January Banner
In This Issue
Short Line
2013-14 BOD
Marketing Opportunity
We are building BAM Bags for all of the attendees. If you have any bling that you would like us to include, the bag is open to all presenters as well as any member of Ad Club.

For example we have notepads from Allegra Print and Imaging, a water bottle from Embark Credit Union, and a little something for a sweet-tooth. Keep in mind that we need 100 of what you are giving away, that was why you had all those toothpick holders printed anyway! 

Give the office a call at 761-6453 and I will even pick up the goodies.
Upcoming Events
February 5, 2014
Heritage Inn 12:00 Noon
Member Meeting
Speaker: Dr. Mary Sheehy-Moe
Dr. Moe is one of the most passionate individuals I have heard speak about education. Her message will get all of us fired up for our February 11 Education Initiative.

February 11, 2014
College of Great Falls - MSU 8:30 AM - 2:30 PM
"Real World BAM" A day long set of presentations to local high school students by our Ad Club members. All members are encouraged to come throughout the day, but especially for lunch. This is a great opportunity to showcase the talent this club 
possesses.
 
February 19, 2014
Holiday Inn 12:00 Noon
Speaker: Luis Antezana
Luis is a Creative Technologist from Seattle. He is an authoritative source on all things social medial. Tara and I had the opportunity to hear him on a panel at Western Regionals in Boise and he is "crazy smart", yet brings some common sense to the table.
 
March 5, 2014
Heritage Inn 12:00 Noon
Speaker: TBA
 
March 19, 2014
Meadow Lark Country Club 12:00 Noon
Happy Birthday Charlie, Speaker TBA.
 
April 2, 2014
Heritage Inn 12:00 Noon
Speaker: Thor Swensson
Thor, working with Zeus, is marketing a unique device nationwide. One of his methods is a trip into the "Shark Tank". Another is an endorsement by a NASCAR driver. 
 
April 16, 2014
Holiday Inn 12:00 Noon
Speaker: TBA
 
May 7, 2014
Heritage Inn 12:00 Noon
Speaker: TBA
 
May 21, 2014
Holiday Inn 12:00 Noon
Annual Awards Meeting
Who will win Ad Club Gold? Do we have a Silver Medallion winner, who's on first, what's on second? These and other mysteries solved.
Who Are You?
As you know, a new feature this year is our "Who Are You?"
Well it's quiz time. Can you remember who goes with what?
 

I worked for a week on site at the Allison Transmission plant in Indianapolis, IN and actually took a transmission apart and put it back together.


I have two children, one 24 and one 4.

 

I had my ankle broken by malicious, uninsured midgets!

 

I have a son the same age as a sibling.

 

I designed a pool for 

Eddy VanHalen.

 

I was the the state of Montana's Business and Professional Women's Young Careerist and competed at the national level coming in third. I didn't do too well on the in the evening gown competition.

 

I lived on a houseboat on Lake Powell for a summer while I worked at Dangling Rope Marina.

 

When I was born someone asked my Dad what he had and he said, "Two tacos and a Coke."

 

The people I work with are amazing, especially my work husband Marty!  HA!

 

I am a Great Falls transplant, originally a farm kid from the Flathead Valley, but have been in Great Falls now for 11 years. 

 

I have 7 ducks and 5 chickens at home and normally have a couple of lambs.

 

I worked at the airport through college, met my wife at the airport, had our wedding reception at the airport and my daughters both had their wedding reception at the airport.   Must be something to this airport!

 

If you combined my favorite color with my favorite musical artist you would have a purple Barry Manilow.

 

I flew over Great Falls in 2002 in a hot air balloon.

 

Even though you don't need any hints, pick from the following members.

 

Kathy Lear

Tara Tronson

Tracy Houck

Max Smith

Dwight Holman

Danette Sukut

Keith Teske

Chad Swift

Adrea Dean

Linnette Haman

Callie Norheim

Kristine Schow

Chuck Fulcher

Kristy Cowell

 

Icing on the cake, where do these members work?

 

KRTV

KFBB

MDT

Holman Aviation

Coldwell Banker

Planned Parenthood

1st Interstate Bank

3 Rivers Communication

Wines By Wednesday

1st American Title

Great Falls Tribune

Paris Gibson Square

KFBB

Lodestone Advertising

Random Stuff
Anthony Bourdain from an article on Productive People in FAST CO. "I only get slower and stupider as the day progresses."
That could explain a lot, I may need to adjust my hours.
 
Interesting concept from an article in FAST CO about C&A Marketing, "He has an entire team of people who read reviews on Amazon, looking for moments when people say, 'I wish this speaker were rechargeable.' Pikarski them makes a rechargeable version.'
This company builds knock-offs of products, using the Amazon.com comment section for market research.
 
From an article on SoulCycle, "In other words, stationary cycling is going nowhere faster than ever" And another from the same article, "The plan is to open 15 SoulCycles every year until we die, says Cutler, 45, who previously worked in the luxury real estate market."
That could be a lot or a little, uncertainty over life expectancy being what it is.
 
From an article on the funniest man at Microsoft, With careful optimization, only 14 gajillion messages are necessary. 
Isn't a funny person at Microsoft kind of like a Unicorn?
 
Favorite App by Mrac De Grandpre, SVP of marketing of Kind Snacks.
Coffitivity, "I recently ran this app, which produces the ambient sounds of coffee shops) within my office, and it's proven effective in creative brainstorming." 
Put me down for the Black Keys on Pandora.
Dr. Melissa Luke
Holiday Inn, 400 10th Ave So. 12:00 PM

 
Our first meeting of 2014 is guaranteed to get you on your feet, ready to tackle whatever life throws at you. We are fortunate to have the uber-cool/smart Dr. Melissa Luke. I read her book, Life in the World of Yomo: Start the Adventure to Your Perfect Calling. It made me laugh but it also gave me lots of quotable quotes. It is available on Amazon. It is well worth your time to read it prior to the presentation.
 
In addition to her lunch presentation, Dr. Luke will be doing an expanded version in the Cameron Auditorium at Benefis Health Systems. Admission is FREE for Ad Club members but a ticket is required. Either give me a call in the office at 761-6453 or shoot me an e-mail
 
The general public is invited to attend either or both sessions.  The luncheon and afternoon session ticket prices are $15 each.  Or, both sessions can be purchased by the public
for $25. There are only about 30 tickets left for the afternoon presentation, remember, snooze=lose! 
 
Dr. Luke gave us a great deal on her presentation as she has an affinity for the west. She jumped at the chance to come to Montana. Oddly enough, the last few days have been warmer in Great Falls than in her adopted home of New York City. Beyond that, I know that Great Falls and the Ad Club will extend a warm welcome.
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President Julie's Message

 

Happy New Year Everyone!

 

Ringing in a New Year often means ringing in "New Year's Resolutions". And, those resolutions often consist of "shedding" a few pounds and "increasing"  one's activity level.  Sounds familiar, huh?

 

While I'm not a proponent of "New Year's Resolutions" (only because I don't stick to them), there are a couple I would like to encourage you to consider this year. I hope you won't be "shedding" your Ad Club membership or involvement and that you'll consider "increasing" your Ad Club activity level. I know, I know...we're all busy, and the thought of adding one more thing to your plate is simply overwhelming. But, please hear me out.

 

We find that the "buddy system" works best in helping us stick to our commitments. So, grab a "buddy" and volunteer together this year. Don't have a buddy?  We can help. Join a committee or volunteer for an activity, and we guarantee you'll make lots of new "buddies".  Either way, you won't go it alone.  You'll have lots of fun in the process and you'll reap the rewards of playing an integral role in making "Team Ad Club" a success!

 

Don't know where to step in?  We can help with that too!  First of all, we suggest that you don't just "step in", but that you "jump in" with both feet and try out one of these upcoming events to get involved with:

 

  • BAM (Business, Advertising & Marketing) Workshop on February 11th.  Please stop by & stay awhile that day.  The presenters will love the encouragement and you'll love talking with our future Business, Advertising & Marketing Execs (aka high school students).
  • On March 1st, we'll host the American Advertising Awards-Montana.  We always need helpers for set-up and teardown, and we hope you'll join us for a truly creative and beautiful evening.
  • Panel Set-up and Teardown happens during Auction Week in March & we can always use extra helpers.  We work hard, but we have lots of fun in the process!  And, the artists...they all love us!

 

I hope you all have a very blessed New Year and I look forward to working alongside all of you in 2014!

 

See you January 15th! 

 

Julie 

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February 11, 2014
Great Falls College - MSU 8:30 AM - 2:30 PM

Committee chair, Merle Graf, has done a great job putting together AAF - Great Falls 1st Bi-Annual Education Outreach.
A great opportunity to put the talent within Ad Club to work benefitting the youth of Great Falls. This is an all day session putting professionals in front of high school, juniors and seniors to give them some input/advice/encouragement as they look at careers in the our industry.

Even if you are not speaking to the group, we encourage you to come for lunch to visit with the attendees. The more community professionals the students have the opportunity to interact with, the better the outcome.

Speakers include:
Troy MellingerOn-air PersonalitySTARadio
Jane FischerAccount ExecSTARadio
Jim SenstGeneral ManagerSTARadio
Bill PrestonMarketing ManagerBenefis Health Systems
Ryan JordanC.P.A.Jordan & Associates
Carey GrayOwnerCAT Graphics
Kristen CatesReporterGF Tribune
Max SmithDisplay Advertising ManagerGF Tribune
Shannon Newth
News Anchor
KRTV
Keith TeskeGeneral ManagerKFBB- FOX
Davonte' McKenithOn-air PersonalityKRTV
Eric HultzDigital ProductionKFBB - FOX
Steve UrbanoPresidentBanik Communications
Ali Winberry
Webmaster/Graphic Designer
GFC-MSU
Carol KrugerSocial MediaWendt Adv. Group
Chuck FulcherOwner/CreativeLodestone Adv.

Each presenter has a 15 minute slot to give a little background, tell what they love about their career, what they don't love, what classes or skills would have been beneficial and last but not least, how long it took them to earn a decent living.

If you are not speaking at this event, don't be upset, we are planning a fall event as well to accommodate the outlying schools, you will get an opportunity.


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A bit of background for our new members wondering what the American Advertising Awards are all about.

For many years the AAF has conducted a national competition to judge advertising excellence. We always called it the Addy Awards, Boise Ad Fed called theirs the "Rocky". This year, in an effort to bring all the awards under one easily recognizable umbrella, they are being called the American Advertising Awards. The award itself is called an Addy. It is also new this year, a beautiful crystal icon.

The way one enters the national competition is through their local AAF. We are the entry point for all of Montana. We advance our winners to the regional competition which includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska and Montana. Winners at regional are advanced to the national competition. Entrants only pay one fee.

There are two groups of entrants, professional and students. The students are always amazing, unencumbered by well-intentioned yet less than bright, client's brother-in-laws or ugly realities like budgets. You need to come to the show just to see that the future looks very bright for our industry.

A few folks in our industry might say, "My clients don't care if I win awards." That sounds as silly when you hear it as it looks when you read it. As a client, would you prefer to work with a cutting-edge, award winner or someone who claims to be the best based on their mom's opinion? Not to undermine mom's opinions but perhaps your peers would provide a more objective perspective.

Some folks might say, "I won an Addy in 1995, that's good enough.", even though in 1995 the internet was a tiny buzz in early adopters minds. As this article indicates, folks contemplating desktop computers were debating whether to go with a 15" or 17" monitor, social media wasn't a phrase and Ad Agencies were run by a bunch of old guys, imagine Don Draper with no hair. "The times, they are a changin!" You need to be changing faster than they are. You have the chops, show us your best work.

We bring in judges from outside our region to make sure no one gets homered. Judges are vetted by the AAF and selected on the basis of their own creativity.

Our competition culminates in a great celebration at the Meadow Lark Country Club on March 1, 2014. Even if you did not enter the competition, you need to come to the party to see who is harvesting the gold. The Country Club packed with creative folks, what's next, pigs flying, hell freezing over?


Callie Norheim


Tara Tronson

2104 American Advertising Awards Co-chairs

(The Ad Club is not responsible for any change
in hair color on the part of the co-chairs. They are
calling on various agencies around the state;
if two lovely ladies show up on your doorstep, 
assume it is them.)

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Your GFAF Website
May the updates never stop!

Websites are an ongoing process that evolve. As a previous Ad Club speaker noted, "Don't make your visitor dig for the information they came for.", put key information on the front page. Toward that end, the upcoming events are listed on the opening page, topic, date and location. 

Also on that page is a link to the past events. This is a Archive Section great tool for you to use when describing what Ad Club does for potential members. There are also photos on that page from the events, check it out, you may see yourself. Remember Chuck's birthday that fell on a meeting day? Now you do.

The Contact Us page gives email links to your Executive Contact Section Committee. It also shows the Board of Directors and the years of their term.

Last but not least is a link to the newsletters that are archived. If I provided some strange fact that you want to use to win a bar argument for example, that is where you can find them all in one location.
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Mary Willmarth
2
Jason Kunz
4
Merle Graf
4
Tom Alfrey
6
Jason Westmoreland
8
Ray Beaver
Happily Retired14
Randa SchimerowskiKRTV23
Tom SidorHUB International29

A brand new year...
Chalkboard 2014, a blank slate. It is up to you to seize the chalk and create the year of your choosing. A great start is our first meeting of the year. Melissa Luke will inspire you while at the same time making your head hurt as you think about the myriad of choices that are available. How can you improve your situation as well as that of your family, friends and community? 

One thing is a given, the members of Ad Club have always demonstrated a "can do" attitude that is infectious. I know it will be impressive to look back a year from now at the individual and collective accomplishments of this dynamic group.

John Godwin
AAF - Great Falls
Executive Director

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Arigato


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