Sellers Of Once Illegal Music Downloads Dominate OMMA Awards

Marketers of sites that offer downloadable music took top honors at the Online Media, Marketing and Advertising Awards Tuesday night at the Interactive Advertising World Conference & Expo, a combined effort of the Interactive Advertising Bureau and MediaPost.

The once-renegade Napster took the prize for both best in show and best product launch for the "It's Coming Back" campaign. After Napster went legit--and decided to sell songs online rather than give them away for free--the company got word out online through an ad initiative created by Venables, Bells & Partners, and Mediasmith. The result was that in November 2003, about 3.2 million users went to Napster.com, and by this February, Napster had sold 5 million tracks.

Apple's iTunes Music Store, a Napster competitor, won the award for Marketer of the Year for establishing the pay-per-song music download model. When it launched in April 2003, it offered the first legal way to download music tracks from the Web. By the end of 2003, music lovers had downloaded 20 million songs. Because users easily play music they've downloaded from iTunes on their iPods, the Web site also drove sales of Apple's portable MP3 device, which now dominates the market. The agency was TWBA/Chiat Day.

In the brand awareness/positioning category, Masterfoods USA/M&M's won the OMMA for its "Great Color War" initiative, created by Beyond Interactive. Macromedia's RoboDemo campaign, by Eidoserve, took top honors for purchase intent/sales. For public service/not for profit, the prize went to TrueMajority.org's "Oreo" campaign, by e-tractions. Ameritrade's "Last Market Hour" campaign, by mOne and Ogilvy, won for direct response. Taking top prize for innovation and creativity was Nokia--for its Mobile Snowball, done by These Days.

The IAB also gave founding chairman Rich LeFurgy an OMMA award for lifetime achievement. "I'm betting on the Internet because I really believe, truly, the best is yet to come," said LeFurgy when he accepted the award.

In addition to starting the IAB, LeFurgy helped create the PricewaterhouseCoopers IAB Online Advertising Revenue Report, a joint venture between the two entities that has become a key benchmark tool for the interactive ad industry.

A panel of 15 judges chose the campaign winners based on four criteria: strategy, use of media, creative, and effectiveness. Contestants elaborated in briefs on campaign goals, whether and how research was incorporated, the choice media vehicles, and the extent to which online was integrated with offline media. When it came to the scores for effectiveness, judges looked for whether there was a measurable performance against predetermined goals. That meant that briefs had to include at least some top line data referring to campaign results.

The judges represented major marketers including Ernst & Young, IBM, ING, Revlon, Orbitz, JPMorgan Chase, Reebok, and Johnson & Johnson, who spent more than five hours reviewing the finalists' briefs and creative, discussing, and debating before casting their votes.

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