65th ANNUAL E&P/INMA AWARDS ANNOUNCED

By: Joanna Wolper Winners Honored In 17 Categories



Since the depression, except for a brief period during World War II,
Editor & Publisher has sponsored the E&P/INMA awards. But as fast
as things are moving in the world of news and information, one tradition
will remain the same. Even though BPI and its parent company, VNU,
bought the Editor and Publisher Co. in 1999 from the Robert U. Brown
family, the new corporate owners intend to continue the magazine's long
history of honoring the best in the newspaper marketing business.



'Since BPI also is the parent of Adweek magazine, we feel that
our commitment to good advertising and marketing in the newspaper
business will be greater than it ever has been,'says Bill Gloede, group
editor of Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek, both
publications of Adweek Magazines. 'At Adweek, we know good advertising
and we like what we have seen in this competition.'



This year the awards produced 1,370 entries in 17 different categories
from 209 newspapers in 27 countries. The judging was held in Vancouver,
British Columbia, where the Vancouver Province and Vancouver
Sun put together a team of local advertising and marketing
professionals to evaluate the entries and multi-lingual translators were
on hand to explain the foreign language campaigns.



The awards ceremony took place at the 70th annual INMA World Congress of
Newspaper Marketing on May 25 at The Fairmont Hotel in New Orleans. Top
overall awards were presented to Cape Times of Cape Town, South
Africa, for Excellence in Copywriting; Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, for Excellence in Graphic
Design; and The Australian, Surry Hills, NSW Australia for Best
of Show.



Some of last years winners were cited again for their creative marketing
concepts including Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung for this year's
rendition of its 'There's a clever mind behind it' brand campaign,
featuring celebrities hiding behind the newspaper in a highly
recognizable location. Hamilton, New Zealand's Waikato Times took
second place for another promotional gem from their inventive marketing
team and Kentucky's Lexington Herald-Leader in the U.S. returned
for the 15th year to claim another E&P/INMA award, this time in the
online promotion category.



As in previous years, several papers won more than one award. They were
led by Cape Argus, in Cape Town, South Africa, with five awards.
Cape Times, also of Cape Town, and the Daily Camera, in
Boulder, Colorado, each took home four.



Contest 2000 chairman Michael Kilgore had the opportunity to look over
all the entries and was inspired by the talent. 'There was some very
good work at the small papers,' observes the Tampa (Florida)
Tribune's marketing and communications director. 'The size of the
paper and the marketing budget obviously didn't prove to be a hindrance
to many enterprising and imaginative entrants.'



Kilgore and the judges concluded that some of the most creative work
came from outside of the United States, although he wasn't sure whether
the most unique ideas would increase sales. 'Those marketing and
promotion pieces pushed the boundaries and had a distinct edge to them,'
Kilgore notes. 'Whether that translates to successful marketing is
something those companies would have to answer, but the entries
certainly made for entertaining and provocative viewing.'



This year, INMA Executive Director Earl Wilkinson noticed something
different happening to the American entries in both strategy and style.
'There was a dramatic increase in quality from the smallest American
newspaper to the largest, and we saw many papers switching from product
to brand marketing,' Wilkinson says. 'We're no longer just motivating
sales for the moment but making the ground fertile for sales efforts
down the road.



'There is so much competition for the eyeballs of consumers,' Wilkinson
points out. 'Clearly the level of marketing in the past hasn't worked.
Ads today have to elicit an emotional response. They need to shock you.
Wake you up! Newspapers are starting to recognize that their ads have to
stand out and say. Look at me!'