What do you get when you bring together Boston-area’s most creative admen and women working on marketing campaigns for innovative, early-stage companies?
The Ad Club and PayPal’s Start Tank combined forces for the first-ever Brand-a-Thon – a 72-hour event held in hackathon style, designed to get advertisers thinking outside the box for the chance to win $4,000. However, the biggest benefits ultimately go to the participating startups, which received pro-bono branding advice from professional agencies.
Thursday night marked the moment of truth for agency teams to present the fruits of their weekend labors. The Friday before, 17 startups from the Start Tank did a three-minute pitch for the ad teams; afterwards, each team selected one company, whittling the pool down to nine. Then the founders left and the clock started for the creatives to work their magic and craft a campaign of their choice, be it a commercial, through social media or a full rebrand.
A cast of talented judges, including Communispace Chairman Diane Hessan and L.L. Bean CMO Steve Fuller, analyzed each group’s 10-minute presentations that were as entertaining as they were imaginative.
The packed crowd of nearly 300 laughed and admired the creative talent that was cooked up over the weekend. So impressive were the presentations that PayPal Media Network COO and Start Tank Founder David Chang added $1,000 from his own purse to the pot.
In the end, it was NAIL Communications who took first place spot in a proposed campaign for Spray Cake, a cake that you can spray from a can whipped-cream style and cook in a microwave for about 30 seconds, created by a crew of Harvard undergraduates. NAIL’s Rodrigo De Lima and Bob Troutman were awarded $2,500 for their cutting-edge ideas.
Second place and $1,000 was granted to allen + gerritsen’s team, composed of Ariel Heinemann and Carissa Wright, for their work on Supplet, a monthly subscription startup that sends packages of healthy and organic goods to expecting and new moms.
Coming in third, with a check for $500, was Forge Worldwide's Marie Rockett and Jim Bell, who presented on Project 20/20, a eye doctor-on-wheels startup that’s launching in August.
Congratulations to all the startups and agencies that participated!
Writer's Note: A previous version of this article misstated the first place winnings. It has since been updated.
