Since 1986, the profile of The Economist has been enhanced - and its circulation and advertising revenues significantly boosted – by one of the longest-running and most admired poster advertising campaigns of recent times. Its success has broken a cardinal rule of advertising which says that you can’t build a brand through posters. Advertising revenue increased by 250 per cent between 1988 and 2000. UK circulation increased by around 25 per cent over ten years from 94,916 in 1990 to 128,187 in 2000. The series has also been a serial award winner at D&AD, with the Silver Award-winning ‘Smarties’ poster at the 2001D&AD Awards the latest in a long line of success.

In the mid-1990s, Volkswagen UK shifted its advertising strategy from a unified marque campaign to focus on the three models: Golf, Polo and Passat. The VW Passat has benefited in particular from this new approach. A model once seen as boring and run of the mill in the big saloon car sector has been given a new image as meticulously designed and engineered, initially with the ‘Car born of obsession’ campaign and later with the ‘Passat - German for detail’ and ‘Beautifully crafted’ campaigns. A key feature of the VW Passat turnaround was the integrated nature of the communication campaign, with TV and press advertising, direct mail and web marketing all taking their lead from the same big creative idea. Passat work has featured regularly in the D&AD Awards. Two TV commercials produced by BMP DDB, ‘Driving Test’ and ‘Dog’, and a direct marketing piece ‘Schoolbook’ by BHWG Proximity aimed at fleet buyers, are included in the 2001 D&AD Annual.

With more than 12 million customers in the UK, the challenge facing mobile phone operator Vodafone was not so much to increase subscribers but to release potential sales from the existing customer base. One way to do this was to persuade people to listen to their voice mail and ring people back. Direct marketing agency Harrison Troughton Wunderman’s innovative campaign, ‘Turn on Your Voicemail’, sent 250,000 mailers to households across the UK in autumn 2000. As a result, one in ten people who received the mailer pack activated their voicemail, generated more business for Vodafone. The project was nominated for a Silver Award in the 2001 D&AD Awards. As a result, one in ten people who received the mailer pack activated their voicemail, generated more business for Vodafone. The project was nominated for a Silver Award in the 2001 D&AD Awards.

Britart was set up to offer an alternative to traditional art galleries and become the world's largest internet art gallery, britart.com. Mother was appointed to create its launch advertising campaign. Witty and smart, this used a range of techniques including flyposters on street furniture to create ‘instant art’ and convey the message that that britart.com can make original art both accessible and affordable. As a result, britart.com page views per month rose from 40,000 to 300,000 in just six weeks and monthly sales grew 20-fold. The campaign won a Gold Award in the 2001 D&AD Awards, an unprecedented achievement for a low-budget project which largely avoided paid-for media and used the relatively unsung discipline of ambient media.