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.
SeaTech Connect: So Far So Fun
We're two dates into a summer series of office crawls, organized by Brian Rauschenbach of Add3 and SIC. So far the hosts have gone all out, sprucing up their spaces and rallying with refreshments.
Even with this year's focus on more quality time through fewer spaces per event we're still finding ourselves running long at each location because we're having too much fun to leave. So of course each night runs way over. Fine with us.
Don't miss crawling with our #AAFPosse on the next one, June 25th in Pioneer Square.
And thanks to all the event participants so far, from the agencies to the crawlers, for making it so fun.
Seattle Winners at the National ADDY Awards
Last night the national American Advertising Awards were held at the Boca Raton Resort & Club at AAF National's ADmerica conference, and Seattle represented in style.
Publicis Seattle took home two Gold and two Silver ADDY awards for their work on T-Mobile, as well as a Silver for their work on the Seattle Symphony. That's a haul.
Creature brought home two Silver awards for their work on DoubleDown Interactive.
The Seattle Wunderman Network won a Silver for their work on XBOX.
And Wongdoody won a Silver for their work on the Seattle International Film Festival.
All these winners were able to compete in the national show after winning at the local and district levels. This progressive competition is one of the things that makes the American Advertising Awards so unique, and so coveted.
It's truly an honor to win any award at the highest competitive level. We were proud to represent our city, AAF District 11, and the AAF Western Region in front of so many distinguished agencies.
Also of note, Seattle agencies Hydrogen and Admosis Media (an AAF Seattle corporate member) served as media partners for the event.
We'll share more stories from ADmerica this coming week. The complete national winners list can be found at the ADmerica winners page.
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.
Catch Up with AAF Seattle
Our latest newsletter has hit the intertubes, full of our latest updates. Even if you’re a regular reader of this blog we’ve got a couple bits in there, or at least some new photos, to make it worth a click.
Not a yet subscriber? Sign up here.
Oh yeah, we’re still looking for a name, so add your idea or vote here. Winner gets two admissions to our Market Insights: Distilling a Brand event in June.
#AAFPosse Returns for Summer 2014
SeaTech Connect is back this summer with its series of agency crawls, and AAF Seattle is ready. We'll organize our own #AAFPosse for each of the six outings, giving our members, fans and interested parties a crew to crawl with.
This year there will be three agencies each night, ending at one bar, giving us all a chance to spend more time in each place with less running between agencies. That equals better networking, which is kind of the point.
Whether you join us from the start or catch up with us as we go, you can find us via our check-ins on Foursquare (which we'll mirror to Twitter using #AAFPosse). We'll be the group having a great time.
The first crawl is on Capitol Hill, May 14th, with others spread throughout the summer. We've got them all in our events calendar and in Foursquare lists, and we'll be promoting in advance via social, particularly our LinkedIn group.
New to AAF Seattle? Join in. It's a great way to get to know us!
RSVP and get more info on the SeaTech Connect Meetup page.
We LOVE Our Volunteers!
AAF Seattle is simply nothing without its volunteers. While we always try our best to recognize and thank everyone--from volunteers to committee members to our board--for all they do, after all the effort over the past year we thought we should make a grander gesture.
Enter our friends The Tacoma Rainiers, who, through employee and ADDY chair, Audrey Berglund, stepped up and offered us a luxury suite complete with amenities. We got busy and coordinated a bus ride and beverages for the trip and a great day was planned.
The weather threatened, taking away throwing out the first pitch and ultimately the whole game, but not before we'd already had a great time.
And we had a backup plan: the nearby Park Way Tavern, where we closed out the day and verified Esquire magazine was right in naming it one of the best bars in America.
Yes, being a volunteer can be hard work but it's also a lot of fun, and more than a few people notice and appreciate the effort.
See all our pics from the day on Facebook.
Interested in volunteering? Let us know.
Vote for Seattle Creativity
Vote for your favorite work from Seattle teams at the Webby Awards, MARKETING Awards, and GeekWire Awards.
We noticed more than a few Seattle agencies asking for votes for their Webby Award–nominated entries. As hosts of The American Advertising Awards Seattle, we're more than a little partial to seeing local agencies win awards.
So we're keeping track of all the local nominees on Listly. This way you can go to one place to see all the entries that represent our creative town and vote for your favorites.
Below is the current list, embedded from Listly. When we add a new entry it will show up here. Comment if you'd like us to add yours.
And don't forget to vote. Let's bring home some hardware!
UPDATE: It must be voting season. ADDY sponsor Marketing NW needs your votes for their MARKETING awards. And the GeekWire Awards have their own voter-determined categories. Get to it!
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.
Newsletter Launches, but What Do We Call It?
Last week we launched our monthly newsletter all about what's happened with AAF Seattle over the past month, what's currently going on, and what's coming up, written in quickly scannable bits so you can feel briefed while giving you the option to click for more information.
Sign up for the newsletter here (or in the sidebar on this page).
One thing we need is a smart name that reflects the newsletter's content and conveys our tone of clever wit while maintaining some level of professionalism. Not so easy, right?
So we thought we'd open it up to our readers to send in their suggestions and vote. Whoever submits the winning idea will receive free admission for two to our next Speaker Series event.
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
Advertising Day on the Hill
Former US Congressmen Martin Frost (D-TX) and Kenny Hulshof (R-MO) speak to attendees Wednesday.
Our Director of Government Affairs, George Riddell, reports after his recent trip to Washington DC for the American Advertising Federation's "Advocacy In Action: Advertising Day on the Hill":
"Imagine if every one of your agency’s clients were suddenly forced to pay taxes on all advertising expenses which, for the past 100 years, have been fully deductible under approved US tax policies. Do you think that might affect the decisions those clients make about advertising? Like budgets? Might those decisions affect your agency’s business? Maybe your livelihood? The answers to all these questions are likely to be yes. There is one proposal under consideration in Washington DC that could have devastating effects on the advertising industry and the general US economy as well."
This is serious stuff, people. Read the rest of George's report on our Government Affairs News Blog.
Women Work Wonders for AAF Seattle
On International Women's Day 2014 we want to recognize and thank all the women who have come together to make us what we are in this past year.
We've enjoyed so many great women panelists, including our 3% Conference–inspired Women in Creativity, an all-women panel on Cause Marketing, and, finally, women on our Chalk Talk Super Bowl Ad Replay panel (even more women than men!).
We've had so many women attend events, join as members, and support our cause.
And we've had women in charge, from our board, including our president, Renee Peterson, to committee members, to volunteers, all helping shape our identity and making things happen where it matters.
We aspire to recognize creativity and ideas inclusively and to be a truly balanced organization. Thanks to every one of you who has contributed so much!
We Support Signage
We've seen that look. Trust us, you don't want that look.
Our Director of Government Affairs, George Riddell, appeared before the Seattle City Council on February 20th to add our voice to the opposition to proposed legislation that would strongly restrict signage on buildings. Despite vigorous debate and the detrimental effects that businesses would suffer if this were to pass, the council will vote on the bill.
Read George's full report on our Government Affairs News Blog.
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!
The 2014 AAF Silver Medal Award Winner Is Brown. John Brown.
Our selection committee has chosen this year's worthy recipient, John Brown. The award will be presented during the American Advertising Awards on March 19th.
Congratulations to John Brown!
Creative 12s: Super Bowl Edition
Just wow.
What a week leading up to Super Bowl XLVIII. And we thought the city was nuts for the NFC Championship! Our creatives kept their foot on the gas to such a degree we just had to make a sequel compilation. Great work, Creative 12s!
Check out how our creative community showed its 12th Man spirit on Storify!
Special thanks to thenewBlank for their cool modified Seahawks graphic that serves as the centerpiece of this collage.
We Are 12s: Seattle Creatives Support the Seahawks 2014 Playoff Run
206 is bringin' it!
The Seattle Seahawks are in the midst of what looks to be their best season ever. Seattle's creative professionals from agencies to brands are doing their part to show their team spirit as the city finds itself caught up in playoff fever.
Here's our Storify of Seattle's creative 12s in full-on Beast Mode!