The ADDYs: An Award Show
This might seem small potatoes to some. But in the Memphis market, the AAF ADDYs are a big deal. (Sorry, still calling them that.) Not just the show itself, or as the organization’s biggest annual fundraiser—doing the advertising and event for the ADDYs was a badge of honor and the ultimate creative test. Agencies really tried to outdo each other. So, of course, as I humbly like to say, we put on the greatest ADDYs of All Time, leaning into the fact that Memphis was the birthplace of modern wrestling. We used legend Jerry Lawler, the very same guy that sparred with Andy Kaufman, to not only help us with the promos, but help us put on the show. And we did it with practically no budget.
We added more names and agencies, because people from other markets were sending Slam-o-Grams in their cities.
O.G. wrestling commentator-turned-weatherman Dave Brown heard what we were doing and asked to be part of it.
No entries = No money
There are three basic elements of an award show (and most events). The most important one though is the first—hype. How can you get audiences excited about the event, or in this case, competitive enough to enter.
Nothing gets the fire going like smack-talk. I, personally, along with our programmers at the agency figured out how to code this customizable Slam-o-Gram that allows you to challenge anyone at any agency to a showdown at the upcoming ADDYs.
We even used our scratch track for the names because it made so much funnier.
We even had this customizable option that involved a lot of creative approaches to make it work.
The Event
The event itself is critical. Naturally, because it’s wrestling, it was all scripted.
We booked a venue that actually hosted wrestling events, put a wrestling ring in front of the stage, and had our prizes displayed there. In addition to a real leather and metal title belt jerry helped us get made, we had all the secondary major awards stitched onto different luchador masks. These were all diplayed on a folding table in the middle of the ring, lit by a spotlight.
The pre-show had all the awards-submissions displayed around the room. As people milled about looking at work, we had fake fans and ring girls walking around with signs that smack talked the various agencies in town (ours included, of course.)
At a designated time, our “bad guy wrestler” got up on stage and started bad mouthing advertising as an industry. No one ws really paying attention as they sipped not heir drinks and talked, but the “referee” kept trying to get Scott to stop insulting us. Eventually the room stopped though, when Scott picked up the ref and threw him down through the folding table, sending the awards flying. The whole room came over and sat int heir seats—no announcement necessary.
At that point Jerry lalwer came in and chased off the bad guy. he then talked about how advertising was a lot like wrestling before lifting up a bejeweled flash drive and saying the ominous words, “the best of show winners are on THIS flash drive. I SURE HOPE NOTHING HAPPENS TO THIS FLASH DRIVE…”
The show then went on pretty typically, until just before we were about to announce the best of show winners.
Boom! The back door got kicked open and there was our bad guy wrestler holding up the flash drive.
“Ha ha, Lawler! You’ll never find out who won best of show now!” he yelled before he and Jerry started to wrestle.
Of course, Jerry pulled down one strap of his singlet (his signature move) and beat him. But he cried in despair, “Oh no! The flash drive is broken, we’ll never find out who won this year!”
{At this point I should tell you that I did not tell Jerry what was going to happen, just that “someone will then bring a replacement flash drive.”}
When all seemed lost, “Brainy” a particularly infamous train safety mascot in our local market, rode through the crowd with a replacement drive and the awards show could continue, with best of show winners announced, and all were happy. (Video of this moment below.)
Making the news
The third part of the event is the news, or post-hype. How can you make everyone glad they came, or regret they missed it —and sure to show up next time? By making it sound like the greatest event ever. And we earned the covered, IMO.
Many thanks to Amanda Cassabella, Robby Grant, Ronny Scholz, Richard Williams , Running Pony Productions
How did I get Lawler/we pull this off?
That is a much longer, but fun story. From getting Lawler on board, to how we actually problem-solved and built out the deliverables, it was an amazing experience. Ask me about it sometime—I love to tell the story.
Promo videos played off industry topics du jour.