Saatchi Wellness: Helayne Spivak on The Big Ad Gig

Yesterday was The Big Ad Gig, an event sponsored by Advertising Week to give young talent a shot at the big leagues. The contestants had the pressure of not only creating a campaign, but also of presenting it in front of some pretty intimidating people. Not that the judges are not nice and wonderful, but just hugely successful. Like our very own Helayne R. Spivak ("Her Royal Spivak" as I say), who writes about the contest here.

Hope this finds you well -- Jim.

Helayne:

The Big Ad Gig. Young, currently unemployed writers and art directors were asked to submit a video and samples of their work and separate panel of judges got the vast number of entries down to about 18 then myself and the rest of the panel judges chose the 8 finalists. The panel was great. They were, in no particular order:

Alex Bogusky, Chairman Creative, Crispin, Porter + Bogusky

Andreas Combuechen, Chairman, CEO and Chief Creative Officer, Atmosphere Proximity

Priscilla Natkins, Executive Vice President, Director of Client Services, The Advertising Council

Tham Khai Meng, Worldwide Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide

Jaime Wells, Director, Global Trade Marketing, Microsoft Mobile Advertising

Me.

The entire event was Hosted (and quite well, by the way) by Stuart Elliot, the advertising columnist for the New York Times. The prize for 4 of these really talented young aspiring advertising people was a one month paid gig at the 4 judge’s ad agencies.

The 8 finalists were given a brief for "Hands Only CPR". The client, The American Heart Association. They had a week or so to do a 360 campaign which, if picked, the client would run.

Now all that these kids had to do was get up in front of the panel, the moderator and an audience of about 100 people and present their ideas. Can you imagine the pressure these poor guys (and gals) were facing? Well, no one fainted (although one came close) and we came up with 4 clear winners.

We won Jamie Walker. A fabulous young writer who will be with us for a month in the very near future and then…who knows? Here are the others (the sites listed do not have the work they won with. They are from their original submissions).

Abraham Truzman

Site: http://abrahamtruzman.carbonmade.com

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsNySZRfbT8

Jaime Walker

Site: http://www.jaimewalker.com/jaime_walker_portfolio.pdf

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctOk2BbB4mc

Matthew Koulermos

Site: http://www.mattkoulermos.com

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2oVoabEdcw

Anna Lippert

Site: http://www.artdirectoranna.com

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbKVKPWEL14