hitting gold in las vegas

Congrats to those who took home the gold last night. Against all odds: Grand Prize was for Pharma. In spite of this (or maybe inspired by it) CLIO announced it will be launching a new award for Healthcare. In recognition of the difficulty of competing in a category which requires half an ad to be written by lawyers. Submission process opens in July and winners to be honored at a ceremony in New York in October. (Sort of like an industry Special Olympics?)

2009 Grand CLIO Award for Print:
• CLM BBDO, Boulogne-Billancourt, Pharmaceuticals, Dissolve Your Problems “Bear, Paparazzi, Magician, Prison” for Alka-Seltzer (Grand CLIO Winner in Print)

Gold CLIO Awards for Print:
• Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, London, Corporate/Institutional, “Inner Child” for Museum of Childhood
• AlmapBBDO, São Paulo, Automotive, Volkswagen Customized Trucks “Volkswagen Customized Trucks - Beer Box, Volkswagen Customized Trucks - Fruit Box, Volkswagen Customized Trucks - Milk Box, Volkswagen Customized Trucks - Egg Box” for Volkswagen Trucks
• BBDO Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Automotive, Two Worlds “Bushman & Eskimo, Husky & Camel, Mountain Goat & Crocodile” for Jeep
• Clemenger BBDO, Wellington, Public Service, Crashed Beds “Bridge, Tree, Creek” for Driver Fatigue
• Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Martinez, Health Care Services, “Children – Tree” for Hospital Alemán - Kinder Plan
• Leo Burnett & Arc Worldwide Thailand, Bangkok, Home Furnishings/Appliances, “Chicken, Fish, Lobster” for WMF
• McCann Erickson, Madrid, Public Service, “Woman Shoe” for Greenpeace
• Miami Ad School Europe (Student - Sandra Nicolas), Hamburg, Student, Inspired By Life “Porridge, Brother, Aunt” for IKEA
• Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide, Petaling Jaya, Public Service, “Stop” for Guinness
• TBWA\PARIS, Boulogne-Billancourt, Household Products, Mir Black “Mir Black - Spider, Mir Black – Arms” for Henkel
• TBWA\PARIS, Boulogne-Billancourt, Household Products, Mir Laine “Mir Laine 1, Mir Laine 2, Mir Laine 3, Mir Laine 4” for Henkel

Gold CLIO Awards for Direct Mail:
• Lowe Limited, Bangkok, Dimensional, “Torture Test” for Breeze Excel Washing Detergent
• Philipp und Keuntje GmbH, Hamburg, Collateral, “Balloon” for Chubb Nord-Alarm Security Systems Company

Gold CLIO Awards for Radio:
• DDB Chicago, Chicago, Beverages/Alcoholic, Real Men of Genius “Mr. Rain Delay Tarp Roller Outer, Mr. Golf Quiet Sign Holder, Mr. Football End Zone Painter, Mr. Football First Down Marker” for Anheuser-Busch
• Grey, Melbourne, Public Service, Pictures of You “Anne, George, Martin” for Anti-Speed Message
• Grey South Africa, Sandton, Public Service, “Shark Attack” for Shark Life
• Grupo Gallegos, Long Beach, Media, Subtitles “Epic, Robinson, Horror” for Comcast CableLatino
• Network BBDO, Johannesburg, Travel/Tourism, Plain Insanity “Ferret, Dancer, Dog” for Virgin Atlantic Airlines - Upper Class Suites
• Saatchi & Saatchi, New York, Business Equipment/Services, Compression Radio “Soap Opera Romance, Eating Candy, Calling Tech Support” for StuffIt Deluxe

Gold CLIO Awards for Poster:
• Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, London, Corporate/Institutional, “Inner Child” for Museum of Childhood
• BBDO Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Automotive, Two Worlds “Bushman & Eskimo, Husky & Camel, Mountain Goat & Crocodile” for Jeep
• Big Ant International, New York, Public Service, “What Goes Around Comes Around” for Global Coalition for Peace
• Contract Advertising India Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, Public Service, “Family Name” for Aadhar Association
• Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Martinez, Health Care Services, Children “Tree, Cookie, Stairs” for Hospital Alemán - Kinder Plan
• KNARF (Students - Annie Chiu, Anna Echiverri), New York, Student, “Subway Bench” for Victoria’s Secret

Gold CLIO Awards for Billboard:
• DDB London, London, Media, “Global Downturn” for Financial Times
• Leo Burnett Canada, Toronto, Beverages/Alcoholic, “Share Our Billboard Campaign” for James Ready

Gold CLIO Awards for Strategic Communications/Public Relations (new category this year for "innovative use of any form of unpaid publicity and messaging that drives credibility, awareness, reputation, and relationships between a company or organization and its consumers or constituents"):

• Edelman, Chicago, Consumer, “FilterForGood: Better Water, Less Waste” for Brita
• Ketchum, San Francisco, Consumer, “Haagen-Dazs loves Honey Bees: Let's Lick This Problem” for Haagen-Dazs

greetings from vegas. but where were the CLIO's in 1963?

Writing this from (as the sign says) "Fabulous Las Vegas" where the Clio Awards is celebrating its 50th anniversary by showcasing statuette-winners from five decades. They'll also be honoring Matt Weiner tonight for his Mad Men work that dramatizes advertising in the 1960s, generally considered to be the turning point in the business, the time when advertising became a legitimate career instead of a shady enterprise propogated by hucksters. (You may not agree that this shift occurred.)

Betty Draper will be tweeting the event with other Mad Men on Twitter. (From a 1963 POV, of course.) Of course she'll be far more dressed up than most attendees. In the 60s, award shows were black tie. Every gentleman owned one. The few female invitees toted gowns and heels to their offices and you didn't want to go to the ladies room at 5 PM when air was heavy with perfume and hairspray and you'd likely see a boss in her girdle.

Doing a little research into CLIO archives turns up names long gone, but not quite forgotten: Normal, Craig & Kummel; NW Ayer; Oglivy, Benson & Mather; Paper, Koenig, Lois; Benton & Bowles (more commonly referred to as B&B.)

Still-vibrant DDB won best in 1963 for this sixty-second long (interminable, by our standards) spot using actor Jack Gilford for Cracker Jacks. Creative kudos went to writer Judy Protas (though the spot is silent) and inimitable art director Bob Gage.

on breaking into the business

There's been talk going around about how the best creative young minds aren't choosing to go into advertising anymore. But I spoke recently with ad majors at City College and their smarts and enthusiasm waylaid any doubts I had about the caliber of the next generation of Mad People. Perhaps what I told them might prove useful to a jobhunter you know who is about to take the step of moving permanently off-campus.

When I got into the business, it was a different business. Copy was mailed to a client, with stamps. Art directors could draw. Cut and paste called for blades and rubber cement.

But you? You’re coming into advertising in the throes of a maelstrom. Longheld rules of marketing are changing and ad agencies are going through gyrations, trying to keep up. Creative directors are scrambling to retrain their staffs, to figure out how to stake claim for brands in the new, digital world. A few years ago, “doing interactive” meant coming up with banner ads. But web 2.0 has made the medium more challenging and creative directors are hoping that you, the first generation of digital natives, will come up with brilliant ideas for exploiting it.

Don’t get me wrong. To get a job in advertising, you still have prove your creative prowess in print and TV. But now every concept also needs a digital component that shows you understand the shift to conversational marketing. The ideas that are most likely to land you a job are ones that promote brands across multiple platforms: print ,TV, Facebook, Twitter or whatever is the latest application du jour.

That’s why the best way to show your book isn’t a book. It’s a website. Claim your name (or some variation) in a URL and create a case for yourself on the web. Once your work is online, creative directors can look at it whenever, wherever they please. And a digital “book” has the added advantage of never getting lost or tying up your chances at an agency because another agency, after three weeks, still hasn’t gotten around to looking at it.

Your website doesn’t have to be fancy. In fact, it’s a good idea to keep it as simple as possible. Creative directors are looking to assess your concepts, not your mastery of widgets and code. They won’t take kindly to being made to wait, no matter how cool your site is when the flash finally loads. They make time for your work and you make your site so heavy they have to stand by watching a bar fill in? You’ve just demonstrated a cardinal sin in advertising⎯not knowing your target. Click. Through.
What else?

1. Make a list of where you want to work. This may sound basic, but I’m always surprised by people who don’t think to do this. Look for agencies instead of job offers. Where you start in the business is the most important career choice you’ll make, as the connections you form there will help determine the jobs you’ll get next. Success in advertising, as in most businesses, depends partly on who you know and who knows you.

2. Twitter search for a job. Despite Twitter's exponential growth, the community it hosts is still relatively small. Which makes it easier for you to get the attention of someone who might not have time for you in the real world. Go to twitter search and plug in the names of agencies where you'd like to work. Follow people who work there. (Usually employed people put job affiliation in their profile description.) Start up a conversation with them. Do this by publicly commenting on something they posted. (Do I have to say this--do NOT make your first contact a direct message, or one that asks for a job.) Some connections you make may turn into F2F meetings. And you'll impress people by proving you're savvy about conversational marketing by marketing the most important product you'll ever sell--yourself. This may prove especially effective with senior execs (your target!) desperately trying to figure out "this twitter thing" for themselves.

3. Know the good campaigns. What won awards last year? Which do you admire? This is a common question in interviews and answering it gives a creative director an idea of what you think is good, and if it dovetails with her own ideas. Don’t go to an interview without having an opinion or two about what kind of work you’re seeking to emulate.

4. Read the ad blogs. They’re a great source of what campaigns are being talked about now, what it’s like to work in an ad agency, even what to wear on your first day at work. There are lots of blogs to choose from. I'd suggest beginning with DearJaneSample, ToadStool, Why Advertising Sucks and Scamp--each of which offers good advice for newbies. But don't stop there. The Ad Age Power 150 is actually a list of over 900 blogs, each appealing to a slightly different sensibility.

5. Read the trades. Adweek. AdAge. BrandWeek. Doing so will feed your head in a way that sets you apart from most applicants who limit themselves to Creativity, Communication Arts and Campaign. (Which you should read, too.) Remember. Advertising is an art, but it’s also a business. Creative isn’t creative if it doesn’t ultimately sell.

6. Clean up your Facebook. Google your name. See what comes up. Is that something you want prospective employers to see? Trash those photos of spring break when you were a sophomore. Get a LinkedIn profile. Take yourself seriously. Until you do, nobody else will.

7. No doubt I'm forgetting something important. Another lesson: in advertising (as in life) doing it perfectly is the enemy of doing it at all. If you're already in, please add to this list. Some young talent might find it helpful and hire you freelance someday.

is the new york times becoming the onion?

Check out this photo of Hillary and caption. Front page of the NY Times. I kid you not.

london proves actions speak louder than taglines

What is it about London that inspires out-of-the-telly-box thinking? I'm not just talking T-Mobile's flashmob events, such as in January when Saatchi sent breakdancers diguised in business clothes to Liverpool Street Station where they flabbergasted commuters by breaking into dance on the platforms. Or, last Thursday when they text-messaged their customers to gather in Trafalgar Square, drawing 13,000 into what was surely the world's loudest karoake rendition of Hey, Jude...

I'm talking the quieter but just as engaging McDonald's digital display at Piccadilly Circus, one of the world's most photographed locations, where 1.1 million people who visit a week can now snap photos against an ever-changing backdrop that makes it look like they're blowing out birthday cake candles, avoiding a bop on the head or wishfully thinking about (what else) fries or a burger. Agency Leo Burnett cleverly extends engagement by inviting consumers to post photos to a branded Flickr page.  Because as every marketer knows, one CG photo is worth 1000 words of copy.

reflections of a mad man, IRL

Bill Blackshaw joined BBDO in 1960 when the agency was working on Nixon's campaign. He claims Matt Weiner got a lot of things right: like the 3 martini lunch which "was invented by the ad business." And the elitism that existed in the industry then. Top brass "always had their last name first, like Thurston Charles McGee." He recalls presenting a media schedule to a Pete Campbell-like account exec who couldn't believe buys included Sunday afternoon radio spots on Long Island because "Everyone will be at the polo matches!"

One discrepancy, however. The bottle wasn't brought out in the office nearly as often as it is on the show. And usually didn't make its appearance until late in the day. (Presumably, just in time for commuters to knock back one for the road before pointing their cars--without seatbelts-- towards the Long Island Expressway.)

Footage lovingly shot by Bill's son Pete Blackshaw, EVP at Nielsen, a few months before his father passed away. Thanks for preserving this firsthand account of ad history, Pete. (And thanks, Randall Rothenberg, for posting the link.)

a lady's guide to facebook etiquette

More and more friends are migrating off Facebook. "I'm tired of being contacted by people I didn't like years ago. Why would I like them now?" one told me before closing down the account she'd had for a couple of years. Another bailed after receiving a friend request from the first person she'd fired, back in the 80s.

I'm more of a Twitter person, myself. Because I think of Facebook as the place for meeting people you used to know; Twitter for meeting those you want to know now.

But in my role as social media evangelist, I talk to plenty of FB newbies. Over 45 million signed up for Facebook in January alone. Where teenagers now make up no more than 12% of the population. In fact, the fastest growing FB demographic is women over 55. Which may be why this dandy Etiquette Guide is styled to look like a 1950s-era instructional film. (Props to YourTango.)