Scottish Media Awards 2007: Results

Marie Morton was judged to be the unanimous winner as salesperson of the year. Achieving six per cent over target is enviable in difficult trading periods but she was judged to have done it with professionalism and good customer service.

Alison Conway won newcomer of the year for her achievements in targets and attitude, and impressed the judges with her ideas for new revenue generators despite being only ten months in the job.

But it was the consistent way that the Daily Record & Sunday Mail kept its brands front of mind that impressed the judges. By extending the brand to its recruitment show, Hot Jobs (which won Product Launch of the Year), it delivered a new revenue stream which has already estimated to have increased by over 50 per cent for its second year.

Marketing Campaign of the Year

Daily Record and Sunday Mail, Kits for Kids

The ‘Kits for Kids’ campaign, run by the Daily Record and Sunday Mail aimed to raise awareness of the issues and importance of the future of youth football in Scotland. The campaign was seen as a positive initiative by both the Daily Record and Sunday Mail’s core readership. Readers were adopting local teams and sending in their tokens and encouraged communities to engage in the project.

Registered teams were encouraged to market the campaign using an online promotion alongside paper activity, local community engagement and retail point of sale. The website was designed specifically for the campaign and readers were directed to the site to register, order kit, and submit news and details which were directly accessed by the newspaper’s marketing staff. The site was also used to email all the registered teams and inform them of bonus token days.

The campaign not only engaged the paper’s core readership and increased loyalty, it also drove frequency of purchase and additional sales, with 280,000 extra sales over the eight week campaign, while Scottish youth football benefited from a £500,000 investment.

As a result, the campaign saw 1600 teams apply to enter with the top 600 selected on a ‘first come, first serve’ basis. Out of those 600 teams, 531 teams completed the eight week campaign receiving kit and training gear worth over £500,000.

Kits for Kids team kits have been distributed as far as Ecuador and South America, promoting the newspaper brands to a global market,

Sales Team of the Year

News International

There were several contenders for the Sales Team of the Year accolade, with the judges considering all sales teams that had entered the awards for the title.

News International scooped two high profile awards on the night; National Newspaper Display Team of the Year and National Newspaper Classified Team of the Year.

Despite being victorious in the battle for circulation dominance over the Daily Record, the Scottish Sun continued unabated.

With the smallest national newspaper display sales team in the country, the judges felt that the Scottish Sun proved it had achieved on all three fronts; revenue, yield and volume. The Classified Team award went to the Scottish Sun for its Sun Motors’ team. With revenue from the supplement accounting for 55 per cent of the newspaper’s classified revenues, the team’s ability to extend the brand by tying into events such as the Motorfair at Knockhill for which it produced a 16 page supplement, it showed that it thought outside the main supplement. Launching a regular feature called Biker’s Page, it secured Ducati as a launch sponsor. Revenue for the team is up 20 per cent on last year.

Two of its team were shortlisted for newcomer of the year, showing the paper is investing in its sales people and indeed Paul McMahon was commended in the category.

Pitch of the Year and Chairman’s Award

Newsquest – Evening Times’

‘Get Glasgow Reading’

The Evening Times went head to head with sister publication The Herald’s Taggarts Publication and also up against CBS Outdoor’s London City Airport/Bank of Scotland campaign and Daily Record & Sunday Mail’s Seven Days/Morrison’s Supermarket promotion.

In the end, the Times’ campaign won. ‘Get Glasgow Reading’ was an initiative launched with the backing of Black and Lizars, Waterstone’s and Glasgow City Council. Targeting a C1, C2 and D audience, the challenge for the paper was to ensure all partners had branding and enjoyed support from readers. In the seven week campaign period, 50,000 packs designed to promote reading were distributed and over 10,000 packs were redeemed at Glasgow’s libraries. The platform allowed Waterstone’s and Black and Lizars to promote their services, as leaflets could be redeemed in the stores for a free prize draw.

The fact that the campaign is to run for a further two years won the chairman’s vote, with Mark Dodson of GMG, awarding it the Chairman’s Award.

Radio Sales Team of the Year

Real Radio

A highly competitive category, Real Radio won over impressive reports from Northsound Radio, Radio Clyde and Talk 107. The judges felt that Real Radio had shown that its client handling skills and proactive approach to business put it head and shoulders above the rest.

Interactive sales had been a particular area of growth for the station, with the sales team endeavouring to take clients’ marketing messages ‘beyond the break’.

In the last twelve months, the sales team has seen year on year growth in sponsorship and promotions sales; commercial production sales; agency sales and airtime sales. Its interactive revenue growth increased threefold over the year and sponsorships from Sainsbury’s, Arnold Clark and Scottish Gas were extended.

Outdoor Sales Team of the Year

CBS Outdoor

CBS Outdoor’s biggest challenge was managing the rebrand from Viacom Outdoor. The rebrand has had a huge effect on the business in the UK as a whole and has enabled the company to reinforce its new position in a changing marketplace. CBS Scotland accounts for 28 per cent of outdoor spend from Scottish agencies. In the first quarter of 2007, the team’s sales were up 147 per cent in comparison to 86 per cent for the UK sales team. Year on year, CBS Scotland is up 66 per cent compared to 42 per cent for the UK team.

Innovative solutions for clients – such as Edinburgh Castle’s ‘stained glass’ bus advert – showed that it was the deserving winner of the accolade.

RESULTS – SCOTTISH MEDIA AWARDS JUDGING

SALES TEAM OF THE YEAR

News International

CHAIRMAN’S AWARD

Newsquest (Get Glasgow Reading)

GRAND PRIX –

MEDIA COMPANY OF THE YEAR

Daily Record & Sunday Mail

SALES PERSON OF THE YEAR

Marie Morton

Daily Record & Sunday Mail

AWARD

Paul McMahon

News International

COMMENDATION

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR

Alison Conway

Daily Record & Sunday Mail

AWARD

NATIONAL NEWSPAPER DISPLAY

TEAM OF THE YEAR

News International

The Scottish Sun

AWARD

NATIONAL NEWSPAPER CLASSFIED TEAM OF THE YEAR

News International

The Scottish Sun - Sun Motors

AWARD

LOCAL NEWSPAPER SALES TEAM

OF THE YEAR

Scottish Universal Newspapers

Agency Sales Team

AWARD

FREE NEWSPAPER SALES TEAM

OF THE YEAR

Daily Record & Sunday Mail - Metro

AWARD

RADIO SALES TEAM OF THE YEAR

Real Radio

AWARD

OUTDOOR SALES TEAM OF THE YEAR

CBS Outdoor

AWARD

INDEPENDENT SALES TEAM OF THE YEAR

Mediaforce

AWARD

MAGAZINE SALES TEAM OF THE YEAR

Daily Record & Sunday Mail

Scottish Business Insider

AWARD

ON-LINE SALES TEAM OF THE YEAR

Daily Record & Sunday Mail

Scotcareers

AWARD

SPONSORSHIP AND PROMOTION SALES TEAM OF THE YEAR

Daily Record & Sunday Mail

AWARD

PITCH OF THE YEAR

Newsquest (Herald & Times)

Evening Times

Get Glasgow Reading

AWARD

PRODUCT LAUNCH OF THE YEAR

Daily Record & Sunday Mail

Hot Jobs – The Daily Record Recruitment & Training Show

AWARD

Newsquest (Herald & Times)

The Citizen’s Guide within

the Evening Times

COMMENDATION

MARKETING CAMPAIGN

OF THE YEAR

The Scotsman Publications

Edinburgh Evening News

COMMENDATION

Daily Record & Sunday Mail zzz

Kits for Kids

AWARD

BEST MEDIA WEBSITE

No AWARD

MARKETING TEAM OF THE YEAR

Newsquest (Herald & Times)

AWARD