True to form, H|L has nabbed even more coveted Adrian Awards for our work with Missouri Division of Tourism and the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission.

Missouri Tourism’s “What’s Not to Like?,” and the CVC’s “The Meeting Guru,” “St. Louis Summer Blockbuster Radio” and “St. Louis Welcomes ASAE” have earned six of the prestigious honors, which celebrate the travel industry’s very best advertising. Not too shabby. Two of the campaigns have won gold. Which means they are in the running to bring home platinum. Which is the best you can get. Really not too shabby. At least until you can win weapons-grade titanium.

More on this after the event in late February.

Mom Bomb 	

Dad Freaks Out 	

Kid Caribbean 	

The band OK Go has a reputation for taking creative risks, stepping away from easily produced methods, with their videos. Their current project is no exception. Not to mention creatively AND technologically cool, if you have Google Chrome installed on your computer. Which could be a problem if you are an OK Go fan, since only a small percentage of the web-surfing population use the Chrome browser, (only 7-12% depending on the site).

So download Chrome and install it, then go to http://www.AllIsNotLo.st to view the video the way it was meant to be seen.**

How does this all tie into advertising / marketing? My thoughts went to Google. They’ve leveraged this project as a viral way to get users to download (and use) Chrome. Will Google Chrome see a boost in long-term users thanks to OK Go’s video? Remains to be seen. However, this is a smart, simple, cost-effective and engaging marketing effort by Google. A company that has enough money they really don’t have to go the viral route, but they did.

I love it when a big company thinks like a small company.

Here is a link to some of OK Go’s other work if you aren’t familiar with their music.

** = The actual site content takes a while to load. But worth the wait.

Our good friends over at Twist Film took it upon themselves to enter some work we produced together for McDonald’s last year.

On top of that, it won.

Two TV spots from the “Few Seconds” campaign took silver. (That’s the big one.) From the sound of it, the judges appreciated our idea of McDonald’s getting your food to you fast enough to interrupt your daughter’s makeout session and keep you from falling off of a loading dock.

The winning spots are posted below.

According to their website, “The Telly Awards honor the very best local, regional, and cable television commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions, and work created for the Web.”

Thanks to Director, Matt Pittroff, at Twist for his great work on the campaign and for making the entry.

If only meeting planners had one all-knowing icon they could confide in to choose the perfect location. A benevolent Sherpa…

Wait. What’s a meeting planner, you say? Okay, let’s back it up.

Meeting planners are those who coordinate their company or organization’s events. And for the purposes of the St. Louis CVC, they are the people who decide where said events are to be held.

And guess what—there’s a meeting for these meeting planners coming up in Washington, D.C.

Enter The Meeting Guru.

He’s the breakthrough author of “The Meeting Guru: The Quintessential Guide to Successful Events” and definitive authority on meeting planning.

And he’ll be unveiling his new book at the meeting for meeting planners.

Bull’s eye.

Using a mass transit takeover, in-person appearances, e-blasts, posters and more, meeting planning meeting attendees are driven to the Guru’s website.

Once there, they are welcomed to watch his “Speaker Series,” in which—get this—St. Louis emerges as the perfect city for your next meeting. They’re also invited to purchase his sold-out book and otherwise bask in his vast knowledge.

After all, he is The Meeting Guru.

Then, there’s the whole “together” aspect of this campaign. The origins of electric co-ops definitely show that it took communities banding together to bring power out to rural America.

But today, the savings can also be shared when everyone does their part to use less electricity.

In print we compared homes side-by-side to point out that we should all pitch in. And in TV, we used an endless bead of caulk to make the point that we all save money when you save energy.

Call it a prequel, a prologue or just call it a compelling story. But the history of electric co-ops is rich and literally built on people cooperating “together.”

Originally, it wasn’t profitable for investor-owned utilities, like the ones most of us pay for electricity, in the major cities to deliver power to a few small farmhouses in rural America. So, the people in these communities figured out how to pool their resources and do it themselves, sharing in the expense and the reward.

Since then, rural America has blossomed and the entire country has benefitted. Today, some people live in a co-op and don’t even realize it.

So, we developed another mini-campaign that tells of the history and informs current co-op members on how they can influence the future. (Hint: it’s by saving energy.)

The original posting showcases the TV execution for this area, and below are four print ads and radio spot to go along with it.

Radio:

History

Months after his safe and successful return, people are still interested in the saga of the Kidnapped Chicagoan.

This time around, it’s the St. Louis Ad Club.

Last week, they put together a luncheon called Beyond The Addys, featuring some of the top award-winning campaign creators presenting their work.

The team from HL started off and took the audience through the strategic background and highlights of the campaign. (In-case you haven’t been following the story, there’s a recap from our ‘victim’ here.) After that, Hughes, Rodgers Townsend and Jump Company each took the stage to present their winning work.

It’s always nice to see what other local shops are up to and get a glimpse into their top-secret, heavily-patented processes. Plus, the salad was decent.

Of course it makes sense to save energy for your own personal bottom line, but it’s more noble to do it for your kids. And their kids.

So, we developed a set of ads that we refer to as the “legacy” of Together We Save.

In TV, we show a son imitating his dad and a daughter learning from Mom. Radio shows how kids are paying attention to what you do (and say). And print shows how a daughter adapts her dollhouse for energy efficiency.

Radio:

Role Reversal

Copy Cat

Print:

As we mentioned in an earlier story, Together We Save is spreading its wings. Or maybe its tentacles.

Last time around, Together We Save focused on the monetary savings from using less energy. You do x to save $y. For example, a small business owner saved over $1,200 per year just by shutting down his office every night.

Now, we’re making a more emotional connection and showing what people can do with the money they save. In TV, a family saves energy all year, so they can spend an extra day on their vacation.

In radio, a miserable afternoon of insulating the attic equates to a much better day on the golf course. Another guy gives a unique send-off to his energy hog of a second fridge.

And in print, we’re juxtaposing the energy saving tactic with a symbol of what it gets you. You’ll see. Scroll down.

Radio:

Insulation

Refrigerator

Print:

This campaign made its first appearance in our pitch that eventually won Hoffman Lewis a new piece of business.

From there, we put together a massive initial launch. Then, Together We Save picked up steam (along with several more iterations).

Touchstone Energy co-op members all across the country logged onto TogetherWeSave.com to calculate their potential energy savings. The crowd went wild. All were happy.

But that was only the beginning.

This time around, Together We Save continues to drive home the message that co-op members can save energy and money, but now we’re able to broaden the ways we say it.

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be rolling out sections of this campaign here on the agency website (below in the callouts). Then you, like the over 700 co-ops who have the opportunity to run the ads, can pick your favorite executions.

And therein lies the beauty of this campaign.

We have a chance to produce TV, print, radio, outdoor and posters in multiple mini-campaigns that all payoff the bigger idea.

So, get ready for the onslaught. In the meantime, here’s the anthem spot for this latest incarnation of Together We Save.

Updates:

Get ideas for what you can do with the money you save here.

See what Together We Save means for our future here.

The foundation for Together We Save was built when cooperatives were founded. See where it all started here.

The final posting on Together We Save can be viewed here.