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WELCOMING ABOARD OUR NEW BOARD MEMBERS

Ad Club Of Buffalo

We’re excited to officially kick off the 2020-2021 club year, announcing the newest additions to our board of directors, including two new executive board members!

As a non-profit organization, the American Advertising Federation of Buffalo (AAF Buffalo) is managed entirely by a board of volunteers. We are so thankful for the time and dedication every board member devotes to the club each year. Check out our new roster below!

First, we’d like to announce changes to our executive board. McKenna Murray, going on her second year, has been named Vice President of Communications and Jeff Quinn, also going on his second year, has been named Vice President of Programming. Joining these two are returning e-board members President Josh Gumulak and Treasurer Alex Keogan.

New board members elected to serve a three-year term are:

  • Kaitlyn Affuso, Marketing Coordinator, Chiampou Travis Besaw & Kershner LLP
  • Mary Amenta, Senior Account Executive, Mower Agency
  • Cody Andres, Graphic Designer, The Martin Group
  • Adina Pera, Senior Project Manager, Crowley Webb
  • Shannon Polvino, PR and Account Manager, Insight Strategies
  • Sky Stage, Director of Marketing, Sinatra and Company/Villa Maria College
  • Sarah Warner, Founder, Set Strategies LLC

Returning board members include:

  • Colleen Colkitt, Account Executive, Quinlan
  • Josh Gumulak, Senior Account Executive, FARM
  • Katie Hazel, Associate Creative Director, Crowley Webb
  • Caroline Jette, Graphic Designer, Delaware North
  • Alex Keogan, Account Executive, Hadley Exhibits
  • Jordan Lema, President/CEO, Lemur Studios
  • Sam Lonczak, Graphic Designer, FIFTEEN
  • McKenna Murray, Project Manager, Barclay Damon LLP
  • Maura Noonan, Digital Media and Content Manager, FARM
  • Jeff Quinn, Account Executive, Luminus

Laurie McMurray from SUNY Buffalo State will also serve as our student liaison. For additional information about AAF Buffalo, upcoming programming, thought leadership, networking opportunities, and more please visit: www.aafbuffalo.com.

Announcements Blog Latest News

We’re Back-to-Back Champs!

Ally Balcerzak

At the beginning of the 2019-2020 club year, we made it a Board goal to build off of last year’s momentum and bring home back-to-back Club of the Year awards.

Well, fellow advertising/marketing/communications friends, we did it! AAF Buffalo is officially the 2020 Division 2 AAF Club of the Year, and President Josh Gumulak is President of the Year. 💪

This year, AAF National restructured the Club Achievement Awards, condensing the total number of categories down from eight to five. In addition to Club of the Year, AAF Buffalo also won awards in all five categories

  • Club Operations (first place)
  • Cornerstone Initiatives and Events (first place)
  • Membership Development and Communications (first place)
  • Programs (second place)
  • Public Service (first place)

While the long-form award submissions are crafted by members of the AAF Buffalo Board, the content we write about wouldn’t exist without the dedication and participation of our members — aka you and the Western New York advertising community.

via GIPHY

Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the years, attended events in the middle of snowstorms, and filled out a post-event survey to give us feedback on ways to enhance the member experience. You’re the reason our award submissions always max-out the page limit and include new, unique details year-over-year.

With that said, it’s time for us to go celebrate offline. Enjoy your summer and be sure to keep an eye out for announcements about membership renewal and next club year’s event plans!

Industry Updates Stuff

COVID-19 Return to Work – Agency Roundtable

Caroline Jette

In early May, AAF Buffalo facilitated a Zoom conference among several small and large WNY advertising agencies to discuss returning to work following the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this discussion was to promote idea sharing across WNY’s advertising leaders so that we all can implement the most effective return to work policies possible in a post-COVID-19 world.

The document represents ideas where consensus was reached that agencies should consider implementing, if resources allow.

Click here to download

Events Students

RECAP: PORTFOLIO REVIEW 2020

Lauren Carmer

Many thanks to the pro volunteers and students who participated in AAF Buffalo’s first attempt at an online Portfolio Review Day for area creative students. As the leading advertising professional organization in WNY, it is part of our mission to support future creatives, especially during an uncertain time. We put our heads together after COVID-19 forced us to cancel the physical Portfolio Review. After some planning, the day ended up being a success thanks to pro volunteers and Zoom Breakout Rooms. Students who registered in advance participated in several twenty minute interviews, where they had the opportunity to chat, ask questions, and share their work. Many colleges and universities were represented including Rochester Institute of Technology, University at Buffalo, St. Bonaventure, Villa Maria College, Daemen College, and Buffalo State College.

In order to offer opportunity to win an award to a wider range of students during such an uncertain time, we decided to give each Breakout Room one vote towards a standout student portfolio of their choice to receive a cash prize. Several students were awarded more than one vote. Congratulations to students who won kudos from the professional volunteers:

Crista Sukennik, Communication Design, Buffalo State College
Junyan Chen, Studio Art with Graphic Design Concentration, University at Buffalo
Lindsay Neilson, Graphic Design, Villa Maria College
Deztinhy Di Meo, Graphic Design, RIT
Maggie Blaisdell, Graphic Design, RIT

We look forward to hosting this important event for years to come, and will continue to grow and evolve it in an effort to best serve future creative professionals with an effort to make it fun and beneficial for pros as well. We truly appreciate the time, professionalism, and dedication of the pros and students who were involved with this event. See ya in 2021!

 

Students

Recap: Don Nichols 2020

Caroline Jette

For this year’s competition, students were asked to submit work of a reimagined movie poster or trailer. 

The scholarship competition was open to all Western New York undergraduates in design, writing, communications, illustration, photography, and fine arts. Entries were judged by a panel of professionals from Crowley Webb. And the results are in.

Congratulations to this year’s winners:

$600 First Prize: Bird Box: Kelsey Sikora – Villa Maria College

$400 Second Prize: Psycho Trailer: Jennifer Myers – Daemen College

$250 Third Prize: Joker: Zach Huber – Villa Maria College

Honorable Mentions:

Midsommar: Colt McAndrew – Villa Maria College

Black Hawk Down: Jonathan Murtha – Villa Maria College

 

About the Don Nichols Scholarship

Don Nichols began teaching at the Albright Art School. He founded its Graphic Design Program in 1950 and brought it to the University at Buffalo where, until his death on July 7, 1987, he served as the program’s head and an extraordinarily dedicated teacher. He educated hundreds of graphic designers, a number of whom attained national prominence. Nichols received the Osborn Award for Creative Excellence from the Art Directors/ Communicators of Buffalo and the Chancellor’s Award for Teaching from UB in 1982.

Announcements Blog Events Latest News Speaker Series Students

A Message from the President on Covid-19

Ally Balcerzak

Hi Members, 

By now, it seems like you’ve received this email hundreds of times. From your favorite store. From your airline of choice. From that one startup you met at SXSW six years ago. 

While this one will detail much of the same — cancelations, diligence, and caution — my hope is it will also be a bit more personal, as our extremely close-knit community we know and love is being directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic here in Western New York. 

We’ve been monitoring the pandemic as it continues to unfold, and makes its way into our beloved community. In doing so, we made the decision to cancel all our events scheduled in April, both professional and student. 

For pros, this includes our third Spotlight Speaker of the year, Liz Jackson, who was scheduled to join us on April 2nd. It also includes a brand new event that we were ecstatic about, Laugh Ad Loud, which was planned for April 23rd. 

For students, Portfolio Review scheduled for April 18th is canceled. In brighter news, our Don Nichols scholarship competition remains as scheduled with entries due March 27th, however, all entries are to be submitted digitally only rather than dropped off at Crowley Webb. Students, if you have questions, we encourage you to reach out to your school’s ambassador or to us directly at info@aafbuffalo.com.

All those who purchased tickets for the events detailed here will be issued a full refund. For those with the Spotlight Speaker Series Pass, we hope to reschedule Liz’s talk, where we will honor your series pass. If that’s not possible, we will address more robust reimbursement options at that time. 

In the meantime, we are exploring creative ways to possibly bring one or more of these events to life digitally. More info will follow in the coming weeks. 

We’re continuing to closely monitor this global event as it directly impacts our community, as we expect each of you surely are as well. 

More updates will certainly follow. Until then, we urge all members of our community, in advertising and beyond, to work from home if at all possible, be diligent about social distancing, and responsibly support local businesses to the best of your ability.

On behalf of our entire advertising community, I want to thank you for your continued support of what we do. Our hearts go out to all those affected by this pandemic. We look forward to reconvening at a happy hour on the other side of this.

Josh Gumulak
President, AAF Buffalo

Stuff

Speakeasy 2020: The ADDYs Go Underground

Greg Pokriki

We continue to crank out exceptional advertising here in the Western New York area. To celebrate all that you do, this year’s American Advertising Awards brought some 1920s flair to 2020 with a speakeasy themed show that honored our industry and our local talent.

Our AAF Buffalo board of directors partnered with FARM for this year’s creative with fearless direction from president Josh Gumulak, co-chairs Lauren Carmer and Maura Noonan, and FARM’s Matt Cascarino, as well as major support and contributions from chair-elect, Katie Hazel, and special volunteer, Shannon Silva.

In our largest show to date, 455 attendees rocked out at Town Ballroom. Creatives came together to enjoy a preview of the winning work during cocktail hour and a presentation on the main stage. If you missed any the good stuff, check out the 2020 ADDY Awards YouTube playlist here.

Now, let’s get into the top dogs, the big cheeses, and the cat’s pajamas. Take a look at the night’s big winners.  

Professional Winners

Judges from Baltimore, Nashville, Kansas City, and Boston came to Buffalo in January to score more than 460 professional entries. 

Among many extraordinary advertising pieces, Crowley Webb brought home a total of 34 awards (12 gold, 22 silver); The Martin Group received a total of 29 awards (12 gold, 16 silver, 1 local award); White Bicycle took away 14 awards (5 gold, 8 silver, 1 local award); Mr. Smith Agency was honored with 7 awards (2 gold, 4 silver, 1 local award); and dPost rounded out the top five with 6 awards (2 gold, 4 silver). A total of 25 companies took home at least one gold or silver award.

Best of Show

The big winner of the night was dPost, picking up the Best of Show Award for their “Bring Home the Dome” computer-generated imagery.

Special Awards

In addition to each company’s entries, we recognize three outstanding individuals for their contributions and accomplishments in the Buffalo creative community. The 2020 special award recipients were:

The Levy-Osborn Award for Excellence in Communications went to Julie Zack of Villa Maria College.

The Joe Crowley Award for Service went to Dan Nesselbush, former vice president of AAF Buffalo.

The Future Star Award went to AAF Buffalo board member and Invest Buffalo Niagara’s Greg Pokriki.

Local Awards

White Bicycle took home The Creative Use of Paper Award for their 2019 Art Auction & Gala Invitation.

The CommUNITY Award for Inclusive Advertising recognizes advertising that addresses issues experienced by under-represented communities and gives voice to groups that have been stereotyped or ignored in media and by society, increasing perceptions and understanding of multicultural communities. This year’s award went to The Martin Group for their ADDYs Saints & Sinners Poster Campaign.

Mr. Smith was also recognized for the Best Show Book Ad Award.

Student Winners

Our own local judges, Matt Low, Tim Staszak, and April Brown, judged more than 60 entries from our area’s college students in January.

A total of 20 awards went to undergraduates from Daemen College, Villa Maria College and Buffalo State College. Francesca Bubb from Villa Maria College took home the Student Best of Show Award for her Calle Rica Food Truck.

Thank You to Our Sponsors

Our sponsors are the bee’s knees. Thank you to presenting sponsor, FARM, as well as our other ADDYs sponsors: dPost, HMN Resources, Evans Bank, Dixon Schwabl, and VSP Graphic Group.

A special thank you to sponsor Oxford Pennant for this year’s high-quality pennant awards.

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners! And cheers to all of the bims and birds who entered work and attended the ADDYs Speakeasy 2020 show. For one last creative fix, flip through the digital show book.

The gold and silver winners in both professional and student categories will have the opportunity to compete in the AAF District 2 American Advertising Awards. Check back on our blog to see those results, coming soon.

Blog Students

BrandHack 2020: Family Promise of Western New York

Ally Balcerzak

The fifth installment of our BrandHack event featured a local non-profit looking for a new postcard, brochure, and social media campaign to generate awareness for their organization. Family promise of Western New York is an emergency shelter for homeless families. They help families experiencing homeless stay together during tough times. This event was hosted at Daemen College in Amherst, New York.

Five teams of students from Daemen College, Buffalo State College, Villa Mariam and Hilbert College were tasked with creating these final deliverables. Leading the teams were seasoned professionals from the area – Samantha Lonczak from Fifteen, Caroline Jette from Delaware North, Andrea LoPiccolo from Fifteen, Holly Norris from White Bicycle, and Cody Andrees from the martin group. These designers and art directors provided guidance and advice for the teams from brainstorming and development through execution.

The format remained the same from 2019. Teams had five hours to organize and create their ideas before pitching them to our two judges, as well as the representatives from Family Promise of Western New York.

Our professional judge for this year’s event, President and CEO of Luminis Tim Bouchard,  offered his expertise throughout the event, and made sure the teams were on track and accomplishing what they had to on the tight deadline. While representing Family Promise of Western New York, Annalyse Paulsen provided the students with valuable information as to the various needs of FPWNY, as well as their process for working with various individuals.

Each team beat the clock and produced some well-executed, unique work along the way. Congrats to all the students and captains for producing another great event!

WINNER: Hilbert College captained by Holly Norris
Check out the work!

Stuff

Recap: Preview Night

Greg Pokriki

Last week, Buffalo flexed its creative muscles, displaying entries to this year’s American Advertising Awards at our annual Preview Night.

Overall, there were 526 entries to this year’s ADDYs, with each sprawled across Big Ditch Brewing’s space to receive the recognition it deserves.

Our club also broke a record this year for student entries, with 59 total. The increased student engagement is, as always, encouraging for our future pipeline of industry talent. 

Along with the viewing of our region’s top work from the year, industry professionals were able to network with colleagues and between agencies, showing the camaraderie of our community.

A big thank you to the team at FARM, as well as Shannon Silva, for their help in coordinating the night’s events.

The ADDY Awards will be held on March 6. Make sure to get your tickets here.

Stuff

SKILLSHOP RECAP: Design Tips for Personalized Marketing Campaigns

Greg Pokriki

At the end of January, AAF Buffalo & Compu-Mail teamed up to host a skillshop on Design Tips for Personalized Marketing Campaigns.

Compu-Mail hosted the event at their headquarters in Grand Island. It was led by a team of experts, including Michael Oliver, National Sales Representative, Allison Jensen, Marketing Manager, and Anthony Marchioni, Chief Technology Officer.

The event was kicked off with a behind the scenes tour that showed us the inner workings of Compu-Mail and direct marketing. Attendees were able to see multiple printers in action and projects being completed right in front of them. 

Once we completed the tour we regrouped over pizza & wings from Brick Oven Pizza to begin a presentation from Michael & Allison. The discussion was hitting on points from general direct marketing tips all the way down formatting for specific pieces. 

A few design tips direct from the Compu-Mail team:

  • Direct mail and print will help you create a strong and memorable brand presence.
  • The 40/40/20 rule is important.
  • Personalization can increase response rates by up to 135%.
  • Know your audience. 
  • Testing and tracking are critical to campaign success.