Beam Inc. and Protagonist, In Partnership With Whitman Insight Strategies, Honored With Ogilvy Award by Advertising Research Foundation

NEW YORK, April 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Protagonist and WINS, the agency and research partners that created ExactCast, were honored with the Silver Award, Beverages, at the 2012 Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) David Ogilvy Awards for Excellence in Advertising, for their ExactCast strategic work behind the "It Is What It Isn't" campaign for Maker's Mark.

"The David Ogilvy Award is 'the strategist's Oscar,' and as a relatively new venture, the ExactCast team is truly honored to receive the recognition," said Tom Cotton, Protagonist co-founder, partner, and lead on the ExactCast joint venture with Bernard Whitman, founder and president of Whitman Insight Strategies.  Mr. Whitman added, "We're delighted with the success of the campaign, and to win this award with our Beam clients is a thrill.  They accepted our strategic counsel and broke every marketing mold they had in the process."

Jordan Rednor, co-founder and partner at Protagonist, added, "The collaboration with the clients, as well as with Doe-Anderson, the agency that produced the creative work behind the 'It Is What It Isn't' campaign, was a textbook example of teamwork and innovation across a complex set of problems.  It's how it ought to be."

The campaign highlights the delightful contradictions that make life more interesting with the tagline "It Is What It Isn't," an idea supported by the rigorous research and insights of ExactCast, a political-model quantitative discipline that delivered segmentation, messaging and media innovations that drove a large shift in Maker's go-to-market approach. The effort pushed the brand into double digit (and continued) growth, along with huge jump in marketing ROI.

The ARF David Ogilvy Awards honor extraordinary and/or creative uses of research in the advertising development processes of research firms, advertising agencies and advertisers. The winning campaigns provide a keen understanding of how research can be used to create powerful, profitable campaigns.

About Protagonist

Protagonist is a marketing and advertising agency that redefines right brain/left brain collaboration.  Through its proprietary behavioral marketing practice, ExactCast™, and its highly-impactful advertising, Protagonist delivers creative as strategic as its strategy is creative.  By identifying the "swing consumer" -- the buyers whose brand loyalty is up for grabs -- Protagonist helps brands and their leaders write their own success stories.  Protagonist works with blue-chip brands including Maker's Mark, Puristics, Zicam and DexOne. To learn more about Protagonist, please visit beaprotagonist.com and to learn more about its ExactCast partner, Whitman Insight Strategies, please visit whitmanstrategies.com

SOURCE Protagonist