Four of the best but which campaign won the FOM Manchester vote?

At Future of Media Manchester’s Media Plan panel, four industry experts presented their favourite campaigns, underlining what made them so effective. The audience then voted on which campaign they thought was the best.

Sky’s Laura Peterson, Digital Cinema Media’s Jordan Owens, Nik Wheatley from Notorious and Dan Ginns from Verve each came prepared with a recent or classic campaign they believed was not only effective but also had significant implications for the future of the industry.

Sky Media and Boots

First up was Laura Peterson, the head of investment at Sky Media. She presented a campaign for Boots online doctor, created in partnership with Sky Media, which spotlighted men’s mental health.

It features a series of interviews recorded for the Sky Sports Premier League YouTube channel with footballers, including Dan Burn, Ollie Watkins, Jordan Pickford, Jarrod Bowen, and Eberechi Eze.

Peterson stressed that the campaign’s effectiveness was due to its ability to target an audience passionate about football. Moreover, Peterson outlined that tapping into specific passion points and communities can help strengthen a campaign’s reach and resonance.

Digital Cinema Media and Royal Air Force

Next up was Jordan Owens, the regional business director for Digital Cinema Media (DCM). He championed the Royal Air Force’s ‘Thrill Seekers’ sponsorship of Cineworld, created by DCM to get young people excited about careers in the RAF.

The campaign features immersive cinema experiences, such as Cineworld’s 4DX format and anamorphic technology, which creates the illusion of a fighter jet emerging from the screen without the need for 3D glasses.

Owens explained why he believed these features were so effective in targeting younger audiences and maximising the incremental attentive reach cinema offers.

Notorious Communications and Peroni

The third campaign choice came from Nik Wheatley, co-founder of Notorious Communications. Wheatley chose a campaign he’d helped to develop for Peroni in 2006.  The ad is based on the iconic “La Dolce Vita” lifestyle of 1960s Italy, evoking a sense of Italian glamour and style.

Wheatley outlined how this campaign exemplifies the ability for media planners to define what a brand can be, highlighting how, in this case, the aim was to paint Peroni as ‘the Prada of beers’, creating a luxury phenomenon around the brand.

Verve and Yellow Pages

Lastly, Dan Ginns, VP of brands and agencies for Verve, chose to champion the J.R. Hartley Yellow Pages campaign from 1983. The goal of the ad was to shift the perception of the Yellow Pages listings directory from an emergency-only service to one useful for finding leisure items.

It became a culturally significant and beloved ad, and Ginn highlighted how the campaign effectively balances pulling at heartstrings with driving the functional outcome for the brand.

So which campaign won?

To find out, you’ll need to watch the video below.

The key takeaway from this session, however, was that whether it’s a timeless classic or a creative fuelled by new technology, how you tell the brand story counts for everything.

Wheatley underlined this, stating: “It comes back to this, you’ve got to get the basics right. You’ve got to have really good quality storytelling and media experiences that make it feel like it’s important to people.”