BJK&E has taken the unusual step of staging a competition for media
sales people to find the best media idea of the year for its client
DaimlerChrysler.
The media agency launched the DaimlerChrysler Media Idea of the Year
Award at a ’get to know you’ gathering of 70 media owners last week,
hosted by the client and account teams.
BJK&E is offering pounds 1,000 in prize money to the team that thinks up
the best media idea for the launch of the PT Cruiser which hits
showrooms in the summer 2000. Another pounds 1,000 is up for grabs for
the owner with the winning idea for the larger-scale launch of the
Mercedes C-class in the autumn, although the agency will ask both
recipients to donate a portion of their winnings to charity.
The winners of the competition, which BJK&E hopes to make an annual
event, will also receive a trophy.
Contenders will have a budget of pounds 100,000 to spend on their idea
which they cannot exceed. The competition money is in addition to the
pounds 20 million which DaimlerChrysler is ploughing in to media
planning and buying next year.
BJK&E will write a formal brief for entrants in a few weeks’ time. It
will then narrow ideas down to a shortlist of three teams who will
present to the clients: Mercedes-Benz passenger car marketing manager
Simon Oldfield and Steve Gray, marketing director of Chrysler Jeep.
’Poor old media owners are constantly coming up with ideas only to have
agencies claim them as their own,’ said BJK&E managing director Mark
Patterson.
’We are giving media owners a bit of recognition by actively involving
them in the process. The competition is about helping them to help us,
by encouraging different and more innovative ideas.’
The competition will be run jointly by board account director Tim Irwin,
who heads BJK&E’s newly formed buying team, and his opposite number on
the Chrysler account, James Jennings, with input from Patterson.
Stephen Miron, commercial director of The Independent, who was present
at the announcement of the award, welcomed the scheme. ’It’s a great
idea.
Many people, including us, will have a go - you’d be foolish not to and
I’ll be interested to see if any other agencies emulate it.’ However, he
joked: ’It’s a canny move on Mr Patterson’s part, he’ll benefit from a
lot of good ideas.’
