Primedia Unlimited's shopping centre marketing specialist The Primedia Lifestyle Group has received top honours for its retail marketing strategies from the South African Council of Shopping Centre's (SACSC) annual Footprint Awards. The company has claimed the elite Spectrum award, the most prestigious award on offer, for the third year in a row.
In addition to winning the Spectrum Award for Cavendish Square's The Exchange campaign, the company dominated the 2014 Footprint Awards by claiming 12 of 14 gold awards on offer, equating to an 86% success rate.
Group MD Doug Mayne says: "We are completely thrilled! The Footprint Awards acknowledge and recognise excellence in shopping centre marketing and to be awarded top honours is testament to the ongoing excellence and high standards we maintain year in and year out.
We also need to express our thanks to the management of Primedia Unlimited
- they have provided unwavering support throughout our planning and execution stages."
The Spectrum winner, Cavendish Square's The Exchange campaign, was created to assist The Organ Donor Foundation of South Africa (ODFSA). It asked affluent and fashion-forward shoppers to "exchange" their organs for fashion items.
Marketing Manager at Cavendish, Tanja Gerber explains the campaign: "The basic concept offered shoppers visiting the pop-up store an exclusive item of fashion, which was donated by participating fashion designers, in exchange for the shopper's registration as an organ donor with The Organ Donor Foundation.
The entire campaign ran seamlessly and our team is thrilled with the accolades," she says. "It's a fantastic nod of approval from our global peers in the industry that South Africa offers shopping centre marketing excellence."
By the end of the campaign, donor registrations increased by 805, the ODFSA's Facebook increased by 628% in less than four weeks and of all the signed-up donors, 759 came from Cavendish. With each organ donor potentially saving seven lives, the 759 sign-ups could theoretically save
5 313 lives!
Overall, the Primedia Lifestyle Group won 37 Footprint awards this year.
These include 12 gold, 10 silver and 15 bronze versus the company's 24 wins in 2013, equating to a massive 54% increase on last year's awards.
"I want to extend my thanks to all of our staff involved in putting the awards entries together, and for continually living our values of innovation, common purpose, people, passion and sustainability," says Doug. "This is an extremely proud moment in our 18 year history.
We do however need to acknowledge the Cavendish team in particular this year, achieving an unbelievable result with five gold awards including the Spectrum."
