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The Drum

The Drum's New Year Honours: Brands of the year featuring Heineken, Sainsbury's, O2 and Paddy Power

By The Drum Team, Editorial

Heineken

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The Drum article

January 6, 2014 | 6 min read

It’s a new year and time once again to dish out The Drum’s New Year Honours. But who were the brands brave enough to do something different in 2013? Which agencies impressed us time and time again? And what work will we cherish for years to come? All this week we'll be revealing our picks of the year, and we start with the best brands.

Heineken

Remember when another beer brand used to say, ‘Carlsberg don’t do holidays, but if we did they’d probably be the best holidays in the world’? Well, Heineken do holidays. In 2013, the brand rolled 
out its brilliant ‘Dropped’ campaign, a mix of truly watchable branded content and a game of real-life destination roulette that invited airport passengers to trade in their tickets for a trip to a mysterious location.The activation of its newly extended Champions League sponsorship was also extremely impressive, inviting football fans to #sharethesofa and interact with football legends such as Fernando Morientes and Hernan Crespo during matches. For going beyond the traditional TV ad beloved of its peers, Heineken is probably the best beer brand in the world.

Sainsbury's

In November Sainsbury’s became the best performing major supermarket chain in the UK, a nine per cent rise in pre-tax profits putting it ahead of Tesco, Asda and Morrisons. It has reaped the benefits of putting care into its own-brand food label and tying this to an attractive advertising proposition, ‘Live well for less’, that appeals to middle-class customers who want to save money but refuse to sacrifice quality.At the time of writing, it is not yet clear which supermarket has won the Christmas ad battle, but Sainsbury’s Christmas in a Day film has garnered more than a million views on YouTube. Such was its performance in 2013, Sainsbury’s was voted by more than 900 marketers as the Marketing Society’s brand of the year.

O2

If 2013 proved anything, it was that dogs are considerably more likeable than Kevin Bacon. O2’s brave, bold and bonkers Be More Dog advertising campaign by VCCP charmed the public in a way EE’s big screen brand ambassador, who seemed
to appear with irritating regularity, failed to achieve. When O2 did turn to celebrity endorsement, it wisely picked the more contemporary figure of Lady Gaga to promote its O2 Tracks music service, and scored a coup by letting its customers listen to Gaga’s new Artpop album six days ahead of its UK release.The brand’s humorous but sincere social media feeds, and its increasingly impressive Priority Moments rewards scheme, illustrate a genuine investment in customer service and strong incentives for mobile customers to choose dog over Bacon.

Paddy Power

How could you not love a brand that employs a head of mischief? From offering bets on the next animal to contaminate burgers during the horsemeat scandal (Bigfoot 1000/1) to running a billboard on the side of Liverpool Lime Street station following the death of Margaret Thatcher and the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson emblazoned with the headline ‘Some Scouser has one wish left...’, this is a brand that knows better than most how to grab the headlines.But for all its playground humour real-time marketing, the bookie’s brilliant rainbow laces campaign, which aimed to tackle homophobia in football by encouraging professional players to wear the colourful football boot laces, showed that Paddy has genuine brand power to match its playfulness

Innovator of the year: Mondelez

All eyes were on FMCG giant Mondelez
 in 2013 as it has unleashed a string of weighty digital marketing propositions that can’t have failed to have made its rivals envious.Granted, it put more effort into PR-ing its initiatives last year, but it is clear the company has put its money where its mouth is and invested heavily in key strategic areas like mobile and social media.This has seen it funnel 10 per cent of 
its entire marketing budget to mobile and work exclusively with Google to develop m-commerce tools that can drive in-store purchases. Its road map will see it push forward in driving revenue from real-time, content-led marketing initiatives for brands including Cadbury, Oreo and Trident.

Regional brands of the year: Glasgow 2014

2014 promises to be a huge year for Scotland and in particular Glasgow, which will welcome the world – and some of its finest athletes – to the city in July as it hosts the Commonwealth Games.Organisers spent 2013 laying down the foundations for this year’s event, from securing a number of eye- catching sponsorship deals – Ford, Virgin Media, BP
– and ambassadors – Chris Hoy, Rebecca Adlington and Olympics poster girl Jess Ennis – to running a successful digitally led ticket campaign which received more than two million applications. The Glasgow 2014 team has evidently learned a lot from London 2012. 
Its task now is to deliver an event which mirrors the success of that glorious summer of sport in the capital.

Regional brands of the year: Hull City of Culture

It was once voted the worst place to live in the UK, regularly features in the Crap Towns book and was recently cited as one of ‘Britain’s Decaying Towns’ by the Economist. It came as a surprise to many, then, to see Hull awarded the UK City of Culture title for 2017 last November. Hull Council deserves great credit for swaying judges – including TV producer Phil Redmond – with an optimistic bid looking at what the city can achieve, rather than dwelling on its ignominious past. The home of the late poet Philip Larkin perhaps has more culture to offer than meets the eye, and now it will look to reap the benefits that post-industrial cities such as Glasgow and Liverpool enjoyed with similar awards. At the very least, it will hope never to be named a crap town again.

Brand of 2014? Lego

Lego has had many successful campaigns over the years, and 2013 was no exception. In addition to getting behind the 150th anniversary of the London Underground, creating a viral hit with its letter to a little boy named Luka, and taking on John Lewis with a heart-warming Christmas advert, the toy brand announced the arrival its first feature length film – Lego: The Movie.The 3D animation has attracted Hollywood talent like Will Ferrell, Liam Neeson, and Morgan Freeman amongst others, and with fans the world over bricking themselves with excitement ahead of the February 2014 launch,
we can’t wait to see what Lego comes up with over the course of 2014.

The Drum

Content created with:

Heineken

HEINEKEN is the UK’s leading cider and beer producer and the name behind iconic drinks brands such as Strongbow, Bulmers, Heineken®, Foster's, Kronenbourg 1664...

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Mondelez International

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Paddy Power

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Glasgow 2014

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Lego

Lego is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship...

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