ADMA Awards Making Waves

Not many people know this, but ADMA is far and away the largest marketing industry association in Australia. Historically, perhaps unfairly, seen as the less sexy side of marketing discipline, the industry has really hit its straps in recent years and the recent ADMA Awards highlighted how far the organisation has come. A black tie affair on the Pyrmont wharves in Sydney attracted over 800 of the industry's guns from both agency and client-side, and the awarded work was bloody inspiring. Make sure you check out the website to get a look at the winners. There's perhaps not as much performance/effectiveness information as I would like - participating companies are usually (understandably) pretty cagy about campaign financial data so only the judges get to see the full breakdown, but we know effectiveness is one of the main criteria for many of the award categories.

Clemenger Proximity scooped the Grand Prix with their 'salad made of plate' (catch mUmbrella's article with the full award list here) along with around a dozen other awards to make them a clear winner with daylight second.

All the winning campaigns were notable for the fact they weren't stereotypically DM campaigns, but were great combinations of creative strategy and multichannel execution. Top marks for innovation should go to Tequila CD Russ Tucker and the TBWA gang for their augmented reality campaign for Nissan. Amazing stuff - check it out here.

Closer to home,  congrats to Lauren Halliday from SA Lotteries for picking up the state Young Direct Marketer of the Year award. I also wrapped up this semester's ADMA Digital Marketing certificate course with the exam on Wednesday night - hopefully one of our graduates will pick up a gong or two in years to come. Already looking forward to next year.