Start with a good idea, well executed
Sunny Queen Farms, a Queensland egg distributor and marketer, had not considered entering the AMI National Awards for Marketing Excellence before its first entry in 2005. Although marketing manager Julie Proctor was aware of the awards, there was a feeling that the company could not compete with the campaigns financed by the marketing budgets of bigger organisations.
However, in 2005 Sunny Queen had a great marketing story to tell in its ‘Crack a Sunny Queen Smile’ campaign, which successfully tackled the issue of standing out in a commodity item food market – eggs. Encouraged by its advertising agency BCM, Sunny Queen lodged its first entry in the branding category for the Queensland state awards.
Sunny Queen made an amazing debut. It won the Queensland state awards branding category, which sent it into the national awards finals. There, it scooped the branding category, the commercial industry sector category, plus the awards’ top prize — Marketing Program of the Year.
Julie Proctor said that, after winning the state award, she had hoped the company might be “in with a shout” for the national branding award. “But winning the ‘big one’ was an unexpected and wonderful surprise, particularly given the quality of the competition we were up against,” she said.
“It’s always nice to win awards, but we are particularly proud of our AMI awards because of their strong emphasis on recognising effectiveness. I’m very lucky in that my CEO, John O’Hara, is a passionate supporter of brands, and our board is committed to a brand investment strategy, but the AMI endorsement of the effectiveness of our marketing spend is an angle I’m certainly happy to leverage at budget submission time!”
Developing an awards entry is not an easy or quick task, but it does have its benefits. Proctor said the entry took a considerable amount of time, effort and teamwork from Sunny Queen and BCM. “However, the AMI’s instructions give good guidance and the finished submission provides a great source of data,” Proctor said.
“The discipline of meeting the very detailed and specific performance measurement criteria was an exercise that was valuable both internally and externally with our trade customers and suppliers. We’ve been able to use the information compiled for many internal and external presentations.
“Often after a major launch, the focus is immediately on to the next project. The AMI Awards process gave us the opportunity to reflect more fully as a business on what we achieved, which was morale-boosting for the whole Sunny Queen team.”
Proctor said she would like to encourage businesses of all sizes, with marketing budgets big and small, to consider entering the AMI Awards. “The more entries, the higher the bar is raised, which can only be a good thing for our marketing profession,” she said.
“I think our win is testament to the fact that you don’t have to have multi-million-dollar budgets to scoop the big industry prizes – just a strong brand idea, well executed. The whole experience has been very rewarding for us as a business.”
The happy winners of Marketing Program of the Year in 2005 (from left): Paul Cornwell, BCM Partnership; Julie Proctor, marketing manager, Sunny Queen Farms; Lisa Neighbour, BCM Partnership; and John O’Hara, CEO, Sunny Queen Farms.
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