The Australasian Catalogue Association (ACA) hosted its 27th Annual ACA Awards last Friday night, highlighting a strong focus on effective marketing with the addition of new categories – Point of Sale, Customer Insights and Corporate Social Responsibility.
The event, held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre’s prestigious Melbourne Room, was a successful evening celebrating print as a strong marketing platform in Australia and New Zealand. With an attendance of over 600 guests, the room was filled with retailers, creatives, agencies, printers and distributors all awaiting to hear who had been crowned as award winners of the night. Australia’s funny-man, Dave O’Neil, kept everyone entertained as Master of Ceremonies throughout the 41-category ceremony.
David Jones, Myer and Aldi came out swinging winning Retailers of the Year across their sectors with finalists including Malouf Pharmacies, Nutrimetics, Travel Associates, Vodafone, Adairs, Beacon Lighting, Domayne, Dan Murphy’s, Harvey Norman, Big W, Kmart and Woolworths.
Andrew Egan, Group GM Marketing, Myer commented “Congratulations to the Myer team! Catalogue and loyalty marketing is a powerful channel for Myer and we’d like to thank the ACA and everyone involved for their generous recognition tonight.”
Not only did Aldi win ‘Catalogue Retailer of the Year – Over 3.5 Million’, but the brand was victorious once again in the ‘Supermarkets’ sector up against Finalists Woolworths and Metcash – IGA. “We are honoured to win the title of Retailer of the Year. We’re incredibly proud of our efforts and are thrilled to be among such credible names. Well done to the BMF team for producing outstanding work that is recognised by industry leaders,” commented Sophia Coghlan, Creative Director, ALDI.
The night was not all Awards as the major announcement of the evening was that the ACA will merge with two other industry Associations, APIA and TSA Limited, to form The Real Media Collective. ‘Real’ media pays homage to the physical nature of print, and ‘real’ connecting with real results, return on investment, engagement and activation.
“Retailers are continuing to push the print boundaries through in-store displays, use of customer insight and sustainable measures to achieve success. The awards tonight recognised the retailers working the media hardest and achieving real results for their efforts. As we enter our first year as The Real Media Collective, we look forward to what the next year will bring from retailers as we begin to develop our awards program into The Real Media Awards,” concluded Northwood.
