Marketing stars shine at the top awards in Glasgow

SUCCESS stories big and small were recognised by the industry at a glittering ceremony in Glasgow, says Graeme Atha

Marketing Star of the Year is Tom Rice, from the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau for their People Make Glasgow campaign. Picture: Contributed

Last night nearly 500 marketers attended the Marketing Society Star Awards at the Glasgow Science Centre to recognise and celebrate the success stories across the industry.

The Marketing Society promotes the value of marketing at all levels, from the classroom to the boardroom, and awards are presented from the Star School Award and Marketing and Creative Students, through to the leading organisations and individuals in the Champions Category.

The Star School Award was won by Kirkwall Grammar School in Orkney for the marketing plan developed to launch their highly successful Fjara jewelry brand as part of the Young Enterprise Scotland programme.

The Star Marketing Student was awarded to Julia-Marie Ernst from the University of St Andrews following a full day of assessments involving the best performing students nominated by universities across Scotland.

For the Star Creative Student the final shortlist selected from nominations from Art Colleges who then worked on a brief from Edinburgh Airport and the winner was Ummi Jameel from Duncan of Jordanstone.

The three Rising Star Awards – Agency, Marketing and Creative – were presented to Joanna Harrod, Digitas LBi; Lynsey McMeechan, VisitScotland and Raych Campbell of STV respectively.

The best marketing case studies were awarded across three main categories; Strategic, Communication and Sector. The big success stories on the night included a range of campaigns supporting the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games from the ticket sales campaign to the Irn-Bru sponsorship development by The Leith Agency.

Standard Life Investments also won Gold for their sponsorship activation of The Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.

The international category was dominated by whisky brands with the Gold Star being awarded to The Famous Grouse for their “Famous Moments” personalisation campaign which was rolled out across several of their markets.

In the Champions category, The Union won Star Agency of the Year for the quality of their work across several campaigns and Tennent’s won Star Marketing Team of the Year for a wide range of entries from digital, sponsorship and PR activities to the design of Drygate the new craft brewery.

Agency Star of the Year was won by Ali Findlay, MD and founder of The Lane Agency who won a number of awards for their work across a range of clients from Graham’s The Family Dairy to Border Biscuits.

Marketing Star of the Year was awarded to Tom Rice from Glasgow City Marketing Bureau for their “People Make Glasgow” campaign which the judges felt captured the mood in a big year for the city and will also be around for years to come.

• Graeme Atha is a Director of The Marketing Society and full details of the awards can be found on www.marketingsocietyscotland.com/stars15