AWARD WINNING IDEAS NATIONAL CLUB ACHIEVEMENT COMPETITION WINNING ENTRIES

Transcription

1 AWARD WINNING IDEAS NATIONAL CLUB ACHIEVEMENT COMPETITION WINNING ENTRIES

2 DIVERSITY & MULTICULTURAL INITIATIVES

3 Diversity means understanding. Stuart Scott, ESPN News Anchor The homepage of AAF-Louisville s website promotes the message that the American Advertising Federation is the Unifying Voice of Advertising. This mission applies to all aspects of the advertising community, including the voice of our multicultural members. But to incorporate diversity into our mission, we must understand how to include diversity into everything we do. This club year, our Diversity Committee took a hard look at our past efforts and discussed ways in which we could integrate diversity into all our programs on a regular basis. The committee s new approach was implemented to improve outreach to our diverse community for membership, as well as the advertising community s messages to the general public. The purpose of AAF-Louisville s diversity initiatives is to: 1. Increase diversity within our profession at both the club and institution levels (schools, businesses, etc.) 2. Improve the Louisville advertising community's interaction with minority populations 3. Serve as a resource to the membership on relevant issues pertaining to diversity and inclusion 4. Increase awareness among local minority populations of the resources and expertise within AAF- Louisville via community outreach 5. Include a diverse perspective in as many programs and events as possible. Project 1: Minority/Multicultural Student Outreach and Support Goals: Build awareness and excitement about a career in advertising among all students in the community by demonstrating the broad range of disciplines and career paths, such as copywriting, account service, media planning, and art direction. Target Audience: Local high school and college students Strategy/Execution: High School Marketing Challenge (HSMC) (Tab A) - For 15 years running, AAF-Louisville has provided an opportunity for high school students to gain experience in advertising through a creative competition. A sponsor acts as the client and chooses a topic, product, or service to promote, while

4 local students act as the advertising agency, creating an advertising campaign to promote that service or product. This year s corporate sponsor was The Becker Law Office, who charged students to tackle the issue of texting while driving. Second Chance Challenge (Tab B) - The Jefferson County Public School System (JCPS) has many schools that regularly participate in our High School Marketing Challenge. When JCPS saw how successful the program was in teaching ways to tackle health and wellness issues through the corporatesponsored challenge, they partnered with AAF-Louisville to engage students to address another issue in the community - the low rate of GEDs obtained by students who have dropped out of school. The Second Chance Challenge is only open to JCPS students, and is a smaller version of the HSMC, allowing schools a second chance to win. Minority Scholarship Program (Tab C) - Each year, AAF-Louisville awards a $2,500 scholarship to a minority student pursuing a career in advertising. The scholarship is supported through an endowment fund established several years ago. A fundraising event is held each year to help support the club s goal of having enough funds in the endowment be able to award a $10,000 scholarship annually. This year s event was held at a local LGBT theater. 100% of the proceeds went to the scholarship endowment fund. As a secondary source of funding, AAF-Louisville added the Culturally Legit award to its American Advertising Awards program. A portion of the entry fee from each submission supports the scholarship endowment. The minority scholarship application process was promoted through social media, , and our website. Members and colleagues at local colleges and universities also helped promote the available scholarship. Jefferson County Public School System (JCPS) Partnership Council - The High School Marketing Challenge provides an opportunity for AAF-Louisville to find where resources and expertise are lacking in the public school system and fill the need. This is our fourth year of sitting on the Communication/Media Arts Partnership Council. We help provide the schools with current and relevant coursework that gets students career-ready at graduation. By sharing examples of award-winning creative, providing paper and other materials for graphic design classes, and donating the work

5 displayed at the local ADDY Awards Gala, the club is helping teachers and staff prepare students for careers in advertising. Results: The High School Marketing Challenge continues to thrive with 14 teams participating in the development portion of the challenge last Fall. Due to schedule and transportation limitations, nine of those teams were able to present their ideas to our judges, who were thoroughly impressed with the work. The participation from schools in low-income areas where schools don t have equal access to technology has also grown, so judges are instructed to score based on campaign concepts and ideas, not necessarily the quality of production. This allows a level playing field that encourages participation from all community schools, public and private, with a more diverse student base that grows every year. Beyond the impact of learning about advertising, students have found opportunities to volunteer and continue to support the causes they ve learned about even beyond the competition, helping to build stronger communities and serve as an example to others. The Second Chance Challenge had 10 teams competing in the inaugural program. Through the challenge, JCPS learned their messaging would be most effective by utilizing images with few words. They implemented this tactic through all of their social media posts and currently do: #MemeMonday, #GEDInspiration and #MeetTheTeam on a weekly basis. Since starting the campaign in August, they have received a number of retweets of #MemeMonday and #GEDInspiration hastags, including some shares from the GED Testing Service. AAF-Louisville has focused quite a bit of time and energy in previous years reaching out to our university partners to make them aware of the Diversity Scholarship. Through our fundraisers, we have added over $8,000 dollars to our scholarship endowment fund this year. Also, through involvement with the JCPS Partnership Council, we have gained contacts from some of the community s underprivileged schools who have become involved in the High School Marketing Challenge for the first time. This has helped us reach students that might not have had access to learning about the advertising and marketing industry as a career path.

6 Project 2: Provide Volunteer Opportunities to Support Diverse Charitable Organizations Goal: Provide charitable organizations with advertising and marketing assistance or volunteer support through our network of members and their companies while providing volunteer opportunities for AAF- Louisville members. Target Audience: Local charities that support diversity issues and AAF-Louisville members Strategy/Execution: Public Service Media Project (Tab D) - AAF-Louisville holds a fundraising effort each year that allows us to partner with local nonprofits and provide media at a guaranteed 3:1 return on investment. The club also provides volunteer creative services of our members where needed. For the third year in a row, we partnered with The de Paul School, a private school that teaches students with learning differences how to become independent and thrive in the method that works best for them. The goal of the project was to increase the awareness of the school in the Louisville community, thereby increasing enrollment. Public Service Volunteer Opportunities (Tab E) - The Public Service Committee promotes a Helping Hands initiative to identify ways for our members to use their talents for a good cause and then promote the opportunity. This year, we sent a call for donations to help two local organizations. The first was Family and Children s Place, an organization that strives to build better futures for child victims of violence, abuse and neglect, and their families. Our school supply drive benefitted their after school program which supports vulnerable students at two local Title I schools (schools classified as having a high proportion of students from low-income families). The second organization was The Center for Women and Families which provides services to all survivors of intimate partner abuse or sexual violence including men, LGBT individuals, as well as women and dependent children. AAF-Louisville worked in conjunction with Ad2 Louisville to collect donations for the Center for Women and Families as admission to the club s holiday party. Results: In partnership with The de Paul School, AAF-Louisville has helped secure media placement for a television campaign. Following their television campaign, Communications & Marketing Director Christina Janisch said school inquiries have increased and callers credit the television campaign as their

7 reason for picking up the phone. AAF-Louisville was also proud to offer a large donation of school supplies over 27,800 items to Children s Place, helping them prepare for the school year. In addition the Center for Women and Families received $600, a minivan full of new items and a small SUV full of used items to help with their needs during the holiday season. Project 3: YAP/Ad2 Career ADvice Seminars & Happy Hours (Tab F) 2015 was a year of transition for our Young Advertising Professionals. After focusing on developing targeted events and programs for our members 32 and younger, involvement has increased. By the end of the club year, AAF-Louisville s YAPs will be recognized as a full-fledged AAF National Ad2 club. Goals: Foster connections by providing educational seminars featuring a diverse range of speakers to talk about their backgrounds and successes. Promote advertising as a career choice to young attendees in order to encourage the growth of a diverse talent pool. Encourage participation in social events for members and non-members of all ages. Target Audience: Primary audiences - Young Advertising Professionals (ages 21-32) and prospective new members who are recent college graduates; Secondary audiences - Life Members, Board Members and the AAF-Louisville membership-at-large Strategy/Execution: The Young Advertising Professional (YAP) Happy Hours include attendees from all cross-sections of our membership as a way to give young professionals a chance to network with seasoned executives in an informal setting. The Career ADvice program is a series of seminars that feature local speakers from agencies and corporations in an educational classroom setting. A focus of ours has been, and continues to be, women in advertising. We had a popular Career ADvice program featuring a successful, young female entrepreneur in a program titled, Millennials Guide to Career Success, where our speaker shared her insights on how to combine your personal interests and your degree to create a successful career. Results: The Happy Hours have not only become a wildly popular social event with the younger crowd, but members and non-members of all ages have embraced the opportunity to engage and network with

8 others from the advertising community. Many top executives attend to support their colleagues who have been asked to join as special guests. Happy Hours average around 75 attendees, which is an increase of 33% over the previous year. The Career ADvice seminars average close to 30 attendees per event. These events have resulted in an increase in YAP membership, as well as elevated interest in serving in leadership roles on the YAP Committee. Interest is so high in fact, that subcommittees have been formed and we have begun the process of transitioning our Young Advertising Professionals to a fully recognized Ad2 club within the AAF organization. Project 4: Develop a Culturally Legit Louie Award and Infuse Diversity into the Annual American Advertising Awards (Tab G) Goals: Develop a Culturally Legit award recognizing authentic portrayals of diversity in advertising. Use the Culturally Legit Award to support the Diversity Scholarship endowment fund. Infuse diverse perspectives into the Louie Awards, the local American Advertising Awards. Target Audience: Members and non-members entering the Louies Strategy/Execution: Culturally Legit Award - In 2016, AAF-Louisville introduced the first Culturally Legit Louie award. This is a local-only award presented in conjunction with the Louies, AAF-Louisville s stage of the American Advertising Awards. The Culturally Legit award recognizes the accurate portrayal of minorities in advertising campaigns. The Culturally Legit award was created to help level the playing field for marketing and advertising work created for multicultural and diversity campaigns and initiatives. The goal is that one day, all work created in the industry will reflect the world as is it today, a mixture and blend of cultures and backgrounds coming together. Support Diversity Scholarship - $10 from each Culturally Legit entry was given to the endowment fund that supports AAF-Louisville s Diversity Scholarship. Infuse Diverse Perspectives into the Louie Awards - Inspired by the Diversity Committee s development of the Culturally Legit award, AAF-Louisville s Louie Committee decided to infuse this year s Advertising Awards gala with diverse perspectives. The team was able to use the new Culturally Legit

9 award as a cornerstone for a sponsorship package for the Muhammad Ali Center, a local museum dedicated to Louisville native and boxing great Muhammad Ali. The museum features award winning exhibits built around the 6 parameters of Ali s life: confidence, conviction, dedication, giving, respect, and spirituality. As part of the sponsorship package, the Muhammad Ali Center CEO presented the first ever Culturally Legit award at the gala and AAF-Louisville structured the event to drive traffic through the venue s featured exhibit, titled Selma to Montgomery: Marching along the Voting Rights Trail, dedicated to the 60 th anniversary of the Selma civil rights protest. In exchange, AAF-Louisville received the rental space for the event at a significantly reduced cost. Results: The inaugural year of the Culturally Legit award brought in 10 entries that were from all divisions of our membership. Entrants included agencies, corporate marketing departments and even freelance designers. With $10 from every submission going to the endowment fund, we were able to add another $100 dollars to the scholarship fund just through entries. The first winner of the award was an integrated campaign entitled, Say I Do in Lou, which promoted the City of Louisville as the perfect destination for LGBT couples to get married. Project 5: Connect with the Diverse Louisville Community in a Meaningful Way (Tab H) Our community has seen a 122% increase in the Hispanic/Latino population over the last decade, and the numbers continue to grow. This diverse Hispanic population contributes to an ever evolving, multi-cultural Louisville, significantly impacting our future as a community. As the number of Hispanics entering the workforce and attending public schools grows, we must consider the unique challenges the Hispanic population is facing. Adelante Hispanic Achievers was created to address such challenges in our city by empowering Louisville s Hispanic youth and helping them succeed in four critical areas of development: personal, social, cultural, and educational. Adelante s mission is to inspire Hispanic/Latino youth and families to achieve their dreams by participating in creative and educational endeavors. AAF-Louisville has been connected to Adelante s mission through our work with JCPS.

10 Goals: Work with community groups to positively impact the youth of our community and encourage students of all backgrounds to explore careers in the advertising field. Target Audience: High school and college students and their mentors, teachers, professors and advisors Strategy/Execution: Establish and strengthen connection with Adelante Achievers Results: In October of 2015, the Adelante Achievers members recognized AAF-Louisville as a Champion of Diversity in our community. In addition, AAF-Louisville's introduction to Adelante will hopefully result in Adelante forming a team and competing in our High School Marketing Challenge in the Fall of Project 6: Offer Unique Multicultural Educational Opportunities for Members (Tab I) Traditionally, AAF-Louisville has developed programs or panels dedicated to educating our members on how to successfully connect with people from diverse backgrounds. This year, AAF-Louisville held a panel discussion in July for members to learn about successful multi-cultural marketing. Goals: Offer unique programs to educate our members how to better communicate with individuals from diverse backgrounds. Target Audience: AAF-Louisville members and non-members Execution: In July 2015, AAF-Louisville held a panel discussion called Through the Looking Glass. The panel consisted of experts in multi-cultural marketing from locally based corporations Humana, Brown-Forman and Scoppechio. A female creative director was our moderator, and to further captivate the audience and visually enhance the discussion, she drew a graphic representation of the discussion as she moderated. Results: The program drew 30 attendees and the results from the survey were very positive. All attendees that filled out the survey after the event rated the program either a 4/5 or better. The guests were very impressed with the knowledge and experience of the panel. The majority of the feedback consisted of the guests wishing the event had been scheduled for a longer because there was so much great information to discuss.

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