• Press

Press Room

Maxewll Sackheim Best In Show Award Goes to I DO In 29th Annual John Caples International Awards Competition

EMBARGOED until March 8, 2007, 9:45 pm New York time - The Caples Maxwell Sackheim Best in Show Award was awarded to the brilliant "Cyriel (84) needs a job" business standard Direct Mail piece (under $500/M) produced for business newspaper, De TIJD by agency I DO of Brussels, Belgium. Agency creative credits go to Creative Director Johan Verest; Copywriter Johan Verest; Art Director Laurent Van Loon and Adriaan Van Looy; and Production Manager Stefaan Dufoer.

The Maxwell Sackheim Best of Show is given to honor the creators of a promotion that combine known techniques in a breakthrough manner. The rules say that Caples entries are scored on a point system -- not a curve. And the Maxwell Sackheim Best in Show is awarded to the highest scoring creative campaign.

Business newspaper, De TIJD, published a brochure about pensions, explaining how to build up a sufficient pension after retirement. The challenge was to get HR managers to purchase this brochure in order to offer it to their employees. Their agency, I DO, found a unique and apt way into the hearts and minds of their target market, HR managers who published their job offers in the newspaper.

Every HR manager who published such a job offer found, among hundreds of letters from real candidates, a letter from one Cyriel Van Steenbergen, aged 84. In this letter, hand-written in old-fashioned, business-formal language, Cyriel posted for the job. This was alarming enough for HR managers, but then on the last page came the punchline: a message that said, "Save your employees from having to do like Cyriel. Prevent them from having to look for a job when they retire. Offer your employees our brochure now."

The results of this mailing were as hard-working as the most stellar new employee: 2,800 brochures were sold, which is 24% higher than brochure sales for De TIJD on any other day. The brilliance of this mailing - and its ingenious way of reaching HR managers - not only wins a First Place Caples Award but gets the Maxwell Sackheim Best in Show Award.

About The Caples

The John Caples International Awards competition and ceremony, now in its 29th year, awards the individual creative members of direct and interactive marketing teams judged to have created the most innovative solutions to real-time marketing challenges.

Ian Baer, Managing Director of i-Crossing, has presided over the 29th Annual John Caples International Awards competition and ceremony as the year-long General Chair. The John Caples competition annually receives in excess of 1,000 entries. With the help of XX Caples national and regional chairpersons in XX countries, the Caples competition is then solely judged by more than 100 creative professionals in three rounds of judging. Critically, these creatives evaluate the creative campaign entries by reading about the problem that had to be creatively resolved and then touching, feeling and viewing the actual work - rather than viewing digital synopses, as in other shows.

The yearly cycle of activities for The John Caples competition includes a Call for Entries created on a pro bono basis. This year's Call for Entries was created by Proximity of London. It was sent to creatives around the world at the end of the 3rd quarter, with a Caples entry submission deadline of September 30; then judging in New York City during the first part of November; and a John Caples Awards Ceremony in New York City.

The 29th Caples Night Award Party will be held Thursday, March 8th, 2007 from 4:45 PM to 9:45 PM at the Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011. For reservations, call 516-746-6700, x210. For more information, visit the Caples web site at www.caples.org.