Lee Clow, chairman/CEO of TBWA/Chiat/ Day, will deliver the keynote address at the 44th annual PROMAX & BDA Conference & Exposition scheduled for June 9-12 at Moscone Center, San Francisco. The four-day confab is expected to draw more than 7,000 television and radio promotion and marketing executives from some 60 countries. Clow’s keynote is slated for Wednesday (6/9) from 1-2 p.m.
During Clow’s tenure at TBWA/Chiat/Day, the agency has turned out a host of memorable ads, including Apple Computers’ "1984," which to this day is generally regarded as the best-ever spot on the Super Bowl. The ad shop is also closely identified with such current fare as the Taco Bell Chihuahua commercials, the ongoing Energizer Bunny, Nissan’s "Enjoy The Ride" campaign, the lauded "Think Different" series of spots for Apple, and of course most relevant to the PROMAX & BDA audience, the bright yellow-highlighted, tongue-in-cheek "TV Is Good" branding campaign for the ABC Television Network.
PROMAX is the international association of promotion and marketing professionals in the electronic media, dedicated to advancing the role and increasing the effectiveness of promotion and marketing within the industry, in related industries and in the academic community. BDA is the sister organization of PROMAX and represents broadcast graphic designers.
This year’s PROMAX & BDA event will sport some new wrinkles as well as familiar attractions. Certainly fitting the latter bill are the BDA Awards and the PROMAX Gold Medallion Awards (GMA) which honor the best in entertainment promotion, marketing and design. Submissions for the two awards competitions have reached an all-time high, according to Stephen McCarthy, VP of operations, PROMAX & BDA.
Nearly 4,500 entries were received for the GMA show and 3,900 for the BDA Awards, compared to 3,900 and 3,500 in ’98, respectively. Finalists have already been notified by mail, with winners to be announced during the PROMAX & BDA Awards presentations at the conclusion of the PROMAX & BDA Conference & Exposition.
"A major contributor to the increase [in submissions]," observed McCarthy "is the higher level of participation at our other regional conferences throughout the year-PROMAX Latin America, PROMAX U.K., PROMAX Asia and PROMAX & BDA Europe. We’ve found that as more individuals enter our regional awards programs and do well, that more of these people enter our international GMA competition."
Both awards competitions are open to all qualifying entries introduced as part of a regular promotion/marketing/design campaign between Jan. 1-Dec. 31, ’98. For the GMAs, entries are judged on the basis of overall creativity, production quality and results in achieving marketing objectives.
The GMA competition includes 27 network TV categories, 33 TV station/general categories, 14 in-house TV station categories, nine cable systems/DBS categories, 18 program distributor categories covering syndicated programming and four new media categories (i.e.-broadcast and cable networks that develop, design and maintain a Website). Making their debut at this year’s GMAs are 16 World Class Awards categories honoring the best work in marketing and promotion from around the world. The awards in this new category are based solely on the quality of work produced.
Meanwhile for the BDA Awards, entries are judged on the quality and impact of design based relative to successfully achieving marketplace results, originality of design and execution. The BDA competition encompasses nine on-air, non-news categories for work produced in-house using facilities within a TV or cable station; nine on-air, non-news categories for work produced out-of-house; nine on-air news program categories; three categories in total package design; five scenic categories; a dozen print categories; seven new media categories, eight categories under the "other design" umbrella’ and two categories honoring the best work deploying experimental animation technology.
Also on the awards front, a trio of execs will receive the coveted PROMAX Pinnacle Award (formerly known as the International Hall of Fame Award) during the GMA ceremony on Saturday (6/12). Attaining the Pinnacle will be: Vince Manze, senior VP, advertising and promotion, NBC Entertainment; Lee Minard, senior VP, advertising and promotion, PAX Network; and Chris Moseley, senior VP, advertising and promotion, Discovery Networks, U.S. The Pinnacle Award is given in recognition of those who have made indelible imprints on the profession, are at the height of their careers and who continue to break new ground.
Among the featured session speakers at PROMAX & BDA are: filmmaker Spike Lee of Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks, Brooklyn, N.Y., and agency Spike/DDB, New York; film critic Roger Ebert; NBC West Coast president Don Ohlmeyer; Politically Incorrect host Bill Maher; Darrell Pockett, CEO/creative director of English & Pockett, London; Lee Hunt, president of Lee Hunt & Associates, New York; and Tim Koogle, president/CEO of Yahoo!
Brian Seth Hurst, head of convergence media at Pittard Sullivan, Culver City, Calif., will discuss convergence and how it will change our world. Directors/ designers Jeff Boortz and Elaine Cantwell of 3 Ring Circus, Hollywood, will address the state of design in ’99. Carl Rosendahl, CEO of Pacific Data Images, Palo Alto, Calif., will discuss the future of digital animation in the entertainment industry. And designer/director/creative director Susan Smith of WIG, San Francisco, will chair a panel discussion on evolving from designer to director.
