American Advertising Awards
A tired event needed new life – a way to re-engage the audience supporting it. The American Advertising Awards gala is an industry event held every year in cities across the US. While the event theme changed each year, the experience had not. As winner of the Best Of Show award, it was Alcorn’s opportunity to develop something entirely new.Our concept was simple: When the judgment comes, be the judge. We used a judgment-day-inspired visual, encouraging the audience to look inward for their own reckoning.
WEB
We wanted to be sure our concept would be best represented upon first encounter – the website. We built a site that automatically activated the computer’s webcam so visitors would immediately be greeted by the most important judges of all — themselves. As they scrolled the site to experience the concept and read the entry details, their own images remained clear and present on their screens.
INVITATION
To emphasize the idea further and engage the audience, we created invitations that completely embodied the concept message. On the outside was a clear message of impending judgment. On the inside, the recipient was met with their own reflection on a mirror etched with the question, “Are You Satisfied?”
EVENT
The environment was constructed from the ground up. We started with an empty warehouse and brought in every element – lights, sound, walls, creative displays, and more — to shape a dynamic pop-up art show feeling.We reimagined the setup and flow of the event to do a better job of showcasing the award-winning creative work.In the end, we produced an entirely new immersive experience for a packed room and enabled all the best creative work to be honored in a better way.
Best Of
Ironically, most of the “judging” in this environment comes from our peers. We wanted to showcase a behind-the-scenes look at the process of the top award recipients. After all they were the big winners for the night and we thought they deserved the spotlight for a few extra minutes.