ADCC All-Nighter Webathon
Advertising & Design Club of Canada
Issue 57 | December 2020
Agency
Zulu Alpha Kilo
Creative Team
Creative Director Zak Mroueh Writers Nick Asik, Jackson Kemp, Dan Cummings Art Directors Jenny Luong, Michael Romaniuk, Vic Bath Designer Jeff Watkins, Vince Rozas, Zoe Kim
Production Team
Digital Producer Michael Oshell Senior Producer Rebecca Adams
Other Credits
Account Team Erin McManus, Nina Bhayana, Rob Feightner Planner Tim Hopkins Clients Michelle Ovcaric, Andrew Simon
Date
May 2020
Background
The Advertising and Design Club of Canada (ADCC) has inspired creativity and creative people since 1948. In 2020 it faced going under and needed $75,000 to continue functioning.
Idea
At a time when virtual gatherings had suddenly become the norm, the ADCC All-Nighter was the perfect solution for the moment. Developed against a simple proposition, a 24-hour webathon to save 72 years of creativity, the idea was born from a phrase everyone in advertising understands: “pulling an all-nighter”.
The effort had two key parts: an online fundraising webathon inspired by the oldfashioned TV telethons of yesteryear; and a social campaign that drove awareness to the event itself.
This comprised posts such as “You’ll never forget your first”, creative leaders remembering their early awards, and overdubs of famous Canadian TV commercials, turning them into pleas to save the ADCC.
For 24 hours, the schedule was filled with debates, interviews with industry luminaries Alex Bogusky and Dave Droga and behindthe- scenes stories of brilliant campaigns.
Light-hearted instalments included copywriter battles and a breakfast Q&A with Cossette’s Peter Ignazi and his Cheerios.
Results
In 24 hours, in the middle of a global crisis and extreme economic uncertainty, Canada’s creative community came together and raised every penny needed to save the most important institution in Canada’s creative landscape.
Our Thoughts
As Alex Bogusky remarks in the interview he gave https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKddS33SeX8 a lot of the material you can watch for free on the ADCC’s YouTube channel would normally cost you good money.
This is one of those ideas that probably took mere minutes to arrive but which took many, many more hours to put together than the 24 of the webathon itself.
Credit to Zulu Alpha Kilo for finding the time and the desire to do this. Am I being cynical in thinking no network agency would have wanted to bear the costs?