News

Brunner hauls off 27 ad awards

Pittsburgh, PA - March 6, 2010

As appears on post-gazette.com

In the advertising and marketing business, it's all about The Work. Except when it's about the money.

Entries to the annual Pittsburgh American Advertising Awards contest this year dropped dramatically -- there were less than 300, down from 430 last year and 508 two years ago -- but about the same number of companies as last year sent something along for the judges.

Meade Johnson, president of the Pittsburgh Advertising Federation trade group that hosts the event, is taking that as a sign that agencies haven't given up on doing creative work even if they're dealing with tighter client budgets and less money to spend on contest submissions.

"People just sent fewer in," said Ms. Johnson, who was expecting around 250 at the awards show last night at the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland. In some markets around the country, she said contest entries dropped off so much that the local ad groups canceled their events.

"We're still solid," she said. "I'd certainly like to see it stronger."

As everyone waits for the economic recovery to rev up, work scheduled to be feted at last night's show illustrated there are still capable practitioners in the region and that they can handle the growing digital elements in demand.

Winning entries ranged from a set of grease rags done for Neil Barker Motorcycle Services, packaging for Oakmont Candle Co. and an illustration of Halloween-styled M&Ms characters as part of a Fright Aid promotion for Rite Aid pharmacies. Local shops also won for work on websites for GlaxoSmithKline's Aquafresh.com product and for Transitions Optical SOLFX sunglasses.

A goofy WPCW promotion to get TV viewers to watch syndicated reruns of "The Office" -- the one called "Save Dan's Job" in which station management threatened to fire Dan if this didn't work -- took a silver award.

The Best of Show prize went to a TV spot created by Downtown agency Brunner for Rockford Health Systems. That was good to see, in Ms. Johnson's opinion, because entries in that category can be limited in regional markets.

The other big award of the event was the Judges' Award of Excellence given to Brady Communications, based Downtown, for its 2008 annual report for the Boy Scouts of America, Greater Pittsburgh Council. The agency also picked up a gold Addy for the work.

In ranking agencies by their collective haul, Brunner landed 10 gold Addys and 17 silvers for a group of clients that included Cub Cadet, Consol Energy, Zippo, GlaxoSmithKline and WesBanco. Those grease rags -- including one that said "Lefty Loosey, Righty Tighty" followed by a phone number -- were part of work done for Neil Barker Motorcycle that also included a promotional white board and a magnet puzzle.

Garrison Hughes, also Downtown, picked up five golds and four silvers with advertisers such as the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Pittsburgh Passion women's football team and ValueTheMeal.org, a project for the Corporate Accountability International group trying to get changes in fast food marketing.

Marc USA, based in Station Square, collected three gold and two silvers mainly for work done for longtime client Rite Aid, while Uptown agency sunKing Digital took home three gold and one silver on accounts for Coca-Cola, American Eagle Outfitters and Transitions Optical.

Downtown-based Big Science Music earned two golds and two silvers on music done for the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, IC Light and the state health department.

Other winners included North Side shop Wall-toWall Studios, which earned two silvers for projects for the Carnegie Mellon University; Elisco Advertising, in Lawrenceville, taking a silver for its work on the Wyk candle line for Oakmont Candle; Strip-based Mullen, which picked up a silver for an American Diabetes Association.

The contest is the first step in a three-level competition sponsored by a national industry group, the American Advertising Federation.

Brunner is a $200 million independent advertising agency with 200 employees and offices in Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. The agency provides a broad range of services in research and planning, branding, advertising, digital marketing, direct/one-to-one marketing, public relations, promotion, and design services to clients, such as Cub Cadet, CONSOL Energy, The Dow Chemical Company, GlaxoSmithKline, GNC, Philips Respironics, and Zippo. In addition to being a Top 100 U.S. ad agency, Brunner ranks among the Top 75 digital marketing firms in the country.