The American Advertising Awards are held every year to give credit to those who excel in advertising.
In February, 7 students from Centenary College won awards at the ADDYs for the local Shreveport-Bossier phase. Savannah Stowers, Arionna Thomas, Kay Christopher, Raven Hayes, Bryan Washington, and Dani Kimmey were Centenary’s winning students.
Jessica Hawkins is an associate professor of communications at Centenary.
Hawkins notes that students are submitting outside work as well as work they did in class. One particular class at Centenary focuses on multi-media campaigns for real, local clients.
Bryan Washington’s submission for the ADDYs came from this class. His client was Sound Minds in Shreveport, a local home entertainment system company.
"And basically, I just stuck to trying to appeal to, like, so you automatically figure out that it was some types of audio and home entertainment because I looked them up…there’s not much on them. I didn’t have much to go off of," Washington says.
When it was announced that Washington won with that ad, he received responses from Shreveport locals who recognized the business’s truck seen around town.
"Like, now, I had the opportunity to connect with some people,” he says.
Not only did Washington win a silver award and a bronze award, he also won a special judge’s award. Hawkins says that when the judges see something that really stands out, they will create an award just for that participant.
"So, for Bryan’s they created the Killer Copy Award because the copywriting in his magazine ad was so compelling and effective and appropriate for his client,” Hawkins says.
Similarly, Savannah Stowers’ client was the Let the Good Times Roll Juneteenth Festival. Since the festival is celebrating Juneteenth, Stowers says she made sure to research African American culture and highlight it in her ad. By trying to cater to a wide variety of audiences, Stowers aimed to make the festival more known.
"Juneteenth… I feel like it could be celebrated more," Stowers says. "And the fact that there’s a festival for it, I feel like showing more people, not even just the Black-American or African American community but other communities as well, just to show them what Juneteenth is about and how we like to celebrate it."
Stowers and Washington were also recognized for their cross-platform advertising campaigns, winning a combined total of 6 awards.
"I think it is just, like, a really good thing to see," she says. "Especially all the hard work you do, and getting recognized for that hard work, I think it is really, like, amazing just to see."
Arionna Thomas and Kay Christopher won awards for two submissions. Thomas and Christopher work with Centenary’s mentoring program called The Learning Commons, and one of their submissions was a video for the program’s social media.
"We also make a lot of fun videos for The Learning Commons, whether that be promoting specific events or upcoming things that the students have to do," Thomas says. "So, we made a 'Staying Healthy' video of how to be our best during midterms season.”
Their other submission, a post made for Prep Week at the school, won Student Best of Show and a Gold award.
"These two pieces in particular were some of the ones we had, like, a lot of fun working with and a lot of creative energy put towards them," Christopher says. "And, so, I was really glad and surprised when they won."
Not only do the students get credit for their hard work, but they can also get the experience they need for future careers in communications and advertising. The students share the sentiment that winning these awards has given them confidence.
"It is true that, like, doing these sorts of things and being able to win awards has helped build confidence in, like, my abilities and skills that I haven’t always been too terribly sure of," Christopher says.
Stowers, Christopher, Thomas, and Hayes get to move to the regional level of the ADDYs, where they will compete against students from other states.
"I would like to say thank you to Professor Hawkins. We weren’t in one of your multi-media campaigns, but, like, you still encouraged us to submit. And I’m appreciative of that.”
“My absolute pleasure,” Hawkins says.
With Red River Radio News, I’m Alaina Atnip.