Launch has been named the best small digital advertising agency in Europe at an award ceremony in Barcelona last night, May 26.
The paid media agency was recognised as the Best Small PPC Agency (under 25 employees) in Europe, and also won Best Use of Search in the B2B category for its work to drive global revenue for an ISO provider based in the UK.
The announcement was made at the European Search Awards, an annual event which rewards and celebrates the very best companies and people working in digital marketing across the continent.
The judges praised Launch for its ‘team-centric’ approach to its work, ensuring that the workload of their employees was carefully managed while also guaranteeing that their ambitious objectives were delivered for its clients.
Jaye Cowle, Founder of Launch was delighted with the awards; “Our mission is to be the happiest agency in the UK. I believe that happy people do great work, regardless of where you work or what you do. So, I am absolutely thrilled that the judges recognised this and saw how it is possible to deliver on challenging goals and have a happy work-life balance.”
Launch has offices in Bristol and Exeter and is currently recruiting.
Integrated marketing communications agency, McCann Bristol – part of McCann Central – has been awarded CPD Gold by the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) for its outstanding professional development opportunities over the last 12 months.
The IPA CPD Gold scheme recognises and rewards agencies who demonstrate a genuine culture of learning, bettering the professionalism, development and reputation of the industry enhancing clients’ brands and agencies’ worth as a result.
Dean Lovett, CEO at McCann Central said: “This is a huge accolade for us. Building a strong learning culture that supports real business objectives, as well as supporting the professional and personal development of our employees is a priority for us.
“Thanks to our people, we have overcome the challenges of the last two years and the business is in a very strong position. Through this continued focus on our people, and their place within our business, we’ve been able to further improve the CPD opportunities available to them – such as our annual Day for Meaning where employees come together to create plans to improve conscious inclusion across our offices and enhance company culture.”
McCann Central is one of just 35 agencies UK-wide to receive the CPD Gold accreditation. Those applying for the award must demonstrate that CPD lies at the heart of their business, building a strong learning culture, in support of real business objectives and the development of employees professionally and personally.
Dean added: “This is also an award for all employees. Their commitment to learning as well as personal and professional development through a very challenging period, is really impressive.”
McCann Bristol provides integrated communications and award-winning creative across a range of best-in-class services including: strategy, research and planning, design and creative, broadcast, digital, PR and social, internal comms and employee engagement, activation and media buying.
We were over the moon to pick up five awards at this month’s national Data and Marketing Association (DMA) Awards. We took the top spot in the ‘Travel and Leisure’ category for Cunard: Navigating the Route to Recovery campaign, and secured further wins in Marketing Automation, Data Storytelling, Customer Journey and Integrated Campaign categories with McDonald’s campaigns.
At the core of the GOLD-winning Cunard campaign was giving Cunard customers ‘permission to daydream’. Delivered through their letterbox was an ‘Invitation to Exploration’. Gilt-edged, on heavy stock, and worthy of a place at the Captain’s Table – this beautiful piece inspired guests to look ahead with positivity. It reminded them of the reasons they loved to travel with Cunard and encouraged them to start dreaming about their next voyage. Over £2m incremental revenue was attributed to the campaign, resulting in a 25:1 ROI.
The SILVER winner in Best Customer Journey and SILVER winner in Best Use of Marketing Automation was our Feel-Good Customer Journeys campaign. We were briefed to establish the My McDonald’s app as the customer’s channel of choice. To inspire and incentivise people to come back to the My McDonald’s app again and again, we used early behaviour data signals to determine customer propensity to use the app. Then, we worked to overcome inertia and reinforce frequent use with an automated nudge programme running on Adobe Campaign, which adapted in real time to customer response. ROI stands at 50:1 and growing.
BRONZE in Best Data Storytelling was our App Anniversary Programme for McDonald’s. It was developed to celebrate customers’ first year of being part of the My McDonald’s app family and show an engaged audience what they already mean to the brand, while encouraging them to try more of the menu. We celebrated each customer’s individual relationship with McDonald’s. Playful storytelling turned data into a picture of their own unique McDonald’s story and encouraged exploration of how that compares to other customers. Designed to recognise and reward, this bright, graphic thank-you note stands out in a busy inbox and generated a 14% increase in order frequency, amongst other results.
And BRONZE in Best Integrated Campaign was I’m Lovin’ It Live. Customers flocked back to McDonald’s when restaurants reopened after lockdown one. But with digital targets under pressure and another lockdown looming, we needed an activation strategy to boost adoption and retention on the My McDonald’s app and give customers a lift. As part of an all-agency team effort, including Leo Burnett, Red Consultancy and OMD, we launched I’m Lovin’ It Live – a once-in-a-decade live music event hosted via the My McDonald’s app and supported by a series of generous digital offers and moments to motivate downloads and ordering. All while bringing back the feel-good factor in the safety of customers’ homes. In response, we saw a 304% increase in app acquisition, 178% increase in app orders, and ROI of 44:1.
The five awards mark the most received in one night over our 29-year history. The DMA Awards is the annual best in class awards covering all areas of direct marketing across the UK.
James Ray, our CEO, summed up what this meant to us all: “What a fantastic result for our brilliant Armadillo team and our clients, Cunard and McDonald’s. It’s so incredibly well deserved and I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved together.”
See all of our award-winning work in full.
Bristol-based digital design and development agency, Unfold celebrated success on 14th October 2021, taking home the title of “Best Digital Design” at The SPARKies 2021. This was awarded for the transformational work they completed for their clients Sherpr.
The SPARKies is one of the year’s most hotly anticipated tech awards ceremonies in the South West. Since Managing Director, Harry Cobbold won ‘FutureSPARK’ back in 2019, Unfold has been nominated for several other categories (including ‘Tech Leader of the Year’ this year). The ceremony was held at The Showroom on Bath Road and was joint hosted by the TechSpark team and comedian Stephen Bailey (who had everyone in stitches).
Sherpr came to Unfold with two problems;
Unfold built a custom web app, admin portal and marketing site for Sherpr in just 10 weeks. This completely transformed their business. As well as automating all of the time-intensive back office tasks, Unfold also created an editable CMS through which the Sherpr team could update and manage their products without constant developer support.
As well as immediate savings in overheads, Sherpr were also able to process far more clients with their new reliable and automated booking system.
Following the work Unfold completed for them, Sherpr achieved their first ever 6-figure month and hit an annual run-rate of £1.2m.
“From beginning to end, the team at Unfold have been great to work with. Communication has been easy and any changes we needed to make during the build process were welcomed and perfectly executed.” – Andy Watson, CEO of Sherpr
Read more in-depth info on exactly how Unfold helped Sherpr achieve this remarkable step-change in their full case study.
If you have a project or digital platform you’d like advice on, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Unfold team.
Mr B & Friends has scored a hat trick of wins at this year’s Transform Europe Awards.
At the event, held on Wednesday 23rd June, the agency won Gold and Bronze awards for its work with Accsys, as well as a Young Contender award for designer Kieran Hawes. The awards recognise and celebrate the best of the best in brand strategy, development and transformation- how a company, brand or product’s visual identity, story and proposition can make an impact.
The Gold award for the ‘Best Visual Identity from the engineering or manufacturing sector’ and the Bronze award for the ‘Best rebrand of a digital property’ reflect the work that Mr B & Friends has done with Accsys over the last year for its sustainable wood product Accoya. The new positioning, branding and best-in-class website connect business and consumer customers to both the product and each other, making the decision and purchase easier and smoother than ever before.
Midweight designer Kieran was awarded Distinction in the Young Contenders category, which recognises the best up and coming creative and strategic talent in the business.
Members of the Mr B & Friends team attended the event with the client team from Accsys.
The full Accoya case study can be found here.
It was a complete surprise when AMBITIOUS was been named Best PR Agency of the Year by The Drum Recommends. This is the fourth year in a row that we’ve won, and we’re so proud that our clients have recognised our hard work and efforts.
The award we won is in the agencies under 40 staff category, and there was definitely had tough competition from other UK agencies. The Drum organises the awards to celebrate agencies and is one of a kind in the industry in how it chooses the winners. There are no entries to submit, creative to show or papers to write. Winning can only be achieved through the high regard of clients, supported by their ratings and feedback.
The Drum is a global media platform and the largest marketing website in Europe. Their Recommends database contains over 64,000 ratings left by brands, businesses, and organisations. Here you can find client feedback covering PR strategy, content planning, media relations, and social media. It has the essential ratings for performance levels – from effectiveness to value for money.
Companies searching for suppliers can understand what it is like to work with you and how you perform. The Drum Recommends is a valuable database.
Lis Anderson, Director, AMBITIOUS, said: “We’re incredibly proud of the team. It’s a real reflection on the effort and work that everyone has put in over the past 12 months.
This time last year was very different for everyone, personally and professionally. At times pretty tough. I know we asked a lot of everyone: they delivered. So for all the reasons this win feels pretty special.
We’re looking forward to an exciting year ahead, working with our valued clients, growing the business and expanding the team.”
For more information about our award-winning services, please get in touch.
It’s that time of year again! The South West Design and Digital Student (SWDDS) Awards are upon us once more, and the clock is ticking for students to enter the competition, with only 10 days left until submissions close on Friday May 14th.
The competition, hosted by us here at Proctor and Stevenson (P+S), offers final-year students studying in the South West of England and South Wales a chance to win amazing prizes for their creative work.
Up for grabs this year, is £4,000 in cash, opportunities for networking, industry exposure, a portfolio review, and a paid work placement with P+S. Not bad eh?
The awards are a chance for students to prove that they’re the best in the South West, and the next up-and-coming stars of the creative industry.
The brief, you ask? There isn’t one.
Students can enter any project – including previous university projects – as long as it falls into one of the below categories and it’s their own work. We’re looking for projects that demonstrate commercial value, meet a market, cultural, and/or social demand, and that showcase how they will be rolled out as a campaign across multiple channels.
Our three categories for this year are:
Our panel of expert judges will carefully select 10 finalists, who will be invited for 25-minute virtual interviews, where they’ll have the opportunity to present their entries, explain their thinking behind the projects and why they’re deserving of the prize, and also receive a portfolio review of their wider body of work. Last year’s projects were exceptional; you can check out the 2020 finalists’ projects here.
Out of our 10 finalists, 3 lucky winners will be selected, announced at our digital awards ceremony on June 10th.
All 3 winners will be awarded £1,000, with one crowned as our 2021 Ultimate Creative Champion, and granted an extra £3,000! Any of our 10 finalists could also be selected for a paid 3-month work placement with us here at P+S.
We pick the crème de la crème of the industry to judge our awards. Ready to meet this year’s line up?
Powered by P+S, and sponsored by Bristol-based printers Taylor Brothers, the awards were launched by our very own MD Roger Proctor, as part of his ongoing campaign to tackle how institutions approach design education.
Over the years, Rog had noticed something about design graduates leaving university: often they had exceptional talent, but no commercial experience. A big problem, when creating a commercially-viable concept that clients and customers will buy into is half the job!
Frustrated by the lack of culture and creativity funding anywhere west of London, he also wanted to do something to celebrate local talent. The South West and South Wales are bursting with creative flair, with their vibrant cities, bustling creative networks, and brimming art venues.
Plus, the awards are specifically designed to be as accessible as possible. We know a lot of students have limited free time –especially those who need to work alongside their degree – so they can choose to enter an already existing project from their course.
To make sure you don’t miss any of our updates, like our Facebook page and register your interest here. Our FAQs page is also a handy resource – and if you haven’t already, check out last year’s winners for some hints and tips.
Drop us a line at [email protected]if you have any questions, or to find out more.
Winning awards is a wonderful way to earn your business prestige and recognition within your industry. Awards are not only great for PR, but also for team morale, positioning yourselves as experts within a given field and encouraging new business consideration.
But, how do you win awards? The truth is, no matter how great your business actually is, it all comes down to your entry.
Awards entries take a lot of time and energy; something that business owners and employees are often pretty short of. They can be frustrating and long, and ultimately, that’s where we come in. We can help you craft that winning entry. At Carnsight we’ve written countless and we’ve picked up plenty of tips and tricks along the way. Today we’re going to share some of them with you. Here are 4 tips for writing a great awards entry:
Before you even begin writing your entry you need to identify which award it is you actually want to win. Scratch the surface and you’ll find there are countless different awards out there in every single sector and industry and so it’s important to find which ones are right for your business.
This takes a lot of research and usually involves a lot of whittling down, too. Awards entries take a lot of focus and so it’s not possible to enter every one in your industry. It’s important to know which awards are worth the most to your business. Which one would mean the most to you and your business to win?
At this stage, a PR can help you by thoroughly researching the awards within your industry and creating a list of suggested focuses. At Carnsight, we not only work to provide a list of relevant and exceptional award opportunities, but we ensure we understand the entry and judging processes in order to give businesses the best chance of success.
As we’ve stressed above, entering for an award is a lengthy process which requires a lot of thought. If you’re a business owner or someone who works for the business, the likelihood is you won’t have a lot of extra time to give outside of the work you already do. Taking on such a task on top of your existing responsibilities is a lot and this is another reason why getting help from a PR is a good idea.
A PR will be able to give the entry exactly the time and attention that it needs and deserves. They can focus on the project and ensure that it is completed to the best that it can be without needing too much of your time as a business. Not only this, but a PR will likely be able to complete the entry that little bit quicker, given their experience in crafting entries.
This is perhaps the biggest area in which we can help as a PR consultancy. It’s often difficult as someone who is incredibly close to the business to see the bigger picture. A PR can help you to craft a story within your entry, telling the judges exactly who you are and how you got where you are today. As PRs we are skilled at telling businesses stories and it’s something we do on a daily basis. PRs know exactly how to get under the skin of your business and how to craft an entry that’s relevant, inspiring, attention grabbing and honest.
A PR will also be able to help you give your entry that special something. With vast experience, good PRs are especially great at knowing how to make your business stand out from the rest. It’s important to know what your hook will be, what makes your business the deserving winner over the hundreds of other successful businesses that have entered?
There’s no point in writing a beautifully crafted award entry that raves about your business if you can’t back up what you say. Judges want proof of your claims and you will need case studies and value based evidence in order to validate your entry.
It’s all very well to say that your marketing campaign was an unmatched success, but can you prove that? One of the best ways to prove your business is to demonstrate its impact. What has changed for the better because of what your business was able to achieve and how has it changed? You might struggle to feature the full results but even % are better than general terms.
You can find examples of our work in the form of case studies here. Case studies are a vital part of demonstrating what you can do as a business.
To find out more about PR can help your business check out our blog post on the benefits of PR.
You can also see further examples of our coverage over on Instagram where we share new coverage every Thursday.
One of the highly recognised awards in our industry are the annual UK Search Awards.
We were nominated a few years ago we felt a little overwhelmed when we sat in a room of well known brands competing to win.
At the end of 2020 we were quietly confident that our results for selling holidays in a Pandemic with our client, Aria Resorts would be a pretty strong entry in the Best Use of Search category.
And, well we did and…. [drum roll] Won Best Use of Search! Well done Launch Online.
“The results from Launch Online have been nothing short of staggering – Launch has exceeded our already high targets, and helped us deliver record breaking results. These results were achieved during unprecedented times, but they are what the team strives to deliver every day.” Aria Resorts
Launch Online, was crowned the top agency in its class at the European Agency Awards 2020 for its work through the pandemic to support South West and UK tourism businesses.
We were delighted to have won the award for best European PPC Agency and Best PPC Campaign, specifically for our work with UK self catering business, Aria Resorts, to help guide the hospitality business through the turmoil of the pandemic and secure a vital sell-out summer season.
The European Agency Awards were held on October 22, rewarding digital, marketing and advertising agencies across Europe. The judging panel featured leading names in marketing, advertising and digital from some of Europe’s leading brands.