Why is the Performance Marketing Awards such an important event in the industry calendar year?
Keith Price: The PMAs tough to win! Each category is hotly contested and, as a result, winning an accolade feels like it means something. That’s not always the case for industry awards and is one of the reasons why they’re held in such high regard by both clients and suppliers.
From your experiences, what qualities make an award-winning campaign?
KP: Results are an important barometer of success for any away, but they’re even more significance for a performance award. Demonstrating that a campaign has made a tangible and positive impact on a clients’ business is therefore critical for an award-winning campaign.
Other great attributes, in our opinion, are campaigns that challenge existing methods and embrace new ideas or technologies. There isn’t just one way to achieve a target, so creativity is a great asset for any entry.
Tell us about winning the Best Lead Generation Campaign award?
KP: It was a proud moment. We’d been nominated the year before for a different campaign but felt our campaign on behalf of Ford, working with media partners Mindshare and GTB, was worthy of being entered. Knowing that it was chosen as the year’s best is great recognition for the effort, energy and creativity of everyone involved.
What challenges did you face in your campaign and how did you overcome them?
KP: The biggest challenge was time. Ford had tasked its media agencies with supporting an ambitious year-end sales target, which meant it needed a customer acquisition partner that could deliver almost immediately. That Ford had steered away from lead gen for a number of years also meant that we had to demonstrate that it was a viable and profitable channel for the brand to use. We focused our energy on transparency, convenience, quality and volume so that every aspect of the campaign would meet the needs of Ford and its media agencies.
Has anything changed for your company since winning the award?
KP: Our PMA-winning case study is now helping us demonstrate the value of the service to other potential clients, which is good for the industry as well as our continued growth.