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WINNER

Client: Buena Vista Home Entertainment

Agency: Carat

WINNER

Client: Parador Properties

Agency: Mintel

COMMENDED

Client: South West Trains

Agency: MORI

WINNER Film distributor Buena Vista Home Entertainment (BVHE) wanted to improve the measurement of the contribution made by its marketing activities to sales of its video titles among its key target audience of housewives with children.

In particular, it wanted to find out who best to target, what motivates children and what media to use.

The nature of BVHE's sales, with its short release windows providing only a limited number of data points for each title, meant that a standard econometric methodology was not viable.

In partnership with Carat, a sales evaluation study of the launch campaign for The Lion King 3 DVD was undertaken, using the agency's ICE Behaviour evaluation technique. This is a two-phase approach combining a quantitative study of a specific consumer segment with statistical modelling that identifies the effect marketing activity and other factors have on sales.

The judges were impressed by the breadth of the results. The research quantified the strengths of BVHE's different marketing activities, showing how they contributed to sales.

WINNER

Parador Properties has risen to become the UK's leading vendor of freehold domestic property since its birth seven years ago, selling almost EUR500m (£331m) worth of property in Spain and Cyprus last year.

The firm was happy with its standards of service, but the overseas property market as a whole has suffered from a poor reputation among prospective UK purchasers for many years.

Parador decided to embark on a strategic piece of research that would raise the profile of the company and create a better understanding of the overseas property industry within the UK media.

The £60,000 project saw Parador work closely with Mintel to prepare an independent review of the market, examining how it had evolved over the past five years and forecasting future trends.

The research was not only a significant factor in cementing corporate partnerships with estate agents such as Barnard Marcus , but also succeeded in positioning Parador as a dominant commercial force, enabling it to negotiate partnerships with established travel brands.

COMMENDED

South West Trains (SWT) undertook a £1bn investment in new rolling stock in 2004 as part of a large-scale refurbishment. Previous market research had shown an improvement in how local rail users viewed the company, but other stakeholders were more negative.

A research project was implemented to find out how the gap in perception between that of the public and the industry could be closed. In partnership with agency MORI, SWT evaluated three key audiences: MPs, the general public and its customers.

When the findings were translated into strategic action points, SWT's reputation rose to a high never previously witnessed by the brand, suggesting a widespread understanding of the investment the firm had undertaken.