Slack and Company
Company: Slack and Company
Company Description: But for 22 years, Slack and Company has worked exclusively with business marketers, helping to build their brands and generate profitable demand. As one of the nation’s first integrated marketing communications agencies, we were doing IMC since way before it was cool.
Nomination Category: Marketing Awards Campaign Categories - Industry
Nomination Sub Category: Marketing Campaign of the Year - Non-Profit Organizations
Nomination Title: Partnership at Drugfree.org "Influence the Influencers" program
Tell the story of this nominated marketing campaign for the judges (up to 500 words). Describe the genesis, planning, execution, and results to date of your campaign. If applicable, remember to describe what's unique or innovative about your campaign:
The Partnership for Drug Free America has been the force behind many of the
most-remembered public service campaigns targeting the substance abuse use
problem in America.
However, The Partnership has moved far beyond sponsoring only awareness
advertising. At its Web portal, drugfree.org, parents and professionals can
access the most comprehensive free resource available of science-based
information, advice, and other tools and resources.
As it rebranded itself as The Partnership at Drugfree.org in 2010, the
organization saw the need to greatly raise the awareness of this valuable online
resource among the "referring professionals" who are most often approached by
concerned parents and communities.
These target audiences, which include healthcare professionals, educators and
law enforcement, are often expected to be experts in these issues. But they
rarely have the in-depth training, experience or budgets to play the role of
family counselor. They seek a credible, up-to-date and science-based source of
help and information that they can refer parents to for the full story.
Additionally, law enforcement and community groups are often tasked with giving
lectures or talks to community groups or parent-teacher organizations, and need
a credible source for free presentations and downloads available to them.
To spread the message, drugfree.org needed advertising to reach these
specialized target audiences in the trade publications they favor.
Our solution took an unusual turn. The Partnership found that for greatest
program effectiveness, it was useful to have more than just one creative ad
campaign available to magazines and websites. With more options, the program
would have a longer lifespan, and placement opportunities would increase by
allowing the media venue to choose the ad approach that best fits their
editorial tone and particular market segment.
The two resulting campaigns, titled "Where Do You Turn?" and "Beyond the Title,"
employ different creative themes to speak to the target audiences.
The "Where Do You Turn?" concept takes an emotional approach, pairing evocative
black-and-white photography with simple headlines that ask, "When they turn to
you, where do you turn?” The two ads targeting educators and medical pros show
the point of view of a doctor or teacher speaking to parents who are reaching
out for help. For the ad execution targeting law enforcement, the camera takes
the point of view of a presenter facing a room full of concerned citizens
looking for answers and information.
For the "Beyond the Title" campaign, business cards with handwritten "extra" job
titles are used to quickly make the point that even through parents may expect
them to be experts about teen drug and alcohol abuse, in reality these
professionals rarely have the training and expertise to take on this highly
specialized additional role. Instead, the ads suggest, professionals should
refer parents seeking advice to the credible, up-to-date information at
drugfree.org.
Both campaigns' creative approaches were translated into a full range of online
ad units to accompany and reinforce the print campaign components.
Because the program is still very early in its lifespan, research on attitudinal
or behavioral outcomes is not yet available.
List hyperlinks to any online work samples, videos, images, presentations, news stories, press releases, or other documents that support your case. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
http://hosting.slackandcompany.com/agp/stevie/E27_Drugfree_NonProfitOrg/index.html
Provide a brief biography of the leader of the team that planned and executed this marketing campaign (up to 100 words):
Whether concepting or strategizing, Matt Finizio puts his touch on it as a
creative director at Slack and Company. He’s lent his strategic direction and
creative touch to clients such as eBay, Fellowes, Dow Corning, Nuveen,
Underwriters Laboratories, Tellabs and ArcelorMittal. He’s also helped launch
new products and services, including Radiowave.com, Fluoroscan C-arm, Fellowes
Jam Proof Shredders, Nivea, Eucerin and Wild Turkey products.
Frequently lauded for his creative work, Matt has received more than 90 industry
awards. He graduated from Washington University, in St. Louis Missouri, with a
BFA in advertising/graphic communication and a minor in business marketing.