• by Staff Writers , October 10, 2007

The Web isn't just for direct marketing, as these finalists demonstrated with campaigns that were aimed at building brand awareness.

AKQA

Visa Signature

AKQA: Dianne Hayashi, Group Media Director; Karen Phillips, Associate Media Director; Eric Shuai, Media Planner; Yiming Roberts, Assistant Media Planner.

The goal of the campaign was to build awareness of Visa Signature as the premium rewards card among the target "new affluents" and to highlight the exclusive benefits it offers through the "List of Things to Do While You're Alive."

AKQA tapped publishers including Concierge, Epicurious, Pandora, Fodors, and National Geographic to provide access to and/or create custom content for the list item most relevant to their area of expertise. The results were impressive, including the creation of custom radio stations, videos, podcasts, recipes and pictures.

The digital effort also included placements such as the Zagat.mobi launch sponsorship, a free service providing users with restaurant, nightlife and hotel information for major cities.

TM Advertising

Texas Tourism

TM: Franny Karkosak, Vice President, Director of Media Integration; April Weeks, Director of Digital Media; Renee Whittingstall, Associate Media Director; Jennifer Parker, Media Supervisor; Katie Brown, Interactive Media Supervisor; Brad Kowalski, Media Planner.

The challenge posed to tm advertising by Texas Tourism was to help change the state's stereotypical image as the land of ropin' and ridin' cowboys. The aim of the "Maps" campaign was to explode that tired cliché by portraying Texas as a state that offers everything from golf to beaches to shopping.

The digital strategy included positioning Webcams around the state to provide a bird's eye view of various Texas destinations on TravelTex.com. To help drive Web traffic, links were included to specific destinations featured on the site.

The site generated 17.6 million page views and 3.47 million qualified leads. Texas drew more than 4 million travel information inquiries in 2007.

Trahan, Burden & Charles (TBC)

Wall Street Journal

Trahan, Burden & Charles: Erin Borkowski, Media Director; Nichole Baccala, Account Director.

Dow Jones: Ann Marks, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer; Sally Brophy, Vice President, Marketing and Research; Joan Wolf-Woolley, Director of Advertising.

"Every journey needs a Journal" was the first brand campaign by the Wall Street Journal in nearly a decade. The objective was to raise awareness of the breadth of Journal content and its relevance to a broad range of people. The campaign featured various celebrities whose lives have been affected in some way by the Journal.

The online component included placements aimed at 25-to-44-year-olds on a mix of ad networks and premier brand sites such as Yahoo, Weather, Advertising.com, WPNI and Specific Media.