ASMI congratulates Diamond Awards winners Celebrating marketing and sales excellence in the non-prescription medicines industry
28 October, 2016 –
The Australian Self Medication Industry (ASMI) recognised excellence in sales and marketing at the prestigious Diamond Awards dinner last night, which were attended by more than 200 leading lights of the industry over a sumptuous dinner at Le Montage in Sydney.
Three categories of awards recognised exceptional service to the industry, marketing campaigns including an all-new award for switch) and sales service, with this category split in two based on pharmacy sales size of more than and less than $100 million.
The quality and scope of all nominees was particularly pleasing for the industry and featured some exciting new developments.
ASMI Marketing and Business Director, Filomena Maiese, said,
“Both the judging panel and I noticed a significant step change in entry calibre this year compared to other years, with multiple entries scoring incredibly high compared to candidates in previous years.”
This year saw a renaissance on SWITCH efforts, with ASMI members reengaging around switch as an avenue for growth and innovation.
These efforts prompted the debut of a new Marketing Award for Best Switch.
All awards were compiled by a judging panel of independent industry experts who independently assessed, scored and ranked nominations for their campaign challenge, clarity of objectives, strategy, execution, attention to health literacy, and results.
Nexium 24hr Control, Nasonex and Nuromol contended for the Best Switch Award, with Pfizer winning for its switch of Nexium 24hr in a massive 360 launch that effectively established PPIs as a new category for pharmacy “front of shop”.
The most hotly contested category in the Marketing category was for Best New Product Launch, where switch again featured – nominees included both an S3 to S2 switch and a S4 to S3 switch. Johnson & Johnson Pacific (JJP) won for their Regaine for Women launch, which judges considered to be one of the best practice case studies on quality use of medicines they had seen.
The panel unanimously lauded JJP for taking cues and communication tone from the haircare market and marrying this with science and claims to create a perfectly balanced campaign that connected with target consumers both above and below the line.
Bayer scooped up the Best Large Budget Campaign for their Nasonex “Enjoy Earth” campaign, which judges considered a great example of reinventing and re-invigorating a category (OTC corticosteroids).
The Best Small Budget Campaign went to Ego for their MOOV Deadlice campaign, which saw Ego own the path to purchase at all touch points during the critical weeks of peak lice season only – a clever way to minimise budget wastage and maximize impact.
The “Know your Nurofen” campaign delivered the Best HCP Campaign award to RB and CHE Proximity, which nailed the brief for encouraging and acknowledging best practice efforts when it comes to programs and initiatives focused on healthcare professionals.
“It was also great to see a multimedia approach in all award categories,” Ms Maiese noted.
“We have finally moved away from the heavy reliance on the 30 second TVC!”
The Sales Awards recognised excellence among both ASMI’s larger and smaller member with separate prize categories based on pharmacy sales more than and less than $100 million.
The iLearning Group came on board as a partner for these awards, and as an innovative e-learning company specialising in community Pharmacy training and education, their database was invaluable as a means to survey 350 pharmacists and 500 pharmacy assistants as part of the judging process.
The respondents were asked to rate ASMI member companies on six key attributes, including “quality use of medicine”.
GSK came out on top in the category for pharmacy sales over $100 million, while Ego won in the category for less than $100 million.
Earlier in the evening, Margaret Richards (ex-JJP), Kerryn Greive (ex-Ego), and Sandie Rooke and Ray Maio (both ex-Engel Hellyer & Partners) were recognised with Excellence Awards for their exceptional service to the industry.
All had spent many years serving on or representing ASMI on different committees and forums. The Awards dinner was sponsored by Bayer and the pre-dinner drinks were sponsored by the Australian Journal of Pharmacy