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RECAP: DON NICHOLS 2021

Ad Club Of Buffalo

Each year, AAF Buffalo hosts a scholarship competition honoring the late Buffalo great, Don Nichols. Don Nichols began teaching at the Albright Art School. He founded its Graphic Design Program in 1950 and brought it to UB 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.

The scholarship competition was open to all Western New York undergraduates in design, writing, communications, illustration, photography, and fine arts. This year’s theme had students reimagine their take on the year 2020. Entries were judged by a panel of professionals from Crowley Webb. And the results are in.

Please join us in congratulation this year’s winners!

Events Industry Updates Speaker

VIRTUAL INTERVIEW RECAP: OXFORD PENNANT’S DAVE HORESH

Ad Club Of Buffalo

“Together we will see it through”

If you’ve been going for a lot of walks in the neighborhood lately (because what else has there been to do?), we’re sure you have spotted these flags hanging in the doorways and windows of your neighbor’s homes created by local pennant manufacturer, Oxford Pennant. The message “together we will see it through” is more than just a feel-good statement. These words gave us something to smile about during a time when many of us were feeling scared, lonely, anxious, and a host of other unsettling emotions over the last 13+ months.  So first, we would like to sincerely thank Oxford Pennant for helping us bond together as a community, while instilling in a hope, resiliency, and a sprinkle of joy when we needed it most.

On Tuesday, April 27th, AAF President, Josh Gumulak and board member Sarah Warner had the pleasure of interviewing Dave Horesh, co-founder of Oxford Pennant at Jordan Lema’s Lemur Studios on Main Street downtown. And while we were right across the street from the Oxford Pennant store, the interview was conducted virtually (what times we’re livin’ in) so that Dave could carry on his fatherly duties while simultaneously wowing us with his knowledge and expertise as an entrepreneur, business owner, and marketing and branding expert.

The interview honestly felt like chatting with an old friend. Dave is fun, relaxed, passionate and an incredibly insightful person. In an hour’s time, we covered everything from how Oxford Pennant got started, what the company’s structure looks like today, to where he sees it going in the future (they’re committed to Buffalo)! He shared how they have successfully built and expanded their brand through Instagram, some things he’s learned in his travels that Buffalo could benefit from, and his best advice for those with aspirations to start their own business.

We had a blast talking with him and we hope our listeners enjoyed it just as much! Learn more about AAF, membership perks and upcoming events at aafbuffalo.com or follow us on social @AAFBuffalo.

Events Skillshop

SKILLSHOP RECAP: THE RISE OF THE MARKETING GODZILLA

Ad Club Of Buffalo

Mid-December of 2020, Mower’s very own Matt Babiarz joined AAF Buffalo to host a skillshop on The Rise of the Marketing Godzilla. The presentation was held at Lemur Studios and was presented virtually to the attendees in a therapy-like format. But many of you may be thinking, what the heck is a Marketing Godzilla?

By definition: Living in the Era of The Marketing Godzilla consists of a landscape ruled by merciless but necessary marketing leaders, born out of crisis in a hyper-competitive, unforgivingly chaotic corporate environment, where humans are interchangeable resources, a sense of reality can be challenged, and a result can only be accepted if it has been forecasted.

Matt kicked-off the presentation getting the audience’s opinion on their perception of crisis; discussing the difference between danger and opportunity. This soon led to the ultimate conclusion that people work too hard, for too long, for too little, which creates the dreadful Marketing Godzilla. The audience got involved via Zoom chat to share their experiences and thoughts on topics such as stress in the workplace, compulsion loops and the anxiety caused by notifications.

A few additional key takeaways include:

  • According to the American Psychological Association, 70% of workers were found to be stressed in 2020, an increase of only 9.8% during the pandemic
  •  A McKinsey study showed that 39% of time is being spent on job-specific tasks, and 42% of time is spent on answering emails and meeting internally
  • Notifications on our phone and email are indeed causing anxiety, causing individuals to feel the need to respond almost instantly

Although we weren’t able to get together as a group, we’d like to send a big thank you to Matt for taking the time to chat with us virtually. We also wanted to send a shoutout to Lemur Studios for helping make the event happen and for everyone who attended. For more info on all of our programming for the club year, check out AAFBuffalo.com/events.

AdWeek Events Social Media Speaker Speaker Series

ADWEEK 2020 RECAP: NIKKI SUNSTRUM, SPOTLIGHT SPEAKER

Ad Club Of Buffalo

The prominence of social media has not only altered the way in which we communicate personally, it has reshaped the information we consume, distorted emotional responses, and manipulated the visual identities of its users. In an ever-connected world, everyone struggles to balance competing priorities, remain engaged, and retain authenticity.

For this year’s AdWeek 2020 Spotlight Speaker, we invited Nikki Sunstrum, University of Michigan Director of Social Media and Public Engagement, to discuss methods for addressing the ever-increasing demands of pandemic communications, and how to deal with online negativity, competing interests, and mental fatigue. Although virtual, we were all able to carve out an evening and hear from Nikki on what this past year has taught her.

*insert “This is Fine” meme*

Throughout her hour-long talk, Nikki covered a range of topics, but first, she addressed the giant non-elephant in the room: the pandemic. While it’s no secret that the pandemic quickly impacted the way we live, learn, work, and interact with each other, Nikki focused her presentation on the impact the pandemic has had on marketers and communicators. Namely, how we speak to our audiences and communities. The way we approach our content was starkly changed, instead of encouraging users to participate with brands, and engage with us, strategies quickly became more about advocating for them to stay away, and thus stay safe. The emotions and reactions we were trying to evoke from our communities were now incredibly different than what we had been planning for, and we were left with no instructions on how to forge ahead.

Reality Check

Nikki described the pandemic as a reality check for us all, it was important to address the reality of the situation and address these alterations both internally and externally. She reminded us that social media is likely the first-place people connect, the first people complain, and the first-place people celebrate. Nikki suggested that as professional communicators we stop treating social as a solution, but rather a tool to navigate the uncertain days ahead. It was important to ask ourselves “what are we trying to accomplish by communicating outside of our organization?”. The answer? To strengthen our communities.

Another few key takeaways she shared were:

• Social media requires wit, wisdom, and wherewithal
• Social media demands proactive, preventative, and passionate messaging
• Social media necessities continuous connectivity, customer service and societal awareness
• Social media is strategic communication, and not a last resort

Although we couldn’t host her in our city and show her that city of good neighbors’ spirit, we’d like to send a big thank you to Nikki for taking the time to chat with us virtually. And thank you for everyone who attended or participated in any of this year’s AdWeek events! For more info on all of our programming for the club year, check out AAFBuffalo.com/events.

AdWeek Events Industry Updates

ADWEEK 2020 RECAP: DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION PANEL

Ad Club Of Buffalo

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have been the subject of many conversations over the past few months. We recently had the opportunity to speak with leaders from the Buffalo community and dig deeper into DEI: what it means, how it can be incorporated into the workplace, what the biases and barriers are, and how we can take action.

It is important to remember that with DEI, you cannot have one without the other two. Diversity, equity, and inclusion should be present and maintained in all aspects of life in order to progress forward, so stopping to assess how DEI fits in and plays (or could play) an active role in your workplace is imperative.

What are diversity, equity, and inclusion? 

Ekua Mends-Aidoo, chief equity and inclusion officer at Evergreen Health, recommends keeping organizations top of mind when defining these words.

As Ekua explained:

  • Diversity is a fact – either you have it within an organization or you do not.
  • Inclusion is a choice. It is up to the organization to decide and choose how they want to include people and make them feel embraced.
  • Equity is a policy that should become part of the organization’s practice. Equity is not It is about ensuring that people are getting the necessary and optimal resources that they need to achieve and succeed.

Incorporating DEI in the workplace.

Learning what these words mean is the first step, but organizations should be thinking about incorporating DEI in the workplace from the onset of the hiring process to onboarding and throughout career development. To maintain this mind-set and have DEI become a foundational part of your company, education is key. Whether it is a training series, a review of your company’s policies and structure, or a collaboration with groups and organizations to gain a better understanding of diversity issues, education introduces new conversations and poses questions for the future. These exercises may uncover certain biases that were never noticed before. But as was said by David Johnson, director of college counseling at Buffalo Prep, it is important that we are comfortable with being uncomfortable during the process in order to do the work that is necessary.

Taking action.

It is easy to stick with the status quo. Change can be difficult for everybody, and this work you are setting out to do can be challenging, but organizations cannot be afraid to have these conversations and seek out diversity. We need to be innovative and intentional with what we desire to do and how we are going to make that happen.

A special thank-you to our panel for taking the time to speak with us and for all that you do in our community:

  • Lisa Napier, Founder and President of WNY Media House
  • David Johnson, Director of College Counseling at Buffalo Prep
  • Ekua Mends-Aidoo, Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer at Evergreen Health
  • Greg Addo, Director, Producer, Videographer, and Editor at Addo Productions

Events

RECAP: THE BIG TEE-OFF

Ad Club Of Buffalo

Normally this fall we would be recapping our annual celebrity bartending event, the Big Tip Off, but we we weren’t able to organize that event this year. Typically the money raised from the Big Tip Off feeds the AAF Buffalo Scholarship Fund, established to support students in Western New York. Together we work to raise thousands of dollars each year to be used for scholarships such as the Buffalo Prep Future Marketer & Don Nichols Scholarship.

Our board put our heads together and sought to come up with an alternative because after all, the kids still needed us. Thus, the Big Tee-Off was born. With the inaugural theme “Hindsights 2020”, we invited agencies and free lancers in the area to creatively poke fun at 2020 with tee shirts designs. Partnering with local apparel favorite 26 Shirts, we were able to bring our idea to life.

We had participation from 11 agencies in the area:

  • Mower Agency
  • Dixon Schwabl
  • FIFTEEN
  • FARM
  • 19 Ideas
  • dPost
  • Crowley Webb
  • Manzella Marketing
  • Mr. Smith Agency
  • Gelia
  • The Quilted Squirrel

Our membership, 26 Shirts and the Buffalo community came together to support our scholarship fund, selling 459 shirts in total! Mower came away as the winner this year selling 112 shirts, with Dixon Schawbl & FIFTEEN rounding out the top three with 103 and 58 shirts sold, respectively. As per usual, we were blown away by the creativity and genorosity of our community. Thank you to everyone who submitted a design, purchased a shirt, or simply shared a social media post. Because of you we can continue this invaluable program helping students have access to more opportunities in our area.

Continue to keep a pulse on our event programming by visiting our website at AAFBuffalo.com/events.

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!

 

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

Events

Recap: Jingle Bowl 2019

Greg Pokriki

“F*** it Dude, let’s go bowling.” – Walter Sobchak, The Big Lebowski 

Oh did we ever bowl. The 2019 Jingle Bowl was nothing short of a success. Crowley Webb, Fifteen, Gelia, HSBC, Luminus, Telesco, FARM, Evans Bank, Quinlan, and AAF Board Alumni all came together on December 4 at Kenmore Lanes to bowl for a cause. 

Sixteen teams of four competed for the golden pin. And while Todd Harmon from Quinlan, with his shiny silver bowling shoes, stole most of the spotlight with winning Highest Individual Score for BOTH games one and two (and who was also on the team declared to be most festive), it was Evans Bank who took home the trophy with the Highest Overall Team Score: 1,141 points! 

Attendees donated to FeedMore WNY upon entering the event. Beating last year’s total, we weighed in at 531 pounds of donated non-perishables to help feed families during the holiday season. Way to go Buffalo!

Drinks were flowing all night long. FARM, the hosts of the 2020 Addy’s, made sure of that when they delivered pitchers of beer to each of the 16 teams of bowlers upon announcing this year’s theme: SPEAKEASY 2020 – THE ADDYS GO UNDERGROUND. We can’t wait to see what unfolds for this year’s show on March 6, 2020.

Thank you to Evans Bank who sponsored the event as well as Quinlan, Crowley Webb, and Big Ditch Brewery for donating prizes for our best (and worst) and most festive bowlers. 

You can find us in all of our ugly sweaters and shoes over on our Facebook page.

We will see you all next year!

Events Speaker Series

Recap: Rob Baiocco, Spotlight Speaker Series

Greg Pokriki

Rob Baiocco HeadshotWhat do you get when you combine a Buffalo lunch pail work ethic with global advertising aspirations? It’s hard to imagine it looking like anything other than Rob Baiocco. 

Born and raised right here in WNY, Rob returned to his roots last Tuesday night to speak to the Buffalo advertising community on why what we do is unlike any other profession. Plus, he shared just how cool some industry experiences of his have been. 

A life-long love affair with advertising

Throughout his hour-long conversation that ended with a lengthy Q&A session, Rob presented his top 12 reasons he can’t get enough of advertising, ranging from the luxurious – perks of traveling around the globe to shoot for hundreds of clients, to the practical – clients will pay you to do this shit.

He showed dozens of work samples, all he was majorly involved in, including Six Flags, Captain Morgan and, in true Buffalo fashion, Crown Royal. Many of the pieces were from several years and even a decade ago, and still garnered laughs from the audience.

Once (or twice) in a lifetime

More than three decades in an industry leads to some pretty incredible opportunities, and Rob isn’t short on them. He weaved his way in detailing his 20+ years at global phenom-agency, Grey, as well as his last 6 owning his own, The BAM Connection, in Dumbo Brooklyn. 

In his time at both, Rob was fortunate enough to work on not one, but two, Super Bowl spots. The first coming at Grey for client E*Trade, which showcased the infamous talking baby brand icon. The second, just this year, was for client [yellow tail] and helped to strengthen their Tastes Like Happy campaign. 

Special thanks to Rob for making the time to speak to the full house at Big Ditch, and for never forgetting his Buffalo blood as he’s enjoyed massive success over the last 30 years!