Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 14, 1993 TAG: 9302120279
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
PACKETT GROUP IS TOP WINNER
The Packett Group edged out The Jack Smith Agency in the annual competition for the local Addy Awards.Roanoke's two top advertising agencies each won eight Addys in presentation ceremonies Saturday night at the Roanoke Airport Marriott hotel. The competition is sponsored by the Advertising Federation of the Roanoke Valley.
But The Packett Group also captured best-in-show honors with a business-to-business mail brochure it produced for Shenandoah Life Insurance Co.
And it garnered a ninth Addy in the so-called Chicken Award category for work produced in good faith for a client who then rejected it. The "chicken" in this instance was Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley.
In addition, a group called Packett After Hours walked off with four Addys and a citation for work on behalf of Sweet Briar College and Howard's Soup Kitchen.
Packett After Hours is an informal organization of the firm's creative staffers working on their own time for businesses that are not regular agency clients.
Lindy Adams, chairwoman of the judging for the Advertising Association of the Roanoke Valley, said 420 pieces were entered in this year's show.
The judges awarded 35 Addys, the top honor and 58 citations, which are tantamount to second-place awards.
That's because the judges took advantage many times of their option of giving only a citation if they believed no work in a category merited the lucite obelisk that constitutes an Addy.
The contest does not offer third-place awards.
In addition to their Addys, the Packett Group took 12 citations, while the Jack Smith Agency went home with 11.
Packett's best-in-show piece, a sales mailer soliciting businesses for policies covering the lives of key executives, was a commercial as well as an artistic success, according to Cynthia Light, director of marketing services for Shenandoah Life.
Shenandoah Life was impressed by the creativity of the piece, Light said, "but the biggest thing is, does it help us?"
"It was a successful piece," Light said.
Shenandoah Life sent it to its agents in 20 states for mailing to clients.
Those agents told the company that the ad piece helped them to sell key executive coverage, Light said.
And, she added, they reordered the piece often for more extensive distribution.
The Packett Group's work for Shenandoah Life took three Addys in as many categories. It also won for advertising prepared for Cox Cable, radio station WPVR and United Way of Roanoke Valley.
The Jack Smith Agency winners were produced for Mill Mountain Zoo, IBM and Mill Mountain Theatre.
A surprise of the evening was the excellent performance of Katie Wallace Design, a new graphic agency in the Roanoke Valley.
Wallace, entering her first Addy Award show, walked off with two Addys and three citations.
Wallace, who acted as her own creative director, art director and designer, did her Addy work for the Art Museum of Western Virginia and Holiday Inn-Hotel Tanglewood.
The Maddox Agency took two Addys, for work on behalf of its own business and for Kollmorgen Industrial Drives. It also captured seven citations.
Radford University was the only other winner of as many as two Addys. They honored work on behalf of university programs.
Virginia Tech had two citations.
Ad2, an organization of young creative talent from several area agencies, won an Addy for its volunteer work on behalf of Voice of the Blue Ridge, which provides reading services over the radio for the visually handicapped.
Other single Addy winners were:
R. Walters Advertising & Design for a television commercial for Books, Strings & Things.
Poindexter Associates for a television commercial for Dominion Bankshares Corp.
WSET-TV for television self-promotion.
Perfect Score Inc. for a musical score for advertising by United Way of Roanoke Valley.
Holly Smith Design for a campaign on behalf of Roanoke Valley Learning Disabilities Association.
Two Lynchburg agencies, The Speidell Group and Imagination by Design Inc., each returned home with an Addy Award from the show.