Cardiff-based communications agency Equinox has been able to add the title of ‘Best Marketing Campaign in Wales’ to its collection of awards won with Cadw, the Welsh Government’s historic environment service, for its Lego®-themed Pack Your Imagination campaign.

The creative campaign was commended at The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)’s Canmol: Wales Marketing Awards, which took place at Cardiff City Stadium last Friday (6 November).

Having been already announced as winners of the ‘Arts, Heritage and Creative Industries’ category, Equinox was then chosen from the pool of Canmol winners as the ‘Best of the Best’ – landing themselves a place representing Wales in the CIM’s UK-wide CIM Marketing Excellence awards in April.

Capitalising on the popularity of Lego, the Pack Your Imagination campaign used creative multimedia techniques – including creation of a stop-motion animation video of a Caernarfon Castle replica being built from 60,000 Lego bricks – to capture family audiences.

The campaign surpassed all targets set, generating huge amounts of media coverage in Wales, the UK, and even the US, which helped send family visitors to Cadw sites soaring 45%.

Equinox Director and Head of Communications, Zara Cottle, said:

“Equinox prides itself in being at the forefront of multimedia content creation in Wales, and working alongside Cadw on Pack Your Imagination gave the team scope to exercise their creative flair in the most spectacular way. “An incredible amount of work and dedication went into making the campaign a success and the results speak for themselves. Having the project recognised in this way helps polish off an incredible year of successes for the agency.”

Joining Equinox in its Canmol success were seven other marketing teams from a mix of public sector organisations, renowned Welsh brands and SMEs.

Winners included Swansea University, Jamjar PR, Arriva Trains Wales – who picked up a gong in the Tourism, Hotels, Leisure and Destination Marketing category for the second year in a row – The Wallich, The Media Angel and Marketing Clarity.

Sophia Al Janabi of DS Smith Recycling was also awarded the coveted title of ‘New Marketer’ for her achievements promoting the firm’s ‘Zero Waste’ concept to potential customers. While a standing ovation ensued for marketing consultant Richard Houdmont, who was awarded a special award for ‘Outstanding Contribution’ to the industry over the length of his career.

A panel of 11 business and marketing experts were responsible for selecting the winners under the Chairmanship of Professor Deacon, South Wales Business School, University of South Wales and Trustee of CIM.

Prof Deacon said:

“The Canmol awards are designed to celebrate the outstanding business results that have been achieved over the past year through innovative and creative marketing. “The strength of this year’s winning campaigns demonstrates to me the wealth of marketing talent working within the sector in Wales today, a prospect that is hugely exciting for the future development of our industry. I’d like to congratulate all the winners and encourage them to continue working hard to set the benchmark for marketers across the country.”

For more information about Canmol and this year’s winners, visit the Canmol website. Follow @Canmol on Twitter and join the conversation by using hashtag #Canmol2015. You can view a film from the Canmol 2015 event and interviews with all the finalists on the Canmol YouTube Channel.

Full list of Canmol 2015 Winners:

(Case studies available for all winners – please get in touch)