This week we're recognizing the contributions of the more than 200 professionals worldwide who participated in the judging process of The 2011 (8th annual) International Business Awards.  We're already recognized the preliminary judges and the PR awards category judges.  And today we honor the contribution of the final judging committee for the marketing awards categories.

Members of the marketing awards judging committee this year included:

Sanga Bunchongprasert, Director, Nielsen Thailand, Bangkok, Thailand
Chaiyod Chirabowornkul, Senior VP - Head of Distribution Division, Total Access Communication, PLC, Bangkok, Thailand
Dr. Rojanasak Chomvilailuk, University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, Bangkok, Thailand
Waraporn Kulsawatpakdee, Managing Director, Integrated Communication Co., Ltd., Bangkok, Thailand
Montira Limpanarom, Executive Director, Sony Music Entertainment Operating (Thailand) Co., Ltd., Klongton, Thailand
Somporn Mauthorn, General Manager, Spicy H Co., Ltd., Bangkok, Thailand
Teeraphan Totachawattana, Senior Managing Director, Dentsu (Thailand) Ltd., Bangkok, Thailand

The committee was chaired and formed by Praphan Phornthanavarsit, Chief Operating Officer, Thai Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd., Samutprakarn, Thailand

The average scores of Praphan and his committee determined this year's Stevie Award winners in the following categories:

• Marketing Department of the Year
• Marketing Team of the Year
• Marketing Executive of the Year
• Marketing Campaign of the Year for a Product
• Marketing Campaign of the Year for a Service

Among the marketing award winners in this year's IBAs are Accenture, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, Emirates NBD, Finansbank A.S., and Jeju Free International City Development Center.  See the full list here.

What do you think of this year's IBA marketing awards judging panel and their choices?

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Ay Ay Ay, Me Gusta!
That’s what they’re saying in Turkey about Efes Beer Group’s Gusta brand after
an innovative marketing campaign spurred a major boost in awareness and sales.

Obstacles: Market and Societal Forces
Turkey’s beer sector is relatively young, and is dominated by Efes Beer Group, a subsidiary of the Turkish conglomerate, Andolu Group.

Efes had a major challenge to grow sales of its Gusta brand in 2009.  There is a ban on advertising alcoholic beverages in Turkey, and the increasing influence of the country’s religious right added social pressures.  At the same time, with the global economic downturn, unemployment in Turkey was increasing and consumers were tightening their belts.

Two-step Marketing Strategy
The Gusta brand managers at Efes responded by devising an innovative marketing campaign targeting young urban consumers and aimed at getting them involved with the product. The highlights of the campaign were:
• Gusta Map: a web-based involvement program
• Gusta Expert: an on-site sampling program

Objectives
The overall aim of the Gusta marketing strategy was to increase sales by winning customers in a social way through brand experience and product sampling. Further objectives were to increase brand awareness, to strengthen the brand image, and to reach new consumers for the Gusta and Gusta Dark beers.

There was some risk to this marketing strategy in a society that discourages young people from mingling in bars. To overcome this, the two-step marketing program first involved people via their computers, and then in person, facilitated by wholesome, young—but not too young—women who were the hosts of the program, delivering the brand promise: Gusta!

Gusta Map
First, Efes created Gusta Map, an online social networking platform designed
to appeal to web-savvy young people. As its name implies, Gusta Map was a site to share experiences, music, recommendations—and to find real-time locations where Gusta was served and rated by other Gusta Map users.

Gusta Expert
To make the experience real, the Gusta Expert program recruited and trained Gusta girls who were placed in selected restaurant and bar outlets. They worked as servers and invited customers to try Gusta. They also recommended menu items that were compatible with Gusta. To reinforce the fun of Gusta, consumers were offered branded gifts, including beer mugs (33cl), coasters, trays, ice buckets, and bottle openers.

Outcome
Even Efes exclaimed “Gusta!” when the brand’s daily sales average increased by 38%.
In the first three months, Gusta Map attracted a whopping 61,000 page views, plus 300 Facebook fans and followers. The popularity of the site motivated more restaurants and bars to apply for inclusion. The launch of the Gusta Expert marketing program was so successful that it was expanded to include the Gusta Dark brand. For Gusta Expert, the initial three locations quickly mushroomed to one dozen. The program has been so popular that there are now five permanent Gusta Expert locations.

Gusta is the talk of the town in big cities across Turkey where “Ay ay ay, me
Gusta!” can be heard in the wee hours of the morning…

About Meric Aksoy
Meric Aksoy has risen through the ranks at Efes Beer Group to become Product Manager for Gusta.  He started out working on the popular Efes Pilsen brand in 1999. At that time, he served as a sales representative, advancing to sales supervisor until his promotion to his current position in 2004. He earned his B.A. in business administration from Dogu Akdeniz University in Turkey.

About Efes Beer Group
Efes Beer Group was founded in Turkey in 1969, and today consists of sixteen breweries in Turkey, Russia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Georgia, and Serbia, with headquarters in Istanbul. As the 8th most popular European brand by sales volume and the 5th largest European brewer on combined production basis, the group is ranked 12th in the world beer market.

About Anadolu Efes
Anadolu Efes Biracilik ve Malt Sanayii A.S. undertakes the beverage operations of Anadolu Endüstri Holding A.S., one of Turkey's leading conglomerates. Celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2009, Anadolu Efes, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a system of companies that produces and markets beer, malt, and soft drinks across a wide geographic area including Turkey, Russia, the CIS countries, South Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.

Want to win marketing awards like Efes did? Read our tipsheet, 10 Tips for Winning Marketing Awards in the Stevies.

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Full-service marketing agency CAWOOD launched their award-winning web site for Eugene Pediatric Associates in December 2009.  The goal in creating http://www.EugenePeds.com was to provide easy access to comprehensive pediatric advice and information 24 hours a day.
 
The site allows parents to read about a variety of topics, watch videos, access vaccine records, plan their child’s office visit, and send messages to their pediatrician or nurse through a secure system, day or night. By providing this online service, the doctor’s office receives fewer phone calls and is able to better serve patients and their families.

Written almost entirely by Dr. Pilar Bradshaw, content and videos are delivered in the same sincere, knowledgeable, heartfelt voice parents know and trust. Jeneca Jones of CAWOOD was a collaborative editor.

The web site is only one part of the media mix for Eugene Pediatrics. The CAWOOD philosophy is that the media mix should create a synergy that compliments each medium and targets the key audience.  Following are four elements used in marketing the practice:

- Web Site as Teaching Tool
The Eugene Pediatrics’ website serves as both an introduction to the practice and a teaching tool for physicians to use when they talk with parents:

- Traditional Media
In Eugene Pediatrics’ case, good, old-fashioned newspaper advertising is being used to help introduce new physicians and generates prospective patient calls;

- Local Television
Eugene Pediatrics physicians offer parents regular health tips on a local television station;

- Arena Advertising
The practice is promoted on an animated electronic sign in Matthew Knight Arena, where the University of Oregon plays basketball and where big-ticket entertainers such as Elton John perform.

“Customizing media to appeal to the demographics and psychographics of the desired audience is essential to any marketing program,” explained CAWOOD’s Jeneca Jones.

Want to be recognized for your marketing achievements as CAWOOD was?  Get our free tipsheet, 10 Tips for Winning Marketing Awards in the 2011 Stevies.

About Jeneca Jones
CAWOOD Account Executive Jeneca ones is an expert communicator with a passion for words, Jones creates original and creative copy for print advertisements, press releases, web sites, and more. A salesperson for ten years and newspaper editor for five, Jeneca knows how to listen and is always looking for ways to make emotional connections through her writing.  Her experience working with a broad spectrum of people from various social, cultural, and economic backgrounds helps CAWOOD’s clients span any divides. She provides real-world answers and big-picture perspectives tailored to meet individual needs.

About Dr. Pilar Bradshaw
Dr. Pilar Bradshaw is a board certified pediatrician and Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She began her medical practice in Eugene in 1999.
Bradshaw practices the full spectrum of pediatric medicine and sees patients from birth to young adulthood. Her special interests include the treatment of asthma, medically fragile children, and adolescent eating disorders.

About CAWOOD
Founded 30 years ago by President Liz Cawood, CAWOOD is a full-service marketing agency, which evolved from a public relations firm to a one-stop shop providing the marketing services its clients needed.  The award-winning firm specializes in branding, research, planning, Web, video, marketing, advertising, public relations and consulting.

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Brickfish is a performance-based Cost Per Engagement® (CPE®) social-media solution that has generated over 300 million consumer engagements and conversations for advertising agencies and Fortune 1000 marketing leaders like Microsoft, Estee Lauder, QVC, Dell, and Neiman Marcus. As Cofounder and CEO, Nichole Goodyear is driving unprecedented growth (up 368% since 2006).

Nichole’s achievements over the past year were recognized at the 2010 Stevie Awards for Women in Business. Brickfish took top honors in two categories: Nichole was named Best Entrepreneur (Services Business-Advertising, Marketing, and Public Relations); and Brickfish was named Technology Innovator of the Year.  Brickfish was also a Finalist for Most Innovative Company of the year (Advertising, Marketing, and Public Relations).

“It’s an honor to win these innovation awards and women in business awards,” said Nichole. “These awards validate our industry thought leadership. It’s a great nod to technology innovation for the Brickfish team. We’ve built our reputation delivering measurable social-media results for the top brands and agencies in the world.”

Under Nichole’s leadership, Brickfish has also been awarded the Red Herring Global 100 Award and an OMMA Award for Best Viral Campaign. The San Diego-based company is VC-backed (of note, since less than 5% of all women-owned businesses receive venture capital) and completed Series B fundraising in 2009.

A seven-time serial entrepreneur and tech-industry thought-leader, Nichole serves on the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Social Media Committee and chaired the creation of the IAB Social Media Buyer’s Guide, the industry’s first-ever guide to buying social-media advertising. She was recently elected to the Board of the Social Media Advertising Consortium (SMAC). Her personal mission: transform the way that advertisers and publishers measure social media from CPM (cost per thousand) to CPE® (cost per engagement).

“We all need a Nichole in our lives,” commented Karen Robinovitz, the self-designated creatrix of Purple Lab, a Brickfish client (Brickfish has powered two social-media programs for this new beauty brand).

New Mobile Capabilities
Brickfish® has just announced multiple-platform enhancements to its programs, including mobile capabilities, to meet the needs of the ever-evolving social-media space. The Brickfish platform now supports mobile submissions, mobile sharing, and QR code support for its social-media programs. In addition, the platform has tighter integration with Facebook and Twitter, offering clients additional social touch points for their Brickfish-powered programs.

These Brickfish mobile capabilities will allow consumers participating in Brickfish programs to participate via their mobile phones. In addition to being able to upload their photos, consumers will be able to engage with other programs and branded content as well as share content across the social Web. All mobile engagements will be tracked and reported through the Brickfish platform.

"At Brickfish, we continue to be at the forefront of technology and innovation in the social-media space," added Nichole. “Our recent enhancements to the platform reflect our dedication to the social-media space. We will continue to improve our platform to meet the growing needs of our clients and to provide them with measurable social-media results.”

Founded in 2005, Brickfish delivers results-driven programs for many leading consumer brands. A global enterprise, Brickfish recently released Spanish and Portuguese foreign-language support to address client needs in the U.S. and Latin America.

About Nichole Goodyear
Nichole Goodyear is CEO, Cofounder, and President of Brickfish, an award-winning technology platform that powers social-media programs for Fortune 1000 marketing leaders and advertising agencies. A seven-time serial entrepreneur, Nichole’s previous early-stage startups (many of which were acquired) included: ParCom Technologies, Jostens Learning Corp, RNB Technologies, Lightspan, and Pacific Fusion Technologies. Prior to cofounding Brickfish, Nichole cofounded Pacific Fusion Technologies, Inc., a technology leader that created Web-based portals that interfaced with payroll companies and banking systems for such renowned companies as Disney, Hughes, and several multi-billion-dollar financial institutions. As the systems architect and project leader for one of the top educational software companies in the nation, Nichole oversaw the implementation of countless innovative and groundbreaking Internet, video, and cable-modem digital media solutions. Nichole led the initial development team for Lightspan Local Connect, an ASP Internet-based communications product that successfully linked teachers, students, and their families.

About Brickfish®
Brickfish® is the performance-based Cost Per Engagement® (CPE®) social- media solution that has generated 300 million consumer engagements and conversations for advertising agencies and Fortune 1000 marketing leaders like Microsoft and Nike. Its patent-pending Viral Map® and Geo View technologies track reach, frequency, and viral activity in real time across the global Web. Brickfish is a Red Herring Global 100 winner and an OMMA Award winner for Best Viral Campaign.  For more information go to brickfish.com.

Cost Per Engagement and CPE are registered trademarks of Brickfish.

Mobile-phone giant Nokia has won the Stevie Award for Marketing Campaign of the Year for a Service in the marketing awards categories of The 2010 International Business Awards. Here we look at how a new technology can successfully support a large-scale campaign that offers consumers ways to interact with print advertising from their mobile phone.

Nokia Point & Find is a beta service that enables people on the move to access relevant information and services on the Internet simply by pointing their camera phone at real-life objects. With Nokia Point & Find, brands can create unique mobile experiences using the service’s augmented reality and location-based technology. 

Nokia Point & Find recently ran a pilot to test the feasibility of making poster advertising interactive using Nokia’s proprietary image recognition technology. The goal was to tag all out-of-home ads with links to exciting, surprising content, and to promote the new service to Nokia smartphone users.

Colchester in the U.K. was chosen as a defined city space that could be comprehensively tagged and measured throughout the two-month campaign in January/February 2010.

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