This originally appeared as an email letter circulated to PAF members and others associated with the Portand Creative Community.
Many of you have questioned why the PAF chose to disparage other cities in this year’s Rosey call to entries. The answer is that while some of us fervently believe that Portland is a creative hot spot, it is more in the nature of our creative culture to be humble and soft spoken about our talents.
So what if we suddenly awakened in this current competitive environment and showed a little more chutzpah and brio? What if we started bragging and ultimately, what if we started out and out trash talking like they do on the basketball court? That was the premise the PAF started with for the Rosey Awards; let’s let those other cities know who the heck we are.
And it worked, the campaign is being noticed by you, in Adweek and in other cities. Ironically, the execution seems to have bruised the sensibilities of a few of us in the community who would rather remain modest.
Personally I enjoyed the fun of the concept and know that at the end of the day, it isn’t the trash talking that matters, it’s that you win the game or in this case, a Rosey. So enter the Rosey Awards and show us what you got. The trash talking is optional.
Jerry Ketel
President
Portland Advertising Federation
Alcoa presents (sorry, that’s the beginning of a TV commercial of “The Catch” in the 1982 NFL NFC Championship flashback when Dwight Clark levitated to grab a perfect pass from Joe Montana to lift the 49ers over the Cowboys). But, I digress. My mind faded to the dramatic music to Monday Night Football, but it’s now back on the prize - bragging rights to the Third Annual PAF Battle of the Bands at Someday Lounge in Old Town / Chinatown, Portland, Oregon where the creatives show their true colors after dark. If you want to take a look at videos from prior year’s Battle of the Band, now is your time to really soak in some entertaining video for 2008. It’s going to be almost impossible for eROI to win it for yet a third year in a row, but we’re going to bring our “A” Game. Check it (this is PAF’s main event email and all the info is below):
BATTLE OF THE BANDS
DATE:
Wednesday June 17, 2009
TIME:
6:00 pm
PLACE:
Someday Lounge
224 NW 5th Avenue
Portland, OR
Once again we had a amazing Rosey Awards night. Thank you to all the agencies that submitted great work, all of those that volunteered to help put it on, the glorious and sadly now missed Livengood/Nowack for producing the media and collateral, the Newmark Theater for having us, Comedy Sportz for the showmanship, Jamie Sexton for pulling it all together and of course all of you that attended the show.
I was able to shoot some video from my seat of some of the Awards, highlights, and out takes to share with all of you. They are not “Rosey” worth but none the less for those of you that did not make it this year, have never been but want to know what it is all about, or some of you that put that the term “happy hour” to the test and are having trouble remembering where you were last night, these videos are for you.
I have also found that there are some photos already posted up for you to view.
I look forward to hearing from all of you how you felt about the format this year (we tried to shorten the length of the overall program… happy hour was longer than the event) as well as hear what you might like to see next year. We would love your feedback. I see that we already have some props on the event blogged out there.
And to all of you that continue to support the Portland Advertising Federation and make it a great organization to belong to… Thank you.
By the way, please make sure to watch Part Five, it is a classic.
From Jerry Ketel, the PAF President, comes his first decree:
The Sexton Law
Whilst sitting on the Couch on Couch, Dylan Boyd’s (of eROI) den of emarketing excellence*, Jamie Sexton blurted out what was, at the time, a seemingly innocuous comment. She said, “Brands need to reinvent themselves every 18 months or so, don’t you think?”. At the time, I remember Dylan and I looking at each other and nodding in approval. But later, the phrase stuck with me because it had a burning truth to it. And now I believe it to be a singular reality that needs to be called out as a genuine law of marketing, here forever to be known as the Sexton Law. That All brands, to be relevant, must reinvent themselves at least every 18 months, in many cases, sooner. Amen.
*Not to mention Ryan Buchanan and Maureen Pimley and if I’ve forgotten any others, my apologies.
Until a few weeks ago, I’d never heard of Pecha Kucha. It’s sort of like speed-dating—where you have just a few minutes to make a connection before moving on to the next person—brought to business. It’s apparently big in Japan. Anyway, next month I’ll have my first chance to see it in action. On June 24, the Portland Ad Federation’s Portland Collaborative Agency Network (otherwise known as PdxCAN) is hosting a Pecha Kucha night, where 15 people will get :90 seconds and three slides to tell their story. Slides will advance automatically every :30 seconds, so everyone has to keep their pitch short and to the point. Refreshing, right?
PdxCAN is new to the scene, too. It grew out of a recent session hosted by the PAF about the power of local creative agencies working together. The idea behind PdxCAN is to tap into the tremendous pool of talent we have here and build a network that can better compete with full-service agencies and big name shops in NYC, Chicago and San Fran.
The cool thing about PdxCAN is what it isn’t—i.e., it’s not about sub-contracting pieces of a project to someone else. It’s about bringing together diverse expertise—advertising, design, interactive, writing, animation and so on—to deliver an integrated solution. It sounds good in theory, but it presents all sorts of questions. Like, how do you get all those people around the same table? How do you build relationships with others who, at times, may be your competitor? And once you get around the table, what are the rules of engagement? How do you pitch a collaborative team to the client? There aren’t any easy answers, but they’re the sorts of issues PdxCAN is working on.
If you’re interested in this sort of thing—or just want to meet some new people—come to the PdxCAN Pecha Kucha night. It’s scheduled from 5:00-6:30 on June 24th at The Screening Room, 925 NW 19TH Ave. Check out the www.portlandadfed.com for more information. Hope to see you there.
