A broad spread of successful agencies this year saw VCCP walk away with three wins (for Copaxone), while Langland, Saatchi & Saatchi Health and woolley pau gyro each celebrated two wins. (Langland for Humira for Abbvie and I did this with IDIS for IDIS, Saatchi & Saatchi Health for Safety Products & Services for Becton, Dickinson & Company and Crestor for AstraZeneca and woolley pau gyro for Teva Respiratory for TEVA Europe and BuTrans Buprenorphine Matrix Patch for Napp.)

On the client side, Takeda had most nominations at 14, and walked away with one win (Calcichew D3 Forte/Caplet by Swordfish Advertising), three highly commended and four commended awards from three different agencies. TEVA had 11 nominations with two agencies and received four wins (Teva Respiratory by woolley pau gyro and Copaxone by VCCP Health), two highly commended and three commended. Astellas had eight nominations working with three different agencies and took home two highly commended and one commended and there were seven nominations for Sanofi Pasteur MSD – resulting in one win (Let’s Talk Flu (Nurse) by Bedgebury Communications) and three commended awards.

The coveted Geoff Brook Innovation Award went to Frontera London for the campaign Lung Clock for Quit, with Langland securing a highly commended in the same category for ACOUSTICS Clinical Study for Roche and Dice Medical Communications a commended for Tysabri & Avonex for Biogen Idec.

OPEN LEC won the Service Industry Award for LUTS Video with a highly commended for Orphan Europe (The Personal Touch) for nitrogen and commended going to Open the HUG Box for HUG Advertising and Seed Bomb for Cherry.

Even with multiple entries for some campaigns and companies, the judges’ quality measures held firm and Copaxone for TEVA by VCCP was the only campaign to secure three wins.

Further, there were only three individual campaigns securing more than three nominations: XTANDI for Astellas by VCCP had six nominations and took home a commended; Let’s Talk Flu for Sanofi Pasteur MSD by Bedgebury secured five nominations of which there was one commended and a winner and Calcichew D3 Forte/ Caplet for Takeda by Swordfish was nominated four times, going on to receive four commended and one winning awards.

Comments Neil Smith, PM Society Advertising Awards chairman and head of creative copy at Solaris Health: “More than just a ceremony, the PM Society Advertising Awards remains the only opportunity, annually, to see the best of the best in this key aspect of marketing communications, with the entrants’ exhibition and categories judged by peers, industry and healthcare professionals. Entries into the Patient Information Campaign category were particularly high this year, maybe suggesting an industry trend towards improving patient communications, ultimately to drive better patient outcomes.”

Now in its 28th year, the PM Society Advertising Awards remain an unparalleled opportunity to view campaigns from the best of the best in 2013 in the entrants’ exhibition, as well as lunch and networking opportunities. For the first time this year, The PM Society Awards were preceded by an educational pre-event, where there was lively debate by ABPI, industry and NHS speakers and the audience of over 60 on the motion: Industry and the NHS: Market Access & Marketing – can promotion and partnership co-exist? The augmented programme meant that delegates going on to the Awards enjoyed the latest insights into the environment facing healthcare marketers today, before going on the exhibition and awards of some of the best advertising solutions of last year.