to work together to achieve a single goal.

They say Genevieve Tearle patently thrives on the responsibility of her position and demonstrates an uncanny ability to spot an opportunity in the marketplace and then in a very disciplined manner, go for it.

You would expect nothing less from a person who now manages a $40 million brand and receives the accolade of Rookie Marketer of the Year.

Other finalists for Rookie of the Year were:
Barry Dowell, marketing manager, Canterbury, Student Job search.
Alex Smith, marketing executive, Hanover Group.

Ends…

Marketing Magazine Supreme Award:

Winner: Freedom Air

FCB Marketer of the Year:

Winner: Pip Elliott, general manager sales and marketing, New Zealand Herald
Finalists: Merilyn Havler, general manager, Beiersdorf NZ.
Jeremy Moon, managing director & CEO, Icebreaker Clothing
Bart Wright, manager – private label, Foodstuffs (Auckland).

Bizam Charity/Fundraising/Non-Profit Award:

Winner: King’s Institute – Scholarnet
Finalists: Accident Compensation Corporation
Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tamaki

School of Business – University of Otago Small Business Award:

Winner: Orca – Performance Speedsuits
Finalists: Endace Measurement Systems

Scottish Pacific Business Finance Business to Business Award:

Winner: Bank of New Zealand – Agribusiness
Finalists: Panasonic

SmartSource Marketing Award for Fast Moving Consumer Goods:

Winner: Foodstuffs NZ – Pam’s.
Finalists: Beiersdorf NZ
NZ Dairy Foods
Sara Lee Household & Body Care
SellAgence

Marketing Magazine Consumer Durables Award:

Winner: Sleepyhead Manufacturing
Finalists: Resene Paints

Morton Estate Wines Retail Award:

Winner: Pacific Retail Group – Big Byte
Finalists: McDonald’s Restaurants NZ

young&rubicam.thinking Rookie Marketer of the Year:

Winner: Genevieve Tearle, brand manager, NZ Dairy Foods
Finalists: Barry Dowell, marketing manager, Canterbury, Student Job Search
Alex Smith, marketing executive, Hanover Group

Ends…

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