Street level views of marketing & advertising in Idaho
Congratulations to the following Idaho agencies for winning 2009 National ADDY Awards:
Drake Cooper: Silver ADDY, Brochure, Color, Idaho Film Office, “Be a Good Scout Handbook”
Oliver Russell: Silver ADDY, Website, Consumer HTML, ClearWealth Financial Advisors, ClearWealth Website
A full list of all the national winners can be found on the ADDY Awards section of the American Advertising Federation’s website.
Congratulations to all.
A few articles that caught our eye over the past week:
Six Ways to Avoid Landing in the Product Failure Bin – via Fast Company
A Case for Non-Ad Revenue on the Web – via The New York Times
Most Marketers Ignore Brand Metrics Online – via Adweek
7 Myths Of Metrics – via MediaPost
Del Monte CMO: Spend During Downturn — or Else – via Ad Age
BK’s ‘Whopper Freakout’ Wins Grand Effie – via Adweek
CC, DoubleTake Bringing Ads to Baggage Carousels – via Mediaweek
Congratulations to Katie Shamberg for winning a National Silver ADDY Award in the Specialty Advertising category for the Think Pink, Inc. “Save the Boobs T-Shirt Design.”
Well done.
The full list of national winners can be found on the AAF website.
UPDATE: So it appears that I misread the AAF’s website. This was a part of the 2008 Awards — the 2009 Awards have not been announced yet. Apologies for the confusion, but that doesn’t take anything away from the recognition.
Recently, I came across an entry on the Ad Age Small Agency Diary from Howard Marguiles, associate creative director/copy at Palio in Saratoga Springs, NY.
This particular piece was titled “What Are You Packing Into Your (Creative) Briefs?” and was all about — you guessed it — the value of a good creative brief.
An excerpt from Marguiles’ piece:
DiNoto has it exactly right. When writing a brief, you must fully commit to an idea:
- This is the time to fall on the sword. Commit!
- Refrain from peppering the brief with ideas; a little bit of this or that. Layering ideas in a painterly way is dishonest. Commit!
- Say one thing, and say it clearly.
- Don’t try to outshine the creatives, don’t let your cleverness show; keep the language simple and clear.
- Anything resembling a tagline should be deleted.
- Support, amplify, clarify, stay on message.
If you have doubts that you have chosen the right path, find another. The universe has an infinite supply of paths; choose one.
It is a faulty assumption to believe that a killer ad campaign was the product of an unusually imaginative creative brief. Quite the opposite is more likely to be true. It is also not inevitable that any given campaign would result from any given brief. This is a deterministic function of the zeitgeist, the talents and disposition of the creative teams, the openness and receptivity of the target audience, and the ability of an agency and client to celebrate the power of a great idea and run with it.
The Goodby, Silverstein & Partners award-winning “Got Milk?” campaign was based on a powerful, single-minded insight: People wait until they’re out of milk to realize that they need to buy more. The campaign’s scenarios were highly entertaining, but the core message was: “Milk enhances the enjoyment of many foods. Don’t wait until you’re out. Buy some today.” In Goodby’s hands, advertising history was made. At another shop, the spots might’ve sounded like infomercials for the ShamWow!
A truly motivating insight is a secret bit of knowledge that you have about your target audience that you can exploit to make them do your bidding. Don’t squander it.
Regardless of whether you’re on the account side, the creative side, somewhere in-between, or none of the above, take the time to read the entire piece.
Then go practice, practice, practice.
You (and your clients) will be glad you did.
Red Sky Public Relations in Boise has added Julie Hahn to their staff as an Account Executive. Julie will lead client activities in tandem with Principals Jessica Flynn, Stephanie Worrell and Robert Deen.
Prior to joining Red Sky, Julie was a Communications Specialist with Boise State University, and also had a number of roles during her tenure at The Idaho Statesman — from Copy Editor to Columnist to Section Editor. She is a graduate of the University of Montana with a degree in print journalism.
Congratulations Julie.