Sydney’s QVB led the pack at Friday night’s Australian Catalogue Awards, along with Myer and RB sellers. Held at Melbourne’s Docklands, catalogue of the year honours went to:

· QVB (distribution up to 1.5 million) for its ‘The Era of Glamour’ catalogue from QME Publishing agency; and

· RB Sellers (1.5 million – 3.5 million) for its ‘Outback to Ocean – Spring/Summer 2012’ catalogue from In House agency; and

· Myer (over 3.5 million) for its ‘Jump in its Christmas’ catalogue by BADJAR Ogilvy.

In the supermarket wars Coles and Woolworths split the honours with a win each. Coles won the award for supermarkets, and Woolworths was judged best in the over 250,000 categories of supermarkets, liquor, and/or produce. Aldi won the miscellaneous section.

Kellie Northwood, executive director of the Australian Catalogue Association, said the awards were a terrific opportunity for the industry to recognise its variety and strengths.

“The awards provide a unique environment in which our industry, that includes so many professions, gathers to acknowledge the intelligence and creativity involved in producing what remains one of the most popular and effective marketing mediums,” she said.

“It’s tremendous to see some of Australia’s leading retailers, agencies, printers, and distributors among the finalists and winners, emphasising the skill and creativity behind catalogues,” she said.

The award for agency of the year went to M&C Saatchi over finalists Badjar Ogilvy, Cumming Agency & Studios, and Generic Publications.

Badjar Ogilvy created campaigns for Myer, which took out four categories, including two major awards – over 3.5 million and campaign series. M&C Saatchi worked with David Jones to win four titles for the retail giant and seven overall, with wins in the categories of special event or theme and fashion accessories and personal.

Tom McFarlane, M&C Saatchi regional creative director, said catalogues are still a powerful media. “For retailers, catalogues provide the opportunity to communicate both product and brand messages to an undistracted audience. “They have tremendous cut through when compared to other platforms, however, we’ve always maintained that they are best utilised as part of the multi-channel offering a foundation to work with other mediums such as TV, radio and digital.”

Catalogues remain the fourth largest channel to market, with a weekly audience reach of up to 18.25 million Australians.

Other winners for the evening included Saara Lemmetty, Generic Publications (best young designer), Dick Smith (electronics and/or office supplies), Mitre 10 (hardware), Vintage Cellars (direct marketing), Country Road (uncoated paper) and the St Andrews Private Golf Club (technology on paper).