More than 100 awards were given out at the Lions Direct and Promo Lions awards ceremony last night.
Miami-based agency Crispin Porter's campaign for Volkswagen included an email campaign directing Golf GTI enthusiasts to projectfast.com, creating interest about the launch of the GTI MK V.
On the site users were asked to describe "fast'" physically. Email, along with national TV spots, introduced enthusiasts to "the Fast", and to the new model.
Sales expectations were exceeded by 80% and a bespoke pack, available only with car purchase, started appearing for sale on eBay. GTI fans also created bootleg "Fast" merchandise including T-shirts, bumper stickers, wall posters and screensavers.
The brief for the De Tijd campaign was to get human resources managers to purchase a De Tijd pensions brochure to give to their employees.
HR managers who advertised in De Tijd were sent a direct mail pack from Cyriel van Steenbergen, aged 84. In this letter, hand-written in old-fashioned language, Cyriel applied for a job.
The message on the last page said: "Save your employees from having to do like Cyriel. Prevent them from having to look for a job when they retire. Offer your employees our brochure now."
More than 2,800 brochures were sold, resulting in a 24% sales increase for De Tijd.
Direct Agency of the Year was won by Berlin agency Scholtz & Friends, which also has a London office.
UK direct winners taking Gold awards included 20:20's work for Sony PlayStation2's '24: The Game', and Leo Burnett's "Cameraphone" campaign for Teenage Road Safety.
Harrison Troughton Wunderman's Microsoft management software "Duster" campaign and the BBC "It's not funny" student TV licence campaign each won Bronze.
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