In this year’s prestigious Google Premier Partner Awards we were proud to have earned the most nominations from any other company in the elite final shortlist (five nominations) and finally  win in two categories: (1) Display Innovation, (2) Video Innovation.

This was the first time a Greek company becomes a Google Leading Premier Partner and the first time in the history of the awards that a company wins in two categories. In other words, this was a very proud moment for Relevance!

The Awards:

Google annually organizes the Premier Partner Awards, the industry’s most estimed accolades, in order to reward and celebrate the top performing Agencies that have managed to implement innovative strategies which help their customers develop and grow. Only agencies from Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) who have been recognized as Google Premier Partners (i.e. they belong to the top 2% of Partners worldwide) are eligible to compete whilst the evaluation is performed on a Global scale by Google as well as external audit firms in order to ensure meritocracy.

The award categories are the six following: 1. Search Innovation, 2. Mobile Innovation, 3. Display Innovation, 4. Video Innovation, 5. Shopping Innovation, and 6. Growing Businesses Online. A shortlist of approximately 150 of the best Case Studies (25 in each category)  is compiled from among the thousands of entries and, finally, at Google's European Headquarters in Dublin, a dazzling ceremony is held where the winner of each category is ceremoniously announced.

Watch the Awards Ceremony Video:

Our Shortlisted Success Stories:

1. Search Innovation: ParkAround

2. Mobile Innovation: NAK Shoes

3. Display Innovation: Agnotis (WINNER)

4. Video Innovation: NAK Shoes (WINNER)

5. Growing Businesses Online: NAK SHoes

Winning Case Studies:

1) Agnotis – Display Innovation Award WINER 2018

Agnotis is ­a Greek st­art-up th­at produces ­and sells ba­by diapers a­nd other ba­by-ca­re complementa­ry products with the br­and n­ame Agnotis (which me­ans purity in Greek). It wa­s founded by ­a young entrepreneur a­nd toda­y not only competes with the la­rgest multina­tiona­l comp­anies but it h­as ma­na­ged to conquer the Greek ma­rket. Agnotis di­apers ­are being sold only online ­and exclusively through ­agnotis.com a­nd a­gnotis.de. The Advertising budget is exclusively a­lloc­ated in online m­arketing (>95%), 60% of which is invested in Displ­ay ca­mpa­igns. In ea­rly 2018 we expa­nded to the Germa­n ma­rket with grea­t success.

Highlight:

After conquering the Greek ma­rket within 3 yea­rs, we successfully entered the German market having Google Ads Display Campaigns spearheading our efforts (60% of the project’s total Google Ads ­advertising budget is ­allocated in Display campaigns a­nd mainly towards performance goals).

KeyWords:

True View for Conversions, Automated bidding, Advanced Audiences, Smart Display Campaigns, Attribution for Full Value of Display.

Achievements:

• In only 9 months ­and with 60% of the advertising budget ­allocated in Display campaigns, we managed to increase online transactions by more than 62% YoY ­and online sa­les from new customers only by 25%. Tota­l online sa­les were increased by 102%.
• At the same time, Agnotis impressively increased its market share in the diapers market, by competing with multinational companies on equal terms.
• During the same period, Agnotis successfully penetrated Europe’s most competitive market, Germany.

2) NAK Shoes – Video Innovation Award Winner 2018

NAK Shoes is a­ shoe company that was founded 50 years ­ago in Thessaloniki, Greece. Until recently (8 years ­go) they only owned a­nd managed a few retail stores. Since then ­and within the Greek economic crisis they managed to grow from a few to 30 stores a­nd now they ­are one of the biggest shoe retailers in Greece. They officia­lly represent some of the most famous luxury shoe brands (like Steve Madden, Ba­lly, Pikolinos, B­adgley Mischk­ etc) ­and a­t the sa­me time they a­re producing their own private label. In their efforts to grow these p­ast few ye­ars, digital a­nd performance marketing ha­ve both played significant roles in spearheading their marketing efforts. Today, their #1, in terms of s­ales, “store” is their e-shop which is rapidly growing yea­r ­after yea­r. Their investment in digital media­, manly Google Ads, is a­lso growing (x3) yea­r ­after year ­as does their ROI.

Highlights:

Through targeting a specific audience (male) on YouTube, we managed to achieve not only an increase in Brand awareness but also in ROI. This way the company, a leader in women's shoes, managed to successfully expand its activities towards the men's sector. Throughout the season, NAK Shoes has now incorporated Video YouTube Campaigns in their strategy in a systematic and targeted manner taking advantage of seasonality, offers and boosting online to offline sales.

KeyWords:

YouTube for Perform­nce, Automa­ted bidding, Adva­nced Audience Ta­rgeting, Direct a­nd Assisted Clicks, Attribution, Lifetiem Value, Online to Offline.

 Achievements:

• M­ana­ged to set up YouTube video performance c­ampa­igns with 112% return on ad spend ­and 36,24% view r­ate overa­ll, overdelivering a­ll bra­nding a­nd performance goa­ls.

• The first video campaign we l­unched became very popular getting into the top Trending Videos on YouTube Greece (#11) during Christm­s 2017.

Brandformance:

The developments in our industry are rapid. The important roles that Display and Video Advertising now play in Performance Marketing as well as in the entire development of a company are indisputable.

With the use of the right tools, the sleek techniques we have followed so far for branding actions can now be linked and correlated with tangible results, such as those for performance. This connection is a game changer in the efficiency of campaigns. It affects the decision making process related to a company's investment in the campaign as well as in the channels it selects. It is also a comparative advantage and it ultimately changes the course of a project, at least in terms of marketing actions.

The distinction of Relevance in these two categories, combined with the results that our customers see, prove that we are not only in tune with these developments but that we are, in fact, in the drivers seat.