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Market Communications: Consumer (annual fee more than £100k)
WINNER
Nintendogs Launch Campaign
Nintendo UK
Cake Group
More than 4.8 million UK households have a dog, but many are put off owning one by having to take them for walks, paying vet's bills and arranging for holiday care cover.
Nintendo's retained agency Cake knew that Britain's pet-lovers could be satisfied by owning a 'virtual pet', and that it could build a new audience to fit in with Nintendo's 'New Way to Play' mantra.
From this, the Nintendogs game for the Nintendo DS was born. Cake developed a multi-tiered campaign to attract women, dog-lovers and children in a sustained push running from June 2005 through to Christmas.
The campaign kicked off with a soft launch in June, which hinted that a new computer craze was heading for the UK. Cake negotiated articles that put Nintendo in the culture and features sections of press, rather than the gaming pages - the first time it had managed this since Pokémon in 2001.
Cake developed journalist relationships and infiltrated message boards and blogs to establish networks of people talking about the game. It also enlisted psychologist Susan Quilliam, who produced a ten-point report on the benefits of playing Nintendogs, saying it 'taught nurturing skills'.
Quilliam's report formed the basis of a nationwide radio tour. Cake also got dog welfare charity the Dogs Trust to give Nintendogs its stamp of approval. The three-month push was capped with a 'Puppy Party' to launch the game the day before it went on sale.
Cake's event division, Cake Live, threw the party, which was attended by Coronation Street's resident dog Schmeichel, EastEnder Pauline Fowler's pooch Betty and well-known animal lovers such as Bill Oddie.
The 6am launch the next day at London's flagship HMV on Oxford Street was dedicated to profiling dog- owners - many of whom had queued from 4am to be first to buy the game.
Coverage was worth more than £2.7m in terms of AVE, generating 241 million opportunities to see. To date, Nintendogs is the best-selling game on the Nintendo DS. Fifty-five per cent of buyers so far have been women, and 12 per cent of purchases by those new to gaming.
HIGHLY COMMENDED
I ♥ PIN Campaign
APACS
Four Communications
The UK-wide changeover to Chip and Pin took place on 14 February. APACS, the UK payments association, worked with Four Communications to promote this through PR alone.
A three-month programme aimed at retailers and customers produced 1,750 pieces of coverage, culminating in the I ♥ PIN campaign on Valentine's Day. Analysis found that two million people knew about the change, while more than 1.5 million used an ATM to change their Pin into one they could more easily remember.
FINALISTS
The Launch of PlayStation Portable (UK):
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
Jackie Cooper PR
Canon: The other side of football
Canon Europe
Nelson Bostock Communications
The Joy of X: Making Xbox 360
a pop culture phenomenon
Microsoft Xbox
The Red Consultancy
Click here to see the interview with the winner
