The annual An Post Smart Marketing Awards took place this week in the Intercontinental Hotel with a total of 78 awards handed out on the night.
Bank of Ireland Corporate & Treasury picked up the Grand Prix for its campaign ‘How We Brought A Piece of Silicon Valley to Ireland’ while Marketing Team of the Year award was picked up by SEAT Ireland for a variety of campaigns including ‘Your VIP Fast Pass’ and ‘The Ordinary Made Extraordinary’.
Rothco, meanwhile, picked up the Agency of the Year for its work on Tesco’s Christmas campaign.
It was also a good night for many of Ireland’s leading DM and above the line agencies who also walked away with Gold awards on the night, including Igntion – The Ideas People, Javelin, Publicis Dublin, Goosebump, Target McConnells, DMCM, Dynamo, DDFH&B and Group M.
A full list of winners on the night can be viewed HERE
Other highlights included the An Post Student Marketing Campaign of the Year Award which was presented to Gary Delaney of DCU for his winning entry ‘The Social Sheet’.
According to Fiona Heffernan, Head of An Post Media: “We were overwhelmed and encouraged by the quality and number of entries for this year’s awards which included a lot of newcomers, we saw double-digit growth in the number of entries. According to a recent study undertaken by Core Media, the Irish mail media industry overall is valued at a total of circa €70+ million as brands use mail to drive conversion. Mail’s ability to provide 100% consumer reach and the creation of greater access to mail media plays a major part in why both Ireland’s and global brands continue to use mail as a media channel; and these qualities are reflected in the campaigns honoured at the An Post Smart Marketing Awards 2017. We are confident that this sector will continue to grow in the coming years.”
“We are always learning about our customer too – Generation Z presents us with a lot of challenges and we need to adapt. Today our new emerging 18 year old consumer is part of the generation born with a mobile phone in their hand; they are the generation which has been described as ‘Blink, share, laugh and forget’. Only brilliant content and engaging creative together with media reach and conversion with direct marketing can connect with new consumers such as these,” she added.
Sponsors of this year’s An Post Smart Awards included Geo Directory, RR Donnelley, Neopost, Core Media, Tesco Ireland and Marketing Hub. Media partner is the Sunday Business Post.
The Judging Panel for this year’s Awards included: Olwyn Horan, Applegreen; Leonie Doyle, Britvic Ireland; Mark Mellett, Irish Cancer Society; Neil Dalton, SEAT Ireland; Paul Farrell, Virgin Media; Siobhan Lennon, the Sunday Business Post; James Munnelly, Bank of Ireland; John McGee, IMJ & Adworld.ie; Louise Bannon, Dublin Airport, Alina Ui Chaollai, Largo Foods and Fiona Heffernan, An Post Media.