CLEVELAND, OH—(Marketwired – Jun 16, 2015) – Full–service advertising agency Doner has been awarded a National Gold ADDY in the Public Service Integrated Campaign category for its “Take a Closer Look” campaign on behalf of its client Bellefaire JCB, a social service agency that provides programs for at–risk youth. The agency created the campaign last year to raise public awareness about the issues surrounding homeless and missing youth and to educate communities on how they can help. Doner received the honor at the awards ceremony on Saturday, June 13 in Las Vegas.
The ADDY Awards is the advertising industry's largest and most representative competition, attracting over 40,000 entries this year. The mission of the ADDYs competition is to recognize and reward the creative spirit of excellence in the art of advertising. A Gold ADDY is recognition of the highest level of creative excellence and is judged to be superior to all other entries in the category.
“We are truly honored to have been recognized with a Gold ADDY at the national level for our work on behalf of Bellefaire JCB,” said David DeMuth, co–CEO and President, Doner. “More importantly, through this campaign, we were able to raise awareness about the issues affecting homeless and missing youth and provide a voice to those in need of help.”
The centerpiece of “Take A Closer Look” was a series of lifelike and visually striking faceless figures that were placed across Greater Cleveland. Each of these figures wore a sweatshirt that shared the reason behind their homelessness, bringing awareness to the various issues. For example, one of the sweatshirt headlines read, “My dad kicked me out because I'm gay,” while another read, “I'm missing and my parents don't care.” A floor sticker accompanied each figure providing additional information about the issue and how the passerby could help. The campaign also featured television and radio PSAs, as well as social media and print executions.
“Doner went above and beyond what we could have ever imagined when they created this campaign,” said Adam Jacobs, President, Bellefaire JCB. “The impact of the campaign has been simply amazing, with calls to our missing youth hotline, clicks to our website and donations to the organization, all increased since the launch of the campaign. In addition, our organization is now being recognized as a national thought leader on homeless and missing youth.”
The campaign launched on April 28, 2014 and ran through May 31, 2014. It was immediately successful, as the campaign received local, national and international media attention. Furthermore, “Take a Closer Look” resulted in overwhelming success, engaging and retaining a significant increase in constituents to support Bellefaire JCB across its social media platforms, which included Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the local Ad Club phase is the first of a three–tier, national competition. Concurrently, all across the country, local entrants vie to win ADDY Awards — recognition as the very best in their markets. At the second tier, local ADDY winners compete against winners from other local clubs in one of 15 district competitions. District ADDY winners are then forwarded to the third tier, the national stage of the American Advertising Awards.
About Bellefaire JCB
Bellefaire JCB is among the nation's largest, most experienced child service agencies providing a variety of behavioral health, substance abuse, education and prevention services. Bellefaire helps over 21,000 youth and their families annually through its more than 25 programs including outpatient and school–based counseling, prevention and early intervention (Social Advocates for Youth – SAY), homeless and missing youth, foster care and adoption, and residential treatment including crisis stabilization, drug and alcohol treatment, and transitional and independent living. Comprehensive autism services are provided to individuals age 3 through adulthood through Monarch Center for Autism.
About Doner
Doner is a full–service, performance–driven advertising agency that has built on its strong creative legacy to create a truly modern, integrated creative network with offices in Detroit, Cleveland, London and Los Angeles. Doner moves at the speed of business, offering true integration and total activation through proprietary tools and in–house proficiencies including a multi–platform production studio, media planning and buying capabilities, a state–of–the–art digital technology hub — the Digital Underground, and the Doner Social Currency Index — a measurement tool that tracks overall brand visibility. With over $1.5 billion in billings, Doner is a part of the MDC Partners network and serves clients including JCPenney, AutoTrader.com, ADT, FIAT Chrysler Automobiles, The Coca–Cola Company, Cox Communications, DuPont, Harman, Serta, Smithfield Foods and The UPS Store.
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