SEEZ was recently honored with 7 ADDY Awards – 1 gold, 4 silvers, and 2 bronze – at the 2021 American Advertising Awards hosted by the AAF Triangle chapter of the American Advertising Federation (AAF). The awards were earned for campaigns created for Coastal Credit Union and Honest Abe’s Kitchen and Bar.
The award-winning work for Coastal Credit Union was part of a campaign that touted the digital capabilities one would find when banking at Coastal. The campaign tapped consumers’ desire to manage their finances whenever and wherever – showing everyday scenes relevant to banking, projected out of a phone screen, coming to life in a three-dimensional way.
“These days, people want to do their banking on their mobile device or desktop. They expect their financial institution to have that technology,” said Sharvin Whitted, art director at SEEZ. “In a fun, memorable way, we let people know if there’s something you want to do, Coastal has the technology to let you do it no matter where you are. Which was a pretty important message when everyone is stuck at home for the year.”
The work for Honest Abe’s, a Raleigh-based eatery and brewpub, was an election-themed campaign that brought Abe Lincoln back from the dead to save America from itself. The posters, video and social posts not only gave the audience a third candidate to choose from in the 2020 election, they also promoted Honest Abe’s food and drink as a way to help get through what was a very rough year.
“We were looking at a global pandemic, massive unemployment, and division across the country,” said Billy Barnes, creative director at SEEZ. “We knew Honest Abe’s could help the people. We just needed Abe himself to spread the word. Turns out he wasn’t busy, we just needed to resurrect him, which he actually really appreciated.”
“I’m so proud of the hard work our teams put in for our clients every day,” said Michele Stone, president at SEEZ. “It was just a little over a year ago we launched SEEZ as the perfect union of marketing and consulting, all supported by data and analytics. That combination is incredibly powerful. The awards we win are more proof of that. See tomorrow, seize today as we like to say.”
The American Advertising Awards is the advertising industry’s largest and most representative competition, attracting over 40,000 entries every year. The mission of the American Advertising Awards is to recognize and reward the creative spirit of excellence in the art of advertising.
Conducted annually by the AAF, the local awards ceremony is the first of a three-tier, national competition. All gold winners at the local level automatically advance to one of 15 district competitions. District winners are then advanced to the third tier – the national stage of the American Advertising Awards.