Fintech Miconex picked up the award for Best Creative Marketing Campaign for its end of term campaign at the Gift Card & Voucher Association Hall of Fame awards held on 12th September in London.
A commitment to driving footfall and spend in UK and Irish towns and cities through creative marketing was the driver for Miconex collecting an award at the recent Gift Card & Voucher Association Hall of Fame awards.
Local spend experts Miconex received the Best Creative Marketing Campaign award for their end of term campaign delivered across its network of over 80 Town & City Gift Card programs in the UK and Ireland, including Scotland Loves Local Gift Cards delivered alongside Scotland’s Towns Partnership. The local gift cards lock spend into local communities by encouraging ‘shop local’.
The end of term campaign aimed to raise awareness and sales of local gift cards with the audience of parents and schools, incorporating a national Teacher of the Year competition in the UK and Ireland. Teacher of the Year was sponsored by online group collecting platform GiftRound, as part of a wider collaboration between Miconex and GiftRound to enhance accessibility to local businesses.
The multi-channel marketing campaign spanned PR, digital and direct marketing including engagement with over 12,000 primary schools and resulted in a 22% uplift in Town & City Gift Card website visits and a 260% uplift in sales during the campaign period, with 110 pieces of press coverage.
In Ireland, the Teacher of the Year was Gerard O’Kane, a principal with 48 years of teaching experience who retired in the summer of 2024. In the UK, the Teacher of the Year was Natasha Paling, a ‘force for good’ teacher who set up a community pantry at her Brighton primary school.
Miconex Chief Operating Officer Leigh Brown, former Chair of the Association of Town and City Management (ATCM) Scotland Network, was at the awards ceremony to collect the award on behalf of Miconex.
Dr Hannah Shimko, managing director of the GCVA said: "The Hall of Fame Awards are a celebration of the incredible achievements within the gift card industry. This year’s winners have shown exceptional creativity, resilience, and innovation - including Miconex, winners of the Best Creative Marketing Campaign.
"Miconex showed real innovation and initiative creating a campaign which contained the important message of local spending and turned cardholders into genuine advocates. Miconex, and all our winners, continuously drive the industry forward and truly reshape the way we think about gift cards. Congratulations to Miconex!”
The accolade for Miconex follows its continued drive to embed ‘shop local’ into high streets and downtowns around the world. Sales across Miconex’s programs in the UK, Ireland, Canada and the USA topped £12.4 million in 2023, with 200 places globally using Miconex technology to divert online spend back to independent and national bricks and mortar businesses across sectors.
Colin Munro, managing director of Miconex said: “We’re proud to pick up the Best Creative Marketing Campaign award on behalf of towns and cities across the UK and Ireland who are committed to converting shop local demand into increased local spend. As a company, our focus is on supporting our places on their shop local journey, including driving understanding of why local gift cards matter through marketing campaigns throughout the year, such as our end of term campaign featuring Teacher of the Year.
“Our thanks go to the GCVA for their efforts to drive the industry forward, to GiftRound for their sponsorship of Teacher of the Year, to our team, places, partners and customers for their passion for helping our towns and cities to thrive.”
Craig Forsythe, CEO & founder at GiftRound, said: “Teacher of the Year has been a fantastic campaign that we’ve been proud to sponsor as part of our wider work with Miconex to enhance accessibility to local businesses. Through Teacher of the Year, we’ve been able to celebrate and champion teachers making a difference in their communities. Gift giving should be celebratory and that’s exactly what Teacher of the Year has been.”
Miconex launched its new campaign on September 16th, UK’s Favourite Local Business and Ireland’s Favourite Local Business, to shine a light on the local businesses making a positive impact on communities in the run up to the key Christmas trading period.