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2017 Portfolio Review Recap

Erin Collins

Guest post by Noah Herman, Daemen College ’18

On Saturday, April 1, Daemen College hosted AAF Buffalo’s annual Portfolio Review. Even though the event fell on April Fool’s Day, students gained real, insightful advice from graphic designers, art directors, professors, freelancers, and other types of visual professionals working in Buffalo’s advertising community. Those communication students who attended this year created just as much variety as their professional counterparts, with participation coming from Villa Maria, Buffalo State, UB, and Daemen College.

 

Almost like design speed-dating, students at the review had a timed one-on-one slot with each professional to go over the student’s portfolio and provide critiques when necessary. Students who also attended the AAF’s Portfolio Seminar, hosted at Daemen College in the fall, would’ve found the Portfolio Review to be the perfect complement to the previous event. Further cementing the advice given at the seminar, students were able to put to practice much of what they learned without the added stress of a “real-world” job interview scenario.

Some advice that crossed over from the Portfolio Seminar to the Review included:

  • The importance of walking the reviewer through the process behind your work.
  • Using the correct method to display your work (physical or digital).
  • Including a truly concise and refined collection of work in your portfolio.
  • The importance of including mock-ups that best suit the product you’re displaying to give the reviewer a better concept of your work.

Students presented their work from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. with a brief break for lunch, which provided a unique opportunity to make connections with professionals or other students. At the end of the review, professionals were asked to vote on the most effective portfolios for scholarships available to students continuing their education next fall.

The students that professionals felt were successful in this regard included:

1st Place: Noah Herman, Daemen College

2nd Place: Brooke Murgia, Buffalo State

3rd Place: Travis Springer, Villa Maria College

Honorable Mention: Joseph Petromicca, Daemen College

Congratulations to the scholarship winners and all those who worked hard preparing and presenting. Entering the job market can be a scary process for any industry, let alone such a competitive field. So, a big thank you goes out to the professionals who donated a large portion of their free time to provide useful feedback and advice to make the process a whole lot smoother!

To see Noah’s winning portfolio, head over to noahherman.com. 

ADDYS Blog Board Events Latest News Students Stuff

2017 ADDYs Recap: AD SMACK BATTLE RUMBLE MANIA

Erin Collins 1 Comment on 2017 ADDYs Recap: AD SMACK BATTLE RUMBLE MANIA

On Friday, March 10, the local ad community came together to recognize the true winners of our industry: the creative geniuses of Western New York.

More than 410 advertising masterminds entered the ring at Buffalo RiverWorks to attend the 2017 WNY American Advertising Awards. From snarky signs to exclusive entourages, the atmosphere was lively, competitive, and celebratory – reflecting the show’s theme, “AD SMACK BATTLE RUMBLE MANIA,” perfectly.

Developed by local agency Crowley Webb, this year’s awards show satirized the hyped-up competition between local ad agencies around award season. Over 500 professional and student entries were received and scored by judges from Atlanta, Chicago, New York City and Washington D.C.

Special thanks go to co-chairs Marcia Rich, UX Designer at Crowley Webb, and April Brown, Art Director at FARM Buffalo, who worked hard to ensure a raucous time was had by all.

And now, on to the winners.  Read on to view the great achievements of the night.


 

Professional Winners

Crowley Webb brought the final smack down, taking home the most ADDYs with 29 awards (5 Gold, 24 Silver). Gelia received a total of 26 awards (16 Gold, 10 Sliver), Block Club was honored with 16 awards (3 Gold, 13 Silver), The Martin Group took away 13 awards (13 Silver), White Bicycle secured 12 awards (7 Gold, 5 Silver), and dPost 11 awards (8 Gold, 3 Silver). A total of 26 companies took home at least one gold or silver award.

Other award winners include:

  • FARM Buffalo (2 Gold, 6 Silver)
  • Eric Mower + Associates (1 Gold, 4 Silver)
  • FIFTEEN (8 Silver)

Best of Show

The big winner of the night was Gelia, picking up the Best of Show Award for their Smiling Teds, “Science of Used Car Dealers” campaign.

Special Awards

Several very talented individuals were also honored with Special Awards.  The 2017 recipients were:

  • Andy Donovan, President, dPost – David I. Levy Communicator of the Year Award
    This award was created to recognize outstanding achievement and service in the communications industry.

    Andy Donovan, President of dPost accepts the David I. Levy Communicator of the Year Award.
  • Laurie Wolfe, Broadcast Producer, Laurie Wolfe Productions – Alex Osborn Award for Creativity
    Named in honor of Alex Osborn of Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn fame, this award recognizes individuals who, through outstanding creative achievements, have left an indelible mark on the Western New York creative community.
  • Ted’s Hot Dogs – The Odysseus Best Client Award
    The Odysseus Award was established in 2011 by the Advertising Club of Buffalo to honor a client in the Western New York market (individual or group/department) who has used the discipline of strategic marketing and advertising in an extraordinary way.
  • Charlie Riley, Director of Marketing and Communications, Lawley – Joe Crowley Award for Service
    This award recognizes not only hard work, but also outstanding achievement in furthering the activities and interests of the club.
  • Sam Tato, 3D Artist, dPost – AAF Buffalo Future Star Award
    This award honors an outstanding young professional in the marketing and advertising field who has demonstrated great potential in his or her early years in the industry.

The Veritiv Creative Use of Paper Award

White Bicycle received this award once again for their Andrea Nardello “Fire” Packaging for Blue Elephant Records. A special thanks to Jean Clemens from Veritiv for her continued support of AAF Buffalo and this award.

 

Best Show Book Ad Award

FIFTEEN won this year’s award with their interactive thumb battle rumble mania-themed ad.

 

 

Student Winners

College students were also included in the action. Taking home the Student Best of Show were Alexandra Casarsa, Courtney Ewings, Gina Griffo, and Samantha Lonczak of Villa Maria College for Skald Book Design. Lonczak’s 4 student awards (1 Gold, 3 Silver) were the most overall. Angela Marini of Daemen College took home 2 Gold awards, while Holly Norris of Buffalo State College took home 1 Gold and 1 Silver. A total of 17 students took home at least one gold or silver award.

Courtney Ewings, Gina Griffo, Samantha Lonczak, and Alexandra Casarsa of Villa Maria College accept the Student Best of Show Award for Skald Book Design.

Students each taking home one Gold award include:

  • Grace Gruarin, VIlla Maria College
  • Noah Herman, Daemen College

Student Silver award winners include:

  • Alexandra Casarsa, Villa Maria College
  • Troy Deweever, St. Bonaventure University
  • Courtney Ewings, Villa Maria College
  • Jeffery Marotta, Villa Maria College
  • Jessica Puskar, Villa Maria College
  • Rachel Peck, Canisius College
  • Alicia Salerno, Villa Maria College

Thank You to Our Sponsors

The 2016 WNY American Advertising Award Show was sponsored by: Buffalo Limousine, Holiday Inn Express, WNED TV, Gateway Printing & Graphics, Inc., Big Ditch Brewing Company, IMG_INK, Veritiv, Cohber Press, Inc., Hodgins Engraving, Minute Print, PromoWorks, CJ Sound, Sound Video Solutions, and Speier Displays.

On to a Bigger Ring

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 with the hope of moving on to the national show in New Orleans in June.

Congratulations to all the winners and another successful year of work in WNY!

 

Watch the judge’s Best of Show selection process below. Special thanks to Jason Yates for this superb contribution.

 

Relive the memories by flipping through the 2017 American Advertising Awards show book, or view pictures from the night on our Facebook page.

Blog Events Skillshop

Skillshop Recap: Public Relations 101

Dan Nesselbush
by Andrew Bevevino

“So what exactly do you do?” That’s a question that a lot of PR people get. PR is multifaceted to say the least, so it’s tough to put your finger on.

But, if you had to describe it, what would you say? Luckily, Martin Davison Public Relations employee Kelsey Hanks and I recently hosted Skillshop: Public Relations 101 at The Martin Group offices to discuss what PR encompasses.

What do PR people actually do?

There are many PR practices, so it’s difficult to come up with a one sentence definition. However, we spoke briefly about several areas that PR practitioners work within on a regular basis.

  • Advocacy: If an organization needs help gaining community and/or influencer support for a certain initiative, PR people can help craft the messaging around that cause or initiative by writing speeches and talking points, organizing forums or community meetings, placing stories with the media or administering media training.
  • Content marketing: When we talk about content marketing, we’re referencing blogs, podcasts, infographics or other content-based pieces of communications. This content has some sort of value for consumers (i.e. education or entertainment), and PR people help create that content and the strategies for promoting it.
  • Internal communications: Internal PR is useful for keeping employees satisfied and informed. A good example of internal PR is a company newsletter detailing notable employee news and company updates and accomplishments. PR people are often tasked with keeping tabs on company news and creating internal promotional materials.
  • Crisis management: When something happens that could damage a company’s reputation, its often the job of PR practitioners to minimize or eliminate that damage. Doing so requires careful crafting of a strategic message that is relayed through press conferences, media relations and various other PR tactics.
  • Social media: You can use social media to accomplish many of the same goals that accomplish with more traditional PR. You can use social to promote content you create internally or for clients (i.e. blogs, podcasts), or you can spread positive buzz through the various social media channels and tools.
  • Media relations: Media relations = getting your clients in the news. This is what a lot of people think about when they reference PR. If you’re pitching stories about your clients to reporters or bloggers, you’re practicing media relations.

These are just a few areas within PR that we discussed during the workshop. There are many more, and their applications vary depending on the situation.

What is newsworthy/pitching basics

We took a bit of a deeper dive into media relations and discussed what makes a story newsworthy as well as some basics for media pitching.

There are several aspects of a story that make it newsworthy. Human interest, awards, product launches, major accomplishments and original content are all good examples of characteristics that might catch a reporter’s eye.

But, when pitching a story to the media, you always have to make sure you have a good angle. The angle is the story’s point of relevance or uniqueness. Without a good angle, your story will be glanced over. During the workshop, we outlined strategies to finding a good hook, as well as some basic steps to reaching out to the news media.

10 ways to promote your brand or event

If you’re having a big event or launching a new product, you’ll definitely want some PR to spread the word. We talked about ways to promote your event or product using PR, and I’d lay those out for you now, but I’m sure you’d rather just look at this artsy infographic that details PR activations for those occasions.

We talked about a few other subjects during our presentation at The Martin Group, but these are some of the broader points we spent a little more time on. All in all, we had some solid conversation about PR basics that the attendees seemed to find interesting based on the feedback I received.

Thanks to all who came! We really enjoyed giving the presentation, and we hope to see you at more AAF Buffalo events in the future.

Events Students

BrandHack 2017: Designing for Non-Profit Danceability [Recap]

Tim Bouchard 1 Comment on BrandHack 2017: Designing for Non-Profit Danceability [Recap]

By Tim Bouchard

In 2016 I organized the first ever BrandHack event which was a nod to my web/tech industry background. It went great, but lacked a bit of motivation and skin in the game since we used a case study exercise rather than a real case. So we sent out a call for non-profits in November of 2016 in search of a worthy benefactor of our BrandHack event. Enter Danceability, a local non-profit dance studio that services those with special needs between the ages of 3-70 years old. This year, 2017 marks the 10 year anniversary of the organization so we tasked our BrandHack student teams with updating the look of the logo, an event invitation piece and a poster design for the annual performances event in May.

We were hosted by the UB Art Department this year and had four student teams representing St. Bonaventure, UB, Buffalo State, Daemen, and Villa Maria. After last year we learned that each team would benefit from having a professional Art Director as their captain, enter April Brown from FARM, Jaime Applegate from NOCO, John English from LUMINUS, and Krista Roberts from Quinlan. This was a game changer as their direction gave the students the confidence and guidance to work through brainstorming, scheduling, and executing each piece.

The groups would have four and a half hours of active work time before making their 10 minute pitches before the judges would deliberate.

Throughout the day our two judges Dan Stout from FIFTEEN and Michael Tsanis from martin bounced from group to group answering questions of the project requirements and making sure the teams were on track. Robin, our representative from Danceability was also answering questions throughout the day helping make sure the organization was represented accurately in the work.

And of course we had a giant count down clock on the projector to add to the drama.

What came of the day’s four and a half hour design crunch was some amazing work from each team. Congrats to all the students that poured their heart into these and the captains for steering the ship!

A word from Robin of Danceability: “Danceability was excited to be selected as Brandhack’s first nonprofit! If you are a start-up nonprofit, this is a great event for you to get your organization off and running with branding. I highly recommend it.”

Below are the results of the 2nd annual BrandHack!

WINNER: UB captained by John English

 

RUNNER-UP: Buffalo State/UB captained by April Brown

 

Daemen College / Villa Maria captained by Jaime Applegate

 

St. Bonaventure captained by Krista Roberts

Blog Events

Bowling for Soup

Erin Collins
By Erin Collins

No, this isn’t a story about that early-2000s, one-hit-wonder rock band. It’s better!

Charity, by means of bowling. Not something you hear about everyday. But then again, creatives are known to be out-of-the-lane thinkers.

That’s why AAF Buffalo continued to host its 3rd Annual Holiday Bowling Tournament to support the Food Bank of WNY. On Tuesday, December 6, 14 teams from Quinlan, Crowley Webb, Gelia, FARM, Parkway Digital, Luminus, The Martin Group, and other professional organizations took to the lanes to bowl for soup and strikes.

Our awesome organizers: Jillian Minderler, Brittany Klotzbach and Shannon Silva

Bowlers brought their best skills and non-perishable food donations to compete for prizes from our generous sponsor, Quinlan, as well as some Buffalo goodies provided by our pals at Store 716 (who also extended free shipping to all AAF Buffalo members with code shipAAF). With a total of 1136 for both games, Alex Bass and teammates Billy Drenko, Matt Lyford and Brian Straka  took home the top team prize. The prize for best overall male bowler went to Billy Drenko, while AAF Buffalo board member April Brown and Lauren Shapiro represented FARM as top female bowlers.

In addition to sponsoring the event, Quinlan also brought the largest food donation – and with other participants’ contributions, the event was able to provide a whopping 678 lbs. to the Food Bank. That translates to many cleaned out pantries, and the equivalent of 565 donated meals!

Thank you to all participants, sponsors and friends at Kenmore Lanes for another successful bowling tournament.

Visit the AAF Buffalo Facebook page for more pictures from the 3rd Annual Holiday Bowling Tournament.

Blog Events Stuff

Tipping Big, For the Kids

Dan Nesselbush
By Brittany Klotzbach

Last Thursday, we had one of our favorite events that we host annually: The Big Tip-Off. This has become a beloved tradition the past six years because it allows us to put the spotlight on some of our most notable “celebrity” marketing experts in the area. This event combines networking, friendly competition among local agencies, and easy-to-make drinks (… these are volunteer bartenders after all). Competitive bartending is entertaining and satisfying to watch in itself. Tack on the fact that we are doing it for a good cause, raising money for the AAF Buffalo student scholarship fund, and it makes the experience even more exciting.

Between the promotional videos leading up to the event and the methods the bartenders used to boost their tip money (i.e. glow-in-the-dark glasses, decorated tip jars, and fancy vests – to name a few), they did a fantastic job doing their part to raise money for the scholarship fund and student portfolio review events. This year’s Big Tip-Off brought in a total of $3,716 on tip money alone. Congratulations goes out to Matt Low, this year’s winning bartender who raked in an impressive $1,111. We also had a great turnout with 110 people in attendance, easily packing in the roof-top/upstairs bar of SoHo Burger Bar.

AAF Buffalo is proud to provide scholarship opportunities to local marketing students through the money we raised collectively at this event. A special thanks is owed especially to our celebrity bartenders who worked hard to earn those tips alongside Matt Low, representing Crowley Webb: Ben Siegel, Block Club; Tyler Stanley, EMA; Jason Yates, Gelia; Tim Bouchard & Mike LaDuca, Luminus Media; Jim Lynch & Kailey Kolozsvary, The Martin Group; Frank Conjerti & Josh Gumulak, Quinlan. We would also like to thank all of the generous attendees that tipped big.

We hope to see you all again next year to challenge the returning champions from Crowley Webb!

ADDYS AdLab Blog Board Events Stuff

A Look Back

Scott Bartels

AAF Buffalo club achievement awards

As another Ad Club year winds down, it is a perfect time to reflect on the many successes of 2015-16 and to look ahead to the future.

A better Ad Club

Our focus in the past year was to bring new and exciting events to our members as well as enhancing our successful annual events, this included:

  • More guest speakers from out of town including Anthony Shop, Anne Esse and Brokaw.
  • Introduction of member-only Skillshops to help you learn and grow in your career.
  • Brand Hack, an all-day “hack-a-thon” for our creative professionals and students
  • Networking trivia nights
  • Your favorite events, bigger and better: Preview Night, Holiday Bowling Tournament and Uber Bowl

Buffalo Wins National Honors

In June, the AAF honored the winners of the Club Achievement Competition at the “Salute to Achievers Ceremony” at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.  This competition is designed to recognize outstanding accomplishments of its affiliated advertising clubs, showcasing the programs and projects its professional member clubs undertake each year. It was established to honor significant contributions to the AAF network of professional advertising clubs and to encourage excellence in areas of club operations that strengthen the AAF’s member clubs.

For the first time ever, the Ad Club of Buffalo received awards in the three categories we entered.

As part of AAF Division Two, which includes clubs with 250 to 499 members, we won the following:

  • Advertising Education – 1st place
  • Communications – 1st place
  • Programming – 1st place

American Advertising Awards

What a night it was in March at the 2016 WNY American Advertising Awards show at Statler City, over 420 of the industry’s best gathered to celebrate the achievements of the year.  We had a record of more than 500 professional entries and nearly 50 student entries.  We continued celebrate our region’s great work with an impressive showing at the district awards level as well as a handful of winners at the national show.

On top of all this awesomeness, we were presented the AAF Incentive Award. This award is given to the top 10 clubs nationally that showed the highest increase in entries to the American Advertising Awards.

Saying goodbye…

The summer is always bittersweet as we say farewell to our departing board members and welcome a new group to help guide the club.

Matt Low served five years on the board, including last year as vice president. Not only did he lend his great creative talents and leadership to everything the club did, but Matt was instrumental in improving our academics committee and overseeing the Don Nichols Scholarship Competition.

Corey Crossman served two years on the board as treasurer. Corey brought incredible passion to everything he did for the club, including ensuring the club’s financial success, overseeing the communications committee and leading our efforts in this past year’s Club Achievement Awards.

Sarah DiPofi and Christie Witt Berardi both served two years on the board and took on the difficult role as American Advertising Awards chairs not once, but twice. Their hard work paid off with two successful celebrations of our great industry, setting record attendance each year.

The club is in a great place because of these dedicated individuals and we thank them for their contributions.

Newbies

Our executive board welcomes two second-year board members into new roles, Tim Bouchard as vice president and Kyle Rogers as our new treasurer.

We also welcome five new board members that bring a wide range of experience and skill to the board.

  • Andrew Bevevino – Martin Davison PR
  • Erin Collins – BlueCross BlueShield of WNY
  • Erin Haskell – Crowley Webb
  • Matt LaSota – Outer Harbor Development Corporation
  • Tess Alberts – EMA

Thank You

All of this work would never be possible without a strong team to run the club. I continue to be impressed more and more each year at the talent that makes up our board of directors and volunteers. They put in countless hours and have fun doing it. I thank each one of you for your continued dedication to making the club a huge success.

What’s next?

We are excited about 2016-17 as we take the Ad Club to the next level beginning this August. Join us at The Big Tip-Off on August 25 at Soho Burger Bar to find out more and help support our scholarship fund!

-Scott Bartels, Advertising Club of Buffalo President

AdLab Events Social Media Stuff

The power of your people.

Marcia Rich

At our most recent Ad Lab, we were honored to have Anthony Shop (@afshop) present at The 9th Ward. Anthony cofounded the digital innovation agency Social Driver. It has since been named the seventh fastest growing agency in the U.S. by The Agency 100. As chief strategy officer, Anthony has sparked innovative campaigns for a portfolio of industry-leading clients.

0421161818All that is great, but you know what is even greater? The iconic movie The Goonies from 1985, which is exactly what Anthony used to start off his talk. Hundreds of people each year travel to visit the house featured in the film. No one told them to do this (in fact the home owner did not want visitors), it just happened organically. The point is, you can’t force people to love something. Instead of trying to create a cult following or a viral moment – as so many brands are wishing for daily – tap into existing energy and use that to your advantage. Ask yourself: What do people already care about? Where is the energy already and how can you tap into it?

Very few brands have been able to successfully do this. Anthony gave two great examples in his talk. First was the Ellen DeGeneres selfie of the 2014 Oscars, which was taken on a Samsung phone. Samsung didn’t place its logo on the photo or do anything other than provide the phone, but that selfie ended up being the most retweeted post ever and even broke Twitter for a short period of time. Samsung was able to tap into the existing energy of the Oscars and place its product in an influential place at the right time.

IMG_20160421_182622The second example was “The Dress”: Did you see it as white and gold or black and blue? This argument caused everyone to freak out in 2015, and many brands tried to jump on this bandwagon. Anthony pointed out one company that was able to successfully use The Dress to their advantage in a campaign – Salvation Army. Check out the link to see the campaign designed to raise awareness of domestic abuse, which utilized the preexisting hashtag #StopAbuseAgainstWomen. Which brings us to Anthony’s next point: Don’t try to create your own hashtag and expect it to go viral. Use one that already exists and has some momentum. Embrace the opportunity to give up control and be authentic. Salvation Army was able to successfully innovate instead of imitate, like so many other brands did with The Dress.

Learning the importance of personalization and the benefits of using social media stars to advertise a brand were two other takeaways from Anthony’s talk. The third huge takeaway was how to have a streamline process for social media management. When a hot moment on social media is happening, brands need to be able to jump on it quickly or they miss out. This can seem impossible when you have four levels of approval to get through and it’s a Friday night after office hours, so he suggests a traffic light system: Topics, people, or keywords that are always okay to repost or retweet are green. Some that may still need a level of approval are yellow. And ones that are definitely a no-no are red. Have this system in place before a big event so your social media team can be ready to act at the drop of a hat. And speaking of hats, Anthony gave the example of Pharrell Williams’s hat worn to the 2014 Grammy Awards that coincidentally looked like the Arby’s logo. Arby’s quickly tweeted about it and social media history was made. Talk about flat, fast, and fun – one of Anthony’s mottos.

Read what Ad Lab attendees had to say about Anthony Shop below.

ADDYS Blog Events

Everyone loves the previews

Ad Club Of Buffalo

By Matt Low

You know you’ve done it. You’ve sat in the theater as the lights went down and the familiar green screen with wonderfully calming Gotham type appears, followed by an incredibly enticing two-minute highlight reel of what’s probably the 120-minute mental equivalent of rug burn has you wetting your pants with jealousy and scorn over the full-length picture you just paid $12 to see.

“WHY AREN’T I SEEING THAT MOVIE? RIGHT NOW!” you say to yourself.

That right there’s the power of the preview. And ADDY Preview Night proved to be no less enthralling.

For those of you who weren’t there (Wait, what? What’s wrong with you? It was FREE with your ADDY ticket. FREE. Free camaraderie. You are coming to the ADDYs, right? Oh. Okay. You were just busy that night. See you at the ADDYs.), take a stab at what you missed:

  • A stellar evening filled with light banter among colleagues
  • A closer look at the best work the Western New York advertising community produced in 2015
  • Zebras
  • Amazing apps and beers courtesy of Big Ditch Brewing Company
  • Ad Club President Scott Bartels’ new haircut
  • None of the above
  • Some of the above
  • Most of the above
  • All of the above, except zebras

Well, you weren’t there, so you’ll never truly know. You blew it.

For those of you who were there (You’re awesome and we love you with every ounce of our collective beings. Kisses and hugs to you for days.) you know just how great it was. You know all about the lovely laughs and conversations had as the Western New York ad heavyweights put down the pens and closed the laptops for an entire evening to catch up over beers. And how about those beers? Big Ditch continues to demonstrate why it’s one of the region’s craft beer giants. Plus the food. This place isn’t just about the hops – the meatballs were heavenly. You also know how excellent the work was that this community churned out last year, as the best of the best was in front of your eyes just as it was for the ADDY judges a few weeks earlier.

You know it was a great night. You were there. And for that, we love you to pieces.

AdLab Blog Events Students

At BrandHack Some Strangers Got Really Creative Really Fast!

Tim Bouchard

I was fortunate enough to be accepted to the Ad Club Board of Directors this past summer of 2015. Prior to that, I was only a member of the club for one year. Both years, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the people I’ve met and the events I’ve attended. One of my goals when I joined the board was to try and help explore how to make events more interactive and fun. Being from the tech side of the creative world, I decided I would try and borrow from my friends in the tech industry and see if I couldn’t take the idea of an all day “hack-a-thon” and marry it with the design world’s creativity.

brandhack-judgesI enlisted the help of some wildly talented and highly regarded creative talent from the Buffalo area. Julie Zack (Designer: BrandEven), Mike LaDuca (Partner: LUMINUS), Monish Bhattacharyya (Creative Director: FourthIdea), and Michael Downey (Art Director: FARM). This crew would serve two very important purposes of helping shape and guide each rapidly compiled campaign idea as well as judge the final products and declare the winning Brand Hack campaign.

We had three main goals for this event:

  1. Encourage team members to get to know each other. The teams were randomly assigned with an even distribution of talent types.
  2. Bring students together with professionals so they can see and participate in the work flow process of a professional.
  3. Make it challenging, but allow for creativity with no limitations other than theme and required deliverables.

brand-hack-awardsOf course we had to make it worthwhile as well. Chelsea Turton, the board’s student liaison, created an amazing graphic of a rocket “idea” breaking through an alarm clock. We decided to build off that and after a few minutes of brainstorming, we googled “Rocket Trophies” and the rest was history.

We had 6 hours to fit in a creative briefing, production, presentations, and judging. The pressure was almost on me as much as the teams attending. We broke the day like this; 30 minutes for team introductions & creative brief, 4.5 hours for production, 45 minutes for 5 minute presentations (everyone went a few minutes over but it was ok), and 15 minutes for judging. Surprisingly, it actually worked really well!

brand-hack-teamsThe fluctuations in the day were amazing to observe. Early on before the briefing it was as loud as a high school lunch room. Everyone was chatting up a storm getting to know each other. Then after a moment of silence for the creative briefing, came the flurry of conversations as the teams started talking out concept ideas. Then, after Michael proclaimed around noon “You should definitely be into designing by now, 3 hours left!” the room went silent, like a good Thanksgiving dinner when everyone starts eating. It was pretty entertaining to watch as an outsider. Everyone gave great presentations and each team was very supportive of the others while they presented.

The challenge was to develop an awareness campaign that would help the fictional “Urban Food Bank” solicit donations year-round, rather than just the popular November & December Holiday months. A bonus would be to create an urgency for donating or funding toiletries which are an often overlooked aspect of the care provided by the bank.

I’m biased, but I think the event was awesome. Nobody seemed bored, everyone was engaged, and there was some really great work that came out of this.

And now I’m happy to share the campaigns that were dreamt up in 4.5 hours on a random Saturday in January by complete strangers. Starting with the winning campaign, the runner up, and the other great campaigns in no particular order. It really was amazing was great work came out of just 4.5 hours.

WINNER: “Roll Reversal”

brandhack-roll-reversal

randhack-winnersTeam Two’s campaign, “Roll Reversal”, is focused on increasing donations of toilet paper to the Urban Food Bank. This campaign is designed to target people when they are in a position to empathize with those in need of toilet paper, and usually have a mobile device in-hand.

We created vinyl wraps for use inside of public bathroom stalls to cover the full toilet paper rolls, making them appear empty, hopefully giving people that “Oh Shit” feeling of being out of toilet paper.

The ultimate goal of this campaign is to drive people to a landing page for the Urban Food Bank that is optimized for mobile conversions and provides an quick button to donate an amount of money equivalent to one roll of toilet paper.

Runner Up: “One More”

brandhack-just-1-more

brandhack-runners-upBy giving just “one more”, you can change lives. “One more” is easy and is something everyone can do, but it makes a big impact. You’re filling a gap in your community by giving “one more” dollar or donation. Really show WHO the donations are going to by telling the stories of the people in need. Guarantee donations are doing good for your friends and neighbors. Make it fun, and something people want to do over and over. We would provide free bags that can be filled with donations and conveniently emptied at numerous drop off locations. We would utilize a number of tactics including a mobile app.

“Feed The Hunger Monster”

brandhack-hunger-monster

The goal of the “Feed the Hunger Monster” campaign is to increase food, toiletry, and monetary donations specifically in the spring to prepare for school being out in summer.

It’s tough to focus when you’re hungry or don’t feel your best. The monster is a physical representation of those feelings. “Feed the Hunger Monster” aims to show parents what kids can accomplish when they’re not worried where their next meal will come from, or if their classmates will mock them for their clothes or hygiene.

“Treats to Meals”

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While you enjoy the delights of the season the Anderson family needs your help. Turn your extra money into meals for them by donating to the Urban Food Bank.Visit treatstomeals.com to help and donate.

“Metro Market”

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MetroMarket makes it easier than ever to grow your community.

The MetroMarket truck stops by your home once a month to exchange food and toiletries for fresh fruits and vegetables grown in Buffalo’s own urban gardens.

We donate an equal shipment of fresh foods to Urban Food Bank.

It really is that simple.