A Night to Remember: The 2025 American Advertising Awards Seattle
On Thursday, April 03 the Seattle advertising and creative community gathered for an unforgettable night of inspiration, recognition, and celebration, marking the triumphant return of AAF Seattle’s biggest annual event to a live, in-person format after five years online.
On Thursday, April 03 the Seattle advertising and creative community gathered for an unforgettable night of inspiration, recognition, and celebration at the 2025 American Advertising Awards Seattle Gala, marking the triumphant return of AAF Seattle’s biggest annual event to a live, in-person format after five years online.
Held at Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus, this nearly sold-out event welcomed hundreds of creative professionals, agency leaders, students, and supporters to honor the very best in advertising across the region. From bold integrated campaigns to powerful public service storytelling, the work celebrated this year reflected not just creative excellence but cultural impact, collaboration, and purpose.
A Triumphant Return to the Stage
The American Advertising Awards—affectionately known as the ADDYs—are part of the nation’s largest and most representative advertising competition, attracting more than 25,000 entries each year across three tiers: local, district, and national.
For the Seattle creative community, this year’s gala wasn’t just another awards show—it was a comeback story. After half a decade of virtual gatherings, the event marked a bold new chapter for AAF Seattle, a club that nearly closed its doors in mid-2024. But thanks to a revitalized board, a passionate volunteer base, and the support of industry leaders, the organization has entered what President Valentina Gomez Bravo calls “our comeback era.”
“Rebuilding AAF Seattle has been a labor of love,” said Gomez Bravo during her opening remarks. “This event mattered—not just for us as individuals, but for the entire community. It was a night to remember, and we hope it’s the first of many more to come.”
Honoring Legacy: The Silver Medal Award
One of the evening’s most anticipated moments was the presentation of the Silver Medal Award, the highest honor AAF Seattle bestows each year. This prestigious recognition celebrates those who have made significant contributions to advertising and demonstrated a consistent commitment to creative excellence and industry advancement.
Presented by advertising legend Tracy Wong, this year’s Silver Medal was awarded to two outstanding leaders: Matt McCain and Michael Boychuk, whose collaborative legacy has shaped some of the most celebrated work in the region and mentored a generation of creative professionals. Their tribute video, produced by their agency peers, was met with roaring applause and a standing ovation.
Learn more about the Silver Medal Award and the honorees.
The Judges, the Work, the Wins
The 2025 show was judged by a panel of nationally recognized creative leaders from outside the Seattle market. Their selections reflected the breadth and depth of talent across the region, with entries evaluated across traditional, digital, social, experiential, student, and public service categories.
For the first time ever, AAF Seattle introduced Bronze Local Awards into the winner’s circle, allowing more outstanding work to be recognized alongside Silver and Gold ADDY honorees.
Among this year’s most notable winners:
Herd of Shepherds and Smartsheet took home Best of Show for “Peak Fandom,” a campaign that blended creative craft and data-driven strategy with playful fan engagement.
PB& LLC and Visit Seattle received the Mosaic Award for “Unsettled Territory,” recognizing excellence in multicultural marketing and inclusive storytelling.
Judge’s Choice Awards were presented to:
VML Seattle for “The BOOM Inside You” with Washington’s Lottery & the Seahawks
DNA&STONE for “Scary Not Scary Question” with Seattle Children’s Hospital
Seattle Kraken for “Defend the Deep”
The show also highlighted student work from Seattle Central College and Western Washington University, underscoring the next generation of creative leaders.
A Look at SOME OF THE THE Winners
Here’s a simplified look at some of this year’s award recipients:
🏆 Best of Show
Herd of Shepherds – “Peak Fandom” for Smartsheet
🥇 Gold ADDYs (Selected Highlights)
VML Seattle – “The BOOM Inside You” for Washington’s Lottery / Seattle Seahawks
Seattle Kraken – “The Creature” and “Hoist the Colors”
Imaginary Friends – “This is Work” for Microsoft
DNA&STONE – “Aegis – Aging is Life”
🥈 Silver ADDYs (Selected Highlights)
Copacino + Fujikado – “Skip the Drama” for Sound Transit
PB& LLC – “Unsettled Territory” for Visit Seattle
Hydrogen – “Powering Generations” for Puget Sound Energy
C+C – “Salmon Warriors” for Salmon Defense
🥉 Bronze Awards (New in 2025)
FreshMade – “Dogs: The Ultimate Copilot” for Microsoft
Bread n Butter – “Dick’s Drive-In x Royal Family Farms”
Designit – “Packed with Joy” for Zipfizz
University of Washington – “Brand Anthem”
🎓 Student Winners
Jenny Katz, Seattle Central College – Quili Sustainable Packaging
Cam Gibb, Western Washington University – MODE Summit 2025
A complete list of winners and categories can be found here.
Thank You to Our Sponsors
This year’s gala was made possible through the generous support of our event sponsors. AAF Seattle is deeply grateful to the following partners:
Associated Posters Inc. – Our go-to source for large and grand format printing. Their beautiful banners welcomed every guest at the door, and they offer exclusive discounts to AAF members!
Via Creatives – A powerhouse video production team that captured the night beautifully. We can’t wait to share their official recap.
Offbeat Films – The storytellers behind our stunning photo booth experience. Check out the photos—they’re as authentic as they are fun.
Weekend Photography (Jonathan Owens) – Candid moments, standing ovations, and all the sparkle in between—Jonathan captured it all live from the floor.
We’re proud to collaborate with sponsors who not only support the event but also uplift the creative community year-round.
View the Photo Album
📸 Relive the magic!
Our full photo gallery from the gala is now live.
Click here to view and download your favorite moments.
What’s Next for AAF Seattle?
The gala may be over, but AAF Seattle is just getting started.
With a revitalized board, a growing membership, and a renewed mission focused on Service, Growth, Recognition, and Connection, AAF Seattle is committed to building a more inclusive, accessible, and vibrant creative community.
“This isn’t just a comeback,” said Gomez Bravo. “It’s the beginning of a new chapter—and we want everyone to be a part of it.”
Want to get involved? Volunteer? Sponsor an upcoming event? Or just meet more people who get what you do?
👉 Contact us or follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn to stay connected.
About AAF Seattle
Founded in 1909, AAF Seattle is one of the oldest clubs in the American Advertising Federation, the nation’s only organization that brings together professionals across all disciplines and career levels in advertising. From students to CEOs, creatives to strategists, we’re here to champion the industry and the people who make it matter.
Want to help shape the future of AAF Seattle?
Join the movement. Be part of the momentum. And maybe… start working on your 2026 entry.
Recap: Trending Now (and Later): Social Media & Creator Economy Insights for 2025
AAF Seattle brought together an inspiring group of creatives, marketers, and innovators for “Trending Now (and Later): Social Media & Creator Economy Insights for 2025.” Held at the beautiful Copacino Fujikado office, the evening explored the ever-evolving world of digital storytelling, social strategy, and the future of the creator economy.
The night kicked off with energetic networking and community building, followed by a compelling panel moderated by Emmalynn Cortes Ellendt of The Creative Edition Podcast and Forbes. Panelists Kelley Myers (Autodesk), Sophia Pollock (TikTok Shop), and Rudy Willingham (Creative Director & Content Creator) shared timely insights into emerging trends, the evolution of e-commerce, and the power of authenticity in digital storytelling.
From brand innovation to creator-led commerce, attendees left with actionable takeaways and a deeper understanding of what’s next in the social and influencer space.
Special thanks to our generous event sponsors Creative People and Copacino Fujikado, and to our dedicated Events Director Bianca Urbina for leading the charge. We’re grateful for our all-volunteer board of directors — Valentina Gomez Bravo, Andy Farnum, John Line, Maria Schnepf, Laura Murdock, and Cindy Pennington — for making events like this possible.
If you missed it, stay tuned — we’ll be sharing all upcoming events soon. And as always, we invite you to join the conversation as we continue to build and support Seattle’s vibrant creative community.
Enjoy the event photos courtesy of Michael Patrick Hoyle, Bianca Urbina and Hannah Crossman.
2017 National American Advertising Awards Winners Announced
Seattle represented well at the national ADDY Awards gala in New Orleans. Click through to see the glory.
One of the coolest parts of entering the American Advertising Awards is that the winning doesn't stop at the local level. Gold and Silver winners are eligible to compete at the District level (this year's results here), and those winners can move on to the national level.
This year's national competition was judged June 1st in Washington D.C., with the winners announced and recognized June 10th at the American Advertising Awards gala at the ADmerica conference in New Orleans. And boy did Seattle represent! Not only did we send several agency and student winners, but we took home an armful of awards, including two Gold ADDYs:
World Famous - Gold - Cinematography - Odesza - It's Only (feat. Zyra)
Wunderman - Gold - Integrated Media Public Service Campaign - Mountain Safety Research - Community Chlorine Maker
POSSIBLE - Silver - Integrated Advertising Campaign - Local - Consumer - The Summit at Snoqualmie - Office Rescue
POSSIBLE - Silver - Online/Interactive Branded Content & Entertainment - AT&T - Santa Live
Publicis - SIlver - Out-Of-Home Multiple Installations - Visit Seattle - Little Free Libraries
Tacoma Rainiers - Silver - Book Design - Tacoma Rainiers - Our House Is Your House
Wunderman - Silver - Data Driven Media - Microsoft - GamerCrest
Wunderman - Silver - Innovative Use of Interactive/Technology - Microsoft - Gamercrest
See the entire winners list, including the work for Best of Show, Judges Choice, and all Gold winners.
A huge congratulations to all the competitors and winners!
It's not too early to starting thinking about the 2018 American Advertising Awards Seattle. We will announce a call for entries in the fall for judging in February, with our awards gala in March 2018. Keep up the great work!
2017 District XI American Advertising Awards Competition Results
Judging for the next stage of ADDY competition—District XI—took place April 1. We've got the results!
Judges met April 1 in Seattle to decide the AAF District XI ADDY winners from creative work submitted by the local chapter competition winners in Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon.
With the stakes even higher and the pressure on, AAF Seattle's local ADDY winners scored high marks.
Professional Best of Show honors went to Wunderman Seattle for their “GamerCrest” entry for Microsoft.
A Professional Judges Choice Award went to Publicis Seattle for “Been There, Made That” entry for Visit Seattle.
District Gold ADDY winners automatically advance to the final national round of judging, while District Silver ADDY winners are eligible to advance.
Nationals Are Next
Judging to determine National ADDY Award winners will take place in Washington DC in early May. The National ADDY Award winners will be announced at the American Advertising Awards national gala at ADmerica on June 10 in New Orleans.
District XI Judges
This year’s judges:
• Jeff Martin - Executive Creative Director, Karsh/Hagan, Denver
• Steffan Postaer - Executive Creative Director, JUMBOshrimp, San Francisco
• Ryan Mastalerz - Associate Creative Director, Intel/Agency Inside, San Francisco
District XI Winners List
Full results are available in PDF format and include both professional and student results.
ADDY 2017 Event Recap
The Society came together to celebrate the best creative work in Western Washington.
This entry essentially duplicates the content on our main ADDY page, which has more photos.
Now that was a gala!
The 2017 American Advertising Awards Seattle was held March 16th at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront.
Cynthia Hartwig (R) with the AAF Silver Medal Award, presented to her by Mary Knight (L)
The Winners
Congratulations to the all the winners!
Special applause for Cynthia Hartwig, this year's AAF Silver Medal Award winner.
The complete Seattle winners list with both professionals and students is available in PDF format, sorted by winner's name.
Fill up that trophy case, you show-off! Contact us to order extra ADDY trophies.
The Book
The show book, designed by Isaac LeFever, is available in for download in PDF format.
We also have some extra hard copies. Contact us to order one or arrange a pickup.
The Social
Even though our underground location had little to no internet availability (%^&$@^!) we still had plenty of social sharing using #SeattleADDYs and #SeattleADDYWinner.
See our all our pics from the evening—and be sure to tag yourselves—on Facebook.
The Society
The noble, the strange. This year's theme transformed the familiar into the abstract, with a notion of civility, an eye for the celestial, and a parlance of wit.
The Society represents our city’s top creative minds. Those adroit renegades who catch out mediocrity and drive it from this gritty metropolis entirely. Who dare to think bold. Be badass. Cloaked in secrecy, with a penchant for deviousness, we The Society are here. Behind every striking idea. Quiet as a raindrop on Jupiter. Fighting the fight for sublime creativity.
The Sponsors
Big time things only happen with the help of big time friends. We're grateful for these companies who helped make this evening possible.
Gallery Night 2017 Event Recap
Our evening presenting all the work submitted for the Seattle ADDYs inspired awe and appreciation. We've got the pics.
Our second annual Gallery Night was held February 23rd at AXIS Pioneer Square, and made good on our club's intent to establish a tradition of appreciation for all the entries submitted for the American Advertising Awards Seattle.
Seeing the breadth of fine work on display, the hours of effort involved, the extent of creativity, the quantity—heck, the beauty of it all—gives us incredible context for the immense challenge of this competition.
Photos (by Mordan McGrath)
See the entire collection in our Facebook album.
To those who didn't win this year, we honor and thank you for your work.
To those who did win, you've got a shiny new addition to your awards cabinet coming your way. And more could be coming as the competition moves on to District 11 and from there to national. Good luck!
Next up is our gala celebration on March 16th, featuring new reserved seating and seat selection. We hope to see everyone at the ADDYs!
Survey
If you attended there's still time to give feedback on our survey to help us improve our events.
ADDY Judging Weekend 2017
Five experienced judges convened in Seattle to judge Western Washington's best creative work. They left impressed.
The weekend of February 10-12, we were honored to welcome the critical eyes and analytical minds of this year's ADDY judges:
Mark Sarosi - Anomaly, New York
Paul Roberts - BSSP, San Francisco
École Weinstein - Havas, Chicago
Larry Olson - Studio Lo, Boulder
Brett Singer - TBWA\Chiat\Day, New York
Each year it's a big deal to have real pros from name agencies in big markets come judge our region's work. And each year, Seattle, you rise to the occasion. The judges left duly impressed.
Special thanks to SVC—an AAF Seattle Gold Sponsor—and all the volunteers who gave an entire weekend to make everything possible.
Chalk Talk 2017 Event Recap
This year's event brought a critical focus to each ad's creative motivations and business goals, with moderator, panel, and audience keeping the discussion highly involved. We've got pics and an embedded Storify of all the #AAFChalkTalk tweets.
Our annual Chalk Talk Super Bowl Ad review was held February 9th at 415 Westlake. This year's event brought a critical focus to each ad's creative motivations and business goals, with moderator, panel, and audience keeping the discussion highly involved.
Thanks to Chris Copacino for moderating, to panelists Emily Cushman, Nick Gesualdi, Patrick Mazzotta, Patrick McKay, and Adam Nowak for their astute observations, to our drink sponsor, Hand Crank Films, for keeping us well lubricated, and to everyone who attended and tweeted and voted for making this always such a unique and cool experience.
See and follow our panelists on Lanyrd
Photos
See our Facebook photo album for more, and don't forget to tag yourself.
Voting Results
Our first interactive voting form gave us some idea of how our own audience felt about the ads.
Best: GoDaddy, Old Spice, Wealthsimple
Most Liked: GoDaddy, Aflac "Ski Patrol"
Divided: Intel, Sprint, T-mobile "Unlimited Moves"
Worst and Least Liked: Alfa Romeo "Dear Predictable," American Petroleum Institute
Our full voting recap gives more detail.
Twitter
Chalk Talk is a special event because it involves the audience at every chance. Your #AAFChalkTalk tweets entertain us during the game and inform our panel's discussion at the event.
Check out the tweets from Super Bowl week, from game time all the way through our event.
Survey Request
If you attended the event there's still time to give us feedback in our event survey so next year will be even better.
Chalk Talk 2017 Ad Ratings Results
We can't help it. We like to judge. So we introduced a rating form this year. Here's what you thought of the ads of Super Bowl 51.
We can't help it. We like to judge. Especially when it comes to others' creative work. So for the biggest advertising stage of the year—Super Bowl 51— we produced an interactive rating form so you could give feedback on each ad and prep for our upcoming Chalk Talk ad review event.
Let's be transparent here: We only got 9 participants. But while not statistically significant, those results still tell an interesting story…
Highlights
We had some clear favorites, some divided opinions, and some clear losers. It's fascinating to see how the results shake out from all the competing spots.
Best
GoDaddy, Old Spice, and Wealthsimple were unanimously approved.
Most Liked
GoDaddy got 8 total Likes, more than any other ad. Special mention to Aflac "Ski Patrol," which got also got 8 Likes (and 1 Dislike). Technically a pre-game ad, it was made by local shop Wongdoody so we put it on the form. Glad we did.
Divided
Intel, Sprint, and T-Mobile's "Unlimited Moves" ads split opinions evenly (not all 9 participants voted on every ad).
Worst and also Least Liked
Alfa Romeo "Dear Predictable" and the American Petroleum Institute got the most Dislikes with 7 each.
Methodology
We kept things simple. For whatever reason, you either liked the ad or didn't, so we went with a Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down as the only voting choices.
The ads were listed alphabetically since we didn't know ahead of time in what order they'd appear. Each listing including a frame from the ad and an embedded video of the ad.
Technology
We used Google Forms to create and host the form. If anyone knows a better polling tool for next year let us know in the comments below, but it handled all the elements well enough, including mobile friendliness.
Prep for Reviewing Super Bowl 51 Ads
Our list of resources for watching the ads of Super Bowl 51, including #AAFChalkTalk Tagboard and - new for 2017 - our interactive voting form including videos of every ad.
The Super Bowl is a big deal for us advertisers, and that goes double for AAF Seattle, since we host Chalk Talk, our annual review of the Super Bowl ads.
To help everyone keep track of their favorites and flops of the day, we created a mobile-friendly interactive form. It's got every ad that will air during the broadcast, including embedded video links.
And once you've submitted your responses you can see how everyone else voted, too. We'll use the data to inform our Chalk Talk panel and in our event visuals.
Tweet using #AAFChalkTalk
Tweet your thoughts on the ads using #AAFChalkTalk to contribute to our conversation stream. We'll display all posts to our live event Tagboard, and use your sentiment to inform our Chalk Talk panel. It's also a great way to raise your social profile and to meet some great people to follow.
Join our group on LinkedIn
All the deeper conversation around the ads leading up to Chalk Talk takes place in our LinkedIn group. We're starting by crowdsourcing topics for the event, so let us know what you'd like our panelists to discuss.
We can't wait to read everyone has to say about the ads. Have a great Super Sunday!
Chalk Talk 2016: Ready to Rumble
Thursday evening AAF Seattle and PSAMA are hosting Chalk Talk 2016, an opportunity for us all to take another look at the ads that worked and the ads that didn't. Check out this year's panelists and moderator.
It seems like Cam Newton is the only one who doesn't want to talk about Super Bowl 50... and even he might have an opinion about PuppyMonkeyBaby.
Thursday evening AAF Seattle and PSAMA are hosting Chalk Talk 2016, which is an opportunity for us all to take another look at the ads that worked and the ads that didn't. With #ChalkTalk2016 hashtag, there's a chance for you to get in the game, too!
Get your tickets now before they're gone.
We've assembled a fantastic panel and an amazing moderator to have a tremendous discussion. (That might be a record for most superlatives in one sentence.) Let's take a look at these wise and learned participants:
Chris Copacino
Account Director
Copacino+Fujikado
(Moderator)
Chris has been at Copacino+Fujikado for 12+ years, joining the agency out of school after graduating from Western Washington University. Early in his career, Chris worked predominantly on national brand, promotional and grand opening initiatives for REI. Over Chris’ time at C+F he has led several major agency accounts including Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, Symetra Financial, Overlake Hospital and the Washington Forest Protection Association. Chris also oversees new business at C+F, managing all new client acquisition and business development efforts. Chris gets strong reviews from his clients for his ability to study and deeply understand their business. A lover of the creative process and unabashed agency guy, Chris blends a keen business mind with the understanding and appreciation of great creative work to achieve client objectives.
Scott Battishill
Principal / Founder of
Curator
Scott has been practicing PR for nearly 20 years. And no other term grates at him more than, “spin.” He's always disliked it. He believes that people don’t build relationships—certainly not ones that last—by spinning the truth to each other. Brands are no different. Consumers are loyal to brands they trust, that are human, to those that create an experience rather than an offering. With this philosophy in mind, he founded Curator to help brands build relationships with consumers in today’s highly complex marketplace of conversation. Prior to Curator Scott served as the SVP and Senior Director of PR for DDB Worldwide; overseeing the strategic development and execution of award-winning communications programs for major Fortune 100 companies and small development brands alike.
Mary Knight
Principal, ECD
Hydrogen
Mary started in Dallas, Texas on accounts like American Airlines, Doritos, Tabasco and Imperial Sugar. After falling in love with the Pacific Northwest, she moved to Borders Perrin Norrander in Seattle (now FCB.) There, Mary was part of the team that pitched, won and did award-winning work for Hewlett Packard, Group Health Cooperative, Tacoma Guitars and Boeing. She moved to FCB Chicago in 2007 to run Qwest and Kraft. While in Chicago, Mary also led Motorola, the Nestlè pizza business and the global Sharpie account. Mary returned to Seattle in 2012 as Principal and ECD of Hydrogen – an independent agency devoted to simplicity in advertising. Hydrogen’s regional, national and international clients including Keysight Technologies, Artemis Wines and Kenworth trucks. Mary has served on several prestigious juries including The One Show, Communication Arts, Effie and the National ADDYs.
Cal McAllister
Co-Founder, CEO
Wexley School for Girls
(As told and typed by his 6-year-old niece, Louisa.)
"Uncle Cow is a man, and he is nice! He is a joyfle man. He has 2 neeses, and 1 nefuwe. He likes chikins. He has soft scruffy hair. He has a nice wife named Amanda who takes showers 100 times a day. He has a verey good tast. He is a strong man. He is a writer at Wexley School for girls. His favorite house anamle is a dog. And he is a verey good prson. He is a nice, and cinde friend. He likes bar-ba-qie. He is a funny man, and is 42 years old. He is a asom prson, he is hansome, and a verey good dresser. He has 2 tatoos. He likes playing soccer. He takes shorter time in the bathroom than his wife. He has a verey smart brain. He is a little strange sometimes! " Wexley is a fan factory, cultivating and igniting consumer’s love for brands. It is an advertising agency that creates joy and laughter for engaged fanatics who deliver value – in the real world and on the wide web one.
Troy McCall
Creative Director
After stints as an Art Director/Assoc. Creative Director in Dallas, Denver, and Memphis, Troy now calls Seattle home where he continues to do freelance work for a wide variety of clients. Along the way, he's helped develop careers, launch new brands, and guide multi-faceted campaigns for Fortune 500 companies. Clients include the Dallas Cowboys, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Hilton Hotel Corporation, Microsoft, and FedEx. Troy is an avid sports enthusiast, and when he's not busy working, he can usually be found on the rugby pitch either playing or refereeing.
Ronan O’Mahony
Director, Brand & Advertising
T-Mobile
For the past 15 years Ronan has worked in advertising and brand strategy, both agency- and client-side. Ronan currently manages National, Local, and Hispanic advertising for T-Mobile, where he has worked since 2012. Prior to that Ronan was Director of Brand at Rhapsody.
Why Does the Creative Field Hate Negotiating?
The fine folks over at SVC contemplated this very same topic. And wouldn't you know it, they decided to create a class around it. It's called Negotiation Skills for People Who Don't Like to Negotiate. It's a one-day workshop this Thursday, June 25 from 10 am-5 pm. Read on for details.
Seriously, why do we find it so difficult? The fine folks over at SVC contemplated this very same topic. And wouldn't you know it, they decided to create a class around it. It's called Negotiation Skills for People Who Don't Like to Negotiate. It's a one-day workshop this Thursday, June 25 from 10 am-5 pm.
Here's the great/scary part: you can test out your negotiation skills before you even take the class. The fee for this workshop is negotiable. Yep, you can negotiate a lower fee via a five-minute Skype chat with the instructor.
So who is the instructor? He's Ted Leonhardt and he founded The Leonhardt Group. His firm grew to 50 employees and $10 million in annual fees under his leadership. Elements of the workshop include:
- What is it about people in creative fields that makes them less effective negotiators?
- Why people who work for clients in large corporations automatically value different things than you do?
- Is being too passionate about your creative work costing you?
- The importance of role-playing a negotiation before you get in the middle of one.
- Seven tips for making your negotiations more effective.
- How to assess your latest negotiation and learn from it.
You can learn more about the class and register here.
Western Regional Conference Roundup
Your trusty board recently took Reno by storm in hopes to double our revenue and advertising brain power at the AAF Western Regional Conference. Now that they've all recovered from the whirlwind of experts, seminars, buffets and lounge singers, we asked them to share their thoughts and things they learned at the conference.
AAF Seattle board and friends
Martin McGee, President
What I wanted to get out of this conference was to network with other clubs in the region to see what is and is not working for them. I want to get ideas to implement in Seattle and possibly provide ideas for other clubs to try.
My priorities coming out of this conference are around planning for the club—both short and long term. While the club has goals identified for the current year, I would like to develop a multi-year strategic plan.
The ever photogenic Martin
Mark Kurtz, Diversity & Multiculturalism
AAF Seattle is a force in the Western Region. We have the foundation in place to grow. The landscape of the term "advertising" is expanding to include many forms of marketing and we need to flexible in order to cater to the needs of our members.
This conference reinforced the responsibility we have as advertising and marketing professionals to elevate our work to the highest level. Numerous examples were given throughout the conference that rely on the many skill-sets that AAF Seattle represents—especially around creative storytelling and how to connect audiences to those key messages in a meaningful and relevant way. The collective work that our members produce has the ability to impact billions of people and this is a great industry to represent.
Mark puts his lucky charm to the test
Charlotte Boutz, Vice President & Programs
I love to hear what other clubs are doing—both their success stories and their challenges. Each market is so different, so clubs approach serving their communities differently, but there’s still a lot to learn and share.
The Reno team did a great job producing “bonus” content that was not directly related to the business of the organization, but helped open our minds and keep the energy level up. I was especially inspired by the team at Goodby Silverstein & Partners sharing the NBA Jingle Hoops campaign, and Jonathan Woytek from Pereira & O'Dell on the Skype Stay Together campaign. Beyond the concept development, which was incredibly powerful in both cases for different reasons, the creative problem solving that these teams pulled off throughout the production processes was jaw dropping. What a fun pair of reminders of why we’re in this business, and what it takes to tell a good story well.
Charlotte enjoys the Reno nightlife
Audrey Berglund, American Advertising Awards
I always look forward to networking with other ADDY chairs and figuring out best practices based on their experiences. It’s a great place to share ideas and gain support.
This conference served as a great kickstart to this year’s American Advertising Awards. I got a lot accomplished in the way of event timeline, budgeting and committee building. I definitely have a plan of attack moving forward and am set up to run effective committee meetings.
Audrey strikes up a convo with the locals
Cindy Pennington, Executive Director
I want our membership to know that your elected board desires to learn more about growing and promoting the advertising industry in Seattle. They want AAF Seattle not just be relevant to the agencies, but to the businesses, vendors and clients in the Seattle area.
Cindy takes in the sights
Nik Amar, Advertising Education
I got some great ideas for programs from other clubs. It's a priority for me to work with the board to create greater, more bombastic membership drives, considering how essential membership is to the survival of our club.
Our club is large and diverse in membership and behavior. Members can take an active role in our club’s future through regular attendance and simply meeting and suggesting things to the board (not to mention volunteering).
Nik explores Reno's culture
Market Insights - New Name, Refined Offering
You may have noticed a slight change in the name of our panel and speaker-focused events. What used to be called our Speaker Series is now Market Insights. The spark came from our new ongoing venue for these events, the Pike Place Market Atrium Loft. Get it: educational events at the market, about marketing topics… I know, right?
But seriously folks… what started as a pun actually represents an upgrade in the perceived offering, from a slightly vague speaker event to more specific and relevant educational content.
This also allows us to consolidate from individual event-specific hashtags to one hashtag, #AAFInsights, that will span all the Market Insights events, providing an ongoing repository of social content from the series, including all the tweeted nuggets of wisdom from our speakers.
We're thankful for the great crowds at our events who inspire us to always look for ways to improve.
Don't miss our next Market Insights event, Distilling a Brand, June 19th.
We Got PMIP at After Hours: POSSIBLE
PMIP means People Make It Possible. Our After Hours at POSSIBLE showed that to be true, with a great crowd turning out for some networking and catching up with colleagues in the Z|Bar. We love that each of these events brings in a fantastic mix of new people, a cross-pollination of creatives to keep things fresh.
Special thanks to Hand Crank Films for the PIMMs, er, PMIP cocktails!
Check out the #AAFterHours social stream.
Full photo album on Facebook.
Hispanic Market Insights: Recap
A great crowd turned out for a great event. We're proud to have presented such valuable content while expanding the reach of our community. We hoped you enjoyed the subject and the company--and our new ongoing Speaker Series venue, the Pike Place Market Atrium Loft.
Thanks to Patricia Morás for moderating and Kalil Vicioso and Rebecca Lambert for their fascinating reports on the state of what has overwhelmingly been shown as a growing, complex market of eager consumers, social participants, and cultural remixers.
Let us know what you thought of the event in our short survey.
Hybriculturalism. It's a Thing. Find Out More.
Thursday, April 10th, 6:00 p.m. at Pike Place Market Atrium
The hispanic market in the United States is more complex than most realize. This rich and diverse culture is more optimistic, more tech-savvy and more engaged than the average consumer. And it's growing in numbers while spreading geographically.
If you're a smart marketer, you'll want to know how to reach them effectively. If you're a not-so-bright marketer, you'll keep eating paste and won't do anything different.
Hispanic Market Insights is our next Speaker Series event, on April 10th. We've flown in Kalil Vicioso from New York City to talk about such fascinating trends as hybriculturalism. Rebecca Lambert will add a local perspective tuned with insights informed by real data. All facilitated by Patty Morás.
It's also our first event with our regular Signature Cocktail sponsor, Hand Crank Films, providing a South American rum punch for your enjoyment.
Sounds like we're all set for a great evening.
2014 American Advertising Awards Recap
Well, That Was Fun!
The 2014 American Advertising Awards Seattle was held March 19th at Bell Harbor International Conference Center.
We had a great night! Thanks to all the attendees, sponsors, winners, and our great volunteers!
Check out our compilation of the night's tweets, pics, and vids. See the entire social stream at #SeattleADDYs.
There isn't enough time for winners to give speeches during the show so we asked them to post their thanks to Instagram as videos. See the hilarious results here.
Download a PDF of the ADDY show book.
All our event photos can be found on Facebook, and the photobooth pics are on Usnaps.
Let us know what you thought of the night in our short survey.
Show MCs: Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
Musical Guests: The Flavr Blue
This year’s AAF Silver Medal Winner: John Brown
ADDY Judging Weekend 2014
Our new ADDY chair, Audrey Berglund, reports on the events of this past weekend:
"Judging for this year’s American Advertising Awards Seattle took place February 7-9 in the Bertha Knight Landis room at Seattle City Hall. Our five judges reviewed a record amount of entries. Naturally, they had many tough decisions to make. Thanks to our judges who came from all over the country to spend the weekend looking at Seattle’s best advertising work!"
Find out more about our judges on our ADDY Judges page.
Chalk Talk: Super Bowl Ad Replay 2014 - The Recap
Chris Cashman, Erin Kelley, Zach Huntting, Alison Tintle, Trish Cox, Matt McCain
AAF Seattle and PSAMA hosted our annual review of Super Bowl ads Thursday, February 6th, at Impact Hub Seattle. This year's expert panel of Erin Kelley (POSSIBLE), Zach Huntting (Crown Social), Alison Tintle (Seattle Wunderman Network), Trish Cox (T-Mobile), and Matt McCain (WongDoody) delivered another evening of crack observations, unique insights and tweetable witticisms, all under the clever direction of our MC, Chris Cashman from KING 5 TV's The 206.
In addition to our ad industry veterans, we always try to feature someone from the brand side of things. This year we were fortunate to have Trish Cox, VP of National Advertising and Brand for T-Mobile, who provided her own perspective on the creation of T-Mobile's three Super Bowl ads.
Redhook Bewery returned as our beer sponsor, loosening up our crowd with Audible, Redhook, and Longhammer on tap.
For a more detailed play-by-play check out our Storify compilation of all the Super Bowl ads along with the top tweets and pics from the evening and during the game.
Find out more about our panel and host on Lanyrd.
See all the pics from the event on Facebook.
If you attended the event, we'd love your feeback in our short survey.
Update on 2014-03-12 20:08
Conor Gentes, Senior Account Executive at Seattle Wunderman Network, wrote a great summary of the event for their blog. Thanks again for lending Alison for our panel!