Marketing Excellence Awards

Since joining MediaCom in May 2005, digital business director, Rory Paterson (29) has been a main driver in developing an eight-strong digital department at the media agency.

MediaCom’s digital department has been involved in a string of media firsts including in-game advertising for the Scottish Government targeting Scottish online gamers on Xbox through its ‘Losers’ campaign.

With the digital arena going through the roof, last year saw a 300 percent year-on-year increase in billings to over £4.5m with Paterson and the department being brought in to work alongside VisitScotland, RBS, The Scottish Government and International Correspondence School.

Paterson was also part of the team to collect a DADI at last year’s inaugural awards, picking up Best Online Media Strategy/Campaign for its Home Sweet Home campaign.

Nikki Cumming, brand manager, Bols, Maxxium UK

Joining in the role of Absolut activation manager in 2006, Nikki Cumming (27) was immediately tasked with the challenge of developing the launch of Absolut Raspberri through its ‘Unleashing the Raspberri’ campaign. The success of the campaign saw it shortlisted for a Promotional Excellence award last year.

Cumming has since been promoted to brand manager to work on Mount Gay Rum and Bols where she has developed close relationships with key stakeholders, including trade press, contemporary bars and the target market in the sailing community – also a passion of Cumming’s.

Since beginning the role, she has introduced through-the-line activities for the brand resulting in 16 percent year-on-year growth and record profits.

In order to grow the offtrade of the Bols brand, Cumming has overseen the ‘Bols Bubbles’ activation, training academies, built trade/press relations and gained ASDA listing.

Leroy Harris, press and marketing manager, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Leroy Harris (25) was appointed acting press and marketing manager for Edinburgh’s Festival Fringe in 2006 where he immediately began to exploit online marketing channels and brokered marketing partnerships and targeted campaigns, all the while only working with a limited marketing budget.

Even though the festival sees consumer spend of over £80m into the Scottish economy each year, the Festival, a registered charity, only has a marketing budget of just over £400,000. This means that Harris has had to be strategic in his routes to promote the festival worldwide.

Last year, festival ticket sales increased from 1.5m to 1.7m (a 10.8 percent increase) with box office sales rising by 17.9 percent.

In order to maximise his budget, Harris introduced sites promoting the world-renowned festival on flickr and Myspace, while a viral campaign increased electronic subscription by 25.9 percent to 111,000. He also brokered a new nationwide programme distribution deal in HMV stores, created a media partnership with the Metro and secured public funding to promote the festival at Tartan Week in New York.

Andy Littlewood, account director, Feather Brooksbank

Having worked in media for seven years now, Andy Littlewood (28) is already an account director at media buyer, Feather Brooksbank, where he manages a portfolio of clients worth in excess of £10m.

In 2007, Littlewood generated £2m worth of new business billings including Sage and MacDonald Hotels, while also introducing a new online strategy for FirstGroup, which lead to a return-on-spend of 20:1. He also launched the mortgaging business, mform using an online strategy.

For client, FirstScotrail, he led a project to build consumer understanding which resulted in a more efficient use of the advertising budget increasing ROI by 315 percent.

Littlewood is currently undertaking extra studies, being three quarters of the way through the CIM Professional Postgraduate Diploma. He expects to achieve Chartered Marketer status later this year.