It was a great time. Great for all of the people here at the agency. A chance to stop for a moment and take a breath. Say thank you to all of our wonderful clients who trust us to help them grow their businesses. A chance for me to deliver a well deserved pat on the back to all our hard working creative problem solvers. And well deserved it was. The agency in every discipline continues to surprise and impress even its toughest critic. Me.

Over the course of the past several months this agency has received accolades for a very diverse collection of problem solving creative ideas. Serious accolades for television and print, multiple awards for interactive (including Best of Show), awards for success in events & promotion and even a couple of awards for what essentially is a pro bono account that we didn’t just do work for — we created the entire Eat Out For A Change movement ourselves. Want more? Well we certainly didn’t cure cancer, but we did the best we could.

Impressive.

Want to know what’s even more impressive? The real success lies in the performance this work has helped to make happen for our clients.

Now, clients are modest, and a little sensitive about broadcasting their particular results here on the interwebs. So I will be a little guarded in telling you that the approach we have here at Firehouse is working.

However by working I mean:
-Driving a guest count increase of more than +10% vs. previous trend
-Reversing a sales trend to positive that had seen 12 consecutive quarters of declining sales
-Setting a monthly sales record – for a multi-billion dollar company – four different times over a 15 month span
-Helping to increase a company’s 2009 system wide sales by +4%
-Driving a YOY +55% sales increase in a featured menu item
-Driving a +31% sales increase in features products in a brand’s emerging markets
-Delivering a +8% YOY same store sales increase – and that was for a client’s QSR partner

The people of this agency are committed. They are focused. They are making a difference.

And I am happy for them, and their accomplishments. Forgive me for taking an indulgent moment to let them know how proud I am to call myself the president of this agency.

Cheers,
Mark

Not for making music.

But the truth of the matter is that after the positive sales numbers are in, the guest counts are confirmed up and product has long since flown off the shelves, we like to know that our peers around the country (not just our clients) think we do some cool and interesting work.

Thankfully, after careful review and industry scrutiny, it appears that for yet another year, we don’t suck. In fact, building on last year’s One Show award, DFWIMA “Best in Show” and being featured in Archive Magazine, this year is also shaping up to be a great one.

-Five Telly Awards for both television and online video

-DFWIMA “Most Effective Non-Profit/Public Service” campaign

-Art Directors Club for “Eat Out for a Change”

-Dallas Society of Visual Comm. bronze award for television

Yes, when it comes to creative, we work in a very “what have you done for me lately” kind of industry. But this is proof that lately, we’ve been doing great work for great clients. More importantly, it’s achieved great results. And isn’t that why we got into this business in the first place?

Kelsey was recognized as 2009 Teammate of the Year for her hard work and extended hours of market research that generated insightful thought-leadership and made the planning department shine. Everett was awarded the 2009 Firehouse MVP for his art direction and production of impactful TV for our two largest clients, Interstate Batteries & Romano’s Macaroni Grill. Thanks to both of them for their smart work that resulted in great things for our clients’ business. Yay Firehouse!!!

Two executions initially caught my eye. One from Pfizer for a smoking cessation campaign.

The rest of the campaign is carried over to the website.

Well done. Nice entry into their products that can help you break free of the addiction. Thankfully, I have never been in the target so I can’t speak directly to its effectiveness. However, the themes and messaging put in a format that is both visually arresting and with an added sense of time slipping away I thought was brilliant.

Next idea that stopped me becuase I am in the target and was squarely in the media target as they were hosting a PGA golf tournament. Barclays Investing put this together to help connect with those of us that have been punched in the face economically in the last 18 months.

Loved it! Interesting, kind of creepy. Lots of little details. A story well told. Great copy. Barclays really comes off looking like a rock (sorry Prudential) in these times. Clearly a big budget traditional spot that stopped me dead in my tracks and made me sit up and take notice.

Bad news — that is where it ends for me. As soon as the tournament they sponsored ended, they were gone….

I went to the website to see if there was any integration and it feels very much like they fell victim of the silo effect. One agency comes up with a great idea. A different special agency is responsible for the content on the site and the two shall never meet.

Guess I’ll be looking for the next rock that comes along.

So in review, I loved the glitzy spot, but I feel like maybe I was faked out. I guess that is a little like art imitating life –- imitating art, imitating life.

The cork then goes to My Time To Quit and Pfizer. Great work better integration. A bigger idea than just selling drugs. And hey, maybe some people will actually quit smoking.

What’s not to like? Cheers!

It is an amazing story well told. As all of our work should be.

I could not find anything else that I thought would be fair to compare it to this month.

It wins the cork, hands down!

The first idea that caught my eye came from a creative team down at George Patterson Y&R in Australia. A writer and art director teamed up to prove once and for all that creativity makes good business sense.

You may have seen this already and if so you likely got a laugh, but equally important – the results of the Wicked Sick BMX experiment are impressive. This really is brilliant.

The second idea I came across this month blew me away. It was the most engaging thing I’ve seen in a while. And as far as I can tell there was no commercial application to it. It was simply an incredibly dynamic example of what the medium of social media is capable of producing.

I dare you to try and only watch one time. It captures a few minutes of a single morning earlier this year at a train station in Belgium. I really don’t think you can watch it only once.

Two terrific ideas. Each amazing in its ability to engage the audience.

Well, hard to pick between these two, both are fantastic. But this month the official Cheers goes to the guys down in Australia, not only well crafted copy to make a compelling ad, they positioned the bike apart from the competitive asset, and man did it get results!

That’s creativity at work.

The last Thursday of each month we get the entire agency together and take a moment to celebrate the ideas and efforts that helped make the month a success. It’s a way to reinforce the kind of effort, attitude and output that’ll separate our work and ultimately our clients from their competition.

How it works is that over the course of the month everyone takes a moment or two to nominate the individuals or teams they believe have been doing the type of work and achieving the kind of results we all strive for.

Now, I grew up the son of a West Point grad, so for me the reward for a job well done has always been the job done well. Good for getting things done, not so good for managing creative minds in this day and age. So, more than anything Champagne Thursday is an opportunity for me to take the time to see, hear and realize how many great ideas and how much great effort is exerted each and every day to drive our clients’ brands forward. I read all of the “nominations” to the crowd; we all have a laugh and then raise a glass of champagne in a toast. Then the corks are “awarded” to those individuals deemed to be most responsible for that month’s celebration.

It has been a great source of pride for me personally and I think for the entire agency as well. My hope is the people here continue to find creative ways to display their cork collections for all our clients and new hires to see.

Because of that, I want to extend the tradition into this space. A virtual nod each month to “nominate” work, effort or ideas I am seeing out in the marketplace. A way to stop and recognize some people, brands, clients, competitors…anyone or anything that is producing work worthy of recognition.

This is in no way intended to be comprehensive, so add your own thoughts, opinions and nominations. All are welcome.

SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADIEU, THIS MONTH’S NOMINATIONS:

They came right out and said they put the “No” in Innovation. Shredded Wheat’s new work is funny and honest. A trait we all could strive for. It is what it is, and the honesty makes me like and respect the brand more than ever. Let’s face it, you can’t BS someone into thinking Shredded Wheat is cool. But, lo and behold, after seeing this spot they got me there all the same.

Secondly, I watched the US Open over the weekend and I came across IBM’s “Let’s Build a Smarter Planet” campaign. I know it is not new, but I noticed for the first time that the writing and flow of the television are fantastic. If you haven’t seen the particular execution about the medical profession it makes me think they ought to be in charge of healthcare reform, not government (but that’s another post altogether). It’s really timely stuff that continues to move that brand from its history as a purveyor of beige box commodity to a commissary of intelligence and problem solving.

IBM has the tough task of selling service and thinking, and they’re doing it in a way that makes me believe they are really eager thought leaders ready to solve the kind of business problems that may ultimately lead to even bigger solutions than just business success.

And the cork goes to….

Both are great in their own right, but I say “Well done to the team at O&M” for the IBM work. Smart, heady, timely. All in all a great idea well executed.

Eager to here what you think.

In spirit, I agree that award shows are insular and self-serving. In the past few years there’s also been an influx of questionable (fake) entries and overall, I’d say that award shows have become less about “great work that works” and more about “great work we got away with”.

Having said that, I also think Jeff is being naïve (cue lightning strike on my location). Fame, as a measure of greatness, has an awful lot to do with levels of exposure (ie: big budgets, national media buys). It’s a lot easier for Burger King or Hewlett-Packard advertising to get “famous” than it is for a local clothing boutique. Does that mean the work for the boutique is any less creative or great? Of course not. It simply means fewer people will see it because the media budget is measured in dimes instead of dollars.

By Jeff Goodby’s definition, great (famous) advertising will be reserved for big brands with deep pockets. Ripe stuff coming from the principal of an agency that made its reputation on the back of an obscene amount of award show hardware.

The bottom line is that agencies have always needed award shows for self-validation. It’s the one stage where small agencies can compete, idea for idea, with big agencies. They’re an annual barometer of shops and individuals that are hot and executing great ideas.

The trick is keeping it all in perspective and, as an industry, doing our best to keep each other honest.

It started out with word that our print campaign for adrenaline sportswear brand Fuel Clothing, featuring kids flying through the air on skateboards, Big Wheels and bicycles, was named a 2009 One Show Merit Winner and a Luerzer’s Archive Finalist. That. Is. Huge. Especially since this was a campaign idea we had a lot of passion for – showing the pure joy of figuring out when you “knew” you loved to ride.

Then Architectural Record selected our campaign for ThyssenKrupp Elevator’s new synergy elevator solution as a winner in the Integrated Campaign category for its 2009 Advertising Excellence Awards, which recognize the most effective ads in the building and design marketplace. They actually said of a print ad featuring a crayon-drawn building, “Amazingly, it captured our hearts and minds… and it never even showed a picture of the product.” What better response could you ask of a campaign meant to target architects and encourage their freedom to design?

And then there’s our “Carol of the Christmas Pickle” video that won Most Effective Use of Video AND Best of Show at the DFW Interactive Marketing Association’s 9th annual Excellence in Interactive Marketing Awards. This wasn’t something a client requested – this was just for us. It was simply an idea a few creatives had a lot of love for. And so, with a budget of $200 and six jars of pickles, they went for it. Two weeks later, a new holiday stop-animation masterpiece debuted, featuring costumed pickles, a snowy cardboard village and a song about pickles set to the tune of “Carol of the Christmas Bells.”

Carol of the Christmas Pickle from Firehouse on Vimeo.