News
The 2009 winners comment on the benefits of winning
Winning a Canmol was a huge honour and provided recognition for the work of our front line staff at South Wales Police. It has certainly increased the standing of marketing in our organisation and was a catalyst to the development of many new marketing initiatives, and importantly improvements in service delivery for our communities.
Winning a Canmol has significantly boosted my marketing profile, and the work it recognised has been shared with other police forces and partner organisations across Wales and the UK.
The award has raised the profile of South Wales Police on a national scale and has opened up contacts with marketing professionals from across the UK, even contributing to the first ever Marketing Week feature article on the role of marketing in modern policing.
James Harper, Neighbourhood Policing Marketing Officer, Corporate Communications Dept., South Wales Police.
Winning the CANMOL marketing award last year was a great achievement for us, we had received international recognition for the Happy Days campaign within the library sector but it was fantastic to be on par with businesses from other sectors and to gain accreditation in Wales for the work we do across Wales. The award has encouraged colleagues to get on board with other projects and we look forward to hearing about this year's winners.
Jane Purdie, Libraries for Life, Marketing Project Officer, Leisure, Libraries & Culture Dept., Wrexham County Borough Council
Winning the 2009 Canmol Award for Marketing in Wales was the icing on the cake of a fantastic year for GreenThumb. Coming on the back of a BFA Brand Builder Award 3 months earlier, the award was recognition of the hard work we had invested in the business over the previous 12 months. It has impacted on both GreenThumb as a franchisor, as everyone wants to be associated with a double award winning franchise, but also on our franchisees, who respect the work we are doing and are more prepared to listen to our advice.
It has also made asking for marketing spend a little easier, although the expectations are much higher.
David Collison, Marketing Manager, GreenThumb
It was a wonderful accolade to have won a coveted Canmol award. Not only did it reaffirm the strength of our strategic marketing programme, but it also underlines the relevance of branding and marketing in achieving commercial success. In these times of economic uncertainty, many businesses adopt an embargo on marketing spend in order to safeguard funds, not realizing the detrimental affect this can have to the long-term commercial viability of the business. I hope that what the Princes Gate Spring Water Canmol Award demonstrates, is that a good marketing plan can be achieved with a relatively small budget… it takes a stronger marketer to initiate innovative programmes on a shoestring, than to activate brands with big budgets!
Nicola Merriman, Marketing Manager, Princes Gate Spring Water
Winning a Canmol Wales Marketing Award was the culmination and recognition of twelve months hard work for the marketing team at Catnic.
The award generated good press coverage for the whole organisation and helped elevate the position of the department within the business resulting in renewed confidence in our investment in marketing.
On a personal level it has helped me elevate my position and market myself to the wider marketing fraternity. As a result of the achievement I am now regularly consulted for guidance on marketing issues within other parts of our Global organisation and have the satisfaction of adding a recognised accomplishment from a credible industry marketing body to my career achievements.
Barry Jenkins, Marketing Manager, Catnic
Canmol: Wales Marketing Awards Ceremony 2010
The Chartered Institute of Marketing are pleased to announce that the Awards ceremony for Canmol 2010 will be held on Thursday 7 October 2010 in Cardiff. The deadline for entries is slightly earlier this year: 31 July 2010. This year, two new additional prizes will be awarded, for Outstanding Achievement and Young Marketer of the year.
Our after-dinner speaker this year is Chris Corcoran who earlier this year toured major venues across Wales with his first full-length show What goes on Tour, Stays on Tour. Chris has also been busy writing the second series of the sitcom, Those That Can't with Greg Davies, for BBC Radio Wales.
On Saturday mornings he continues to co-host Rhod Gilbert's BBC Radio Wales Radio Show and has also previously fronted two documentary series: Nice Club, No Trouble and Chris Corcoran's Club Cultures.
Chris is regularly gigging at some of the best comedy clubs in the country such as The Banana Cabaret and The Glee Club and he supported Rob Brydon on his live tour in 2009.
MC for the evening is Bethan Rhys Roberts, BBC Radio and S4C television presenter. The evening closes with music provided by James Williams from the 2008 X-Factor.
Video of the 2009 Awards Ceremony
Canmol: 2008 Awards Ceremony Photos
Click here to see pictures of the 2008 Awards Ceremony.
Best in the business celebrated at the Canmol Awards 2009
Marketing professionals from around Wales gathered at Cardiff’s Park Plaza last night (15 October) for the Canmol: Wales Marketing Awards, sponsored by University of Wales. Newport.
Five winners, including Princes Gate Spring Water, Catnic (Corus UK), South Wales Police, Wrexham County Borough Council and GreenThumb Ltd scooped Canmol trophies at the event, now in its second year.
Launched in July 2008, Canmol was created by The Chartered Institute of Marketing to celebrate and promote excellence in the marketing industry in Wales and to recognise the crème de la crème of marketing practitioners.
Thirteen marketing experts* judged the entries under the Chairmanship of Jonathan Deacon, Newport Business School and Chair of the Wales Board of The Institute, and with no categories or boundaries, the judges were looking for innovative marketers demonstrating integrated campaigns and brilliant results.
Jonathan Deacon said: “Following the success of the first Canmol Awards, we had high expectations for Canmol 2009, and we were not disappointed. There was a tremendous buzz around the awards and an immense sense of pride from the 15 shortlisted companies. It was a very difficult task selecting the winners from a wealth of excellent campaigns, however five entries stood out in particular for their creative, innovative and strategic thinking, as well as their ability to achieve brilliant results often with reduced budgets.”
Caerphilly based Catnic (Corus UK), a leading brand in the building products sector, stood out for the re-launch of its lintel range, while north Wales based lawn care company, GreenThumb Ltd, captured the judges imaginations with its cartoon advertising campaign. Narberth based water manufacturer, Princes Gate Spring Water, impressed judges with its rebrand to appeal to 25 to 34 year old women, while South Wales Police’s campaign to raise awareness of its citizen focused policing approach demonstrated brilliant results and Wrexham County Borough Council scooped an award for its Happy Days library promotion campaign.
Richard Houdmont, Director for Wales of The Chartered Institute of Marketing, commented: “We were delighted by the success of the first Canmol Awards in 2008, and now in their second year they have continued to grow, generating an incredibly high standard of entries and gaining support from marketing professionals across Wales. Proving that Wales is rich in creative and marketing talent and you don’t need a big budget or a huge team to get results.
“This year’s Canmol Awards have set the standard for marketing professionals, while celebrating excellence within the marketing industry and we hope these awards will help spread best practice amongst practitioners in Wales.”
The headline sponsor of the event was the University of Wales, Newport. Other sponsors included Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg/ The Welsh Language Board.
Follow @Canmol on Twitter for news and pictures from Canmol 2009.
Winners:
GreenThumb Ltd captured the judges’ imaginations with its innovative cartoon advertising campaign. As the UK’s largest lawn care company, GreenThumb treats the lawn of almost 400,000 customers through its network of 193 franchised outlets.
In order to stay ahead of the competition, a new approach to marketing was created; bringing to life a series of lawn related fictional characters in computer generated 3D rendered animation. The ‘nasty lawn bug’, ‘big bully weed’, ‘moss monster’ and ‘lawn hero’ were created to engage with consumers, whilst also educating and entertaining.
David Collison, Marketing Manager at GreenThumb Ltd, said: “We are thrilled to have been recognised by Canmol: Wales Marketing Awards for our hard work over the past 12 months. We needed a way to ensure that stood out from our competitors and continued to be viewed as different. And despite the economic climate GreenThumb has still grown by 20% this year and we are on target for reaching our 400,000th customer by the end of the year.
“We planned and devised a new and innovative marketing strategy that would appeal not only to our franchisees, but more importantly to the millions of homeowners who love their lawns. We introduced a style of advertising that was striking, informative, and unique to GreenThumb- our cartoon animations. The opportunities were endless and our customers engaged.”
Wrexham County Borough Council scooped an award for its Happy Days library promotion campaign on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government. The campaign encouraged people to take a fresh look at their library and demonstrated the ways that libraries can make people happy, resulting in an all Wales ‘Top 10’ list.
The campaign was aimed at existing and potential library users in public libraries and at students in further and higher education institutions. The overall objectives were to increase visitor figures and to help shift public perception about the library brand. A variety of marketing techniques were used to highlight the benefits of using the library and provide a call to action to visit the library.
Jane Purdie, Marketing Project Officer for the Libraries for Life programme based at Wrexham County Borough Council, said: “The Happy Days campaign really demonstrated how libraries can have a positive effect on people’s lives. It appealed to all ages and helped shift public perceptions of the library brand. The promotional materials and messages have continued to be used after the campaign and the legacy of the stories and survey results will be of use for future campaigns.”
Princes Gate Spring Water impressed the judges with its re-brand to increase appeal to 25 to 34 year old women, the dominant consumer of bottled water. The company underwent a complete overhaul, to include a re-brand, a portfolio revision, and the launch of an innovative marketing strategy.
Nicola Merriman, Marketing Manager for Princes Gate Spring Water, said: “We’re delighted to have won a Canmol Award, as it’s such a prestigious awards ceremony. It has been a phenomenal time for Princes Gate Spring Water, as the brand has gone from strength to strength - largely as a result of the well received re-launch. We are testimony to the fact that you don’t have to operate within National or Multi-National organisations to build strong brands and execute innovative - not to mention cost-effective - marketing campaigns.”
Catnic stood out for the re-launch of its lintel range, which integrated both quantitative and qualitative methods to understand the requirements of its audience groups and target communications to meet them. The changes proved to be highly successful in the market place with literature requests increasing across the board by between 6% for a hard copy of the Lintel Product Selector to over 40% for the Trade Price List downloads.
Barry Jenkins, Marketing Manager at Catnic, said: “Winning a Canmol Award is an excellent opportunity to showcase the success of our marketing campaign and to boost Catnic’s company profile. It is testament to the team that have worked hard to uphold the long tradition of marketing genius that has seen Catnic maintain the status of market leaders for more than 40 years.”
South Wales Police impressed the judges for raising awareness of its citizen focused policing approach. This type of service change requires a new type of officer that is empowered to put customers first and process second. The main objective was to increase the awareness and understanding of officers on customer-focused approaches to service delivery, through the design and delivery of a training and engagement seminar.
James Harper, Marketing Officer at South Wales Police, said on behalf of the delivery team: “We wanted a new type of police officer that put customers first and process second and therefore needed a new type of training product for South Wales Police. The ‘Citizen Focus Engagement Seminars’ for front line officers built up awareness on customer focused approaches to service delivery and provided them with new skills on marketing and communication. It was all about understanding our staff better and getting them directly involved in improving service. This was achieved through unleashing their potential with leadership training and empowering them to be brand ambassadors.”