PSI - Campaign of the Year 2009
Plenty of innovations at the PSI Trade Fair and many winners at PSI Night: in connection with the Leading European Trade Fair for Advertising Specialities from 13 to 15 January in Düsseldorf, the event held on the first night of the trade fair was the scene for the award ceremony of this year’s PSI – Campaign of the Year. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Promotional Product Service Institute (PSI), which counts approximately 7.000 promotional products distributors and manufacturers from all over Europe as its members, PSI founder Walter Jung presented the prizes in person, watched by many international colleagues from the industry.
The jury did not take long to agree on the winner: “A consistent, broadly based campaign, with a sophisticated design developed specifically to reach the young target group.“ trendidee with its campaign “Lebe Deinen Traum (Live your dream)!” was the happy winner of the first prize. The winning campaign targets young hairdressers in training and aims at increasing awareness of the importance of skin protection: they were given a package containing a shirt with the lettering “I’m wearing gloves“, as well as sample gloves and a voucher for another 30 gloves.
Second came Forum Werbegeschenke GmbH with their campaign “Bist Du Kuli narrisch (Mad about cooking)!?” The jury reasoned: “A campaign with great stopping power, a broad communicative basis and good networking, as well as high brand recognition value.“ The entry is a VIP invitation to the Austrian promotional products trade fair “Markeding“, consisting of a gift box containing a visitor’s pass and a small bottle of oil that could be exchanged for a ready meal at the trade fair.
The third prize went to elasto form KG with its entry “Friends of South Africa“. The jury said: “A charity idea with great commitment which is campaign-worthy and based on an innovative notion of partnership.” The idea for the year of the Football World Cup: companies buy footballs which are distributed among the population in South Africa. Video messages of the footballs being distributed are then sent back to the respective companies. All proceeds from the sale will also go to South Africa.
It is only through a combination with promotional products that many agencies achieve the desired effect for their clients. These campaigns were focussed on for the first time at PSI 2009 with an award presentation – for the PSI - Campaign of the Year. PSI Managing Director Michael Freter explains: “With this award we want to honour the numerous and very innovative advertising campaigns using promotional products. The focus is not on the promotional product itself but on its integration into marketing practice. The award presentation emphasizes the significance of promotional products in the marketing mix.” A successful concept, as the large number of entries demonstrated. Once more, the competition was open to distributors of promotional products, suppliers, as well as agencies and clients who integrated a promotional product into a campaign. Not an easy task, therefore, for the jury which again included the chief editors of the media partners PSI Journal, TVP and dedica.
