Harrison Troughton Wunderman sweeps the board at DMA awards ceremony

This was highlighted by the winner of the coveted Grand Prix Award which went to Harrison Troughton Wunderman for its Star Alliance campaign which used special massage areas at Heathrow airport to "steal" frequent flyers from rival airline BA.

Star Alliance is an alliance of 15 world airlines which competes for passengers with Oneworld and SkyTeam. Under the proposition "Get in minutes what it's taken you years to earn with your current airline," Harrison Troughton Wunderman created the Status Match Programme which automatically matched new members' existing current gold or silver status on registering with Star Alliance.

Massage areas were set up outside BA's Executive Lounges for ten days, and posters and leaflets were handed out to passengers entering and exiting the lounge. These leaflets reiterated the campaigns messages, and invited business travellers to drop by for a free neck and shoulder massage while enrolling in the Star Alliance Scheme.

In 10 days, the campaign generated hundreds of new leads of which, more than 600 went on to register with a Star Alliance airline.

"With over 1,000 people at the ceremony and numbers of entries up 20 per cent the DMA Awards has had a real buzz around it this year. The calibre of all the entries has been so high this year that choosing the winner of the Grand Prix was extremely difficult." Mike Barnes DMA Director of Marketing and Business Development commented.

"Clients and agencies alike are choosing to push the boundaries of direct marketing and that is reflected in the work we have seen this year. Direct Marketing truly seems to have come of age."

Sir Martin Sorrell added: "Direct marketing, through its greater emphasis on measurement and targeting is leading the recovery of an industry that has suffered greatly over the past two or three years. Clients are willing to experiment in the direct area to a degree that they haven't historically. If you look at all the industry data both sides of the Atlantic, it demonstrates that the direct industry is becoming more and more important, not just in its classical forms, like mail, but in its new forms like the internet and interactive areas."

29 Gold Awards were presented this year, with Harrison Troughton Wunderman winning a staggering 17 Awards in total, including six golds, seven silvers and four bronze Awards. Other multiple Award winners included Tullo Marshall Warren with seven Awards, Saatchi and Saatchi with six Awards and Publicis Dialog, Kitcatt Nohr Alexander Shaw and Craik Jones Watson Mitchell Voelkel with four Awards each.

The DMA this year launched a must have showcase book - The Annual. Featuring the Grand Prix, Gold, Silver and Bronze winners of this year's DMA Awards it will be produced as a high-quality, stylish 160 hardback book and can be ordered via the DMA website www.dmaawards.org.uk.

Royal Mail continues to be the major sponsor of the Awards and the DMA would also like to thank the International Direct Marketing Fair and ClarityBlue for being Associate Sponsors. Category sponsorship was also received from UK DATA IT, Inc Direct, HP Digital Publishing Solutions, QAS and Fair Isaac.

For further information about The DMA Awards in association with Royal Mail and to view the Grand Prix and Finalist case studies please visit www.dmaawards.org.uk or contact:

Justine Storey & Veronique Attas
The Media Foundry
Tel : 0207 792 1942 / 020 7792 0185
Email : justinestorey@themediafoundry.comor veroniqueattas@themediafoundry.com