AWARD WINNING IDEAS NATIONAL CLUB ACHIEVEMENT COMPETITION WINNING ENTRIES

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Mark Lynch
6 years ago
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1 AWARD WINNING IDEAS NATIONAL CLUB ACHIEVEMENT COMPETITION WINNING ENTRIES

2 PROGRAMS

3 Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. Henry Ford GOALS: Evolve Professional Development Series with infusion of select local talent and increased relevancy of content. Develop programming which provides value for and engages young advertising professionals. Provide programs to educate influencer audiences on the value the advertising industry brings to communities. Modernize and continue to adjust existing programming to keep it fresh and appealing to members and prospective members. FEATURED PROGRAM 1: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (PD) SERIES (Tab B) Event Details: Our PD Series offers niche programming designed to provide a top-level overview of topics that attendees can investigate further. Each event is a strictly one-hour program centrally located in the city to provide a fast, impactful way for our audience to stay connected and up-to-date on industry trends and other topics of interest. We are able to secure the majority of the boxed lunches through a donation, and the venue is provided at no cost to the club; so the series is a budget-friendly, no-hassle way to provide value to our members and steady revenue to the organization. Topics are chosen based on attendee feedback from previous seminars and also through our Call for Presentations, where potential speakers indicate topics of expertise. After over 10 years of offering this program, the look and branding was refreshed to keep the program feeling relevant and up-to-date. Promotion also shifted from a once-a-year mailing announcing all events to individual mailings promoting each event separately. Target Audience: AAF-Louisville members, prospective members, including small business marketers and potential speakers

4 Method of Promotion: invitations, website, direct mail and social media channels Average Attendance: Over 35 Feedback Mechanism: At each program, a survey is placed at every seat. Since the program has an intimate and interactive setting, we found we can achieve a better response rate with quick paper surveys than electronic surveys ed after the event. Results: PD attendance since March 2015 has averaged over 35 attendees. Plus, there is virtually no cost to the club for this series, so each one makes a profit. Last year, AAF-Louisville saw a profit of over $3,600 from this series. In addition, attendee surveys show 85% of attendees rated it a 4/5 or 5/5. FEATURED PROGRAM 2: AD2 LAUNCH PARTY & MEMBERSHIP MIXER (Tab C) The Ad2 Board used their transition from YAP (our Young Advertising Professional membership group) to Ad2 to host a mid-year membership recruiting event. AAF-Louisville prorates membership and a mid-year membership drive has proven to be a beneficial way to attract young members that may otherwise view membership as cost-prohibitive. By hosting an exclusive event for prospective members, the committee was able to reach advertising professionals and students age 32 and younger, celebrate the transition to Ad2 and have the chance to educate and interact with potential new members. The event lasted two hours with time for networking and socializing first. The second half of the evening featured an informal program where Ad2 officers explained the volunteer structure and benefits of getting involved. All new members who signed up that evening were entered into a drawing to win a Career Launch package that included a one-on-one meeting with an ad professional, a tour of Louisville's five top ad agencies, a voucher to create business cards, and professional headshots. The friendly Ad2 Membership Committee used the time to introduce people to one another, educate non-members and answer questions. Target Audience: Prospective and current members under age 32 and their guests

5 Method of Promotion: This event was promoted via , social media, and word of mouth through the committee s strong connection to Louisville s under-32 market. Average Attendance: 40 (second year offered) Feedback Mechanism: None used: Onsite applications demonstrated success for us. Results: Attendance was approximately 55 people, and 20 new Ad2 or Student Members signed up onsite, which was a 75% increase in new member registrations over the previous year. Many guests expressed their interest in coming to future AAF-Louisville and Ad2 events and were able to meet committee chairs for volunteer opportunities as well. Two members of the local media were invited, and their attendance resulted in positive press leading up to and following the event. FEATURED PROGRAM 3: LOUISVILLIAN OF THE YEAR (Tab D) Event Details: First bestowed in 1951, AAF-Louisville s Louisvillian of the Year award is the oldest of its kind in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. This outstanding achievement is given to publicly recognize an individual s generous personal contributions to the Louisville community in the areas of civic, educational or business progress in recent years. The winner is selected by a panel of past honorees. The Louisvillian of the Year (LOY) program is a great way for the club to give recognition to deserving individuals while also serving as a way for the club to stay connected to the business community outside of the advertising industry. Through LOY, AAF- Louisville is able to engage annually with university presidents, government officials, and top business leaders and philanthropists. The award recipients inspire interest in the event beyond our own membership base, so the event often pulls a significant profit due to increased sponsorships and attendance. Target Audience: Members, prospective members and leaders in the local business community Method of Promotion: Press releases, which are typically picked up by multiple publications, website event listings, blasts, print ad in Business First Louisville, direct mail and our social media channels.

6 Average Attendance: 275 Feedback Mechanism: None used Results: AAF-Louisville was blessed with an award recipient this past year that is an icon in the Louisville community. Papa John s Pizza is not only headquartered in Louisville but its founder, John Schnatter, is a local and well-known throughout the community. Once he was selected as the winner, we worked hard to engage his company, executive leadership team, and companies and organizations that his business supports. Since Papa John s Pizza is a heavy advertiser and purchaser of media, we knew there was tremendous opportunity for exposure for AAF- Louisville. The John Schnatter award-year resulted in our event receiving news coverage on all the local television stations, online coverage in Louisville Business First, InsiderLouisville, and both print and online coverage in The Voice Tribune. Through this coverage we potentially reached over 700,000 with news about our club and this event. In addition, an outdoor board was donated and featured a celebratory message for Mr. Schnatter and the event was streamed in its entirety live to 335 viewers on the local CBS affiliate s website and the interview is still housed there. Beyond exposure through the local media, the program allows the club to stay connected year-after-year with local and state government and community leaders and influencers by gathering past recipients to select the next recipient. SPECIAL EVENT 1: #LOUAD2BOWL TWITTER PARTY (Tab E) Event Details: The Super Bowl has become the biggest night of the year for advertising, and draws a great deal of excitement for both advertising professionals and pop-culture enthusiasts leading up to, during and after the Big Game. After seeing a large number of local ad professionals take to Twitter two years ago to share their thoughts on the ads, the Ad2 Louisville team organized their efforts to promote a Twitter party, where the hashtag #LouAd2Bowl was used to allow members and other industry professionals to share their critiques of the Super

7 Bowl ads in real-time. A volunteer also live-tweeted during the game from AAF-Louisville s Twitter account to encourage even more engagement from the local ad community. Target Audience: Members, prospective members, advertising industry professionals, and others interested in the conversation surrounding Super Bowl advertising Method of Promotion: The hashtag was promoted on our social media channels, and by wordof-mouth. Average Attendance: 100 Feedback Mechanism: AAF-Louisville posted throughout the night with tweets and responded to those tweeting along with the hashtag. Results: The hashtag tracked over 900 tweets, with over 100 people tweeting. Our analytics reported we reached over 218,400 people receiving over 1 million timeline deliveries. Overall, activity increased over 28% from last year. In addition, Louisville Business First ran an online article the Monday following the Super Bowl featuring our online commentary. SPECIAL EVENT #2: THE 42 nd ANNUAL LOUIE AWARDS (Tab F) Event Details: As a member club of the American Advertising Federation, we participate in the national competition called the American Advertising Awards. This is a three-tiered creative competition that starts at the local level, and then winning entries from Louisville move to district, and on to compete nationally. In Louisville, we call our local competition the Louies. Winners are recognized each year at the Louie Gala, traditionally held at a historic hotel or event venue. The Louies are a great way to shine the spotlight on the Louisville ad community at a local level, but we also use the awards to elevate our ad community and its reputation across the country. Last year, we recognized the need for a broad range of experienced judges for our digital entries, so we again selected five of the country s top digital creatives to judge those entries remotely, along with three top creatives as judges to review the traditional entries in person. This allowed us to keep a low travel budget while securing the most qualified and esteemed judges. For the past two years, we have placed special emphasis on encouraging

8 competition entries from companies that had not entered in recent years or never entered. Feedback of our gala for the past several years indicated our membership was ready for a change in our standard program. As a response, the Louie Committee examined the event and created a celebration unlike anything our membership had seen previously. For starters, the Louie awards gala was moved from a hotel to the Muhammad Ali Center, a local museum dedicated to Louisville native and boxing great Muhammad Ali. The Center features award winning exhibits built around the six parameters of Ali s life: confidence, conviction, dedication, giving, respect and spirituality. The committee was able to secure sponsorships from local beverage distilleries and use them to offer tasting stations throughout the event space while attendees were viewing the submitted work. In addition to the event s usual special awards like Judges Choice, People s Choice and Best of Show, this year AAF-Louisville debuted a new local-only award entitled Culturally Legit, that was a perfect fit for the Ali Center. Entry fees from this award go to support the endowment fund of our diversity scholarship given annually to a local minority student seeking a career in advertising. Our partnership with the Center included our commitment to drive attendees to one of their temporary exhibits: Selma to Montgomery: Marching along the Voting Rights Trail. The entries in the new Culturally Legit category were displayed next to that exhibit, and attendees were provided a detailed Schedule of Events upon arrival so they could visit all parts of the venue. Target Audience: AAF-Louisville members, non-members within the advertising community, corporate internal advertising departments, local colleges and universities with advertising/media arts programs and all entrant contacts Method of Promotion: Direct mail and database development: We not only mailed to all AAF-Louisville members, but also an additional 400 non-member companies that we identified through shared databases from several Louie Committee members and last year s non-member entrants.

9 Printed materials: We displayed promotional signage at all AAF-Louisville events leading up to our entry deadline, including our Fall Day at Churchill Downs, whose attendance averages 750 industry professionals. Personal deliveries: To further encourage participation, plastic entry bags were hand-delivered with a promotional poster and abbreviated entry instructions printed on the back. The number of envelopes provided was based on whether or not the company had entered the prior year. If so, they were given supplies for more entries than they had submitted the previous year. For firsttime entrants, the number of bags ranged from three to five. Other: We also deployed broadcasts, the AAF-Louisville website, social media vehicles and event announcements that took place in the months leading up to the February awards show. Post-event, we released a new winners microsite that was created to replace our printed book. The new online version made for easier distribution of winning work, with agencies being able to reference specific award URLs in their own publicity. Average Attendance: 325 Feedback Mechanism: electronic survey Results: Last year we took a significant hit in our total number of entries when two of the larger agencies in town chose not to participate. Not knowing what this year would bring, we worked hard to engage with new members and companies that had not entered before or had only entered a few. While one of the two agencies did not enter again this year, we were still able to post a 21.5% increase over last year s entry total due to all our outreach efforts, allowing us to exceed budgeted entry revenue by 43%. We also saw a 33% increase in unique entrants. SPECIAL EVENT #3: STAND UP FOR EDUCATION COMEDY FOR A CAUSE (Tab G) Event Details: Four years ago, a unique event was developed as a sustainable program where 100% of the proceeds went to our scholarship endowment fund. With AAF-Louisville offering so many other types of programs, the committee spearheading this effort was charged with

10 developing an event that would not compete with our current offerings, while also attracting a wider audience to help with fundraising. That idea was Comedy Night, and after three successful years, the event was poised for additional growth. Our Education Committee re-branded the event Stand Up for Education Comedy for a Cause, hoping a better event identity would help us continue to maximize attendance and profitability. Space at a local LGBT theater was donated and a well-known Asian-infusion restaurant sponsored upscale food for the attendees. A larger effort was made to secure additional donations from member businesses, such as concert tickets and artwork, to auction off during the show. Marketing efforts included educating the attendees on the fact that 100% of the proceeds from the comedy event would go into AAF s education endowment fund. Target Audience: Members, non-members, general public and anyone interested in supporting AAF-Louisville s scholarship program Method of Promotion: The fundraiser details and mission were promoted with direct mail, s, social media posts, website, and television commercials Average Attendance: 108 Feedback Mechanism: Post-event electronic survey Results: 115 tickets for the 2016 fundraiser were sold which was a 35% increase over the previous year. The auction raised $1,480 so, coupled with ticket sales, a profit of over $3,000 was placed directly into the scholarship endowment fund. In addition, the donated television spot was seen by 62.7% of adults aged in the Louisville television market an average of 2.4 times. This exposure proved key in securing the food donation, with that cost savings allowing us to make an even greater contribution towards scholarships.

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