Oh yes we did! Check out our 2010 Utah ADDY awards.

Student Best of Show

• Doritos Guardian Campaign

Student Gold ADDY Awards

• Doritos Guardian – TV
• Doritos Guardian – Mixed Media
• Utah Tap – TV
• Doritos Beard – TV
• OrganizedOrgans.org – Mixed Media

Student Gold ADDY Awards

• Wilson – TV
• Pop Rocks – TV
• Altoids – TV
• Levi’s – TV
• Utah Tap – Mixed Media
• Samsonite – Mixed Media
• Cellular South – Mixed Media

On February 25, the BYU Adlab conquered the Utah ADDYS. For those of you who don’t know, according to the ADDY website “The ADDY® Awards represent the true spirit of creative excellence by recognizing all forms of advertising from media of all types, creative by all sizes and entrants of all levels from anywhere in the world.” This was the Utah ADDYS, and we submitted enough material to sweep the student category. That’s right, no other school was represented at the Utah ADDYS because we won it all. I don’t want to brag but is it considered bragging if it is the truth.

The award ceremony started with a catered social. Considering the demographics at the social, I don’t think there have ever been so many sodas given out at an open bar. I can just imagine the people in charge of the ADDYs looking at the guest list and thinking to themselves, “huh, 40% of the people coming are going to be BYU students and faculty… looks like we wasted all that open bar money.” So, consider this a belated apology to the bartenders that spent most of the night opening Sprite cans instead of mixing drinks.

The food was a little above my pay grade. I ate, and almost threw up, my first crab cake. The highlight of the buffet was either the nachos or a desert item that looked like a little ice cream cone but was really victory flavored frosting wrapped in a chocolate cone. I have heard, from those who attended and had a more refined palette, that the catering was actually very good.

Don't look into his eyes or you will be under his spell.

So, we got to act all important for a night. We got all dressed up and Jeff called me out when I showed up in a cardigan so I had to call my roommate to bring me my tickets and a jacket. As is the case with all more-than-casual events; the girls got all dolled up, Chandy rocked the bow ties, Nic dressed like a jazz band trumpeter, and Curtis combed his mustache. The only thing missing was Jeff’s BYU golf shirt. What I’m trying to say is this was an awesome opportunity to see the glitz and glam of the business. Sometimes advertising seems way too draining, the mental equivalent of running the Iditarod, and it was nice to see our work being appreciated and enjoy it for once as more than just a job.

The highlight of the night was when Doritos Guardian (Nathan Wigglesworth, Patrick Koelling, Devin LuBean, and Brad Hall) won the student Best in Show, an award they invented just to recognize how amazing Guardian was. Nathan, Devin, and Brad were there to accept the award. The three went up to the stage and the MC directed Nathan to the podium giving Nathan’s accent the opportunity to make the lab the most interesting agency in Utah. Nathan, Johnny on the spot, dodged the awkward, “I would like to thank…” and went right to the important issues giving a shout out to the bird that flew out the window and never returned during their shoot. We wish you the best, Goshawk, wherever you are.

Jeff, in true form, wasn’t satisfied with us sweeping the student category. He told us we should have won everything. He probably wanted us to win the student ADDYs, the normal ADDYs, and a winner takes all blackjack game that would have awarded the Adlab all ADDY awards until the year 2020. Jeff is the last person I would take to Vegas. I could be on tilt and be up thousands of dollars and ready to go home and Jeff would tell me, “Why are you settling on $15,000. You could have $30,000.” Then I would keep gambling until I lost everything and Jeff would tell me I lost it all because I didn’t try hard enough. That is if I were a gambling man. Which I’m not. Thanks for pushing us Jeff. I digress.

Who knew a bearded kid could be so well received.

Post by Andy Laugenour, Copywriter

In the October issue of Adage there was an article written by Livingston Miller, Pres. of Seiter & Miller Advertising, that did more than imply that an undergraduate’s degree in advertising was about as valuable as tan bark.  He felt that the best entry level interns and employees in agencies were the ones that had gotten a more well rounded education… or in other words, he stated that advertising was not something you could learn, but rather something you were born with so why not go out and learn something different that you could bring to the table.

The BYU Adlab is comprised of about 95% undergraduate advertising students, 4% aspiring undergraduate advertising students, and 1% cool people ( that’s you Skyler).  So, it would be an understatement to say that we wanted to prove Mr. Miller wrong.  One of the honchos in the program (I’m not sure if it was Jeff or Kevin) somehow got in contact with Seiter & Miller and got us a chance to show our mettle.  Seiter & Miller gave us the assignment of coming up with a few TV spots for one of their clients: Smith and Wollensky.  For those of you who think that Sizzler is an upscale steak house (me) it may be time for you to become acquainted with S+W.  And after a couple of weeks of brainstorming, comps, pitches, revisions, and meat-recalls we came up with a good understanding of what fine cuisine is and a few campaigns that we felt would impress our clients.

A few of us got to fly out to New York on the Adlab’s dollar and pitch it to the folks in person.  We blew em’ out of the water.  It was interesting to pitch to a real client face to face that was not going to let us off easy– a real learning experience.  But, overall, the pitch went off without any tears (we came close when a certain member of the team didn’t know what USDA Prime meant, luckily I was too tired to cry).

It looks like someone threw sand in Chad's eyes. We were so tired that we stooped so low as to try 5 hour energy.

And “tired” does not begin to explain how some of us felt.  The majority of us had spent the last three days working late into the night and a couple of us spent that entire night in Queens in the business “lounge” of the Fairfield Inn.  Collectively we may have had 6 man hours of sleep between the five of us.  Welcome to the biz I guess.

That being said, just getting out of Provo and into the city that never sleeps (when in Rome) was worth all the hard work.  Jeff treated us to a night out on the town the night before the pitch.  We spent about half an hour in Times Square just kind of walking back and forth trying to find something to do. Somehow we found our way into the M&M store for a bit and then back out into the Square for another half hour.  Finally we “settled” on dinner at Bar Americain (Bobby Flay could cook a plastic bag and I would still eat it) and then we “settled” on desert at Serendipity 3.  Now this is a fact, the frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity 3 is made out of the tears of baby panda bears and the smiles of unicorns.

The trip was a success. The best advertising campaigns happen when everybody gets exactly what they want.  We went in to Seiter & Miller and blew their minds with some serious advertising kung fu.  Smith and Wollensky got a good look at where they can take their company in the future.  Seiter & Miller got a little free advertising help. Undergraduate programs got the representation they deserved (and i think we are entitled to ask for some serious thank you letters from all you undergraduate programs out there). We got to go to New York and represent just how awesome the BYU Adlab is, and Jeff Sheets got to go into the M&M store.  We all came out on top for this one.  Especially this guy, check out his amulet! You gotta love the subways in New York.

We all came out tired winners.

A special thanks to Mr. Livingston Miller.  I didn’t want him to come off as the bad guy in this post.  He did so much to help us get a great learning experience.  He came out to Utah from NYC to talk to us about the business and about our opportunity to work with him.  Then once we were in New York he was a great host.  He showed us around his agency, he was in our corner during and after the pitch, and he even treated us to lunch afterwards.  This was a great opportunity and it wouldn’t have happened without him.  Thanks.

by: Andy Laugenour

Last thursday we had a visit from two incredible “talent relations” representatives from Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Del and Yanira gave a great presentation familiarizing us with the CP + B mentality, as well as a delicious lunch, which we would invite them back for anytime… Seriously though, Del’s presentation was an insightful look at the industry. I am happy to be able to report it was more of a review than a revelation. Turns out our professors do know their stuff!

One point he made that really caught my attention, however, was the following: “MOMENTUM is the goal. There are no knockout punches.” As we’re putting together portfolios, it’s so easy to get stuck on one-offs or get soattachedyouhavefalseconfidence that one element of a campaign is going to solve the whole problem. In today’s atmosphere though, it’s simply not enough. People’s media consumption is so broad that one execution in one medium hardly makes a wave.

CP+B has set an excellent example (what else is new…) of creating momentum around their clients’ brands. The example Del gave us was the BK King. What struck me was how naturally everything snowballed. From TV spots to paparazzi shots to video games to selling actual masks–talk about MOMENTUM. I think a truly great idea creates its own momentum.

But then we have another problem: how in the world does “momentum” show up in a portfolio?? It’s obvious that print is the most book-friendly execution, but where does it really get you? Del’s answer to the question was to make sure we think in every media, most especially (for Crispin hopefuls) in the digital space. Del’s advice was to not be afraid of putting descriptions in our book. A simple mock up with a two sentence description is not a portfolio taboo. And if someone can’t get it in 2-3 sentences, it’s likely that your target audience won’t either.

So once again a giant, blaring thank you to CP+B for letting us have time with two very inspiring people. We’re excited to be fellow employees.

Bear Naked from Rebbie Groesbeck on Vimeo.

A group of our advertising and film students created this spec ad during one of our Commercial Productions classes last semester for Levi’s. We hope you like big bear heads…

Let me define for you the term adverstalking. Advertising portfolios are improving day by day. Without keeping track of the quality of portfolios being produced means that we undergraduate students will recieve a surprise upon graduation when none of the ad agencies will care about us and therefore as a result we have to: 1)  fork out $60,000+ at portfolio school (I just made up this figure, but I can imagine it’s expensive!) 2) create your own agency called “I only work for clients that have no money and two employees.” 3) or become a stand-up comedian if your lucky.

So here are some pearls of pure wisdom in making sure you know what your book should look like. Also known as adverstalking.

Rule#1
If you are unable to find a student you are looking for by searching google, linkedin, or twitter, they are of no relevance or importance.

Rule#2
Based on rule no.1, a good place is to look is the roster of some of the leading advertising schools: Miami School, VCU, School of Visual Arts, Bergs School of Communication, Hyper Island, BYUadlab (obviously), Texas, Michigan, Creative Circus, etc.

Rule #3
ADC, One Show, Young Guns, Cannes, Graphis, Addys, Clios, DandAD, Andy, Comm Arts and other award show websites normally showcase the winning work, winning students, and professionals. Google, linkedin, twitter the names of these people.

Rule #4
This is probably my personal favourite (yes I am from England and spell with the ‘u’) LINKEDIN it up. Most people’s profile contains the link to their website. It is most beneficial to compare your book with the professional portfolios that exist. You can approach this two ways: 1) Type the name of a leading agency and job position into the search in Linkedin (ex. BBH copywriter, Pentagram designer, BigSpaceship art director)  or 2) Look at the award shows for names of individuals, and you can almost always find the individuals by name on linkedin.

Rule #5
It is important to know that award shows, top schools (byuadlab), and top agencies do not always = phenomenal portfolios. As you will see, some genius created a clever single print ad that steals gold at the one show. You then check out this kid’s portfolio and discover that his book consists of a gold pencil print ad, two other clever print ads, and a billboard. In fact, recruiting only based on awards can be dangerous.

Hopefully these points have sufficiently defined the term adverstalking.

This post was written by Nathan Wigglesworth, student studying art direction and graphic design. Google, linkedin, or twitter his name and see what happens!

We have alumni working all over the states in leading firms such as, Goodby, Crispin, Wieden, Chiat, and so on. In fact, one of the secrets to the success of the program is the fact that these old friends don’t forget about us. Not only do they come back to help push our books, but they allow us to collaborate on professional briefs. Some of these joint projects include Burger King and Voltswagen with Crispin, Unicef Tap with Droga5, and NikeiD with Wieden.

We are excited about this coming year. We are sending our students to agencies all over the country for summer internships and continue to push big ideas, experiment with social trends, and discover new media. We believe that we are on the cutting edge of what is happening in the industry and continue to redefine what is known as “advertising.”

Created by Mike Morris

30 second TV spot for the Utah Tap Project. See them all on the Utah Tap website, below.

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60 second TV spot for the Utah Tap Project.

Click to see the full campaign.

Created by Nathan Wigglesworth and Devin LuBean