The kids at the Square just picked up more hardware for the Van Kampen campaign. This installment of metal comes courtesy of the 2010 Telly Awards. We won in categories like financial services, humor, B-to-C campaign and sound design. And we’re betting if there had been categories like “best use of the phrase ‘horse hockey’” or “best use of tear gas,” we’d have pulled those down too.
Our Van Kampen TV spots won gold at the District 7 ADDYs. This means we’re finalists for three national ADDYs, which would go a long way in stroking our fragile egos. Come on, no whammies!!
Hey Mom, look! We won some more trophies for our advertisements. Yesterday, the American Advertising Federation—Mobile Bay held their 2009 ADDY Awards.
The kids from the Square needed two trips to get the awards back to the office. We took home:
-Best of Print for our Senior Bowl posters
-Best of Broadcast for “Nuclear” for Van Kampen Investments
-8 of 9 Golds awarded
Good stuff. But perhaps the nicest recognition was that our man Stephean Grimes was named Art Director of the Year. Well deserved for a guy who works like a maniac and has a great attitude. (FUN FACT: Stephean can also grow a beard on command.)
Archive Magazine is widely held as a collection of the most outstanding advertising in the world. So for ad nerds like us, being featured in this magazine alongside the best in the industry is mom-calling-worthy. Even if our moms still don’t exactly get what we do for a living.
Our campaign for Van Kampen Investments and the Alabama State Treasury Department is in the latest volume (vol. 6-2009). Pick up a copy. Or five.
We are excited to share with everyone that we’ve been awarded five 2009 W3 Awards. It appears we are huge in France and huge on the Internets. Crazy.
Matt was so excited that he made some pretty amazing art out of the trophies. Creativity cannot be stopped people. It just is.
Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to earn this recognition. Let’s win more in 2010. Imagine what Matt could do with twelve or so of these things.
The kids at the Square are super excited today. Communication Arts is featuring our site as their “webpick of the day.” This is really amazing recognition for a couple of reasons.
1) Communication Arts is the largest international trade journal of visual communications.
2) There are over 3 billion active web sites and over 1 trillion URLs registered.
(Source: Janine counted them.)
So for our little site to be picked is quite humbling.
Site credits include Rich Sullivan, Matt Whitfield: creative directors; Diana Nichols: associate creative director; Rich Sullivan: copywriter; Laura Rainey, Chris Rowe: designers; Miller Mobley: photography; Sara Miles Agee: producer; New Uniform: development.
Thanks CA!
Who doesn’t enjoy a little love from the award shows? We aren’t going to lie, we like being recognized for our work–and most of the time it’s for work on behalf of our incredibly cool clients. This time, however, we’ve won an award for (drumroll…) our own brand.
Say whaaa?
That’s right. The kids at Red Square Agency have just been notified that the Web Marketing Association has bestowed a prestigious WebAward for “Best Advertising Site” upon our little ol’ web site. Awesome. And even awesomer is this comment from one of the judges:
KABANG – FINALLY AN AGENCY THAT GETS IT! You smoked the Boston agency and the NYC agency I judged. I bookmarked your site. If I was not in Asheville I’d be knocking. Excellent work. And I wouldn’t mind a shirt.
On behalf of the team that pulled this massive project together, I’d like to thank the academy. Or something like that.
Advertising (and PR) people are rabid about awards. We are no different at Red Square Agency. The place buzzes when we pull down hardware for our work. Here’s why we care:
1. Awards = effectiveness. There have been many studies conducted, of course all by the advertising industry, that illustrate award-winning advertising outperforms in the marketplace. In fact, there is a show called the Effies that focuses strictly on ad effectiveness. Generally speaking, regardless of studies, good advertising wins awards. Good advertising also tends to sell more of our clients’ stuff.
2. Credibility. If we clean up in shows, it gets press. When people see you doing well in shows, they arrive pretty quickly at: “those guys must be good.” It sounds elementary, but it’s true.
3. Morale. When you work like mad on a campaign or even a campaign element, it’s nice to be recognized for that work. This stuff is not easy. If it was easy, most advertising wouldn’t be horrible. Recognition boosts morale. And, in an agency, morale is currency.
4. Talent recruitment. Because ad (and PR) nerds, like us, want more than anything to put their little mark on the fabric of pop culture, they flock to an agency that cleans up in the shows. Win awards, and you get the pick of the best talent out there.
That’s pretty much it. Plus, we are insecure ego maniacs. Kidding. Sort of.
