Tag Archives: branding

Adding Up Addys: Three, Four, or More?

It may not yield as much debate as the recent social media dress color debacle, but the question remains: did Ideaworks Marketing win three, or four awards at the 2015 Addys?

The American Advertising Federation of northeast Pennsylvania (AAF-NEPA), held its annual awards ceremony, affectionately known as the Addys, this past February 20, and three entries from Ideaworks proved to be winners – or four, if you so choose.

Below, a photo of the one Gold, and two Silver awards given to Ideaworks. The winning pieces included a Wedding Invitation Package (Gold/Judge’s Choice for Collateral Material); the “Street Eatz” campaign (Silver for Sales Promotion, Branded Environment); and the Ideaworks 2015 Calendar (Silver for Self Promotion, Advertising Industry).

And here is the Wedding Invitation Package that garnered the Gold:

BridgetInvite

Bridget and Daniel were a winning combination, and so was their wedding invitation package. They likely wrote a lot of thank-you notes when their festivities concluded, and all of us at Ideaworks would like to thank them for inspiring this work, that brought in both a Gold, and a Judge’s Choice award!

It all adds up to four awards, since of course, Gold and Judge’s Choice are two separate awards (that often overlap). So while three of Ideaworks’ pieces won, a total of four awards were earned. Here is the complete award set, the Judge’s Choice in the form of a fabulous miniature billboard from Lamar Advertising.

photo 3

Yes, we could have said that from the beginning — but the Addys are just as much about having fun, as they are about recognizing excellence in advertising creativity. Ideaworks congratulates all the Addy winners from the 2015 AAF-NEPA event.

A Force To Harness by Jane Browe

Several years ago, I was a Regional Sales Director for a small company that grew and packaged specialty lettuces and greens, which were sold through both retail and foodservice channels.  At the core of the product line was a beautiful green known as “mâche” or lamb’s lettuce.  It’s a beautiful emerald green, has a light nutty flavor, and is incredibly nutritious.

It’s also very much a niche item, and the company’s marketing budget was tiny.  The Marketing Director asked us to extend the reach of her limited resources by supporting her efforts as “Brand Ambassadors” in our Regions.  There we were, an army of three Regional Directors, dispersed across the Lower 48, equipped, it seemed, with emerald green attire, a megaphone, pom-poms, batons and a one-man-marching-band assortment of instruments.  Well, I exaggerate a bit, but as Brand Ambassadors, we were well versed and fully trained to provide on-the-spot mâche information – historical trivia, nutritional highlights, recipe ideas – to all we encountered on or off the job.  We were INFORMED, and we carried THE BRAND MESSAGE fully in sync with positioning and strategy.

So, the “Brand Ambassador” recruiting efforts described in this Wall Street Journal article, whereby restaurants extend their marketing reach by way of Instagram “Influencers” really caught my attention.

(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324520904578553502283072828.html?mod=djemLifeStyle_h)

Restaurants are the focus of this article, but this has implications for everyone in the food industry, and it seriously bears this question:

How best to harness the power of spontaneous, grass roots, cell phone-armed legions of Brand Ambassadors, and positively reinforce the Brand’s intended position and message?

This calls for a yet another dimension of messaging strategy and vast implications for the tactical management of 24/7, sometimes around-the-globe, grass roots communications.  Does your communications strategy go this far?

We’d love to hear your perspective and challenges.  We invite you to share comments here, or just give us a call to talk live.  Dial 570-779-9543, ext. 316 to reach Jane Browe.

(email: janeb@ideaworksfoodmarketing.com; Twitter: @janeofideaworks)