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Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore received the Maxwell Sackheim Best in Show Award last month at the 28th annual John Caples International Awards.

The consumer dimensional mailing, which also won a first-place Caples, was created for the Republic of Singapore Navy by Graham Kelly, Justine Lee, Jae Soh and Robin Tan.

In his welcoming remarks at the ceremony in New York, Caples General Chair Howard Draft noted the great number of overseas winners and said he was impressed by their quality. “Our colleagues deserve an enormous amount of credit for what they achieve.”

Draft also praised Caples founder Andi Emerson, who opened the event.

Emerson and John Caples were “ahead of their time” in linking creative with direct response, said Draft, CEO of Draft Inc. “Andi has raised the creative bar.”

He added that Emerson is “strong, opinionated, gutsy and has a wicked sense of humor, which I value the most.”

Alan Rosenspan of Rosenspan & Associates, Boston, received the Andi Emerson Award for lifetime outstanding service to the direct marketing and interactive professions. The award was presented by John A. Greco, president of the Direct Marketing Association.

“Alan has given a lot back to direct marketing,” Greco said. “He is dedicated to helping others succeed.”

The Courageous Client Award went to Stella Artois/ InBev U.K., and its agency Draft London, for “The Lost Souls Web Ring” campaign. The effort also won a first-place honor in the consumer multimedia campaign category.

The Irving Wunderman Award for lifetime creative achievement was won by Matt Shirtcliffe, creative director of AIM Proximity in Auckland, New Zealand.

A total of 121 winning campaigns were culled from a field of 1,056 direct marketing entries from 35 countries. Proximity's worldwide network, including Clemenger Proximity and CP Comunicacion, was the worldwide leader, receiving 24 Caples awards. OgilvyOne followed with 21, Arc Worldwide eight, Draft seven and Craik Jones six.

Five first-place Caples were awarded in the direct mail standard: consumer/under $400/M category:

• Tribal DDB GmbH of Hamburg, Germany for the “Changing Gear Without Interruption” campaign for Volkswagen A.G. Martin Drust, creative director/copywriter; Till Heumann, art director.

• OgilvyOne Worldwide, London, for the “I Reserve the Right” campaign for Mothercare. Rory Sutherland, creative director; Emma DeLa Fosse, copywriter; Charlie Wilson, art director; Bryan Nicholas, production manager.

• The Mr. John Sample agency of Barcelona, Spain for “White Mailing” created for Grandvalira Ski Resort. Borja Orozco, creative director; Mariano Chica, copywriter; Paül Paixa, art director.

• EHS Brann, London for the “Win Back Campaign” created for Tesco. Nigel Clifton, creative director; Peter Clarke, production manager.

• Network BBDO S.A. Johannesburg, South Africa for “Xray” created for Virgin Atlantic. Mike Schalit, creative director; Angie Batis, art director; Clinton Mitri, production manager; Michele Pithey, copywriter.

Other agencies receiving first-place Caples included Arc Worldwide London; Craik Jones Watson Mitchell Voelkel Ltd., London; Salem, São Paulo, Brazil; 20:20 London; Arc Worldwide Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur; OgilvyOne Brasil and Ogilvy Interactive, São Paulo, Brazil; OgilvyOne Worldwide, Madrid, Spain; bmf, Sydney, Australia; Proximity London; and CP Comunicacion Proximity, Madrid.

The Republic of Singapore Navy focuses its limited recruitment marketing budget on teenagers. To get their attention (and earn the Caples Best in Show), Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore focused on the chance to have a life of adventure, sending out personalized bound books with the message, ‘If your life was a book, would anyone read it?’ Inside was a personalized letter and a bookmark lift letter. The rest of the book was blank, to remind recipients they should ‘Join the Navy and lead a life that has the makings of a great story.’ Results were 71% above previous campaigns.

Children's retailer Mothercare showcased its new toddler clothing line with a mix-and-match book created by Ogilvy One Worldwide. The first-place campaign empathized with parents of toddlers who tended to dress themselves in their own particular fashion. Besides the book, Mothercare created Bank of Mothercare money, designed to increase the average amount spent per visit by 25%. The book was something parents and their toddlers wanted to play with — and it reached 300,000 homes on a tight budget. The result? The campaign doubled Mothercare's average transaction and generated a terrific return on investment.

Draft London developed ‘Lost Souls,’ an integrated campaign for Stella Artois beer involving space ads, ambient media, mobile technology and an all-important Web ring of 10 interlinked, unbranded Web sites to reach 18- to 24-year-olds. The media blitz centered on a single theme: Stella Artois is so ‘reassuringly expensive’ that you'd sell your soul for it. Participants were invited into the world of soul-selling, but first they had to register. After this, they could help find the lost soul of ‘Jon,’ as well as solve many technologically driven mysteries. The soft-sell-generated buzz garnered a first-place Caples for Draft London and the Courageous Client award for Stella Artois/InBev U.K.

CP Comunicacion Proximity created a two-part direct mail campaign for Volkswagen Audi Spain to alert VW's target market about the new, sportier Audi A4 Avant rollout. The first part of the winning campaign came from the ‘voice’ of the recipient's own home, which was ‘annoyed’ by the owner's buying an Audi A4 Avant and never being home. The follow-up, called ‘The House,’ went so far as to threaten to put up a ‘for sale’ sign in search of a new owner if the present one even looked at any materials coming from the Audi people. Like clockwork, three days later an Audi A4 Avant mailer arrived, offering a test drive.

In Malaysia, the five-star Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel was aiming for 100% occupancy on Christmas Eve. Its pitch was: Book a room at Sunway on Christmas Eve, party all night and don't worry about getting home safely. Arc Worldwide Malaysia won a first-place Caples by bringing this message to life with a dramatic hook. A few weeks before Christmas, realistic looking cutouts of Santa arms were placed under the tires of cars parked in local nightspots. On the flip side of the cutouts, Sunway made its offer: Wine and dine at any of Sunway's food and beverage outlets and enjoy a 50% discount on room rates on Christmas Eve (so you don't have to run over Santa…). Sunway was overbooked, with 13% of rooms taken up by guests who came in through the promotion and another 18% of late respondents being referred to Sunway's affiliated hotels.

Scare tactics helped 20:20 London win a first-place Caples for a campaign to launch a series in the ‘CSI: Crime Scene Investigation’ franchise for the United Kingdom's Channel Five. To stress the new ‘CSI: New York’ show wasn't for the faint of heart, 20:20 invented a new adversary, the Carbon-Copy Killer, who kills only people with the same name. Using personalization techniques, they were able to use the recipients' names as the killer's intended victims, an idea that was cutting-edge enough to build an instant audience of devoted viewers for the new show.