Young Direct Marketing Awards Announces Winners

The top prizes at this year's Young Direct Marketing Awards went to two teams of budding young marketers from Ryecroft Middle School in Staffordshire and George Heriot's School in Edinburgh

The Tree Huggers Team, from Ryecroft Middle School made up of Emily Broadbent, Jenna Calvert, Rosanna Dalton, Rachel Pointon and Carley Swift won the grand prix award in the Year 7 & 8 category for the campaign they devised for Friends of the Earth.

The competition judges, all of whom work within the direct marketing industry described the Tree Huggers entry as “a clear winner”. They also added: “It shouted the loudest, had a fantastic execution, is well thought through and staged carefully.”

George Heriot’s “Creating the Picture” team, made up of Rebecca Walker, Rowan Jackson-Stewart, Morven Addison and Kim Hyslop won the grand prix award in the Year 9 & 10 category for the campaign they devised for the Guide Dogs Association.

The competition judges commented that the team’s entry “really stood out creatively and addressed the issue.” The judges added: “The campaign understood the audience and the importance of effective targeting.”

Both teams picked up their awards at a special ceremony at the Magic Circle Headquarters in London last week where they got to meet the other finalists from across Britain. Awards were also presented for highly commended, bronze, silver and gold entries.

Now in its third year, the YDMA, organised by the Direct Marketing Association, involved school teams devising a direct marketing campaign which incorporated a direct mail element, for one of three charity partners: The Guide Dog’s Association, RNLI or Friends of the Earth. The competition was open students aged between 11-15.

2008 has been the most successful year to date for the Young Direct Marketing Awards with more than 170 teams from across the UK submitting their direct marketing campaigns to the competition.

This year the judging team included representatives from across the industry including the three chosen charities, Marketing Direct magazine, Third Sector magazine,Syzygy, Arc and Rapport.

The YDMA has been designed to give pupils experience of one of the UK’s largest industries, worth in excess of £37 billion a year. More than 800,000 people are directly employed in the UK’s direct marketing industry which is often used by charities as a vital means of generating much needed donations.

Mike Barnes, Director of Marketing and Business Development at the DMA commented: “A big congratulations to Ryecroft Middle School and George Heriot's School, they have done exceptionally well. We were very impressed at the high standard of entries this year and look forward to building on this success next year. Direct marketing is a key fundraising tool for charities and this awards scheme is a great way of illustrating its power. We hope that the scheme will become a regular fixture on the school agenda and finally get direct marketing on the curriculum.”

For further information about the awards please visit: www.ydma.co.uk

For press enquiries, please contact:

Sheelagh Doyle
DMA PR Manager
Tel: 020 7291 3315 / 07801 573324
Email: sheelagh.doyle@dma.org.uk

Editor’s Notes

The DMA UK is the largest trade association in the marketing communications sector, with over 900 corporate members. The DMA’s mission is to maximise value for members, whilst maintaining and enhancing consumer trust and confidence in the direct marketing industry. To assist, the DMA administers a portfolio of Preference Services that allow consumers to register their contact details, free of charge, should they choose to reduce the amount of direct marketing approaches they receive via mail, telephone, fax and email.

Sales attributed to direct marketing activity total £107 billion each year, £67 billion of this from consumer sales and £40 billion resulting from business to business direct marketing. As an industry, direct marketing generates around 9% of consumer sales on a yearly basis as well as employing roughly 814,000 people (both directly and indirectly) and supporting 3% of all employment in the UK. In 2004 organisations spent a total of £37 billion on direct marketing, of which over £14 billion can be attributed to media spend.

DMA members benefit from added protection, intelligence and growth, which together we call the Power of Association. Within these three areas, DMA member services include government lobbying, free legal advice, training & development, representation on DMA Councils, networking opportunities, regular updates of current dm issues/legislation, research, use of the DMA logo, promotion of member companies and discounts on a range of dm products/services.

For further information please visit www.dma.org.uk. For details on the benefits of becoming a DMA member please call 020 7291 3388 to speak to the membership team, email membership@dma.org.uk, or visit www.dmamembership.org.uk.