We’d like to introduce you to our friends at Luzerne County Head Start.
Nearly 6 months ago we participated in “Cropped“, a creative competition hosted by the American Advertising Federation of NEPA that helps non-profits receive new or updated branding through 3 fast-paced rounds of competition between local marketing companies. Luzerne County Head Start (LCHS) was chosen as last year’s featured non-profit, so they presented their list of marketing needs at the competition in November. Each of the teams had to create a logo, tagline, and campaign strategy in 20-minute segments while using only markers, crayons and craft paper. After each segment, a team was eliminated (“cropped” out) by a panel of judges until there was only one team left. The winning team then worked with the non-profit to complete the suite of marketing materials they proposed during the competition at no cost to the nonprofit.
After some creative crayon drawings, brain-busting brainstorming, and witty word-play, Posture ascended through the rounds and won the competition. The best part? We got to work closely with the wonderful Head Start team and we were even invited to visit their location in Wilkes-Barre to help make pancakes and eat breakfast with the kids.
Head Start promotes the school readiness of young children from low-income families through agencies in their local community. Head Start and Early Head Start programs support the comprehensive development of children from birth to age 5, in centers, child care partner locations, and in their own homes. This includes a wealth of information of resources for new or soon-to-be new parents.
Even with such a fantastic wide-spread mission, LCHS still needed a hand with their marketing to help garner the support of more community resources and funding. They actually have a wait list for children to get in because there are many families who can benefit greatly from these programs, but Head Start only has so many open seats for children in the area with their current resources. So in addition to developing a new refreshed logo and a tagline that better expresses the mission of Head Start, we also created a campaign strategy to get the word out.
After seeing how excited Lynn and the team were to use their new marketing materials, we knew we were hooked on Head Start and we couldn’t stop there. The team approached us about giving their website a much-needed overhaul, and we gladly whipped up a proposal for what we know will be a great new chapter for Luzerne County Head Start. Stay tuned for great things to come for our friends at LCHS!
The American Advertising Awards (or AAA…or Addy’s) is our favorite annual event for local advertising and marketing companies to come together and share in their year of accomplishments. Hosted by our friends at the American Advertising Federation of NEPA, the awards are the culmination of a judged advertising competition that starts on a local and advances to a regional then then national level. For us, it also showcases the amazing growing pool of talent we have right here in NEPA and provides a wealth of inspiration.
To say we had a blast would be an understatement – this year’s Addy’s was the GREATEST Addy’s! The whole event was inspired by the recent musical: “The Greatest Showman,” having the matching theme and triumphant theatrics we all appreciate here at Posture.
We were recognized for the House Party campaign and Seed to Farmacy campaign we did this past year. We love working with clients who give us the opportunity to create innovative interactive experiences. For more info about our project visit our project showcase here.
Congratulations to all winners and contestants, it was a really fun and inspiring night and we can’t wait to see what you come up with next!
TL;DR : Posture won some awards at the Addys, enlightenment ensues.
This past weekend our agency had a stunning experience at this year’s American Advertising Awards, the annual ceremony where creativity’s effectiveness, judged by folks we respect & recognize, is acknowledged and ultimately rewarded for excellence at the Addys 2018.
(L to R) Mat Giordano, Robert Jones, Kathryn Bondi, Tony Bartocci, Jean Carlos Cedré, Joey Zarcone, Charles Ferran. Not pictured: Kevin O’Boyle, Doug Griffiths
Now that it’s been a few days, I’ve had a bit of time to try and understand what that night signifies for our team, processing how we got here, and looking forward to where we’re headed. I apologize in advance for the windy road below and appreciate the time your eyeballs are on loan to these words….
This year’s Addy awards yielded us the type of acknowledgement that gravity sort of pushes down onto you like humid air…a blissful, nervous, overwhelming, ultimately self-conscious state of being where you aren’t sure what to do or say, how to feel or what to make of it.
We ultimately won eight awards (listed below in order of category – client – award):
Packaging Campaign – Electric City Roasting Co. Cold Label Packaging – Gold Addy Award
Branded Content Entertainment Campaign – Breaking Benjamin Social Teaser Video Campaign – Gold Addy Award
Digital Self Promotion – Posture Interactive Company Website – Gold Addy Award
Judge’s Choice – Electric City Roasting Co. Cold Label Packaging
People’s Choice – Electric City Roasting Co. Cold Label Packaging
Best in Show – Breaking Benjamin Social Teaser Video Campaign
Addys 2018 Takeaway #1 – Validation is Nice.
To a certain extent, falling into the category of recognition for anything that we put out the door makes me do a double take. Years and years ago when we formed this little strange-brew human triad of a designer, a programmer + and a business director, we had no idea how we were going to *do* anything.
We didn’t have much, but we had what we needed.
We had a strong, rapidly evolving knowledge base of core design and development beliefs and best “practices” with the chops to back it up. We had a deep, neural understanding of the need to execute the client’s vision in their best interest no matter what, and ultimately how to build the foundation of long-term, healthy business relationships.
Posture was built culture-first. I don’t care how freakishly talented some rock star developer is. If they are an asshole, I don’t want to be around them a bazillion hours a day (and I certainly don’t want to make cool shit with them). If we can we have a conversation that produces something meaningful, and the skillset is chasing close behind, we’ll gladly cultivate that mindset and grow *with* you. The rest is cake: Just don’t be a dick.
This many years later, I never dreamed I would be so fortunate to have had the opportunity to hire and surround myself with such talented people that are just…*better* than me in every sense of the word: I’m made aware & encouraged every day to be a better artist & builder & thinker, to develop more tasteful business acumen, and to strive to actually become the person I’m prone to convince myself I think I am.
I get to work and grow with these incredibly talented people every day to produce some of the most creative, challenging, and engaging solutions our clients have come to know and depend on us for.
It was only after I ran this dialogue back in my head (quite a few times) that I was able to get a grip on why people put so much weight on being validated and why it matters.
When I wrap a project, if I’m cool with it and it has met or exceeded the client’s business objectives, that’s as far as I can let myself define a “success” for our team. Taking some time the past few days to dig into how I reflect on work we complete, more often than not at some uncomfortably blistering pace, makes me think I need to be open to understanding and accepting validation more in general.
We work in an incredibly competitive, feverishly paced industry. These awards represent projects that span the breadth of our core competencies and were in some way or another touched by every single team member doing the best that they possibly could to help make our clients successful.
I realize now that these awards signify that *in addition* to meeting our client’s goals and helping write their success story, our work is being appreciated by other creative talent in our industry as well…peers that understand the hustle and what good hard work is when you see it.
If this is what feeling validated is like, sign me up all day.
Recognition is Humbling.
This speaks for itself, but we are truly humbled to have been recognized to this degree by the American Advertising Federation. A jury of fellow creatives singling out our work out of the battering ram of submissions is incredibly rewarding and we couldn’t be more grateful.
None of it really comes easy for any of us, and I’ll spare you the cliché agency nonsense masquerading as team-building or business growth …such gems as “Excellence is a habit”, or “you can’t choose which projects you go all in on or which you push through the pipe – go all in every time and be inspired!”……it’s all bullshit.
We’re a team and a family. We fight, bicker, bitch and moan. We burn ourselves out on the grandest of scales. We’re all incredibly guilty of not seeing beyond the closest Deadline o’Clock coming full throttle, but also staring it right down to not only our own mental nerve-endings but of those around us as well. It’s intense, it’s challenging, it’s relentless, and I wonder on occasion how we didn’t implode or collapse on ourselves completely by now…
Why is calling ourselves out like this so important? Humility. It’s all rooted in Posture’s commitment to getting the absolute best solution for the visions and goals that we are fortunate enough to be trusted with by our clients.
My mind loses sight of that, and we just need to remind ourselves every now and again that we are never pushing for the *wrong* solution, or the *easy* way out when it gets tough. We are pushing for the new, the best, the most abstract, the brightest…we’re pushing further.
We were recognized and rewarded for our take on the creative spirit of excellence in the art of advertising.
I can’t tell you how proud that makes me to say, and with just a smidge less self-consciousness this time around the bend.
Let’s Push Further.
We look forward to what this year may bring, having the opportunity to be pushing new boundaries, exploring new tech, creating new types of content and solutions for our clients…virtual reality, 360° video, Blockchain development…the sky is the limit, and I’m looking for 2018 to be a pretty rad year.
About the American Advertising Awards/ADDYs
Conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the local chapter is the first of a three-tier, national competition. Concurrently, all across the country, local entrants vie to win ADDY Awards – recognition as the very best in their markets.
All local Golds get automatically forwarded to the second tier where they compete against winners from other local clubs in one of 15 district competitions. District ADDY winners are then forwarded to the third tier, the national stage of the American Advertising Awards.
The ADDYs 2018 is the advertising industry’s largest and most representative competition, annually attracting more than 40,000 entries.
Scranton-based Posture Interactive won Best of Show at the annual American Advertising Awards held Friday night by the American Advertising Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Posture Interactive received the top award at the event at the Radisson at Lackawanna Station hotel for its “Electric City Roasting Seasonal Packaging Campaign” in the sales promotion packaging category. It was among the nearly 50 awards handed out.
Gold Award winners from the local level compete in District 2 in New York City, with top winners from the district heading to the national American Advertising Awards competition in California.
The student “Best of Show” award went to David C. Bonomo from Marywood University for the Poster Campaign, “Shakespeare Summer Series.” Marywood University student Casey Nicholas Peckio received the Judges’ Choice award for Sales Promotion Packaging Campaign titled “Beer Bottle 4 Pack Labels.”
