Highlights from American Advertising Federation Admerica National Conference

The American Advertising Federation (AAF), the 'unifying voice for advertising,' has completed its annual ADMERICA Conference. The in-person event, which was held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, TN, brought together agency representatives, clients, media companies, suppliers and college students from around the country to discuss the changing culture of business and consumers and how they are impacting the advertising and marketing industry.

Among the event's highlights:

• Announcement of the AAF board chair and vice chair for the 2022-2023 year
• Results of the National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC), the premier college advertising competition on behalf of a real-world corporate client. The competition involved more than 2,000 college students
  
• Winners of this year’s American Advertising Awards, a three-tier, national competition acknowledged to be the largest and most representative industry competition. More than 25,000 entries were received
• Gold Medal recipient of the Barton A. Cummings Award, the highest honour bestowed by AAF for volunteer service
  

2022-2023 Board Announcement 

AAF announced that Tiffany R. Warren, EVP, chief diversity and inclusion officer at Sony Music Group, will serve as board chair for a second year in 2022-2023. Ms. Warren was originally elected Board Chair for the 2021-2022 period. In addition, Helen Lin, chief digital officer at Publicis, was named vice chair. Both roles go into effect July 1st, 2022. “We are incredibly grateful and appreciative that Tiffany has agreed to serve as board chair for a second year and continue to lead our efforts to support the Mosaic Centre, as well as add more HBCUs and Minority-Serving Institutions to our 130 college chapters,” said Pacheco. He continued, “We are equally excited that Helen has agreed to serve as Vice Chair for the coming year, helping us to deepen and widen our relationships and expertise within the digital space. Helen is an ADCOLOR Legend, a multiple media all-star and Changing the Game Honouree, among other industry recognitions. I’ve said it numerous times before – we are fortunate to have such gifted talents as Tiffany and Helen in our corner.”

National Student Advertising Competition

This year’s client, Meta Quest, challenged students to develop a campaign that would make Quest 2 a coveted, essential product for college students and those preparing for college. Texas Tech University was named the winner of the 2022 Competition. Liberty University placed second and the University of California at Berkeley finished third. Said Ayanna Jackson, EVP diversity, equity and inclusion and education at AAF, “I can think of no better way to attract talent to our industry than by spotlighting the best and the brightest young people who are considering careers in advertising and marketing. That’s what this competition aspires to achieve,” noting, “Many of the participating students go on to promising careers in the business.”

American Advertising Awards

In all, 68 Gold ADDYs were awarded, along with two Mosaic ADDYs, two Special Judges Awards and one Best of Show. Best of Show went to BooneOakley and StarMed for the 'Don’t Get Vaccinated' outdoor campaign for Wilmore Funeral Home. A second Best of Show was awarded in the student portion of the competition. The winning campaign was 'Bose Dreams' from Brigham Young University’s @BYUadlab.

“The creative work from 2021 exceeded the expectations of our jury this year,” said David Campbell, chair of the National American Advertising Awards Committee. “By nature of the three-tier competition, the national ADDYs still remain the most difficult to achieve in our industry.” He added, “Now, our sights are set on the 2022/23 competition season which opens in a few months.”

Barton A. Cummings Award

Mike Weber, owner and president/creative director of CMR Studios, was awarded the prestigious Barton A. Cummings Award for volunteer service. The award was established in 1994 in memory of the late Bart Cummings, CEO of Compton Advertising (now Saatchi & Saatchi) who believed dedication to industry service and advancing the social and economic values of advertising were as important as any business-related endeavour. Mr. Weber was recognized for his more than 17 years of service helping to shape, structure and judge the AAF’s American Advertising Awards, among other contributions. “AAF recognises the importance of volunteer service if we want to truly be a unifying voice for advertising and support AAF on a local, district, regional and national level,” said Steve Pacheco, president and CEO, the American Advertising Federation, adding, “As a former recipient of this award, I can testify first-hand to what it means to be on the receiving end.”

The next ADMERICA conference will take place in St. Louis, MO on June 3rd-6th, 2023.