Interface Interactive and Wunderman score at the DMA International Echo Awards, 2005

Wunderman, Mumbai, a part of the Young & Rubicam Group, has won the coveted Echo Leader Award at the DMA International Echo Awards, 2005, held in Atlanta, for its work on ICICI Prudential’s SmartKid, a child education plan. Interface Interactive, the interactive arm of Interface Communications, has bagged the Leaders Award in the fourth position for its online media campaign for Blue Star Helpline.

The DMA International ECHO Awards, considered the Oscars of direct marketing, are highly sought after by direct marketing agencies all over the world.

Commenting on the win, Manas Mohan, vice-president, Wunderman, says, “These awards are all about creatives that work effectively for the brand. Last year, Wunderman, Delhi, had reached the finalist’s position in the Echo Awards and it is our honour to have bagged the award this year.”

Says Niteen Bhagwat, CEO, Interface Communications, “We were sure that our campaign would make the helpline communication interactive and a follow-through mechanism would lead into sales or service calls.”

Interface Interactive’s campaign on Blue Star Helpline, ‘Generate Calls to Helpline’, was launched in early 2004. The objective of the campaign was to create awareness of the Blue Star Helpline and generate calls from the target audience. The strategy to position Blue Star as a modern, cooling solutions partner was implemented using one of India’s largest general-interest portals, rediff.com.

As per the campaign, a visual condensation effect was launched on the home page of rediff.com, blocking one third of the screen with a condensation effect for 15 seconds. The copy was a single line message, ‘For cooling solutions to help business do better, call Blue Star Helpline 1600-2222-00 or SMS COOL to 4646’.

For the record, the DMA is an association of direct marketing agencies based in New York. Started in1930, the DMA International Echo Awards have honoured outstanding direct response campaigns from around the world. The entries go through three rounds of meticulous and tough judging. The awards have 12 categories and 8 mediums with four types, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Leader.

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