“We call that approach ‘Nothing About Us, Without Us’ and it ensures that no stories are told without intentional representation on the creative and strategy teams,” said Macaela VanderMost, founder and executive creative director at Newfangled Studios. VanderMost points to a recent sponsorship between their client Bank of America and the Augusta National Women’s Amateur golf tournament as exemplifying how brands can celebrate women athletes from a place of empowerment, with the program offering more than 1 million hours of training and mentoring to women.
While the recent surge in interest around women’s sports may be surprising to some, for agency leaders it’s based on a familiar principle.
“Greatness sells, and that is not a gender-specific phenomenon,” said VanderMost. “If you’re still viewing women’s sports through the lens of micro-moments to cash in on, you risk being too narrow to get the most out of tentpole events and generational athletes, because those opportunities are only getting bigger.”
2024 A-List and Creativity Awards
Ad Age is very pleased to recognize the 18 Amp members who were finalists and the five who won Creativity Awards at the 2024 A-List & Creativity Awards gala in New York on April 24 (see here for the Ampers who were named to the 2024 Ad Age A-List):
Rethink’s Sean McDonald was named Chief Strategy Officer of the Year, and Geoff Baillie and Zachary Bautista won Agency Creative of the Year. The agency’s finalists included David Greisman (Account Manager of the Year) and Aaron Starkman (Chief Creative Officer of the Year). Three Rethink campaigns were finalists: Heinz “Seemingly Ranch” for Social Campaign of the Year and Tiny But Mighty, Heinz “Ketchup Fraud” for Print/Design/Out-of-Home Work of the Year, and Coors Light “Lights Out” for Tiny But Mighty.
VML’s “FitChix” campaign for Honest Eggs Co. (also a finalist for Creative Data Campaign of the Year) won Tech Innovation of the Year. Together with Mindshare, the agency won Best Work for Good: Pro Bono/Nonprofit for the Foundation to Combat Anti Semitism’s “#StandUpToJewishHate” campaign. Three other VML campaigns were finalists: Heinz’s Tomato Pasta Sauce x Absolut “Absolutely Heinz” for Best Best Partnership/Collaboration, Vow “The Mammoth Meatball” for Campaign of the Year, Oreo “Oreocodes” for Experiential Campaign of the Year. VML’s Josh Loebner was a Diversity & Inclusion Champion of the Year finalist.
Opinionated won Film/TV/Video of the Year for Adidas “The Original Impossible.” Other Amp finalists included Critical Mass’ collaboration with Goodby Silverstein & Partners for Courageous Conversation Global Foundation “Driving While Black” (Best Work for Good: Pro Bono/Nonprofit) and Day One Agency’s Chipotle Mexican Grill “Fajita Quesadilla Hack” (Best Use of Tiktok).
Congratulations to all the finalists and winners.