International breakthrough for SA in direct marketing

"The competition attracted 1056 entries from 35 countries. There were six South African entries among the finalists, four of which emerged award winners," says chief executive officer for proximity#ttp, Nici Stathacopoulos.

"This is no mean feat, given the impressive reputation of the event and the high standard of entries it attracts each year. The achievement put South Africa in seventh place in terms of greatest number of awards won by country."

Announced in New York City, 2 March 2006, the four awards were for consumer campaigns for client Virgin Atlantic Airways in the standard direct mail, multimedia, customer retention and electronic/interactive website categories.

Although the entries were submitted under the name of Net#work BBDO - due to an overlap in timing of competition submissions and the final founding of proximity#ttp - the award-winning teams, including Stuart Stobbs and Michele Pithey, are now firmly in the proximity#ttp fold as creative directors.