Jack Brodie and Brodie Childs’s campaign, ‘Dodge the Drama’, won this year’s DMA Breakthrough Award, which was sponsored by Direct Line Group. Run in partnership with the Graeme Robertson Trust (GRT), the pair’s win was revealed at the DMA Awards in London last week.
Each year, creatives work on a live creative brief, for a real client or business. As part of the challenge, Direct Line Group invited students, interns and non-professionals across the UK to develop a multi-channel campaign that would build awareness, interest and excitement towards Direct Line pet insurance.
Dozens of creatives across the UK responded to the brief, presenting their original ideas, but Brodie and Childs’ won the Gold award – taking home a cash prize of £1,000 and the potential to intern at a top agency.
Judges cited the pair’s “excellent use” of direct mail as part of their campaign as one of the key reasons that they won.
“We took a range of things into account, including how well teams communicated their campaign, its strategy and longevity, the fulfilment of the brief, and the creativity and quality of ideas,” said Chris Lonie, trustee of the Graham Robertson Trust.
“Direct Line Group aren’t as well known for their pet insurance services as they perhaps are with some of their other key product lines. However, it is testament to this campaign that all the judging panel felt it could really captivate interest in their pet insurance with new audiences, due to its ability to spark intrigue and curiosity.
“Jack Brodie and Brodie Childs’s approach was something we had not seen before, and we were delighted with the quality of their supplementary direct mail marketing material – a truly remarkable effort.”
Iain Agnew, head of customer marketing at Direct Line Group, added: “This campaign was truly bold, brave and exciting. Not only would this create awareness with our target market of pet owners, but its creativity and unique concepts would appeal to a much wider audience, which is truly impressive.
“We were delighted with how this campaign took our brief and elevated it to a whole new level. They delivered an engaging pitch that really sold their vision to us, so much so that I could see elements of the idea being used in our campaign activity.”
Students from Edinburgh College took the Silver and Bronze Awards, with Ida Bukantyte as a close runner up and Marta Winogrodzka placing third, winning prizes of £500 and £250 respectively.
DMA Talent general manager Kate Burnett said: “The Breakthrough Award is a great way for aspiring marketers to get a taste of industry life, and from our perspective the award process continues to demonstrate that our industry’s future remains very optimistic.”
