It’s been another tough year.
Or so we thought in 2019. Every year, the American Advertising Awards (formerly known as the ADDYs) come around during the cold, boring stretch that in our part of the world is February. And 2019/early 2020 was another particularly tough year–although then in spring 2020 it somehow got even worse. Even pre-COVID 19, a lot of emotion was swirling around.
So we just embraced it. We acknowledged what we were all feeling–about advertising and about the world–and poured our hearts into building an event that was full of experiences that would hopefully deliver at least a hint of a grin. For a bunch of cynics, we made some pretty happy stuff.
The lead up.
The most crucial part of throwing an awards show? Getting people to enter. And that’s not unlike a standard lead-gen campaign – it just had a more candy than usual.
Included posters (hand delivered), gift drops (who doesn’t want a teddy bear hugging a bottle of vodka? ), buttons and social videos.
The event.
No one ever looks unhappy standing in front of a bright pink wall or diving into a ball pit. So we loaded our event up with joyful-as-hell Instagrammable vignettes, made from scratch. And dogs. And balloons.
Did people like it?
See for yourself. Plus +104 followers in 5 weeks through organic social.
“I ALWAYS complain about this event. It’s either over-produced or under-produced but THIS year was f*cking perfect. I didn’t even realize it until it was over and I hadn’t complained—not even ONCE, but there was plenty of room to roam, things to do, time to socialize and the awards portion of the night was short and sweet. And it all went off without a hitch.”
— A Local ECD
Project Team
Drew Hill - Creative Director
Jess Husek - Associate Creative Director & Writer
Carrie Marsteller - Production Design
Alex Suder - Video Production & Editing
