Kaarin SwansonWhile Spokane seems to be a hotbed of blue collar jobs, hospitals, and university positions, the creative industry in Spokane is perhaps not as subtle as people assume. The Addy Awards is one of the highlights of the advertising industry in Spokane every year, and it generates a large turnout. While the larger agencies in the area still employ less than a hundred people in their respective offices, the amount of agencies is growing and the competition and quality are too. Saturday night March 8th the 2014 Addy’s (awarded for 2013 work) were held in the Grand Pennington Ballroom in the Davenport Hotel. The room was overflowing with flapper dresses and sparkling headbands as the theme was Great Gatsby and the 1920s. This isn’t everything, but here’s a little overview of some of the amazing award winning advertising work that came out of Spokane in 2013.
The night opened with the presentation of only the sixth ever Lifetime Achievement Award. CK Anderson of Helveticka presented it to his former employer John Mraz, a long time player in the ad game in Spokane who accepted it with an emotional speech. A fitting award for a man who has given back so much to the creative and advertising community in Spokane over the past 30+ years.
Right after, we dove into the awards with Boom Creative taking over the Out Of Home division as well as the entire Television category for it’s Eric the Hipster campaign for ACU. They also won at least two armfuls of Addy’s for their work with Global Credit Union with the Global Citizen campaign, with artwork by Tiffany Patterson and Darcy Lee Saxton, as well as their Flying Spiders video for Global. They took home the Best of Show: Print for the Global Credit Union ‘Darcy’ bus wrap.
In the Digital Advertising division, Mojo won a Gold Addy for their Mountain Power video, while 14Four won a Gold Addy for their work with Pepsi and Beyonce’s Super Bowl Half Time Show countdown. NXNW picked up multiple awards for their work with Pearson Packaging, including the Best of Show: Electronic award for the Pearson Packaging website. NXNW was also awarded the Golden Pixel for their Concord Career Colleges website.
Seven2 Interactive cleaned house in the Digital Advertising: Games division with their work for the likes of Disney and Nickelodeon including games for Sanjay & Craig, The Non-Stop Summer Campaign, and Wander Over Yonder. They also received a Gold Addy for SpongeBob: You’re Fired.
In the Elements of Advertising division we saw winners in the categories of logo, illustration, photography, and responsive design which included Tran Creative, BHW1, Klundt Hosmer, Hannah Shields, Boom Creative, Sigma, Dean Davis, and Zipline.
Public Service awards went to NXNW for their Call Before You Dig video, Quinn Group for Goodwill, Focal Point Marketing for their Attendance Matters video, with the Best Of award going to Baroque Design for their I-Choice campaign.
Students from surrounding design programs were present, and winning work included items from Kristin Violet, Tony Kuchar, Melanie Hoff, Laura O’Brien and more. Hannah Shields, also a student, won a handful of awards for her work as well but entered it in the professional category and cleaned house for her Avion Coffee Roasters designs. Winning in the Elements of Advertising: Logo category, taking the ‘Best of Division’ in Elements of Advertising for the Avion Coffee website, and taking the Designers Chair for the Avion Coffee packaging.
The night ended with Shawn Davis of Zipline bequeathing his chair as last years Ad Pro. After a hilariously strange green screened video presented encouraging words from friends, coworkers, industry professionals and family of the newest Ad Pro, it was revealed who the mystery recipient was and was awarded to Jean Klundt of Klundt Hosmer.
We were missing entries from Magner/Sanborn, and Seven2 didn’t seem to enter as much as normal, which while reasoning is unknown it may have been a nod to the fact that they are both behemoths in the industry and perhaps didn’t want to take a sweep of the Addy’s this year as has been customary in the past (that’s nice of them).
All in all, it was an amazing night for the creative industry in Spokane, and all Best of’s and Gold and Silver Addy winners at the local level will be submitted to the regional and national level for a chance to go up against some of the best agencies and advertising campaigns in America.