Far-Out Tout

Judges for CTIA's Excellence in Marketing Awards say this year's entries were among the best ever. What did the winners do right?

You work year-round on marketing campaigns and promotions to attract new subscribers, introduce services to new demographics and increase your brand recognition. Those results are good for business, but winning CTIA's annual Excellence in Marketing Award (EMA) is like winning an Oscar or a Grammy: the ultimate recognition, awarded by your peers.

Winning an "emma" isn't easy. The competition is stiff, and judges said that this year's entries were especially creative. Here's a look at some of the winning campaigns, the results they brought, what impressed the judges and some advice for winning next year.

NASCAR Sells Cellular Safety
A NASCAR driver probably is the last person you'd consider for an ad about safe driving. But that's exactly the irony BellSouth Cellular played off in its EMA-winning campaign featuring Joe Nemechek in his NASCAR gear, car and headset.

"Pairing our NASCAR driver and having him speak about safety, we really thought that drove home the message that if someone who drives at 150mph or more can talk about safety, then you should probably listen," said Wendy Clark, BellSouth Cellular director of advertising.

Although the campaign's awards include first place in the black-and-white newspaper category, Clark said that BellSouth just wanted to spread the safety message.

"Safety is key to all of us, and (we're) talking about some of the ways cellular service and phones have great opportunities for people to enhance their safety," she said.

Clark said evidence of the print and accompanying radio campaigns' effectiveness can be found in BellSouth's headset sales, which increased significantly after the Nemechek adslaunched around National Safety Week last May. Before the campaign ran, she said, there was limited awareness about headsets, where to get them and how much they cost. Clark thinks that one of the reasons that BellSouth's campaign was recognized with an EMA is because it provided a safety message creatively.

"CTIA and all the carriers have a responsibility to get the word out on safety, and advertising is one of the broadest ways we can do that," she said.

A Truly Wonderful Deal
While BellSouth Cellular collaborated with Atlanta-based West Wayne agency for its campaign, Kansas Cellular came up with its ad literally in-house: in the office of Joe Lock, Alltel director of marketing for Kansas operations.

At 170,000 subscribers, Kansas Cellular was the state's largest wireless provider, but its marketing department was, well, not so large.

"We did all of our creative, production, everything, in-house," Lock said. "We literally came up with the 'whole-world-in-your-hands' concept on my white-board in my office with two graphic designers, a couple of marketing directors and myself."

The print, radio and TV spots were created to educate the public about Kansas Cellular's launch of digital PCS. The winning print ad had a high-tech look, incorporating a background of circuit boards. It featured the slogan, "It's power, it's freedom, it's the entire world in your hands," and showed two hands with a globe superimposed in them and a Nokia digital phone.

The campaign targeted competitors' customers and the general population in Kansas Cellular's 15-RSA coverage area. It began in March 1999 and exceeded all expectations.

"It was amazing how the call volume to our call center increased," Lock said. "We ended up with approximately 10,000 new customers in 90 days."

In September 1999, Alltel acquired Kansas Cellular and kicked off the holidays with a radio campaign that won a second-place EMA. It featured a Jimmy Stewart impressionist in a take-off of "It's a Wonderful Life." The spot, called "It's a Wonderful Deal," featured a George Bailey who can't tell the difference between Alltel and its competitors. The angel Clarence shows him a grim picture of life without the provider. "Clarence, you've gotta bring back Alltel!" George wails. With Alltel, the spot said, George gets "a wonderful deal — free double minutes for life, free activation, long distance and more." Lock said that subscribers got double minutes for life for a 60-day period as part of the promotion.

"When we converted from Kansas Cellular to Alltel, we were worried because Kansas Cellular had such strong brand equity," Lock said. "We had been marketing for years as 'your home-grown Kansas customers, Kansas-owned, Kansas-proud,' so we had a very loyal customer base. We wanted to make sure we were able to come out with a bang and have an effective promotion."

Winning Strategies
The 1999 EMA judges had perhaps the most difficult job: selecting winners from among so many exceptional entries.

Most judges agreed that this year's entries were higher caliber compared to last year's. One who judged the best overall category said it took her 21/2 hours because of the entries' quantity and quality.

"The difference between first and second place was what really sticks with you, delivers the message clearly and also is entertaining," she said.

Effective campaigns, one TV-spot judge said, have consistent themes, grab attention and deliver a powerful message.

A radio-category judge looked for ads that taught him something, entertained him and made him want to buy the product or service. Next year's competitors, listen up: "Humor not only made it more interesting to listen to, but also made the ad more memorable," he said. "Humorous ads are the most difficult to pull off, but the good humorous ads definitely scored higher."

Another radio judge said the ads that appealed to him were those that creatively communicated the benefits of cellular technology without losing focus.

"Too many ads just read off a list of benefits," he said. "The information was there, but the execution was so generic that it had no impact. They could have been talking about banks or car dealers."

For one judge in the best-overall category, one impressive campaign was U.S. Cellular's honorable-mention campaign featuring farmers using wireless phones.

"It equated the cell phone to a piece of equipment like a tractor," she said. "I thought that was such well-done, targeted advertising that showed an understanding of the audience and their needs and a way to make something very appealing to them."

For service providers, part of the EMA's appeal is that it provides a forum in which they can receive praise from the industry.

"Obviously, it's great to get recognition, but I think it's particularly important to get recognition from your industry," said BellSouth's Clark. "It's a nice indication that you're doing some things well."

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AD Advice

What makes for effective advertising? Here's one EMA judge's tips:

• Get the subject's attention with a valuable and relevant message.
• Focus more on benefits to the prospect and less on the product's features.
• Make the piece both easy to skim but with enough details to suit the careful consumer.
• Make a compelling offer.
• Ensure that there's a call to action in an individual, 1-to-1 tone.