Gather a bunch of energetic competitive types in one place for 24 hours, give them creative assignments that might normally take days or weeks to finish, and what do you have? Try Roanoke’s first-ever “Creatathon,” held at Virginia Western Community College over the weekend. This dynamic group included just about every local advertising/PR firm, photographer, freelancer, and creative content producer working together, conjuring up brochures, website concepts, radio spots, posters, and even viral video campaigns for 18 non-profits selected.
These are organizations that typically do not have a lot of money to spend on marketing campaigns, like the Presbyterian Community Center, Project Access, the Historical Society of Western Virginia and Apple Ridge Farms. From Friday afternoon beginning at 2 p.m. — fueled by caffeine, sugar and other snacks — about 40 volunteers made road trips to snap pictures, wrote and produced videos, pored over computer screens and swapped ideas, something that would not often happen in the competitive real world. Nerf-ball tossing in the middle of the night augmented the natural energy created by the “Creatathon” group.
The local Advertising Federation of the Roanoke Valley (AdFed) approached the South Carolina firm that has franchised the “Creatathon” concept, and found they first had to overcome misgivings about so many different creative firms working together. Normally one shop holds its own “Creatathon.”
The AdFed group, a trade organization, usually selects one public service agency a year to work with locally. “We wanted to do something more ambitious, something a little different,” said Tony Pearman, a principal with Access Advertising and PR. “There’s a lot of peer respect in this group. Not many of us have the opportunity to work together.”
Carolyn Kiser co-chaired the event. “It wasn’t hard to get people interested,” said the Thomas Becher Agency (Tba) accounts manager, “[but] it was hard to combine the talents and figure out the teams, to make sure we could get done what we wanted to, in the time period we had. There were so many local talents that wanted to get involved.” Kiser called the results “truly remarkable. Normally we’re on opposite sides.”
Local photographer Greg Vaughn floated all night, working on several projects, not knowing when he showed up what would be on his agenda. How about a shoot at three in the morning, behind the Sam’s Club warehouse? That’s where Vaughn found a dumpster and used discarded furniture to come up with a concept that Habitat for Humanity can use on posters, asking people not to throw away old furniture, but to donate it.
“It was all about winging it [and] working with people you normally don’t work with,” said Vaughn, who suggested that everyone leave their egos at the door. Vaughn also worked on a Special Olympics campaign during his 24-hour stint. “It’s a cool idea,” added Vaughn, who liked the non-profit angle.
Co-organizer Jim Dudley (Dudley Creative) said the first multi-agency “Creatathon” ever staged was a “unique challenge. I think it was awesome. Everyone was ahead of schedule. The creative product has been really, really [excellent]. Forty people, 24 hours, that’s a lot of time and effort.” Dudley also liked the fact that for once they weren’t all coming up with concepts just to sell widgets. “You’re helping people help people.”
Todd Marcum of Access helped create made-for-Internet videos that the technology consortium NCTC hopes to spread virally, humorous spots that might convince young professionals to give Southwest Virginia a look.
Local comedian and former comedy club owner Jim Butler stars in several different versions of the spot, which can be e-mailed by college professors and the like to former students at local schools. “You should think seriously about moving back to the Roanoke-Blacksburg area,” implores Butler in each short video.
Marcum helped line up the talent, scriptwriters, even a set to film on, – all in one 24-hour period, and he gave major kudos to Leonard Carter (Carter Video) for his non-stop work on the project. “We hope it will be picked up [as a campaign],” said Marcum. “We’ll see where it goes.”
The group concluded on Saturday morning when the various teams presented turnkey projects to the 18 non-profits, as well as print-ready campaigns that can be used immediately.
By Gene Marrano [email protected]