Ocala Represents!

The AAF 4th District's Annual Conference, in St. Petersburg, happened without a glitch. Ocala made a presence! Your Ocala Chapter brought home three GOLD Addys! And the video that premiered at the GOAdFed's Gala with Kip Williams and Tymn Armstrong made its appearance before the District. It was received with enthusiasm and great chuckle!

What a great year for Ocala ADDYs! We look forward to the productions of 2008, and their recognition in 2009!

Bring it on, ADDYs 2009!

And The Band Played On

Friday Night, February 22nd:
It was a very blue evening. Blue table cloths, blue balloons, blueberries, blue dresses, blue ties, blue jeans, blue cheese dressing, chicken cordon bleu, blue makeup, blues music, everything but the mood was blue! The 2008 "Creative Blues" Addy Gala was a smashing good time! Thanks to all of the board members and every sponsor and participant who helped put it all together. Congratulations to all of the Addy winners! A winner list will be on our web site shortly (keep checking back if it's not up yet it will be any day). They are listed in the newspaper and online already (read the Star Banner article).

Sponsors & Supporters:
Bright House Networks
Phillips Printing
Florida's Blood Centers • Panther Print Solutions • Rasmussen College • Hidden Gem Media Productions • Parramore Music • Quality Banner


Highlights:
Kip Williams received the prestigious Silver Medal Award from AAF!












Willie Green and his band were the most amazing after-show in Ocala!












Jessi and Kip were surprised with thank-you-flowers from the GO-AdFed Board, yay!












Brent won the guitar in the raffle!



A great time was had by all!

The results are in...

... but I'm not telling!

Our judges came to town on January 11th and we went to dinner at SKY. It was a good opportunity to meet each other or catch up with each other, depending on who had met already. Anne Grigsby, AdFed's 4th District Governor, came up from Boca Raton. Jeff Matz, Principal/Designer at Lure, Inc, drove over from Orlando – as did Mark Poulalion, Art Director and Integrator at Bonnier Corporation. We had a great time entertaining them, present were Kip and Cindi Williams, Mark Hershberger, Adriana Rosas and myself.




We gave them their judges' gifts – harmonicas – in keeping with the "Creative Blues" theme of the upcoming gala.



Bright and (way too) early the next morning, we met in a conference room at the lovely new Holiday Inn. The judges poured over the entries, all of which were laid out before them, to get an overall feel for the market. We went over rules and particulars during breakfast and then they got to work. They weren't allowed to talk to each other about the pieces during that stage, so I don't have much feedback there... but Kip and I were on hand to answer questions and keep everything in order. Andy Stracuzzi stopped by, as well as a photographer and a reporter from the Ocala Business Journal. After everything was scored, we then entered it all into the official, national competition site. It was at this point that the judges were allowed to talk everything over as they discussed the special awards like Best of Show.






That's all I can say, really, sorry to disappoint, but rest assured you and everyone else will find out about ALL of the winners (including the brand new people's choice award GO-AdFed's Vox Populi) will be announced an honored at the 2008 "Creative Blues" Addy Awards Gala on February 22nd.

Hope to see you there!!
Jessi

Entry Day is TODAY!!

Entry deadline is Tuesday January 8, 2008... TODAY!

Drop-off is at The Chamber of Commerce (110 E. Silver Springs Blvd.) from 12-6pm.

Enter online today at www.addycompetition.com
For more information, please email GoAdFed@gmail.com or call Jessi Miller at 352.286-8249.



SAVE THE DATE: 2008 "Creative Blues" ADDY Awards GALA is February 22nd at the lovely new Holiday Inn.
SPONSOR THE 2008 ADDY AWARDS!
- It's pretty CHEAP and you will:
- REACH advertising and marketing professionals in all areas of the industry.
- SUPPORT advertising education and public service in Marion County.
- ASSOCIATE your brand with the industry's most prestigious competition.
For more information, please contact Jessi Miller at goadfed@gmail.com or 286-8249

It's time!

It's time to start looking back over the year to find your best work. It's exciting! There are even about 5 weeks left to create something award-winning and get it on the streets. Are you up to it? Do you have what it takes?

Year after year, the Ocala Addy Award Competition celebrates and honors those who are doing great creative work. There are so many challenges to contend with on a daily basis... clients, budgets, deadlines, creative-block, technology... the Addy Awards are a great chance to let loose and shine while looking back over the best work you and others in Marion County have created.

Keep checking back here, we'll blog on things like judging, what it takes to win, fun gala tidbits (you need to plan your outfit, don't you?), and we'll also showcase some past winners.

Cheers for now, and happy creating!

Special thanks to Kip Williams for working on the creative for this year's Addys and Gala, it's good stuff! Thank you to Mark Hershberger at BJ Trophy for getting the beautiful medals done so quickly, and thank you to everyone on the board and the Addy committee... it's a lot of work but it's worth it!

They're here!

The new medallions are here!

Go-AdFed President, Jessi Miller, took them to the 4th District AdFed Conference in Daytona to receive some ooh's and aaah's. Keep an eye out, a couple of other Florida clubs are looking into getting their own now. That's right folks, Ocala is setting trends. It's not just the medals – the "Creative Blues" theme for our Gala has been picked up by Orlando, too. It's good to share with our AdFed family.

The countdown to entry day is on! There are 8 short weeks left, so start thinking about what fantastic work you've been doing all year... or scramble to finish that next great project... because you know you want to get more than one 2008 ADDY ON!

A better glamour-shot of the medals is coming soon.

New Medals!

GO-AdFed is proud to announce that we have custom-designed and ordered our very own medals to give out at the 2008 Addys! Gone are the little men... in are medals with our new logo, the Addy logo, and every one will be custom engraved with the winners name and category, making each a one-of-a-kind. And that's not all, folks! We're giving out medals for Silvers, too!

Congratulations in advance to all of you who will be taking home the gold and silver. Here's a little preview of what's to come... it's just a rendering, but you get the idea.