PM Society Advertising Awards 2009

OUR PRESTIGIOUS PM Society Advertising Awards 2009, which took place on Friday 29th January at Grosvenor House, proved just why it is once again the must-attend social event on the pharmaceutical marketing calendar.

This year's awards featured category changes that included a press advertising craft award for Nurse Advertisement, a single craft award for direct mail to any healthcare professional, an adjusted digital category which considered strictly craft rather than functionality and the Geoff Brook Award repositioned to focus on digital innovation. In addition the Digital Pioneer award was inaugurated as a follow-on from our dedicated Digital Media Awards last autumn.

Commenting on the event, Awards Chairman Neil Smith said: "I was extremely happy with just how smoothly everything ran at this year's awards. The feedback so far has been really positive, from the brilliant entertainment through to the quality and creativity of entries. I'd like to thank all of our sponsors whose contribution is vital to help ensure the event's success."

Everything got underway bright and early with guests arriving from 10.45am, giving them the opportunity to visit the Ballroom and Court Suite to view an exhibition of all the submitted entries, catch up with colleagues and begin some all important networking. It was also good to see many key Pharma  agencies and sponsors hosting their own bars to welcome clients and catch up with industry contacts.

The toastmaster, resplendent in red tails, then called everyone to the Great Room for lunch. The atmosphere was buzzing with some 1,280 people making their way through the network of corridors. As guests entered the elegant surroundings of the Great Room to the tones of a jazz trio, they were handed a copy of the delegate booklet, giving everyone the chance to flick through and see which industry movers and shakers were attending.

As everyone was enjoying their starter Alan ‘Deadly' Dedicoat welcomed Carole Cochrane to the stage. Chief Executive of The Princess Royal Trust for Carers - the PM Society's adopted charity - Carole spoke poignantly about the fantastic work the Trust performs in helping the six million British carers, a million of whom are children, feel supported and get a break. It was also interesting to learn that carers save the Government an incredible £87 billion pounds a year!

Following a prize draw table collection during the lunch, the charity was extremely happy to receive the significant amount of £12,337, through generous donations.

Carole was thrilled with the amount raised commenting, "The PM Society has once again organised an excellent fundraising event in aid of The Princess Royal Trust for Carers. Guests generously donated an astounding amount which will go towards our work helping to support many more of the UK's unpaid carers through our network of carers' centres and websites.

"The Trust is delighted to be the PM Society's charity partner and looks forward to continuing to work with them this year."

The charity also provided a prize draw for a two night break at the luxurious Langham Hotel in London's West End. Carole Cochrane presented the prize to winner David Fisher, a Healthcare Advocate who was with the PM Group.

After lunch we were treated to some very unusual entertainment in the form of London musician ‘Beardyman,' a fascinating beatbox act which had the whole audience asking "how does he do that?" If you'd like to view this unique act, click here to view a clip on YouTube.

Our host for the awards was quirky comedian, actor and TV presenter Alexander Armstrong, best known for his comedy sketch show Armstrong and Miller and that Pimms advert. After a few amusing medical stories, Alexander introduced the very funny Paul Thorne, one of Britain's most established stand-up comedians who had all the guests laughing uproariously.



Alexander then went on to host the 19 awards with a representative from each sponsor company presenting the winners with their much coveted trophy. Photos of all winners can be viewed on this website.

Winners on the day included  Woolley Pau and Creative Lynx, who received two awards each, McCann Erickson, Adventis Health, Nitrogen (Huntsworth Health), PAN Advertising, Lane Earl Cox, Big Pink, Swordfish and Langland, who scooped an unprecedented seven awards. The new Digital Pioneer Award, went to Mark Prince of Lundbeck.

Philip Chin of Langland was thrilled with his seven awards commenting: "We were delighted to set a record at this year's PM Society Advertising Awards. The sheer number of awards won demonstrates that Langland can create category-leading work in response to a wide range of Pharma industry marketing issues. Good creative work can only be developed when there is a strong partnership between agency and client. Our clients understand our point of view, trust our expertise and support us throughout the creative process because their objective mirrors ours - to create stand-out work that differentiates their brands and gets results.

"In saying this, we also believe there is still much more to do if we want to ensure that the standard of creative work in the Pharma industry category as a whole is to compete with the best work produced in other sectors.

"If there is a secret to success then it must be to engage the very best talent - people who are passionate and disciplined about their craft. If you do this you will create effective work and awards become a healthy side-effect."

David Whittingham, Healthcare Director at Creative Lynx, was also delighted with their two awards: "After our long association with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals it was great to walk away with two wins for Ward Invaders," he commented. "Marketers are always looking for innovation from their creative agencies and in the current environment, novel digital ideas too. On the back of our recent successes at the PM Society Digital Awards it's very satisfying to follow up with wins for a completely new project in the Digital Media category and  the Geoff Brook Award for Digital Innovation, as well as featuring in the Hospital Campaign category. It's always satisfying to win the prestigious Geoff Brook Award given its special relevance.
 
"All credit to the Wyeth Anti-infective team for pushing forward with a viral idea to educate a specialist audience, and congratulations to all the team involved at Creative Lynx for bringing the idea to life."

Another happy winner was Louisa Pau, MD at Woolley Pau, who said, "It's great to win with charming work for an awkward product area. It just goes to show; if you can be intelligent and engaging about genital warts, you can be intelligent and engaging about anything! Awards should be about showing people what's possible when we put our minds to it."

During the ceremony Sandy Royden, Joint Lead for PriMe, the PM Society's training arm, presented a stunned Neil Smith with his own trophy to recognise his 10th year as PM Society Awards chairman. Neil's presentation represents the dedication, planning, time and creative input he has voluntarily invested in the PM Society Awards over the last decade.

After the award presentations, the celebrations continued as guests left the Great Room and made their way back to the Ballroom for further drinks, networking and dancing to the rocking sounds of ‘The High Barnets', while others, seeking more peaceful surroundings, went to the Court Suite where the jazz trio continued to play or headed upstairs to the Red Bar.

The success of the awards are due to a great deal of behind the scenes hard work and late nights by Neil Smith, Secretary Vivien Bennett and Jackie Brown in the PM Society office (who seamlessly manage to pull out all the stops on the day!), other PM Society committee members and all of our judges. We would also like to thank all of our sponsors for their continued support which make events such as this possible. Full details of all winners and nominees, along with their creative work are reproduced in full here.

The PM Society looks forward to welcoming you to other events during 2010 at one, or more, of our educational, training, networking or social events.  Details of all forthcoming activities are available by clicking through to our events calendar.
 

Held on: 29/01/2010