Advertising agency Bozell won four gold and 14 silver awards at the 2020 American Advertising Awards Nebraska banquet, which took place on Saturday, Feb. 22, at the Scoular Ballroom. These awards were won on behalf of client work spanning across eight clients and multiple categories.

Okay, I’ll bite.

Burger King released its The Moldy Whopper ad campaign yesterday and it has a lot of marketers and consumers talking. Why? Because it’s gross and brilliant all at the same time.

How much do I love this commercial?

Let me count the ways.

Let’s start with a few questions. Does your brand operate from deeply held convictions—the reasons behind the quality behind the product behind the profits? Do those reasons permeate your entire organization? Are they evident to your audience if they don’t read the website “about” section?

Frida Mom makes products that help you care for your new baby and for yourself, post-delivery. In their words, “Babies are cute. Parenting isn’t always. For all those perfect moments, there’s Instagram. For everything else, we’ve got you.” Need a tool to get the stubborn snot out of your baby’s nose? They’ve got you. Suffer from serious pain, postpartum? They’ve got plenty of things to help. From a branding perspective, they absolutely know who they are and who their audience is.

With AAF Omaha’s Meet the Pros next week, and Bozell’s Summer Internship Program applications due the week after that, I wanted to share my thoughts and tips on how to get an internship.

Note: While I have helped lead and coordinate our internship program for years, all of this advice is my opinion. Other businesses, and even other mentors within Bozell, might have different attitudes, viewpoints and thoughts about these items.

The good, the bad and Sam Elliott’s mustache.

Robin Donovan, President

When it comes to TV commercials there is no more widespread, public venue than the Super Bowl. Advertisers in the Super Bowl must be prepared to wow the audience, the whole audience, even the part that does not fall within their target demographics. In order to generate a level of excitement worthy of the Super Bowl, most advertisers choose to make their commercial hilariously funny, sappy and sentimental, or jarringly shocking. But is that always in the best interest of their brand? 

Using social media in a linear way is a thing of the past. Brands, small and large, are using social not only to engage with and speak directly to their target consumers, but also to learn about their audiences’preferences, integrate campaigns, inform creative strategies, and test-and-learn with new products and features.

You’ve all seen it by now. The Peloton ad with the lady who looks trapped in an exercise bike nightmare. She gets a Peloton bike for Christmas and is quickly held hostage by early morning spin rides. Throughout the commercial she speaks into the camera, documenting every workout in what seems like a not-so-secret plea for help. The commercial ends as she and her husband sit on the couch admiring her video diary of workouts.

From the very beginning of my copywriting career, I have followed one simple rule of thumb …

Creativity comes second to effective communication.

Because of this, my preferred approach to writing is simple, clean and conversational. Basically, I like to write how people talk. It’s a faster read and much more relatable. Read More

Social media platforms are making efforts to become more socially responsible, but at what cost? For now, the answer is uncertain.

The social media realm has been buzzing this week following the announcement that Instagram will begin hiding Like counts in the U.S., a continuation of a test that started rolling out to other countries last May. This test was then broadened to a global scale yesterday, through a post on Instagram’s Twitter account.