With the Planning Awards launch just around the corner we look back at some of the best winners from 2018.
It’s almost time to get your entries together for the 2019 Planning Awards, the only opportunity in the UK to celebrate the best ad campaigns run in news brands, so we take a look below at some of our favourite winners from last year.
Cancer Research UK: Good news happening right now
Cancer Research and MediaCom took home the Chair’s Award last year for their brilliant content partnership with Reach Solutions. Cancer and good news and two terms that are never seen toether and so CRUK wanted to make a change by celebrating the good news stories and small wins in the lives of cancer patients.
A month-long editorial partnership with Reach Solutions focused on ‘good news happening right now’ via the Daily Mirror, Daily Record and 15 regional titles.
The campaign succeeded in changing people’s perceptions of cancer with 85% feeling more positive about CRUK, 83% more optimistic about the outlook for cancer patients and 81% left feeling that their donations would make a difference.
BMW – Mini 1499GT: The World’s Fastest Car Launch
The most successful campaign at last year’s awards with BMW and Wavemaker taking awards for both best newspaper campaign and best use of insight.
The aim of the campaign was to increase test drives and sales of the new model by creating a sense of scarcity and urgency among potential buyers. In reference to the model number, people were given just 1,499 minutes for test drives and there were only 1,499 vehicles for sale.
On the day of the activity, searches for MINI 1499GT increased by 1136% and the Metro app generated over 4,800 click-throughs. Overall, dealerships experienced the strongest flow of quality test drives since 2001
KFC: The Great Chicken Crisis
Possibly the most famous campaign from 2018 was KFC’s now notorious campaign in response to a major supply chain issue forcing the temporary closure of hundreds of stores around the country. Using news brands to send out it’s apology to the public it was a standout winner as the best topical campaign.
Having averted a crisis, the brand was praised for facing up to the issue, with 733 articles dedicated to KFC ‘FCK’. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive and KFC enjoyed a marked increase in its trustworthy measure following the campaign.
