February 2021

Insights from Steve Pacheco

President & CEO, American Advertising Federation

As easy as 1-2-3.

It is AAF American Advertising Awards season once again and that means that the best creative advertising work produced in 2020, from across North America, is being recognized and honored as we speak.  Everything builds to a crescendo and culminates in June when the National ADDY recipients are announced as part of our annual national convention, ADMERICA.

Say what you will about 2020 (we all know what a challenge it was), but we have seen some outstanding creative that came out of one of the toughest years for the advertising business.  Personally, I think any ad produced in 2020 is worthy of recognition.

Nashville ad agency – The Buntin Group – for the 2nd consecutive year – developed our national awareness campaign for the AAF to promote the American Advertising Awards – their campaign encouraged clients and agencies and brands and creatives to #RiseAboveTheSuck and #WinAnAddy. 

With nearly 30,000 total professional and student entries each year, the American Advertising Awards is one of the longest-standing signature events of the AAF and covers the entire Nation. The mission of the American Advertising Awards competition is simple and concise: “to recognize and reward the creative spirit of excellence in the art of advertising.”  You and your work should be a part of this and see how you stack up against the best in the business!

The American Advertising Awards is our Nation’s only three-tiered creative competition that celebrates excellence in advertising, marketing and media creativity at the Local (Tier 1), District (Tier 2) and National (Tier 3) level.  1-2-3 steps gets you to greatness!

All Local Gold American Advertising Awards are auto forwarded to the District competition, and entries that earn a Silver at the Local level can be forwarded at the discretion of the entrant. Doing so increases the opportunity to have the work recognized at the District and National level after being judged by an entirely new jury.

From there, winners escalate to the final round of judging and tier of competition – the National level. Here, winners can compete against the best entries rising from each of the district competitions. The exposure and opportunity availed to national winners is extraordinary.

None of this would happen without the excellent leadership of our best 1-2-3 Team - American Advertising Awards Chair Michele Massey and AAF Staffers Dawn Reeves, VP of Club Services and Amanda Dehart, Manager, Club Services… They, along with hundreds of AAF Club volunteers, help make this competition an annual success!

Stay tuned for the final results and see for yourself how easy this 1-2-3 step process plays out.

For those who supported the 2021 American Advertising Awards – Thank You.  To those who did not – Start planning now for next year so you too can be part of this tremendous great competition.

For more complete information on The American Advertising Awards, visit our website.