For the second year in row representatives from more than a dozen creative agencies in the Roanoke area dropped their competitive guard somewhat to work pro bono on ad campaigns that will be used by various non-profit agencies.
The 65 or so involved met at 10am last Sunday, split into several groups, parceled out the organizations to be helped, then went to work. The Roanoke chapter of the American Advertising Federation Roanoke spearheaded the Create-A-Thon. Jim Dudley, who runs his own boutique creative agency, and Tony Pearman (Access) were co-chairs.
The 24 hour Create-A-Thon 2010 once again occupied a floor at Virginia Western Community College, where participants huddled in several rooms to work on radio, print, television and online campaigns for 19 area non-profits, including Mill Mountain Zoo, the Council of Community Services, Downtown Roanoke Inc., Angels of Assisi and others. “Most of them are Roanoke-based,” said Pearman, although a Special Olympics group in the New River Valley also benefited from the Create-A-Thon’s largesse.
The Create-A-Thon concept grew out of an event staged by a South Carolina creative agency. “Then they started franchising it…to other markets,” said Dudley. Normally one agency in each market would be awarded the franchise, but in Roanoke it is a group agency effort. “They had never done that before,” noted Dudley.
Allan Mower, president of the local AAF chapter, called it the ad co-op’s “public service event,” where members all “work together.” Pearman says four different teams, split up by skill sets and experience, held a contest early on to determine “project buckets.” Then they went to work, with 5-6 projects for each team.
“That could be a [full] campaign or a website,” added Dudley, with annual reports, T-shirt designs, logos and TV/radio spots also in the Create-A-Thon mix. Finished products were delivered to the non-profits on Monday morning, and were subject to any tweaking. A classroom full of caffeinated products and snacks helped fuel the Create-A-Thon group overnight.
Having talent from competing agencies drop their guard to work together might be a bit unusual, but Mower, who sells advertising for WSLS-10, said it was also “indicative of how the advertising community in Roanoke really is. People may not know about it, but it’s a very strong group of people…with nationally recognized agencies. To have them all work together just shows how much passion they have for the industry of advertising.”
“It’s the one chance local agencies may have to do pro bono work all year for a non-profit world that often doesn’t have the funds to pay for creative campaigns,” said Mower. “It has an edge of fun to it.”
By Gene Marrano [email protected]
