The American Advertising Awards, or ADDY Awards, is the advertising industry's largest and most representative competition, attracting nearly 35,000 entries every year in local American Advertising Federation Ad Club competitions. The mission of the American Advertising Awards is to recognize and reward the creative spirit of excellence in the art of advertising. Here in mid-Michigan, the Mid-Michigan Creative Alliance brings together a group of volunteers who work their asses off to create a meaningful local competition and celebration.
We’ve always considered ourselves to be core public relations. Words people, if you will. But as the communications industry as a whole has become more integrated, and how people consume information has evolved, visual storytelling has become increasingly important in our work. We’ve invested in and grown our own capabilities to pair our beloved words with strategic design, and we’re proud to have this work recognized by our peers.
We are honored to have received nine ADDY awards in 2021, including three Gold ADDY Awards, one Silver ADDY Award and five Bronze ADDY Awards. This year’s ADDYs were especially special for us (and may or may not have included some virtual celebration expletives of disbelief) when we were recognized with a Judge’s Choice Award for our very own holiday social campaign. To be recognized by the only female judge for a philanthropic campaign focused on women’s empowerment… it was what our 2020/2021-bruised souls needed, and it meant the world to us.
Here’s the full scoop:
Gold ADDY and Judge’s Choice
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12 Days of Empowerment Holiday Campaign, Piper & Gold Public Relations
12 Days of Empowerment Holiday Campaign
P&G won the Gold ADDY Judge’s Choice Award for our holiday campaign, 12 Days of Empowerment. The campaign focused on supporting multiple organizations advocating for a wide range of human rights issues in lieu of our traditional holiday donation to one organization. Each day focused on a different organization we donated to, ranging from reproductive rights to racial injustice to workplace equality, all which fight for and speak to our values.
Gold ADDY
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#LoveLansing Instagram GIFs, Piper & Gold Public Relations
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Stepping Out Publication, Early Childhood Investment Corporation
#LoveLansing Instagram GIFs
We noticed a lack of Instagram stickers or Gifs that accurately represented our beloved home, Lansing. Our creative team took matters into their own hands and developed a set of Lansing-themed GIFs for community members to use on Instagram.
Stepping Up and Speaking Out Publication, Early Childhood Investment Corporation
The Stepping Up and Speaking Out Publication drew on the learnings from parents, providers and administrators in Michigan. It emphasized that equitable practice and values are central to family empowerment and leadership, and offered a sense of how to move beyond the rhetoric of family engagement to action.
Silver ADDY
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Seek to Understand Publication, MSU Broad
Seek to Understand Publication, MSU Broad
The Seek to Understand Publication for the MSU Broad focused on the greater Lansing area and sought to share the abundant opportunities for every level of talent, experience and income to interact with and participate in all forms of the visual and performing arts and cultural institutions.
Bronze ADDY
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2020 Annual Report: Print, Capital Area Michigan Works!
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2020 Annual Report: Web, Capital Area Michigan Works!
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FMPP Know Your Market Year One, Michigan Farmers Market Association
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Lend-a-Hand Campaign, Ronald McDonald House of Mid-Michigan
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20th Anniversary Campaign, Ronald McDonald House of Mid-Michigan
2020 Annual Report: Print and Web, Capital Area Michigan Works!
The 2020 annual report for Capital Area Michigan Works! was called Strength in Community and focused on how the organization rose to the occasion throughout the year to meet the needs of job seekers and employers. This year, we designed a print and web version of the annual report.
FMPP Know Your Market Year One, Michigan Farmers Market Association
The Know Your Market campaign was born from a desire to help people connect with their farmers, vendors, market managers, neighbors and community. It centered around a gradient of colors inspired by the food and products of markets themselves to entice traditional and new audiences to get to know their markets and the people behind them. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tactics centered on increased partnerships, advertising and social media, marketing tools for market managers and brochures at Michigan Welcome Centers.
Lend-a-Hand Campaign, Ronald McDonald House of Mid-Michigan
The 2020 Lend-a-Hand campaign focused on the message, “Then. Now. Always.” to create a “where are they now” concept that utilized the House’s branding colors and fonts paired with imagery and captions that illustrated the passing of time while telling the story of the House and four featured families. The campaign included a direct mailer, billboards, email blasts, a web story and social media — which included videos interviews of all of the families.
20th Anniversary Campaign, Ronald McDonald House of Mid-Michigan
For the Ronald McDonald House of Mid-Michigan’s 20th anniversary, the #Your20forOur20 campaign was created to help meet the nonprofit’s greatest need in 2020: money. The COVID-19 pandemic inflicted an additional $40,000 in expenses in 2020. The campaign engaged the House’s champions and biggest supporters in a digital fundraiser to help offset the financial burden of the COVID-19 pandemic during their 20th year of operations.
Do awards really matter in 2021? Honestly, we don’t know, but we still made the choice to highlight them because they made us proud, and we could all use a little boost these days.
This may get a little deep, but we often have a heavily female if not all female team at P&G, and as women, we're conditioned to be humble and downplay our accomplishments. Many of our clients are led by women and female teams who've received that same conditioning.
While we wish we still didn’t need validation or someone to tell us we did a good job, it sure as shit is nice to hear. Building that confidence in our team, within our industry and for our clients just matters. And every award entry is a chance to learn.
Our team will carry this joy throughout the year and it will give us a boost of confidence with every project we work on, because what we do is deserving and meaningful.
