This year, as in years before, we have submitted our work and people’s credentials and have again won a variety of awards ourselves, including the Atlanta American Marketing Association 2014 Agency Marketer of the Year. Often though we find it more interesting and rewarding to participate in judging the competitions of others. In that way you get to not only see the work, but see the kinds of challenges others are trying to solve. Among those we have helped mentor or judge this year include:
- Georgia Tech – Ideas 2 Serve (I2S) Competition
What an INCREDIBLE group of young people. This competition is focused on harnessing innovation to create products and services that help the community. It was amazing to see the number of medical devices (personal information records pingable via cell), community technologies (ways to use wood from a neighborhood to create skateboards and employ neighborhood youth) and mechanical innovations (such as those to capture rain water from bridges in nets and new designs for toilets to help those in third world countries.) If you’d like to support these innovations or get involved in judging next year, reach out to Dori Pap at dori.pap@ile.gatech.edu - Business Marketing Association B2 Awards
For years we have judged marketing competitions across the country and across marketing channels and organizations. The BMA B2 Awards are particularly exciting because the subjects exclusively focus on business-to-business industries. It is always interesting to see if trends emerge through the work. We were astounded by the degree of “real life, pull at the heart strings, stories” that were highlighted in the campaigns we saw. It is often difficult to get clients–whose products are technical or industrial–to put forward a very human, vulnerable face on a product or service. If you have time and want to peruse the 203 winners for this year, take a look at the video at: http://bit.ly/1h1fU3x
(Oh, and for those that know us, can we say how proud and excited we were for John Deere’s – For Generations Campaign. Nothing Runs Like a Deere…and apparently, nothing runs like their agency!) - Founder Institute
Participating as a Mentor and Instructor with Founder Institute is a unique experience. This was the first year that FI existed in the Atlanta market. Over a period of months you watch as budding, and some of them operating, entrepreneurs refine their ideas, the business model, their target markets, their investor pitch, and more. The transformation of the entity is amazing in that period of time. Individually, Founders reach out for specific guidance. There are people focused on a diverse collection of offerings—technologies, devices, services, etc. Graduates of the program realize they are not at the end, but at the beginning. For information on the worldwide footprint and track record of FI Graduates, take a look here: http://fi.co/companies
