Field Trip! Yay!
When I was in high school, one of my classmates, Jim Lasser, helped organize a field trip to his dad’s advertising agency. A bunch of us got on a bus from New Jersey to Manhattan, the shining Emerald City of ambition and dreams, and went to the offices of Ogilvy and Mather to get a tour of their facilities and an introduction to the world of advertising. We met creative teams, looked at galleries of print ads (mostly from Gillette, who was a big client at the time), and watched a focus group with young men who were trying out various razors touted to make their skin so smooth and touchable that women would swoon. But what I remember the most is my classmate’s dad, Mr. Lasser, saying to us, “Boys and girls, advertising works. Without it, every product seems the same.”
Tonight, my team and I got dressed to the nines and attended the Cassies Awards. The Cassies (which is an acronym for Canadian Advertising Success Stories) are sponsored by the Institute for Canadian Advertising, and each year it honors advertising campaigns that have achieved superior business results. We won Gold in the Not-for-Profit campaign category for our Because I am a Girl campaign for Plan Canada. It was a proud moment, especially for such a young agency. Former colleagues of mine from a very large agency I had the privilege of working for years ago, JWT, came up to me and said, “We were wondering what happened to you. Now we know what you were up to.” When I was at JWT, we won numerous Cassies, and it always gratified me that this award was not for the most clever creative per se, it was for the insight, strategy, and account management that wins business results for clients. And it’s an award that cannot be won without having a great client. So I thank Plan Canada for being that client. And my team for being a team that’s dedicated to results.
Boys and girls, advertising works.