Marketforce Agency of the Year

Marketforce has been named Agency of the Year for 2007 work by Campaign Brief. This marks the third time in five years that Marketforce has taken the Agency of the Year award. It acknowledges the hard work, passion and dedication of the entire Marketforce team.

The following extract is an adaptation from Campaign Brief (March 2008 edition):

Creative Strength

"In terms of creative, Marketforce has been Perth’s top performing agency for the past few years and had another strong year in 2007.

Award highlights of the past 12 months include dominating the Perth Advertising & Design Club Awards. The ‘Rugs’ TVC, part of a campaign by the Association for the Blind, won Gold. The ‘Wave’ press ad for Tourism WA won Silver and The West Australian Fellowship. Lotterywest Lotto ‘Paint by Numbers’ won Silver and Bronze, and ‘Special FX’, a radio spot for Scitech, also won Bronze.

Nationally, Marketforce had two finalists at the Caxton Awards for Newspaper Advertising with ‘Wave’ and ‘40x – Tree’, while ‘Special FX’ was the highlight internationally, being a finalist in the Cannes Radio Lions competition.

At these Campaign Brief awards, the agency has been dominant and this, more than any other factor, swung the Agency of the Year decision their way. Take a look at their performance – ‘Wave’ has been judged Best of Year Press Ad, Lotterywest Lotto ‘Paint by Numbers’ Best of Year Campaign, Association for the Blind clearly won Best of Year in Television Campaign and one of the spots, ‘Rugs’ won Best of Year Television Single."

Business Strength

"The Marketforce Group enjoyed its largest new business year on record, with wins totalling more than $14 million. Amongst more than 30 account giants across four divisions – Marketforce Communications, Marketforce Consulting, Marketforce exPress and Marketforce Retail – two that stand out are the City of Perth and Dale Alcock Homes.

Marketforce won back the City of Perth account in June 2007. Its first major campaign for the City has recently appeared. Dale Alcock Homes is Perth’s top builder and biggest brand name in that industry. Dale Alcock Homes settled on Marketforce after a closed review process. It’s an account that should be well suited for the range of services Marketforce offers.

In addition to new business, the agency successfully retained its contract with the Office of Road Safety and perhaps more significantly, picked up all media planning on the account as well. This was a strong endorsement of the Marketforce Consulting business offering, which pairs media / channel planning with consumer and brand planning.

As part of the worldwide pitch with parent network BBDO for Fronterra, the agency managed to defend its position with state Fronterra brands Brownes and Peters."

People

"Key appointments during the year included Richard Beards from McCann Worldwide Group (UK), Max Wilson and Andrew Sculthorpe from The West Australian and The Sunday Times respectively to Marketforce exPress, Ryan Albuino and Steve Lorimer to the main agency creative department, Tracey Bloomfield and Chris Baker to Consulting and former Channel Nine Perth general manger Mike Mitchell to head its Media Strategy offering.

At the opposite end of the staffing scale in terms of experience, Marketforce has taken four trainees in the reincarnated AFA Graduate Training programme, double the commitment of the next highest participating agency – an admirable investment in the future talent base for both the agency and the industry in general."

Versatility

"Marketforce Consulting, Design, Experiential Marketing and Relationship Marketing services all made a significant impact on its clients’ and own bottom line. ‘Experiential marketing’ activities (what might once be called sales promotion) were run for clients including Scratch ‘n’ Win, The West Australian, Brownes Chill and the Office of Road Safety.

It produced direct marketing for GESB – and was the only WA agency to win at the national ADMA Awards – CSBP, Lotto and Saville Australia. Online based activities from promotions to e-shots to product launches and branding were conducted for clients including Lotto, Mirvac, Forrest Chase, Saville Australia, Scratch ‘n’ Win GESB, CSBP and LandCorp.

2D and 3D design projects covering signage, sales office fit-outs, uniform design and interior fit-outs were completed for clients including Herdsman Fresh, Mirvac, ISPT/Pivot, LandCorp, Richard Noble and Saville Australia.

It demonstrates that Marketforce delivers a range of marketing communication solutions for its clients, not just advertising."

IT Revolution

"An unglamorous but increasingly important area for agencies is IT. In 2007 Marketforce invested over $1million in new computer technology to improve production efficiencies and give grammatically enhanced capabilities in artwork production, digital asset storage and retrieval, and pre-press checking. It also continued to develop its proprietary Ads Plus online press ad production tools, a key part of the Marketforce exPress business unit, into a third generation.

It is this kind of forward thinking and willingness to invest into the long-term future that has kept Marketforce at the top of the heap in Perth for more than three decades.

Marketforce remains Perth’s most important agency. The training opportunities it provides - investment in both time and money in ‘extra curricular’ activities and general leadership of the local industry is greater then all the other agencies in town combined."