VSBrooks ADVERTISING – The 2013 American Business Awards’ win – 6.18.13

Can you hear the music? Can you feel the vibrations through the walls? Can you smell the food?

We’re having a party over here at VSBrooks ADVERTISING because we just won a big one!

After months of accepting one honor after another, our incredible VSBrooks ADVERTISING team won its first American Business Award on Monday in Chicago. We took home the Silver “Stevie®” Award in the Marketing Campaign of the Year – Non-Profit Organization category, beating out some heavy-hitters.

The 11^th Annual ABA is the nation’s premier business award program. More than 3,200 entries from international industries and companies were evaluated by 320 executive-level judges.  

We won the Silver award for our work for Feeding South Florida. To win another great award for work we enjoy is extra icing on the cake.

Cake? OK, we’re back to the party. Happy dance, everyone. We’ve gone global.

Thank you to our friends, family, clients and fans for cheering us on as we were honored and recognized locally and nationally for work we’d do if we won nothing at all.

It’s been a fantastic 2013 – all six months of it.

Get Crackin' 2013 - I told you it would be great, and did I lie?

If you were there, you already know that the first ever “Get Crackin’” private bunch to benefit Feeding South Florida on April 21 was beyond a success. In my last blog post, the title was “On the Menu: Good Food & Goodwill.” Well, I understated. It was more along the lines of “Fantastic Food & Amazing Goodwill!”

If you weren’t there (and why not?), here’s what you missed -

Almost $80,000 was raised at the event, which will support Feeding South Florida’s mission: to end hunger in South Florida by providing immediate access to nutritious food, leading hunger and poverty advocacy efforts, and by transforming lives through innovative programming and education.

I was honored, along with Feeding South Florida’s CEO Paco Velez, to present the following honorees with awards before thunderous applause (yes, thunderous) --  local celebrity chef and Honoree Allen Susser, Media Hero Honoree The Miami Herald & El Nuevo Herald, and Corporate Citizenship Honoree Southern Wine & Spirits. The awards recognized their devotion to helping the nearly 1 million children, seniors and families that Feeding South Florida serves in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties.

Diana Brooks and Paco Velez with this year's honorees.

And the very, very best part? We all ate scrumptious Joe’s cuisine and signature Mimosas without a wait, while enjoying the music of Leo Casino. So we ate great for a fantastic cause. 

Now a little sponsor love because everyone knows you can’t do an event right without superlative sponsors. Sincere thanks to our:

60,000 meal sponsor: JM Family Enterprises, Inc., 

30,000 meal sponsors: Simply Healthcare Plans and Beam Global Spirits, 

27,000 meal sponsor: CarePlus, 

15,000 meal sponsors: MBAF Certified Public Accountants and Advisors, and Adkins & Associates, 9,000 meal sponsor: Patrón Tequila, 

6,000 meal sponsors: Jordan Winery and TD Bank, 

2,500 meal sponsor: Diageo, 

1,000 meal sponsor: Sprint, and liquor sponsor Pernod Ricard USA/Chivas.

OK, who’s ready to start planning for 2014?

Diana brooks

dbrooks@vsbrooks.com

Hiding in plain sight

You’re never more aware of an ad or a message until you’re paying attention. Believe me, as an advertising firm, we get it.

Car ads don’t ring a bell until your ride starts making funny sounds. Billboards for a vacation don’t catch your eye until you’re completely frazzled, and that new restaurant doesn’t intrigue you until you’ve got a hot date. My point being, the ads were always there; you just weren’t paying attention.

Hunger is like that. It is all around you. Really, it is. It is literally hiding in plain sight. That woman standing next to you in the store, her child is hungry. The guy serving you at your favorite bar, his elderly mother is starving. The people you pass every day have problems, issues and challenges, we know. But did you know that one of their most pressing problems is feeding themselves and their families?

Attempting to get people to pay attention to a challenge that does not affect them directly can be like running an ad for a product no one needs at that moment. Folks just don’t seem to care, so we are doing everything we can to capture their focus. The Miami Herald sees the hunger as we do – glaring, ugly and difficult – so they ran an opinion piece I authored on the subject. As the chair of Feeding South Florida, I hope you take a moment to read it, then another moment to do something about it. Feeding South Florida can help you help others easily.

Hunger is doing a lousy job of fading away, so let’s take a hard, long look at it, shall we?

Fundraising in Paradise.

South Florida has long been deemed one of the playgrounds of the wealthy.  The southernmost parts of our peninsula, along with parts of California and New York, are where people think fundraising for worthy causes should be a breeze because everyone has money, right? Not necessarily.

Our local newspaper recently shed light on how difficult the fundraising environment has become, due to many economic factors beyond the control of nonprofit agencies. In this climate of uncertainty and change, gaining the attention and trust of supporters is very challenging, putting the onus on agencies to be creative.

At VSBrooks Advertising, being creative is what we do daily. But no one said coming up with unique, eye-catching, funny, thought-provoking, engaging and interactive ways to gain support was easy. Yet, when charged with leading Feeding South Florida onto new paths of revenue-generation and mass communication, Diana Brooks, one of our founders and the board chair of FSF, came up with a few ideas that even impressed The Miami Herald.  

We’re proud of Diana and any idea we can generate that will help keep a person from going hungry. Because if you can’t use your talent to help others, really … what good is it?

This Halloween, Be Very Afraid…

Psychotic masked killers, terrorizing spirits, the undead and aliens can’t match the scariness of going to bed hungry every night.  Imagine not knowing if you have enough food to make it through the week. That’s enough to make anyone afraid.

At VSBrooks Advertising, we’re lucky enough to work with the largest domestic hunger relief organization in South Florida – Feeding South Florida. So putting a frightful face on hunger was not that difficult for our creative team. Check out our terrifying tribute!

We invite our team members and the agencies that work with Feeding South Florida to view our masks and mark this Halloween by recognizing the true menace among us – hunger.

Now, excuse us while we go check out that strange sound in the basement…