Business Day's 'Keep Up' campaign wins global marketing award

NEW YORK, US: Keep Up was a deceptively simple, yet innovative marketing campaign for Business Day - and it has won a global award for BDFM, publishers of one of South Africa's leading business newspapers. Other SA winners included the Cape Argus, Cape Town, Daily News, Durban, and The Times, Johannesburg.

The publisher was this week presented with the International Newsmedia Marketing Association (INMA) Award for Brand Awareness Across Platforms, in the sub-category for newspapers with a circulation of under 75 000, at the gala dinner of the 81st INMA World Congress in New York.

Founded in 1930, INMA is the world's leading provider of global best practices and marketing ideas for news media companies looking to grow amid profound market change. It has over 5000 members, many of whom are top managers in leading global media companies.

90 campaigns by 72 newspapers were named as INMA Awards 2011 finalists across 10 categories, each with three sub-categories according to circulation. Several of the world's most famous publications were also shortlisted for awards, including The New York Times, The Times of India, The Straits Times, The Seattle Times, The Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and The Wall Street Journal.

Mixing traditional with non-traditional

BDFM's winning campaign, Keep Up, combined a traditional print media campaign with a non-traditional approach in order to bolster the Business Day readership and cement its position as a leading resource for well-informed businesspeople.

BDFM entered into a partnership with menswear store Gillani, which encompassed the tactical placement of both the Keep Up message and the Business Day product in-store.

"Being at work is not just about looking good - it's about what you know. For us, the partnership with Gillani explores the idea of the constant improvement of one's self and one's image," says BDFM marketing manager Tshego Malinga.

Malinga says BDFM now plans to replicate the Keep Up campaign, which only ran for a short period between September 2010 and March 2011.

"It's a fantastic marketing campaign, which has now garnered the unequivocal respect of our peers worldwide. It simply makes sense to keep it going, and present it in other places where the Business Day audience can be found," she says.

For a full list of winners go to http://www.inma.org/modules/awards/.