The Strategic Mailing Partnership recently collaborated with Canon and The Drum, along with an expert team of marketing industry and technology stakeholders, to launch a bespoke awards competition that celebrated the future of omnichannel marketing excellence and champion those at the forefront of new ideas that combine data and creativity to deliver measurable omnichannel campaigns.

This is the first time the industry had come together like this to showcase new collaborative ways of working by combining creative and new tech expertise to re-imagine the future of communications. We were included amongst the members of the working group, who also formed the awards jury, it also included:

• Nutshell Creative – a full-service marketing and design agency

• Canon – the world’s leading imaging brand

• Join the Dots – a data-led, independent media agency

• JICMAIL – an industry body for measurement data for direct mail, door drops and business mail

• Latcham – a print management and marketing fulfilment consultancy

• Marketreach – the leading authority on mail

• AutLay – a start-up using artificial intelligence for creating automated layouts

The brief was put forward by the YMCA, and we, the judges, were specifically looking for evidence of clear strategic, data-driven thinking combined with creativity and innovation, while aligning to the YMCA’s purpose and brand guidelines.

Entrants were tasked with showcasing the customer journey throughout the campaign with variations of creative copy and messaging to meet the brief.

The brief was to embark on a new donor acquisition drive amongst a younger demographic, whilst building engagement for the longer-term. It was important to note that the YMCA is inclusive of people of all backgrounds and so this was necessary to take into consideration for the purposes of the competition.

Congratulations to the winners, Henry Plumridge and Ollie Bartlett of agency, Transmission!

“Data from Marketreach and JICMAIL shows that print and digital have a powerful symbiotic relationship. The YMCA’s audience of 24 – 44-year-olds, as well as being likely to engage with mail, are also a technology-led generation. It was important that the direct mail involved for this campaign used innovative technology alongside its tactile appeal, driving action online and further engaging our target audience.”

“Our ‘Limitless’ campaign started from one, simple idea: what if the ‘m’ for male of YMCA was reimagined as an infinity sign for all. From here, we built our limitless messaging: inclusive, ambitious, hopeful, and defiant. Our process was then to utilise creativity, data, personalisation, and an omnichannel strategy to address YMCA’s business and marketing challenges.”

You can learn more about the Creative Futures competition and the winning project over at https://www.thedrum.com/news/2022/12/14/limitless-campaign-idea-wins-first-creative-futures-2022