On Friday February 6, 2004 several UT students and faculty as well as advertising practitioners gathered at the Palmer Event Center for the annual Austin ADDY awards. The ADDYs are the advertising industry's largest and most representative competition, recognizing and rewarding creative excellence in the art of advertising. Every year approximately 60,000 entries are submitted in local ADDY competitions across the United States.
The Austin Advertising Federation holds the Austin ADDY Awards every year as the first of a three-tiered national competition. Across the country, local entrants compete for recognition as the very best in their markets. Local winners then compete against other winners within their regions in one of 14 District competitions. District winners move on to the National ADDY Awards competition. Entry in the 2004 Austin ADDY Awards competition is the first step toward winning a National ADDY.
Entering the ADDY competition supports the entire advertising industry. The Austin Ad Fed uses the proceeds to enhance advertising through programs such as public service, internships, scholarships, advertising education, legislative monitoring, and consumer awareness.
Texas Advertising students won Best of Show and the Judges Award in addition to five gold and six silver awards. The winners included Ryan Romero, Chester Coker, Danielle Thornton, Khoa Le, Christi Sears, Monk Turner, Jared Berger, Cassie Turner, Colin Decker, Ryan Mettetal, Danielle Thornton, Emily Sander, Brett Austria, Sheryl Davis, Livia Yang, Daniel Crumrine, Shannon Stull, Kelly O'Connell, Joel Nihlean, Christine Kohler, Matthew Zaifert, Matt Barber, Bola Esho, and Jamie Harvey.
All of the winners felt honored to have their work noticed at such a prestigious event as the ADDYs. Several of the winners shared their thoughts on their recognition.
"When you invest a lot of time on a campaign, many days and nights over the course of months, it transcends itself from a project and you see it more as your child. So when it happens that the very same campaign is rewarded, the sense of gratification and the pride in seeing others enjoy it, as well, is quite amazing." - Emily Sander
"It was nice for a group of mostly 'account planners' to be acknowledged among the 'creatives' for our work. We really gelled as a team and are happy to be recognized for a semester's worth of hard but rewarding work!" - Jamie Harvey
Congratulations to all of our winners and thank you for making UT proud!
2/20/2004