The Denver 50: How to enter your idea

These instructions also live on newdenveradclub.com. But let's get it out there.


About the Denver 50

The Denver 50 isn't about backslapping and gladhanding and plastic pieces of hardware that you can display on your agency shelf. Because advertising in the year 2007 isn't about those things.

Advertising is about ideas. And ideas are bigger than individual executions. Bigger than individuals.

The Denver 50 is America's first idea-centric award show. You submit your idea, and as many executions as you need to illustrate it. Our judges will pick the best 50 ideas. Then we'll put out a book that shows the world just how good this market can be.

Our judges include the very best creative directors from the world's very best agencies.

1. Mike Byrne, CD and partner at Anomaly/NY
2. Kevin Roddy, ECD at BBH/NY
3. Robert Rasmussen, ECD at R/GA
4. Jason Zada, ECD and founder at EVB
5. Mike Lescarbeau, President and CCO at CarmichaelLynch


How do I enter The Denver 50?

1. Write a 50 to 150-word description of your idea in a Word document.

2. Decide which execution or executions best represent your idea. You could choose a single piece. Or up to 10 executions in an integrated campaign.

3. Optimize the executions you want to submit with your idea according to the specs below.

4. Put all the executions in a single folder with your Word document.

5. Title the folder with the name of your agency and a number. (For instance, the second entry from Thomas Taber + Drazen would be tiltled "TTD2.")

6. Repeat this process for as many ideas as you want to submit to the Denver 50.

7. Burn all your folders to CD-ROM or DVD.

8. Each submission is $100. Make checks payable to the New Denver Ad Club for the appropriate amount.

9. Deliver your disc (or discs) and check to Matt Ingwalson at Karsh\Hagan, 2399 Blake, Denver, CO 80205 or to Ted Morse at Thomas Taber & Drazen, 1610 15th Street, Denver, CO 80202. Submissions must arrive by August 28.


The Rules

Let's keep this simple, shall we?

1. Entries must be submitted by 6:00 pm on August 28, 2007.

2. $100 per entry. Each entry can include one to 10 pieces that represent the idea.

3. The idea must have been created in Colorado.

4. The idea must have debuted publicly between 1/1/06 and 8/28/07. That's 20 whole months worth of work you can submit.

5. Both NDAC members and non-members are eligible.

6. You cannot submit any piece more than once. For instance, do not submit a print ad campaign and then also submit each ad in that campaign separately.


How do I size my files?

Option 1 - Compose a two-minute (or less) slideshow or video about your idea. You can include photos, videos, a voiceover, or whatever you want along with the elements of your idea. This is how they do the Titanium Lions at Cannes. For examples, see canneslionslive.com/titanium.

Option 2 - Follow the instructions below.

1. Print ad, editorial layout, outdoor, logo, poster or other printed piece: Convert your file into a .jpg or .gif. Make it fit within 900x600 pixel space. The total file size must not exceed 1Mb.

2. Video, animation or commercial: Create a 320x240 .flv file. Compress the video at 400Kbps and the audio at 96Kbps. If you'd like to submit a .mov, make sure it is 320x240 and no larger than 4Mb.

3. Website or microsite: Your site must be hosted somewhere for it to be judged. Submit a link to the site. If you choose, you can also submit a screencapture of your idea to demonstrate a key detail, following the requirements for a print ad or poster.

4. Web banners or rich media: Send us your .swf, .gif, .flv or whatever your deliverable was, no larger than 4Mb. If you feel it must be seen in context, you can submit a screencapture.

5. Event, signage, packaging, 3-D piece, environmental or guerrilla activity: Take a photo and then follow the requirements for a print/poster idea. Or take a movie and follow the requirements for a video/spot.

6. Radio spot or audio track: Submit an .mp3. File size must not exceed 2Mb.

7. Something else: Write an explanation in a Word doc and add it to your folder. Be as clear as possible. Include a photo if you like. If this isn't working for you, post a question on this thread.

Shh, there was a Creative Pod meeting last night

The Creative Pod meeting last night was a little quiet. Maybe the Rockies game across the street jammed up parking. Or maybe people were just saving their energy for tonight's kickball tournament. The upshot was that about eight of us gathered at Thought Equity to watch the latest reel from Lurzer's Archive and discuss the Denver 50.

Tim of Thought Equity volunteered to help us find a venue for our November show. Two folks from Crispin dropped by to let us know they plan to enter. Fueld had some ideas for a viral video. I seem to remember drinking a Blue Moon.

Denver 50 and Creative Pod news

• The creative pod meets tonight. Here's the details.
• Mike Lescarbeau has signed on to judge the Denver 50.
• Another judge, Rob Rasmussen, is now ECD at R/GA.

Pearl Izumi in Copyranter

Today Copyranter takes on "We Are Not Joggers."

[D]oes it inspire trial, or just simply make you feel better about being a "runner?" I believe the latter. But, if I didn't yet know the Pearl Izumi name, I know it now. I guess that's something.

The ads were created for Pearl Izumi by Crispin and wearenotjoggers.com was developed by Boulder's texturemedia.

More buzz for iRovr

iRovr, a social experience created for the iPhone by a TTD developer, is all over the Internet today.

Mashable loves the thinking, but wonders if iRovr can attract a big enough community:

Whether iRovr gains critical mass is doubtful, but this certainly points the way as to how social networks should work on the iPhone.

KillerStartups discusses the features:

Among iRovr's features are photo/video sharing, of course, bookmarking, and blogging. And we cannot forget the user profiles. Every iRovr member gets some ego-space to share his/her deets. Everything is specially attuned to the tiny dimensions of the iPhone screen. New media comes in update streams and you don't even have to access the browser.

Skills Like This wins at SXSW

Denver director Monty Miranda is winning praise for his first feature, Skills Like This. According to The Denver Egotist:

This may be the first and last time we're ever able to talk about a Denver director and producer making a feature film worth seeing. And not just worth seeing, but one that was the SXSW Audience Award Winner for Best Narrative Feature and premiered at the 61st Annual Edinburgh International Film Festival in Scotland a few weeks ago. Serious, serious props to Director Monty Miranda and Producer Donna Dewey...

Monty directed most of my spots for WOW!. I fully expect to be mentioned in his Oscar speech.

Creative pod meeting on Thursday

The details:

The Date: Thursday, July 26
The Time: 6:00 pm
The Place: Thought Equity, 1899 Wynkoop

The Gunn Report

Ask a creative about good ads, and without a doubt, we'll whip out an award annual. Our intuition tells us that the stuff we think is cool will work. I mean, for real, if you can get a calloused adman to say, "I wish I thought of that," you should be moving product. Right? But how do you get a number cruncher to trust the intuition of a jean-clad creative? Say it with a Gunn.

Every year, Donald Gunn publishes The Gunn Report. It's a compilation of the award winningest ads from around the world. It's kind of like the holy grail of award shows. While Donald does have the coolest name in the ad game, he's also dedicated his life to uncovering the connection between award-winning work and work that sells.

Brian Wilkens will give a brief talk about Donald's findings.

The Denver 50

The wheels are turning. The judges are stoked. The Denver 50 is well on its way to materializing as an actual award show. Find out the state of The Denver 50's corporealness from El Capitan, Matt Ingwalson.

A Reel

After talking about awesome work, we'll see what it really looks like. Gregg Bergan will stop on by with the latest volume of Lurzer's TV Archive in tow. Cross your fingers for some sexy Brazilian ads.

I've talked with Thought Equity and they intend to have the fridge filled with Blue Moon. That always draws a crowd.

Plug for the iRovr

I adore agencies like Anomaly for incubating ideas that are outside the realm of traditional advertising. At TTD, we're moving in the same direction. One of our first efforts is iRovr, a social networking application created by one of our developers specifically for the iPhone.

Pigs, pitching and the Denver 50

I'm not the first person to blog this quote. Or the second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth:

The whole creative process is stupid. It's like washing a pig. It's messy, it has no rules, no clear beginning, middle, or end; it's kind of a pain in the ass, and when you're done, you're not sure if the pig is clean or even why you were washing a pig in the first place.

That goes double for pitching, which Marc Brownstein recently laid into at Small Agency Diary:

I'm not advocating abstinence from dating. It's just that the courting process has gone too far. It's often a waste of an agencies' time to pitch among 12 other shops. Narrow it down, clients! Apply some discipline to the process.

Pure's Gregg Bergan had a good column in The Denver Business Journal not too long ago. He opined that a trip through an agency's portfolio and a long lunch was a better predictor of relationship success than a creative shootout:

Schedule a time to visit each agency. Ask to meet with your entire prospective team and no others. Don't agree to a meeting until all of them can make it. Ask to see a portfolio that represents the work of the actual people who would be on your account. If the agency portfolio includes work of others, you don't want to see it.

OK. But the pitch process survives not only because clients like seeing a bunch of work for free. Creative departments, despite the strain, often love a shootout. It's competitive. Energetic. And win or lose, it gives writers and art directors a whole lot of chances to produce stuff for their books.

When we created the idea for The Denver 50, we all agreed that past award shows thrived on snappy headlines and big egos. And we wanted the New Denver Ad Club's first show to let go of those things and embrace the thinking of agencies like Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Anomaly and StrawberryFrog.

Letting go of the pitch process would take the same sort of willpower.

More buzz for the Denver 50

This time from the anonymous but dead-on Denver Egotist:

Ideas are cool and this seems like a big one.

Where the truth lies?

"Where the truth lies," hm? Ashley at Cactus seems in. But that tagline just makes my skin crawl. Another show about grasping creatives, I don't need. Oh, for another Suits.

Adrants on the Denver 50

Adrants:

Well what do you know. Alex Bogusky Moves to Boulder and Denver launches a new ad club. And that's not all. Properly following America's march toward self esteem-fueled mediocraty where there are no winners and loser only proud participants, the New Denver Ad Club has kicked off an awards competition in which there are no golds, no silvers, no bronzes, no categories and no Cannes-like category shifting to please judges' whimsy.

WOW Phone with Unlimited Long Distance

Produced and directed by Incite. Geoff Eakin of TTD was the art director.

The Puppet Agency

So funny I might die. Here's episode three:

New Denver Ad Club show gets blog buzz

Fort Collins is an R&D Cluster. And Boulder is a Global Village. But that's OK. Denver has the nation's 14th best abs.

Sigh.

As nice as it is to be more washboardy than Jacksonville, we need something that showcases our creative climate on a national scale. Something like, say, this.