2018 DBA Design Effectiveness Awards: Winners announced

With a 170% increase in distribution points in only 14 weeks, Carlsberg UK and Taxi Studio won the prestigious Grand Prix Award for the brand reinvigoration of Carlsberg.

Says Chairman of the Judges, Andrew Summers, “Carlsberg’s story shows just how design can turn around an ailing brand. A new proposition and premium rebrand oozed style and simplicity and have taken Carlsberg back to its roots. In a remarkably short time, Carlsberg turned from decline to growth, capturing the hearts of consumers and retailers.”

All 54 winning case studies can be viewed at www.effectivedesign.org.uk

Hosted by award winning journalist and broadcaster Samira Ahmed, with the keynote speech given by the Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards celebrate the power of design to drive business success.

Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport says, “Now more than ever, British design and innovation is shaping the world we live in. The DBA Design Effectiveness Awards are an annual recognition of some of the best of British design talent, and I congratulate all winners of this prestigious celebration of British creativity.”

In today’s challenging, fast moving markets with ever more discerning customers, design’s power to drive business success has never been more relevant. The DBA Design Effectiveness Award winners prove why design is a commercial imperative for any business of any size or sector.

Design driving growth in global businesses. 

At a time when many businesses are struggling to identify where future growth opportunities will come from, Danone’s Light & Free is an example of a global business valuing design’s intrinsic ability to react to the challenges of changing markets to unearth opportunity and drive growth.

With perceptions towards health changing, Light & Free’s stylish design by Dragon Rouge won over millennials. Smashing the rules of the diet category, 3.9 million households tried the brand within 32 weeks and it achieved the highest penetration of all yoghurt innovations in the last four years. (Gold Award winner)

Design bringing brands to life experientially.

As customers become ever more selective, their personal reaction to a brand, business or service can be pivotal to success. For AB InBev’s Budweiser, achieving an emotional connection with consumers with its bold ‘AmeriCan’ design reversed the brand’s sales declines, delivering sales volume growth for the first time since 2015. The limited edition packaging design by Jones Knowles Ritchie created vast amounts of media buzz – it secured 1.6 billion earned impressions worldwide and was seen by more people than the 2015 and 2016 Super Bowls combined.  (Gold Award winner)

Design that’s good for business is also good for government.

In a post-Brexit economy, design will be a critical driver for growth. As buying organisation YPO has seen, design investment can be a catalyst for business expansion – opening up markets and growing workforces. YPO’s new proposition ‘Public Value Champions’ and branding by Thompson Brand Partners elevated its profile nationally. A more modern, sophisticated personality resulted in 384% increase in associate members (up from 13 to 63) and its UK wide growth has seen its workforce swell by 12% with 57 new jobs created.  (Gold Award winner)

Design breathing new life into brands and businesses.

With rapidly changing markets, once thriving businesses and brands can find themselves losing relevance. Design can reinvigorate a business back to growth, as Taxi Studio’s contemporary new design for Carlsberg demonstrates. With a shrinking lager market and a rise in discerning drinkers searching for premium alternatives, Carlsberg was in crisis, losing its position at the bar and on the shelf. Carlsberg Export’s new premium feel, transformed its outlook. Before the new visual identity, Export had 3,240 distribution points in Grocery customers – within only 14 weeks of launch it had over 9,000 and most significantly was re-listed in Sainsbury’s after a five-year absence.  (Gold Award winner)

Design proving its power to persuade.

Customer and citizen decisions hinge on a business or service’s power to persuade and Elmwood’s brand identity and awareness campaign for Homeward Bound did just that. With a vision to increase the influence of women in climate change decision-making, Elmwood and Homeward Bound created an emotive identity and message ‘Mother Nature Needs her Daughters’. The rallying cry sparked conversations globally: over 450 million media impressions have been achieved to date with no media or advertising-spend and the movement has had more than the cumulative media coverage recorded for women in science, ever.  (Gold Award winner)

Design as the critical enabler for competitive advantage.

 In any marketplace, only one business or brand can be the cheapest, the others need to differentiate to stand out from competitors and succeed. Software provider Advanced and Graymatter certainly achieved this with their highly unique and creative approach to a new proposition ‘right-first-time-solutions’. To achieve greater recall amongst their CEO target, they gave the campaign a humorous and creatively driven twist. FairITales was a risky strategy, but it had a happy ending: a sales pipeline of £3.93 million was achieved, 293% up on a target of £1 million.  (Gold Award winner)

Design as the fast growth imperative for start-ups.

As a fresh-faced start up business, Brew York needed to build recognition in a highly competitive market. United by Design’s eye-catching branding and packaging delivers shelf-standout and enabled Brew York to smash its five year production growth plan within only 16 months. The speed of on and off trade sales have resulted in the craft brewery exceeding their business plan over three years early and entering the top 45% of SIBA (Society of Independent Brewers) members for the highest turnover, within the first year of trading.  (Gold Award winner)

Design realising business opportunity.

Raspberry Pi’s Official Case for their low-cost, high-performance computer has created a world of opportunity and demonstrates how potent the addition of design to a technology product can be. In just two years the sleek, fun case designed by Kinneir Dufort has generated profits of £725,000 for the Raspberry Pi Foundation. But beyond that, it has also created new ways to bundle the core products to reach new consumers, and whilst not setting out to become a brand, the Official Case has strengthened Raspberry Pi’s position by creating a distinct and recognisable visual identity.  (Gold Award winner)

Special Awards

In addition to the Grand Prix which was won by Carlsberg and Taxi Studio for the brand reinvigoration of Carlsberg, two other special awards were presented on the night.

Elmwood received the Top of the League Award recognising the most impressive cumulative performance from an agency over the last three years.

And the International Export Award, which is presented for the most effective piece of work undertaken by an agency for an overseas client, went to Zumtobel Group and GW+Co for THORNeco: Meet the family.

Judging panel 

This year’s judging panel included Paul Edwards, Head of Design and Brand Management, Airbus, Peter Fossick, Service Design Programme Director, IBM, Julie Dixon, Head of Marketing and Communications, Transport for London, Elif Yigit, Country Marketing Director UKIRE, HP, Bruce Daisley VP EMEA, Twitter, Darren Henley, Chief Executive, Arts Council England, Caroline Norbury, Chief Executive, Creative England amongst other leading figures. View the full judging panel 

Further details

To receive further details about the Design Effectiveness Awards and to register your interest to enter, please email awards@dba.org.uk

Table of winners: