Well, we sure can.
Following a win at last fall’s AMA MAX Awards for best print/outdoor campaign, we were thrilled to watch our client, the Oregon Coast Aquarium, take home the Oregon Outstanding Advertising Award from the Oregon Tourism Commission.
Officially, the Oregon Outstanding Advertising Award commends superior, creative advertising communication, regardless of budget size or medium. According to the Commission, “award recipients are outstanding examples of professionals who, by virtue of their vision, perseverance and dedication, are a credit to Oregon’s tourism and hospitality industry.”
Unofficially, we just like to think that Oregonians love them some jellyfish and cute sea otters.
The fully integrated “Sea Spectacular” campaign poked the funny bones of parents and their kids via highly visible print, billboard, and transit placements on routes between Portland and Newport. The more than 32 million impressions the campaign generated over five short months helped us reach 85% of our target audience—and brought some marine wildlife to the wild streets of downtown Portland.
We’re honored to have helped the Aquarium net the award, and would like to recognize Director of Marketing Lance Beck for his affirmative and thoughtful leadership throughout the campaign. We’d also like to take this opportunity to send a shout-out to our brilliant collaborator, William Anthony, who shot the photos we used for the campaign. As a marine mammalogist who worked with the Aquarium during its first two years in business, William lent a singular perspective and level of expertise to the project.
Most of all, we’d like to applaud our slippery, whiskery, colorful, gill-bearing models—who not only inspired the work, but took time out of their busy schedules to let us capture their portraits. Seriously, we couldn’t have done it without them. As our creative director Mary-Catherine Jones said:
“We wanted to show people that education doesn’t have to be boring. Through our work with the Aquarium, we got to see that the animals have their own personalities and fascinating truths. Simply bringing those to life made our jobs easy, and we got to work with a client that understood how to tie those facts to culturally relevant tidbits to delight parents and kids alike.”