Jericho is tickled pink (or should that be gold?) to announce their success at the 2011 Nexus Awards. Along with their client, Advintage, Jericho was recognised with Nexus Gold for marketing products and services, and Nexus Bronze for production and fulfilment.

The ‘Advintage Advantage’ Project is an advanced ecommerce and integrated messaging solution that Jericho developed for leading wine retailer Advintage.
The Judging panel was highly impressed, commending Jericho and Advintage for developing a market led solution that has profoundly simplified the existing Advintage business model. Watch the video about this project.

The win reinforces the benefits of a digital led strategy for business and points to a growing chasm between those who are willing to invest in a significant online presence and those who do not. Recent data shows that 85% of New Zealanders turn to the web to research products and of those 72% are already happy to buy online (B).
Yet, 68% of New Zealand businesses don’t even have a website, and 91% of businesses don’t sell online (A).

The Award winning entry showed how investment in a digital-first approach can lead to spectacular results for small business.

Though already positioned as a leading e-commerce reseller, Advintage recognised that in a fast changing and increasingly competitive market, a technological edge was vital to long term success. The company turned to Jericho, their long term digital partner, for a solution. Their response was a radical new Automated Marketing System (AMS) that would integrate all of Advintage’s digital marketing, accounting and logistical operations. The AMS would not only provide cost efficiencies, and improve order processing and fulfilment times but it would allow non-technical Advintage staff developer level control of their online communication suite (e-commerce website, and email marketing bulletins). This provided the company with a faster route to market, while the integration of the accounting and logistical operations meant Advintage staff could process and dispatch previously unthinkable volumes in a given trading day.

Using these powerful new tools, a single Advintage email campaign generated sales of more than 1,250 cases of Martinborough Pinot Noir in just 9 days – a volume Advintage couldn’t dream of turning around prior to the implementation of the new ecommerce solution.

Jericho, a digital specialist agency based in Ponsonby, has “a 100% on return on marketing investment.” says Jericho’s Jeff Mann. “The NEXUS Awards focus on the foundations on which measurable campaigns are based: strategic vision, innovation, customer and market insight, response-driven marketing tools and techniques. We love that, because you have to put your money where your mouth is – the numbers don’t lie. If you’re not producing results it’s there in black and white for everyone to see.” Still, being up against massive budgets and huge teams meant there was no guarantee of a win. “We have a 30 plus strong team, and Advintage just 6 staff! We’re pretty happy we could help Advintage get the measure of the big boys.”

Advintage has been at the leading edge of online wine sales since launching their first email campaign more than a decade ago.
“As a wine reseller we are a gatekeeper of quality. All we think about is providing our clients with compelling wine deals at every price point”. Advintage owner John Macpherson continues. “But as a business, we’ve never been scared of investing in technologies. It keeps us ahead of the game. We’ve been a Jericho client since 2000 and their drive to innovate makes them a demanding but exciting partner to work with. We are lucky to have this world class agency in New Zealand.”

A) MYOB Business Websites in NZ

B) AUT World Internet Project released 31Dec 2012

C) Latest Retail Spending (rest of Nth Is excluding AKL, Ham, and WEL) growth 0.6% last quarter in 2012) Statistics NZ

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2009 Vero Business Excellence Award winners

Jericho consolidated their reputation as New Zealand's leading provider of business email design and delivery services on May 28, by winning the Excellence in Business Support Award for the 1 to Many Business Services category at the 2009 Vero Excellence in Business Awards held in Auckland.

The win signifies industry-wide confirmation that Jericho has been at the forefront of digital marketing for the past 8 years. Jericho’s Smartmail solution is a favourite with companies of all types and the Auckland-based team manages the design and delivery of online communications for Telecom, The Warehouse, Ezibuy and FlyBuys along with another 600 plus clients.

The independent judging panel from the New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation said Jericho’s commitment to business support is clearly demonstrated at all levels of the business.

In accepting the Award from Prime Minister John Key, Jericho’s Roanne Parker said “… each day we’re challenged to deliver ambitious projects that integrate, deliver exceptional ROI and get those companies far ahead of their competitors. The entry process forced us to look up and think about how we work. It’s benchmarked us against 5 other finalists and being recognised for our commitment to business support is humbling.”

The award, which saw Jericho beating out finalists including last year’s winners, the much-vaunted Xero, will be welcomed by Jericho’s latest Smartmail converts – APN’s NZ Herald, Ministry of Transport and the Mitre 10 group – who have joined the stellar client list already working with Jericho in the dynamic and fast-growing email marketing channel.

Excellence in business is more important than anything else Roger Bell, Chief Executive of Vero Insurance, the Foundation Sponsor of the awards, says. “The point of these awards is that the winners don’t end up just being excellent on one aspect of business – it goes right across the business – across leadership, strategy, people, processes and the results from all of those things. So it’s not just narrowly defined.”

BDO Spicers’ National Chair Judith Stanway says the Vero awards recognise businesses that are striving, and succeeding. “In doing so they give businesses great role models to aspire to follow,” she says. “In the current environment, when so many aspects of our working lives are uncertain, it’s important to do a good job and to do it right first time,” she says. “No one has the capacity or time to have to go back and re-do things at present: striving for excellence is therefore beneficial to the bottom line, not just the top one.”

“Excellence delivered to a well targeted audience equals guaranteed success!” says NBR’s Todd Scott, sponsor. “Whether it’s excellence in editorial content and commentary or excellence in advertising creative, in today’s economic environment nothing short of excellence is acceptable when so many people have a stake in the outcome. That’s why The National Business Review supports Vero in its recognition of excellence in the 2009 Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards.”