Calf food campaign a winner

By SIMON HENDERY

A little-known dairy product has proven that marketing success need not be about high profiles, mass appeal or glamour.

Agricultural business NRM won the the supreme award at the annual Marketing Magazine Marketing Awards.

The Business to Business Award was given for a campaign that resurrected the fortunes of NRM's Denkavit Whey calf milk replacement product.

Dairy mergers in 2001 put control of calf milk replacement manufacture and a huge proportion of distribution into the hands of NRM's main competitor, Fonterra.

But marketers at the award dinner were told that faced with this challenge, NRM reinvented its product, approach and, ultimately, the entire product category.

The end result was a resounding success, with a newly formulated product, made overseas, and target-marketed again, staking its claim for market leadership.

Award judges said the campaign was an example of brave marketing where information, education and authority had won over the market.

Teen cancer charity CanTeen won the Charity/Fundraising/Non-Profit category for its Bandanna Week initiative, which is now in its sixth year but has been refreshed and refocused through a strategic partnership with ermarket group Foodstuffs.

CanTeen was able to triple bandanna sales from the previous year to raise more than $1 million.

The Fast Moving Consumer Goods category was won by Frucor Beverages for the launch and development of its h2go flavoured water range, which judges described as a smart campaign.

The Elle Macpherson Intimates lingerie range relaunch won the Durables award for a campaign aimed at moving the brand away from the woman behind the name.

The judges said the brand had been moved away from a reliance on personality to focus on a key element of its appeal - luxury and intimacy. .

A campaign to relaunch BankDirect won the Consumer Services category and was described by the judges as simple and direct.

Vodafone general manager, company communications and sponsorship, Lynley Kirk-Smith, was named marketer of the year.

Author, teacher and marketing consultant Tom Agee was inducted into the New Zealand Marketing Hall of Fame at the awards.

Marketing Magazine Marketing Awards