CHICAGO, June 26, 2007—Slack Barshinger, a leading business-to-business marketing communications agency, was named one of four winners of the Business Marketing Association’s (BMA) Pro-Comm Silver Sledgehammer Awards for a trade show campaign on behalf of its client, Aon Corporation.
The agency also captured a total of eight additional Pro-Comm awards for its creative work in integrated marketing communications, public relations, interactive marketing, trade-show marketing, and print and online advertising.
The inaugural Silver Sledgehammer Awards, presented at BMA’s National Conference in Las Vegas June 13-15, recognize excellence in business marketing. Of the 149 winning Pro-Comm entries, only four are chosen to receive the Silver Sledghammer Award in the Best of Category (Corporate/Brand/Integrated, Print, Trade Show/Special Event/Promotion and Online/On-Air).
The award honored an integrated campaign produced on behalf of Aon Corporation for its exhibition at the Risk and Insurance Management Society’s (RIMS) 2006 Annual Conference. The program helped generate 1,000 leads from the 2,727 in attendance at the show, making it Aon’s most successful RIMS conference yet.
In addition, the Aon initiative won a Best of Division accolade in BMA’s Pro-Comm Awards, a gold and two silvers in BMA/Chicago’s Tower Awards, a Sizzle award from Exhibitor Magazine and a gold in the Event Marketer Ex Awards.
Relying on clever, non-traditional tactics themed around the board game RISK®, the program used direct mail, an interactive game for show attendees and brochures to produce a 6-to-1 return on the campaign’s budget. Garnering a total of three Tower awards, the campaign was especially notable because it did not rely on advertising.
“We are honored to be selected one of four agencies to win the prestigious Sledgehammer Award, in addition to the other awards for our Aon campaign,” said Gary Slack, chairman and chief experience officer of Slack Barshinger. “Our wins across multiple marketing communications disciplines truly recognize our dedication to providing top-notch, integrated marketing programs to our clients.”
Slack Barshinger received eight other ProComm awards in the following categories:
“Best of Division”
- Division 21, Ad, 3-4C Spread or Larger, Between $50K and $100K - Underwriters Laboratories
- Division 38, Special Promotions - Aon
- Division 41, Public Relations Campaign - DMI
- Division 43, Exhibit - Tellabs
“Awards of Excellence”
- Division 15, Ad Campaign, 3-4C, Under $200K - CareerBuilder.com
- Division 17, Ad, 1/4 or 1/3 Page, B&W or Color - CareerBuilder.com
- Division 42, Single PR Effort - Hoffman
- Division 53, Podcast - BMA/Chicago
“Best of Division” awards were awarded to 42 companies and 31 agencies for having the highest rated entry in a division. In addition, “Awards of Excellence” were awarded to 73 companies and 39 agencies for their outstanding efforts in various types of business-to-business communications.
The top agency winners included Slack Barshinger (Chicago), Adcomm Group (Orland Park, Ill.), Bader Rutter & Associates (Milwaukee), Davis Harrison Dion (Chicago), Eric Mower and Associates (Syracuse, N.Y.), Fergus/Peters Group (Des Plaines, Ill.), HSR Business to Business, Inc. (Cincinnati), Mobium Creative Group (Chicago) and Sullivan Higdon & Sink (Wichita, Kan.).
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About Slack Barshinger
Slack Barshinger is an integrated marketing communications agency that works exclusively with business-to-business marketers to build strong brands and efficiently identify, create and grow profitable customers. Founded in 1988 and based in Chicago, the agency’s 80-person staff works expertly across the entire marketing communications spectrum, combining deep expertise in demand creation with new marketing technologies to build solutions-neutral programs that deliver predictable ROI. In 2006, the agency was named Agency of the Year by the Business Marketing Association and has been named one of the Top Three Midsize Agencies in the country for three consecutive years by Crain’s BtoBmagazine.