McCann Central scoops four Drum Awards shortlists

Awards season is well underway and we're thrilled to share that McCann Central has received four shortlists in the Drum Awards Festival 2024. The shortlists include McCann Bristol, McCann Demand, UM Birmingham, and UM Central.

• The Electoral Commission 'Show it off' by McCann Demand - Media: Government and Public Sector
• Acer 'Swap argh for ahh' by McCann Central and UM Central - Media: Programmatic​
• Brittany Ferries by UM Bristol - Media: Travel and Tourism
• The Testicular Cancer Society 'Highlight your balls' by UM Birmingham - Media: Content

These shortlists mark an enormous milestone with three of our media offices nominated in one awards festival for the first time.

Kevin Murphy, Group Managing Director Media, said "The shortlists are a true testament to the skill of our people and the quality of the output across our UM Central network. We also recently received three Media Week shortlists as well as seven Cannes Lions shortlists and one Silver Lion earlier this year, and we couldn't be prouder of our teams and clients."

The winners will be announced between 11th-14th November during the awards festival.

About the campaigns

The Electoral Commission 'Show it off' - Media: Government and Public Sector

The Electoral Commission needed to execute a campaign for the local government elections in a market where it had become clear that the UK population was becoming increasingly disillusioned with politics. Our challenge was to overcome this and re-establish the norm of registering to vote as well as embed a sense of pride in doing so. Combining creative and media effectiveness principles to create impact amongst a hugely diverse audience set, we built out the strategic pillars of awareness, engagement and action, constructing a connected ecosystem to establish registering to vote as a norm. The goal was to inform and motivate under-registered demographic groups as well as all other eligible voters to register to vote. Our messaging was delivered via a multi-channel media approach designed to normalise a culture of registration. We activated across universally high-indexing channels; social media, outdoor (digital and traditional), display, video, TV/BVOD, radio, print, audio, and paid search. Conscious inclusivity was a key tenement in our strategic framework; for example, our ads were in English and Welsh to uphold the law of the Welsh Language standards, as well as providing audio descriptive files for those who may need them. Targeting tactics enabled us to reach key under-registered groups such as young people, recent movers, and ethnic minorities to close the registration gaps. Over 1 million people registered to vote, delivering over 459 million impressions and more than 510,000 clicks. Our campaign smashed the 800K goal across England and Wales, surpassing expectations and ensuring we delivered democracy

Acer 'Swap argh for ahh' - Media: Programmatic

We’ve been working with Acer on their Chromebook range for 2 years, with the brief to increase consideration of Chromebook and grow sales of Acer’s range. Easy right? Well, when your product sits in a category that many people don’t think of when considering a new laptop, there are many barriers blocking a path to growth. Our audiences also ranged from Gen Z students through to retired people, as Acer has a Chromebook for everyone’s needs. Year 1 laid the foundations to grow consideration for consumers to switch to a Chromebook and think of Acer, through a brand-weighted launch campaign. In Year 2 we needed a campaign that would allow us to balance brand AND demand for the Chromebook range. To deliver on this objective, we built on our original strategy to ‘Prime’ and ‘Tempt’ audiences, with the added focus of ‘Convert’ in 2023-24; this was activated through a digital-first channel strategy, Perceptual Scale, that enabled the campaign to reach and engage all audiences. With clients focused on increasing Demand, our biggest challenge was how could we measure performance? This was a challenge as conversions were taking place on retail partner websites and not directly on Acer’s website, meaning we could not track to the final purchase. To overcome this, Acer created a bespoke microsite that directed audiences to purchase via the retail partner of their choice, enabling us to track the journey out to retail partners and measure more accurately their interest and intent to purchase.

Brittany Ferries - Media: Travel and Tourism

Brittany Ferries have been on a journey post-pandemic. After turnover more than halved in 2020 and 2021, they’ve embarked on a strong recovery but now face new challenges from a buoyant airline market, soaring media budgets, and increased global interconnectivity. By sea, competition is rife on their key channel routes with increased pricing aggregators such as Direct Ferries fuelling price wars from lower-cost ferry providers; DFDS and P&O. 

With an ambition to grow bookings and revenue YoY, there were choppy waters ahead. First, we needed to change category perceptions on why ferry travel is the best way of travelling to Western Europe destinations. Second, we needed to prove why Brittany Ferries was worth paying a premium for, particularly in a cost-of-living crisis, with consumer confidence at a record low. McCann Bristol were perfectly placed to deliver on this challenge, managing all of Brittany Ferries’ full funnel media activity, under-taking their strategic work, completing their audience segmentation and brand tracking, as well as winning the RTB for their creative work over the campaign period. The results of the campaign exemplify why we are a true agency partner, working together with Brittany Ferries to deliver growth.

The Testicular Cancer Society 'Highlight your balls' - Media: Content

An estimated 1 in 250 men will face testicular cancer in their lifetime. Early detection is crucial for a high survival rate. This makes self-checks vital. However, traditional awareness campaigns often fail to resonate with the men most at risk aged 15-35. How can you develop a disruptive campaign that grabs the attention of this tricky demographic, while raising awareness of testicular cancer, and communicates this life-saving information effectively? Two words: Football and humour. Leveraging the power of football, the favourite sport of many young men worldwide, and humour, UM and FP7 strategically placed self-check mid-roll ads within YouTube free-kick highlight videos. Recognising the tendency of defenders to cover their ‘sensitive’ areas for protection during free kicks, we saw our opportunity. Our media and creative strategy unexpectedly hijacked the growing trend of fan-owned football media “watchalongs” - where fans watch their favourite YouTubers watch a live match, to deliver culturally relevant, playful, and witty self-check tutorials. This strategically brought our awareness messaging to life, cutting through the noise through attention-grabbing content and delivering a timely, crucial message that resonated with men at moments of extremely high attention during Testicular Cancer Awareness Month. The 'Highlight Your Balls' campaign achieved 42 million impressions, turbocharging brand perception and consumer engagement. We significantly boosted user engagement, with a 30% increase in acquisition and a 92% rise in homepage interactions. Donations surged, showing a 338% increase. Champion!