Rick Knief

Company: FCB NY
Company Description: FCB Communications, part of the InterPublic Group, is one of the world's largest advertising agencies.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Creative Person

Nomination Title: Rick Knief, Senior VP, Group Creative Director, Foote, Cone & Belding, New York

1. Tell the story about what this nominee achieved in 2002 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

   In July 2001, Rick Knief developed a new campaign for the British Virgin Islands. With his knowledge of film and directing, he was able to work with a very small budget to put together an advertising program, including print, television commercial and an Internet spot.

   This campaign launched in September 2001, unfortunately coinciding with the tragic events of September 11th.

   The international travel industry was already been experiencing a challenging economic climate and September 11th greatly compounded existing problems.

   To safeguard its tourism industry, the British Virgin Islands Tourist Board, which was very pleased with Rick’s creative work, allocated a substantial incremental advertising investment plan for the North America.

   As a result of this investment, preliminary numbers indicated that by December 2001, eight weeks after the campaign launched, tourism arrivals increased to the British Virgin Islands by 4%, and year-end results for January – December 2002 indicate that overall, the British Virgin Islands numbers showed a 4% growth, which are quite exceptional results given the difficult political and economic climate.

   During that same period, many of the British Virgin Islands competitors were suffering double digit declines propelling their tourism industries into deep crisis.

   Rick Knief’s work directly contributed to the quick recovery of the British Virgin Islands travel industry. This unique and dramatic campaign positions the British Virgin Islands as one of the most beautiful and peaceful places on earth that is virtually untouched by commercialism. Without this new creative campaign, the recovery would have been much more prolonged causing long-term damage to the economic vitality of the British Virgin Islands.

   The work has also been recognized within the international tourism community for its creative achievements and concrete results in generating consumer inquiries for the BVI tourism brand.