Retail giants claim the top spots at the 2011 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards

A new wave of game changers were announced at the 2011 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards.

Recognising marketers raising the bar in thought leadership; hosts Vincent Heeringa, NZ Marketing magazine, and Sue McCarty, Marketing Association (MA) were joined by long-standing awards MC, Te Radar, who delighted the audience with game changing marketing initiatives.

Speaking of the epitome of the awards; Round Two judge, Todd McLeay of New Zealand Lotteries Commission said it’s “about taking a category and applying best of breed marketing and innovation in that category to create an outcome that is vastly superior to any one else in that category”; - a feat achieved by each of the category award winners: Marine Industrial Design, Air New Zealand, 2degrees, Les Mills International, New Zealand Lotteries, New Zealand Book Month, Progressive Enterprises, Ministry of Health, Powershop, Frucor Beverages, All Good Organics, and Mt. Cook Alpine Salmon.

However, there could be only one overall winner of the Fairfax Media Supreme Award. Fresh from their Retail Award triumph, Progressive Enterprises was again rewarded for their marketing excellence that surrounded the merger of their three supermarket brands, ultimately forging a bold new positioning based on an enhanced definition of consumer value.

With such outstanding results the judges thought that Progressive Enterprises accomplished an extremely difficult undertaking that demonstrated a bold and well-aligned business strategy being accelerated by a superbly executed marketing plan. And so, Progressive Enterprises was honoured with the most coveted award of the night.

Similarly, New Zealand Lotteries had twice the reason to celebrate. In addition to winning the Fast Moving Consumer Goods Marketing Award, their Head of Marketing, Wendy Rayner, joined the likes of Gillian Munnik, Geoff Ross and Adam Maxwell as the 2011 Marketer of the Year. Convenor of Judges, Sue McCarty acknowledged Rayner’s “passion for the industry” and her achievements in revitalising the Lotto brand - the largest retail network in New Zealand.

Also stamping his name into marketing history is AUT University’s Max Woodhead who was praised by judge, Catherine Beard (Business NZ), for being "incredibly influential for his age and experience" and "able to achieve great results with incredibly low budget - which shows a huge amount of resourcefulness and creativity".

Completing the trio of individual awards is Jeremy Irwin who, unable to attend the awards night itself, was inducted into the Marketing Hall of Fame a week ahead of the awards night at the MA’s Brainy Breakfast.  Jeremy was applauded for his immense contribution to the industry, particularly when defending his members’ rights to advertise and helping bring about a much closer understanding between advertisers, agencies and media.