It's ADDY season once again. Of course, I am referring to the American Advertising Federation Awards that are taking place in cities all across America at this time of year. If you are a regular reader of this blog or a friend of Mikula-Harris on Facebook (as you definitely should be), you know that over the years we have won more of these awards than we can count. I'm always happy to see our creative team get the recognition they deserve. However, we have chosen to part with tradition this year. As you know, in 2017 we are celebrating 25 years in business. We have chosen to skip the ADDY Awards this year and instead share with you some of our favorite winners from past years.
In 2013, the Abingdon Convention & Visitors Bureau asked Mikula-Harris to help turn an idea into a reality. The Abingdon tourism promotion team was partnering with a local nonprofit group to establish a program that would encourage people to choose locally grown and made foods. This unique program went a bit further than just increasing awareness of the principle of "choose local." The goal was to actually create demand by delivering customers to restaurants, retailers and lodging establishments that agreed to sell or prepare truly local products.
The program is called Rooted in Appalachia. The name alone inspires creativity. We created a logo that would eventually become ubiquitous around Abingdon. Participating restaurants and shops could put stickers on their windows to let the public know they're supporters. Restaurants could use informative table tents — actually they folded up to be more like colorful cubes — to promote their farm-to-table dishes. A series of posters soon plastered shop windows, public buildings and other places. Ads began appearing in local media. A new website succinctly explained the whole program and listed establishments serving local products. The mobile version of the site even told users where the nearest participating restaurants were located. The final piece of this marketing juggernaut was a beautiful video that takes viewers on a journey from farm to market to kitchen to table.
At the 2014 ADDY Awards Gala, the integrated campaign made up of most of the elements mentioned in the last paragraph received a Gold ADDY Award and the top honor of the entire evening — Best in Show.
One of the really special parts of this particular ADDY memory is that this campaign is genuinely a team effort. Every member of our team had extensive involvement in making this work exceptional. See more of the award-winning work in a case study on our website.
