Congratulations to HOSTPLUS for capturing two new trophies at this year’s AFSA awards ceremony held in Melbourne on Friday.

HOSTPLUS was awarded Excellence in Communication for their TFN Campaign and also a finalist with the One Super Pledge Campaign in the same category.

Both integrated campaigns were created and executed by trademarkDM and clickDM.

But, the award we and HOSTPLUS are most pleased about is the AFSA Super Innovator of the Year for The Pledge campaign.

It came as a super surprise since we had not entered this category but were given the title at the judges’ discretion.

This week, Barefoot Investor Scott Pape unveiled his latest super presentation for HOSTPLUS members – Who Wants To Be A Superannuation Millionaire.

Scott’s presentation is part of the HOSTPLUS financial literacy program and focuses on simple strategies to help members make the most of their super.

trademarkDM’s Brandon Clark, Andy Harrison, Craig Hockley and new arrival Frank Franzese were invited to be part of the studio audience.

Our super team were happy to report they got the answers right (mostly) and didn’t even have to use any of their lifelines.

To find out more about being a superannuation millionaire, click here

Yesterday, we told you about Olivia Passmore’s commitment to enter Run Melbourne to raise money for YMCA Open Doors.

At the time of writing, she’s $310 towards her modest $500 objective. But as YMCA Development Manager, Olivia, explains…

‘When you consider it costs $41 for a gym membership for an at-risk teen, $67 to provide aquatic lessons for a school kid from an disadvantaged family and $140 for a 2-day activity camp for a single dad and his kids, you can start to see how even a small donation will make a real difference to people on Victoria’s socio-economic fringe.’

Donate here.

Working with the YMCA we’ve come to realise just how much it does to help people of all backgrounds.

But like many community organisations, the Y needs help too.

Which is where YMCA Development Manager, Olivia Passmore, has taken a big step – one of about 10,000 to come.

That’s because Olivia has entered the Run Melbourne marathon to raise money for the YMCA Open Doors program.

Open Doors helps people doing it tough by subsidising 80% to 100% of the cost of YMCA health and wellness programs and services, like therapeutic camps for people with disabilities or aquatic education for kids from financially strapped families.

Olivia has a modest target – $500 – to run 10 long, long, long clicks.

(Believe us, looking at her, she ain’t no runner.)

But like us, you can help ease Olivia’s pain – and the financial pain of many Victorians – by making a donation.

Last week, those of us from trademarkDM who work on HOSTPLUS spent some time hanging out at their call centre.

Known in the industry as one of the secrets of their success, the HOSTPLUS call centre has a reputation for delivering excellent service. So it was a real eye-opener for us to see them in action.

We also gained a deeper understanding of how things work at HOSTPLUS. All the better to keep producing great work for them.

Recently we created the Super Pledge for our client HOSTPLUS.

The Pledge is designed to help members start taking control of their finances by doing just one thing by June 30.

Whether it’s finding lost super, consolidating super accounts, adding to super or setting up an online account, one action now can make a big difference in the future.

Well, it turns out that The Pledge hasn’t only captured the attention of HOSTPLUS members.

This week it’s featured in the Financial Standard.

Just goes to show the power of one super idea.

We met Wayne Sullivan in November last year when he came down from Queensland to join our valued client HOSTPLUS as national marketing programs manager.

We’re delighted to hear that Wayne has now been appointed executive manager, marketing.

Is it too soon to say ‘we knew him when…’?

Congratulations on your new role, Wayne. We’re looking forward to continuing to do great work with you.

While THE DM GROUP was enjoying a fun festive break, some of our (softer) clients from the Y weren’t.

Instead, they were clocking up the donations and the clicks – 404 painful kilometres of them – in the Murray Marathon.

But for good reason.

Because from this Christmas, the historic race is being managed by YMCA Victoria.

It’s a fitting replacement for the Australian Red Cross, which ended its association after 39 years at the helm.

Not bad for an event that began in 1969 when 10 friends decided to paddle the Murray River to raise $250.

Today, the grueling annual five day race has grown to include more than 750 paddlers and over 3000 support crew and volunteers.

Including The Murray Marshmallows.

Not so soft after all.

Healthcare advertising is one of THE DM GROUP’s specialities.

So over the break we were pleased to read that pharmaceutical companies are now our biggest exporters of high-tech products.

With drug and vaccine sales exceeding $4 billion, it’s the first
time in years the automotive industry hasn’t topped Australia’s
export sales list.

As Mark Metherell reports:

‘The pharmaceutical industry contributes about $7 billion a
year to Australia’s economy and its $860 million research
and development sector.’

Even more pleasing, the biggest sellers are treatments we work on regularly in the fight against influenza, cervical cancer and HIV.

But now we know our campaigns aren’t just looking after the health of our clients and the community.

They’re looking after the health of our economy too.

Monday night saw two of THE DM GROUP’s clients win at the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees Awards for Excellence 2009.

UniSuper collected the Gold Communication Award for its Decisions 101 online tutorial.

In fact, it’s the third industry award the trademarkDM-clickDM developed tutorial has won this year.

Also collecting on the night was HOSTPLUS.

It picked up the Silver Communications Award for its Tax File Number campaign, again developed by trademarkDM and clickDM.

So it really was a super night.

For our clients.

And us.