And the winner is Manchester's Addleshaw Booth & Co - the official lawyers to the XVII Commonwealth Games and its ONE GREAT DAY campaign. Exchanging legal services for a sponsorship, obtaining £500,000 of free media coverage, nearly 2 million pounds of airtime exposure and - most importantly - three million pounds of new business just from co-sponsors.
This was the biggest multi-sport event ever held in the UK - and the firm did all the innovative legal work to support Manchester 2002 and a host of sponsors including Microsoft, Cadburys, United Utilities, Atlantic Telecom and Guardian Media Group. The sports and intellectual property partners rubbed shoulders with the likes of Daley Thompson, Lawrence Dallagio, Steve Waugh, David Hyde and Roger Black - what better way to tell the world that a law firm with its roots in Manchester had a world class commercial team.
They even had one of their lawyers - Ann Danson - competing in the games in the Women's Long Jump.
The number of firsts for this campaign must be a record….and the statistics indicate what a massive logistical job the marketing team and the firm planned and executed in style - 2,500 tickets for client hospitality, a significant brand enhancement programme, staff volunteer incentives, uniforms and intranets and 100 days to go events.
The campaign put Addleshaws clearly on the national legal map - and Addleshaws have put professional services marketing in the spotlight on mainstream marketing excellence.
Very, very well done - and what on earth will you be doing next year as an encore?
Runner up is Watson Burton(a Newcastle law firm) with its strong, bold, colourful and humorous rebranding campaign. Another really well thought out and integrated campaign spanning media coverage, great advertising copy, riverside client events, client newsletters, a range of literature and even the dreaded Christmas card. Not only did the campaign achieve its marketing aims to reposition the firm as a regional giant, deliver fast and tangible business results including a significant increase in turnover but a number of top lawyers were also successfully recruited.
In third place is Deloitte & Touche with its Technology Fast 50 industry research for fast growth technology companies. It integrated branding, extensive media coverage, events and various business development activities within the competitive TMT segment across Europe and breathed new life into the research driven marketing concept.