November 2022 Club Updates and American Advertising Awards Tips

AAF Tuscaloosa

Seeking Judges for 2022 American Advertising Awards ?

AAF Tuscaloosa is seeking judges for the 2022 American Advertising Awards. Entries will be judged remotely this year, requiring less commitment than previous awards shows.

Judging a local American Advertising Awards is a great way to grow your professional brand, make connections with other ad pros and expose yourself to a range of award-worthy inspiration.

Interested? Email us at aaftuscaloosa@gmail.com.

AAF Birmingham

AAF Birmingham is proud to partner with Red Mountain Theatre for our American Advertising Awards Show, celebrating our 80th Anniversary! We are rolling out the red carpet for an old-school Hollywood film premiere-styled evening.

We want to ensure all the amazingly talented creatives receive the red-carpet treatment, from checking their vehicles at the valet to finding their seats for the show. Picture big band jazz music playing as paparazzi bulbs flash and hors d’oeuvres are served.

We loved the space at Red Mountain Theatre because it features two theatres, a grand lobby with two full-service bars, and multiple rehearsal rooms. The main stage has seating for up to 455 people, and the discovery theatre overflow space seats up to 139 people. Red Mountain is a nonprofit theatre company offering a broad scope of theatre-based educational opportunities for youth, including the acclaimed RMT Youth Ensembles.

We are excited to partner with them, local restaurants, community artists in residence, and working with two community nonprofits, United Ability and Youth Tours, as part of our yearlong initiative to become more connected with the Birmingham community.

AAF Memphis

Vices—what are they good for? Absolutely everything.

On Thursday, October 27, 2022 AAF Memphis kicked off their new VICES series with their first panelist discussion – Pouring It Out. Panelists discussed what’s it like to create brands for breweries, distilleries, dispensaries, and the like in today’s world, where these “vices” are more accepted. Learn more about their panelists and moderator below. 

Daniel Brown, Owner & Creative Director at Harvest Creative

Ben Couvillion, Senior Creative Director at Red Deluxe

Lexie Danford, Brand Strategist & Account Executive at Paradigm

Chris Porter, Partner & Creative Director at Baby Grand

AAF Mississippi Gulf Coast

AAF Mississippi Gulf Coast is planning for the next American Advertising Awards. We are excited about this latest awards season and look forward to making it an exciting and celebratory event.

This year, we wrote out ‘job descriptions’ specific to each area of focus related to the awards show. For example, we will have someone strictly over finances and budgets, working with the awards’ co-chairs to ensure we stay within budget parameters and that any vendors or partners we work with are paid promptly. 

We also have specific ‘positions’ within the committee that will focus on communications and PR, branding and promotion and university outreach. We felt it was important to form our committee as early as possible and to ensure that all volunteers clearly understand our expectations as an organization. 

We think this will allow tasks to be delegated easily and clearly. We’re also planning on directly reaching former entrants who may have gone silent over the past few years. With direct communication going out to them, we hope to restore visibility into our organization and encourage certain businesses to make their grand return to the American Advertising Awards.

Many other plates are currently spinning, and we look forward to seeing what is in store as we head into the entry period! 

Cece Shabazz, AAF Mississippi Gulf Coast President

AAF Baton Rouge

This year, for AAF-BR’s American Advertising Awards, we are off to a great start! We have moved our annual All About the American Advertising Awards luncheon up by one month to our November Luncheon. As always, our Programs chair has brought in a judge from last year’s local competition to speak to the club about her experience and expectations as a judge. This is always a well attended luncheon, but I am hopeful that moving it up one month will get the whole club excited and thinking about their entries even earlier. And maybe even submit a few more entries!

On top of our early American Advertising Awards Luncheon, we have our theme reveal party planned early this month. Similar to the luncheon, this is where we like to get into the nitty gritty about the competition changes and updates. Since we began the reveal party 4 years ago, it has proven to be a great way to reach a different audience that might not be a regular luncheon attendee. This year we have a brand new sponsor that has donated the space and catering for this event! With the new venue and keeping this event more fluid, changing from year to year, we are hoping it will draw more diverse applicants to the American Advertising Awards.

The last thing that we are excited about is following our theme reveal party, Trade Secrets, we will be sending out call for entry postcards for the first time since 2019. This is a super exciting revival that we hope will increase enthusiasm among our younger members who have expressed a nostalgia for physical pieces. It also goes along with our 80’s throwback aesthetic, being a folded up poster like a classic 80’s magazine poster ready to hang on any wall.

Julia Yarbrough, AAF Baton Rouge President

AAF North Alabama

Speaker Series – Podcast 101

If you’ve ever wanted to start a podcast for fun or add the power of this media to your marketing strategy, join us for this panel

The global podcasting market is set to grow by $5 billion in just one year. Don’t miss out! Leverage this easy, accessible, and influential platform to build your brand and community.
Not sure where to start? Come to the AAFNA Speaker Series to find out! A panel discussion led by industry leaders, covering the ABCs and 123s of podcasting. 

We’re bringing professionals from Chattanooga and Birmingham to share the basics of starting a podcast including equipment recommendations, marketing strategies, and more.

AAF Mobile Bay

AAF Mobile Bay is hard at work on our next American Advertising Awards competition. We’re selecting judges as well as working on our event and its theme.

Last year we did a happy hour celebration instead of a full awards show, which worked very well in our market. We’re planning a repeat of this for 2023. Prior to the event, we notified winners and, for agency entrants, we even shared with them the clients that won (so they could invite the client to the event as well). At the event, we had cocktails, gave out trophies and played the winners’ reel (of any video or broadcast entries). 

We’re also planning our Holiday Social for each next month, where we’re collecting donations for public service and playing festive games.

AAF New Orleans

Do you want to know what an American Advertising Award judge looks for in winning submissions? Come hear from Katie Elenberger! She is a former American Advertising Awards judge for New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Baltimore, Johnson City, and District 4!

Katie is also the founder and creative strategist at Spark27 Creative, based in Minnesota. Let’s give her a warm New Orleans welcome and start gearing up for AAF Awards Season!

Lunch will be served at 12pm at Lula Distillery Restaurant. Grilled chicken & shrimp and grits will be served buffet style.