Starcom NZ Takes Out Best in Show At CAANZ

Starcom NZ Takes Out Best in Show At The 2008 CAANZ Media Awards

Starcom NZ walked away with the much sought after Best in Show Award at the 2008 CAANZ Media Awards for its outstanding work over the past five years on the New Zealand Army’s recruitment campaign.

Held tonight at Auckland’s SKYCITY Convention Centre, the CAANZ Media Awards acknowledge and reward the best strategic insights in the media industry.

Winner of the supreme award, Starcom NZ’s work to help the army secure the best quality recruits was recognised by judges as an undoubted leader in this year’s awards. Also winner of Best Long Term Strategic Campaign, Starcom NZ demonstrated how it was able to evolve the media strategy to meet the diversifying needs of the army and its target audience over time.

“Starcom NZ’s entry displayed a very good understanding of the target audiences. It used media in innovative ways to engage with prospective recruits to deliver an extremely successful campaign in a challenging environment,” said the judges.

Media Agency of the Year was awarded to OMD New Zealand in recognition of it facing and overcoming some major challenges in the past year. OMD New Zealand succeeded in delivering some great results – financially, for clients and for staff – while negotiating its way through a merger and working through international alignment of some key clients.

The Media Brand of the Year award went to Fairfax Media for a second year in a row. Fairfax Media has enjoyed significant revenue growth in the past year, supported by strong readership and engagement results across its three core platforms of newspaper, magazine and online. Fairfax Media demonstrated its prowess in being an innovative, dynamic and visionary organisation making it a worthy recipient of this award.

The Excellence Award was awarded to Chris Riley, Director of OMD Digital – a standalone business unit within OMD New Zealand’s stable – for his leadership and vision in the new media sector. A well respected and committed proponent of digital media since returning from the UK four years ago, he has certainly blazed a trail in this area.

This year’s CAANZ Media Awards drew 127 entries, with judges commenting that the calibre of entries was relatively high as almost half of those submitted made it through to being a finalist.

The final round of judging resulted in 10 gold and 14 silvers being awarded. The full list of winners is as follows.

Gold Awards:
• Best in Show Starcom NZ, New Zealand Army,
New Zealand Army Recruitment

• Media Agency of the Year OMD New Zealand

• Media Brand of the Year Fairfax Media

• Excellence Award Chris Riley, Director, OMD Digital

For case studies of winning gold campaigns visit www.caanz.co.nz

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