The award is the second James E. Burke Award in two years for the agency and Matt Riley, head of strategic planning attributes it to a close partnership with Johnson & Johnson that begins at the business planning stage.

“This allows us to drive the total brand behaviour and not just communication. As a team our brands are behaving differently and the effectiveness of recent campaigns is testimony to the power of a total brand and business solution from consumer to sales.”

The mobile campaign was launched to support a new product and packaging drive for Stayfree. To encourage joining the Stayfree portal, girls were offered free mobile airtime after completion of a quick survey on how they found Stayfree on Mxit. “Airtime is an incredibly valuable commodity in the lives of teen girls and using this draw card, we attracted 10 000 girls to the channel in the first 10 days,” says Riley.

By the end of the campaign Stayfree had a community of over 113 000 teen girls using the channel to find the product that suited them best, reading the ‘frequently asked questions’ and asking questions of their own. In addition, redemption of the airtime was purchase dependent which drove increased trial from in store.

“We’re thrilled at the outcome of the campaign, and that’s why we chose to enter into the James E. Burke Awards – we’re impressed at the immense gathering of teen girls on the channel and we’re excited to see how this group can be activated going forward,” says Jeanette Koller, portfolio manager at Johnson & Johnson.