Markham Yard Sweeps 2023 Miami ADDY Awards

markham-yard-2023-ADDY
markham-yard-2023-ADDY

Markham Yard Sweeps 2023 Miami ADDY Awards

Agency obtains 16 ADDYs, including three Best of Show awards.

MIAMI, FL, MARCH 24, 2023: The American Advertising Federation hosted its annual Miami ADDY Awards last week at The Anderson, enjoying a three-hour presentation filled with snacks, jazz, and the best of the best in the South Florida advertising community.

As the night progressed, one thing was clear: Markham Yard emerged victorious.

Presented 16 individual awards, including three Best of Show categories, eleven Silver ADDYs, one Honorable Mention and one Special Merit, the Markham Yard team took home more awards (including the most top awards) than anyone else this year.

“So proud of our team, for being recognized by the AAF for our work at the 2023 ADDYS last night. And thank you to the local ad community for coming together once more to remind us what ‘community’ can mean.” said Markham Cronin, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Markham Yard.

“Thank you to our team for your passion and energy. Thank you to our clients and partners who recognize that to do something extraordinary, we need to trust the process and each other, and be open to the unexpected, the unprecedented, the new.

We celebrate this moment. And then we tear off the rearview mirror, because what is behind us, is behind us. The things in front of us are where we are focused.”

Awards include: 

BEST OF SHOW, PUBLIC SERVICE: 

“Save The Slime” Campaign, Bonefish and Tarpon Trust

BEST OF SHOW, PRINT:

“Serious Stories, Chapter 2” Campaign, Invincible Boats

BEST OF SHOW, ONLINE/INTERACTIVE:

“You Don’t Have to Be Good” Campaign, New York Blood Center Enterprise.

HONORABLE MENTION, CROSS PLATFORM:

“Save the Slime” Release Campaign, Bonefish and Tarpon Trust

MERIT IN ILLUSTRATION/PACKAGING:

Don Q Packaging, Don Q Rum

SILVER WINNERS:

“10 Items or Less” Digital Video, NYBCe

“Blood Drop” Digital Video, NYBCe

“Blood Drop” TV, NYBCe

Don Q Cocktail Packaging, Don Q Rum

“Eating In Bed” Digital Video, NYBCe

“Greater Lengths” Spread, Yellowfin
“Save the Slime” Release Campaign (Public Service), Bonefish and Tarpon Trust

“Save the Slime” Release Campaign (Social Media), Bonefish Tarpon and Trust

“Save the Slime” Release Campaign (Integrated Advertising), Bonefish Tarpon and Trust 

“Serious Stories, Chapter Two” Campaign, Invincible Boats

“You Don’t Have To Be Good” Digital Video Campaign, NYBCe

INQUIRIES:

Markham Cronin: mcronin@markhamyard.com

ABOUT MARKHAM YARD, LLC:

Established in 2005, Miami-based, Markham Yard (MarkhamYard.com) is a full service advertising agency offering big brand thinking, strategy, design and creative in a concentrated form for both local and international clients. With eighteen years of experience with global clients across an array of industries, Markham Yard offers the creative power of big agencies in a streamlined and nimble form. Clients include: BurgerFi,  Children’s Hospital of Richmond Foundation, Anna Griffin, Boyne Capital, Liebherr, Captains for Clean Water,  City National Bank,  Hell’s Bay Boatworks, IT’SUGAR, The New York Blood Center Enterprise, Invincible Boats , Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, the Miami Herbert Business School, Breakthrough Miami, Herman Lucerne Memorial Foundation, and Yellowfin.

Markham Yard Dominates 2022 Miami ADDY Awards.

Markham Yard Miami Addys 2022 Best of Show
Markham Yard Miami Addys 2022 Best of Show

Markham Yard Dominates 2022 Miami ADDY Awards.

Agency garners 22 Addys, including four Best of Show awards.

MIAMI FL MARCH 6, 2022:  The American Advertising Federation hosted its annual Miami Addy Awards yesterday aboard the cruise ship Biscayne Lady, enjoying a leisurely four-hour brunch and presentation for a cross-section of the South Florida advertising community.

As the results unfolded, one agency stood out above the rest: Markham Yard.

Awarded 22 individual awards, including fourteen Gold Addys, four Silver Addys, and an unprecedented four Best of Show nods, including the overall Best of Show, the Markham Yard team enjoyed a banner day on the water.

“Winning awards is a great feeling. But more importantly, they are a good barometer of what we are accomplishing in our collaboration with our clients. It’s really hard to stand out in today’s noisy media environment, so we are focused on creating things that are disruptive, engaging, relevant and rewarding.” said Markham Cronin, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Markham Yard.

“I could not be prouder of our team’s focus, talent and energy, as we have had a challenging couple of years. Finding ways to continue to nurture our distinctive creative culture while at the same time figuring out remote working, the rapidly changing landscape of the business, and the demanding acceleration of timelines was a challenge this year. But we made a commitment at the beginning of 2021 to focus on producing work as aggressively as we could, and the results speak for themselves.”

Awards include:

BEST OF SHOW, OVERALL:
“Things that Hurt More” Integrated Campaign, New York Blood Center Enterprise

BEST OF SHOW, INTEGRATED:
“Things that Hurt More” Integrated Campaign, New York Blood Center Enterprise

BEST OF SHOW, TV/VIDEO:
“Things that Hurt More” Video Campaign, New York Blood Center Enterprise

BEST OF SHOW, PRINT:
“Serious Stories” Campaign, Invincible Boats

GOLD WINNERS:
NYBC Things That Hurt More :30

NYBC Things That Hurt More

CHoR: The Wonder Tower

NYBC Things That Hurt More Videos

Things That Hurt More: Drive-thru

Things That Hurt More: Airplane

Things That Hurt More: Car Keys

Things That Hurt More: Ice Cream

Things That Hurt More: Phone Screen

Things That Hurt More: Toy Brick

Things That Hurt More: Meditation

Things That Hurt More: Radio

Invincible Boats: Serious Stories

CHoR: The Wonder Tower

 

SILVER WINNERS:
City National Bank, We Grow Florida

Medicine Mamas, V-Magic Social

Costa, 5 Rivers Logo

Anna Griffin Social Media

Inquiries: Markham Cronin: mcronin@markhamyard.com

 

ABOUT MARKHAM YARD, LLC:

Established in 2005, Miami-based, Markham Yard (MarkhamYard.com) is a full service advertising agency offering big brand thinking, strategy, design and creative in a concentrated form for both local and international clients. With sixteen years of experience with global clients across an array of industries, Markham Yard offers the creative power of big agencies in a streamlined and nimble form. Clients include: BurgerFi, Children’s Hospital of Richmond Foundation, Anna Griffin, Boyne Capital, Liebherr, Captains for Clean Water, City National Bank, Hell’s Bay Boatworks, IT’SUGAR, The New York Blood Center Enterprise, Invincible Boats, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, the Miami Herbert Business School, Breakthrough Miami, Boyne Capital, Herman Lucerne Memorial Foundation, and Yellowfin Boats.

 

Markham Yard Launches the “Wonders Within” campaign for Children’s Hospital Foundation.

The Wonder Within TV

Markham Yard launches “The Wonders Within” campaign for Children’s Hospital Foundation.

MIAMI FL November 8, 2021
Children’s Hospital Foundation of Richmond, VA launches an integrated campaign today to celebrate children’s healthcare solutions made possible through philanthropic support for the ongoing development of the Wonder Tower, a stand-alone world-class inpatient facility devoted specifically to the healthcare needs of children. The Wonder Tower is the new home of the an integrated part Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU.

“Working with Markham Yard on this incredible project has been so gratifying. We have gone from many in our region not realizing that a children’s hospital existed, to now a community understanding and rallying around our hospital and this important building project. The work has made our hospital stand out in the hearts and minds of our community and provided us the all-important platform of awareness that enables our asks for philanthropic involvement to be positioned for success,” said Lauren Moore, President and CEO of the Children’s Hospital Foundation. “We are really excited about the way this campaign highlights the solutions that are made possible through the development of our new facility, as well as the possibilities it unlocks for the children in our care, their families, and the larger Virginia community.”

The campaign is comprised of :30 Television running both locally and digitally, Print, OOH, Programmatic Digital, and Direct Marketing.

“Children’s Hospital Foundation has been an incredible creative partner” said Markham Cronin, Founding Partner at Markham Yard. “Working on their mission has been immensely fulfilling, and together, we have enjoyed crafting really unique creative solutions to bring this mission to life, in a category where that is really challenging to do. It’s really powerful when you hear the stories firsthand from the patients, families and staff, and it gives us vital perspective on how important this work truly is.”

This “Wonders Within” campaign breaks locally today, and will run in the greater Richmond area for the next eight weeks. Digital media will continue to run through March 2022.

Inquiries: Markham Cronin:
mcronin@markhamyard.com

ABOUT MARKHAM YARD:
Based in Miami, Markham Yard (MarkhamYard.com) is a full service advertising agency offering big brand thinking, strategy, design and creative in a concentrated form for both local and international clients. With sixteen years of experience with global clients across an array of industries, Markham Yard offers the creative power of big agencies in a streamlined and nimble form. Clients include: Children’s Hospital of Richmond Foundation, Liebherr, Captains for Clean Water, City National Bank, Hell’s Bay Boatworks, IT’SUGAR, The New York Blood Center Enterprise, Invincible Boats, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, the Miami Business School, Breakthrough Miami, Boyne Capital, and the Herman Lucerne Memorial Foundation.

ABOUT CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION:
Children’s Hospital Foundation is dedicated to funding and advocating for pediatric initiatives that improve the status of health care and the quality of life for children in our region. The Foundation provides support for the programs and initiatives of Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU and the more than 70,000 children and families it serves each year. Children’s Hospital Foundation depends on the support of individuals, businesses and other organizations to help us continue our mission of supporting excellence in health care for children.

CAMPAIGN CREDITS
Chief Creative Officer: Markham Cronin
Group Account Director: Katie Coffey
Account Manager: Salomé Berrebi
Associate Creative Director: Michelle Azzi
Senior Copywriter: Karina Bagdadi
Art Director: Sofia Olarra
Art Director: Laura Suescun
Senior Producer: Alec Lopez
Digital Director: Brent Carlin
Animation Studio: Lobo
Production Company: Colorbars
Original Music/Sound Design: Tonal Chaos
Photographer: Doug Buerlein

New York Blood Center Enterprises Teams up with Markham Yard to Teach a New Generation How Easy it is to Give Blood

Things that hurt more than giving blood
Things that hurt more than giving blood

New York Blood Center Enterprises Teams up with Markham Yard to Teach a New Generation How Easy it is to Give Blood

This marketing campaign will run in NYBCe’s regional markets across the country, including New York, Delaware, Missouri and Kansas

NEW YORK June 14, 2021: New York Blood Center Enterprises (NYBCe) has selected Markham Yard after a review for a regional campaign to bolster blood donation efforts in the post-COVID era.

The Markham Yard team will craft an integrated campaign to show a new generation of potential donors not only how important it is to adopt good blood donation habits, but how easy it can be. The campaign begins today to coincide with World Blood Donor Day, running regionally in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota and Nebraska.

Andrea Cefarelli, Senior Executive Director, Recruitment and Marketing at NYBCe notes, “The Markham Yard team did a great job of translating the data into a strategic and creative campaign that is unconventional, engaging and impactful. We look forward to collaborating with them to bring this to life in order to augment our critically-needed supply of blood and plasma across the country.”

“There is no substitute for human blood. This life-giving essence is in short supply, partially because the median age of blood donors is rising steadily, and partially because COVID has sharply curtailed the ability to donate. We look forward to working with the NYBCe team to show a new generation how easy it is to help,” said Markham Cronin, Founding Partner at Markham Yard.

Billings are undisclosed, and work will begin to appear in each market in early summer of this year.

For inquiries, please contact Andrea Cefarelli, Senior Executive Director, Recruitment and Marketing at New York Blood Center Enterprises.

ABOUT NEW YORK BLOOD CENTER ENTERPRISES: Founded in 1964, New York Blood Center (NYBC) is a nonprofit organization that is one of the largest independent, community-based blood centers in the world. NYBC, along with its operating divisions Community Blood Center of Kansas City, Missouri (CBC), Innovative Blood Resources (IBR), Blood Bank of Delmarva (BBD), and Rhode Island Blood Center (RIBC), collect approximately 4,000 units of blood products each day and serve local communities of more than 75 million people in the Tri-State area (NY, NJ, CT), Mid Atlantic area (PA, DE, MD, VA), Missouri and Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Rhode Island, and Southern New England. NYBC and its operating divisions also provide a wide array of transfusion-related medical services to over 500 hospitals nationally.

ABOUT MARKHAM YARD: Markham Yard is an independent Advertising, Branding and Design Agency based in Miami, FL. Founded in 2005, we bring all the power of a full-service agency, in a compact package focused on generating the one competitive advantage any brand, big or small, can enjoy: The ability to create better ideas. It’s the ultimate unfair advantage. We are a workshop where strategists and designers, producers and writers, technologists and thinkers come together to craft elegant solutions to the business challenges we face. We are on a mission to dream, plan, craft and launch better ideas out into the world. INQUIRIES: CONTACT Markham Cronin, Founding Partner, Chief Creative Officer at mcronin@markhamyard.com

Welcome to Markham Yard.

markham yard logo on building
markham yard logo on building

Welcome to Markham Yard.

A yard is where things are dreamt up, planned, designed and built. Where ideas are translated into craftsmanship. Where things are cared for, maintained and upgraded. A defined space of our very own where talents of many kinds intersect to launch great things.

YARD is a reflection of our deeper focus on making great things. In the sausage factory of marketing, a lot of energy is often focused on the process at the expense of what comes out the other end. But the fact is, nothing we do matters unless something that makes a difference gets made. And that’s what happens in the YARD.

As I often tell our team, the one constant in our business is change, and change is opportunity. And today we have in front of us just such an opportunity. We have been on a journey for the last sixteen years on which we have been lucky to work with a broad variety of collaborators, clients, partners and talents. And this journey, at its best, has been one of optimization- Ever striving to be better tomorrow than we were today. So in this, we’d like to share some news: On Monday, April 19, Markham & Stein will become Markham Yard.

Our name has changed. But our heart is still in the same place.

We bring all the power of a full-service agency, in a compact package focused on generating the one competitive advantage any brand, big or small, can enjoy: The ability to create better ideas. It’s the ultimate unfair advantage. We are a workshop where strategists and designers, producers and writers, technologists and thinkers come together to craft elegant solutions to the business challenges we face. 

We are on a mission to dream, plan, craft and launch better ideas out into the world.

– Markham.


If it’s “viral,” why is it so hard to catch?

Markham Yard Viralocity
Markham Yard Viralocity

If it’s “viral,” why is it so hard to catch?

I recently received an e-mail from one of our clients, which basically went like this:

“Dear Markham, 

1.) Can you create a viral campaign for our product? 

2.) How long will it take to spread all over the internet?” 

This is not an isolated request. We get asked to create “Viral” stuff all the time – videos, mini-sites, games, etc. 

My response: “Dear ______. 

We can try. But trying too hard is self defeating. The minute you start trying to be cool is coincidentally the minute you aren’t cool at all. We can make something we like, and the hope someone else likes it enough to share, but until people organically adopt it and spread it [which is entirely up to the whims of the internet] it is not “viral.” 

It’s like “Award-Winning.” We don’t create “Award-Winning” advertising. We create the greatest advertising we can, and when it wins an award, then it’s “Award-Winning.” Viral is the same. 

Great advertising has always been “Viral” – before the internet, it was just the stuff that escaped the media buy, became talk-worthy or made celebrities of its characters. Stuff John Stewart would mention in his monologue. It wasn’t called “viral” then- it was just called great. These days, the filter that deems something worthy of going viral is far more arbitrary. The stuff that becomes viral is generally never intended to do so – it was just something someone put on the internet, like a home movie or a re-purposed piece of something that is already out there, like a sports highlight, or an SNL skit. 

For marketers, this presents both opportunity and risk. It’s kind of like playing the Lotto. The upsides are very attractive (widespread cultural impact, low cost) but the odds are pretty long. You create it, put it on YouTube, reference it on Twitter and FB, email it to everyone you know, and wait. 

What makes something viral? What compels a single user to share something? Overly generalizing, I’ve got four reasons (there are more, probably and certainly subsets of each, but let’s keep it simple).

1.) Relevance to a common set of interests. If you’re a gamer, or a cyclist, or a skydiver, there’s stuff that only other people with your shared interests might find interesting (or even understand). So when you happen upon a nugget of especially relevant information, you pass it on.

2.) Discovery Culture. These days, there is an almost fetishistic movement to be the “first.” To find something that no one else has. To unearth the obscure and the inane. And to get credit in your social set for being an arbiter of the “new.”

3.) Building your personal brand. What you share says a lot about you. The eclectic mix of unpublished dub-step, Japanese sneaker collection and obscure single-malt scotches creates an intersection where you see yourself and you want to be seen. Mind you, this is pretty artificial- I know plenty of folks who share stuff because they want to be seen as cooler than they really are. It can also work the opposite way, where it is endearingly real – friends who share charity rides or pet adoption, or my Mom’s inspirational videos. Because that’s who they are. 

4.) Old fashioned sharing. You find something you know your friends will like. It’s a little bit like #2 above, but more like finding a batch of awesome cookies and giving them out to your friends so they can see how awesome they are, too.

As the platforms of social media grow, so has the way that viral messaging travels and the market forces at work are trying desperately to gain some semblance of control over this previously organic form of interaction. There are a handful of artificial fixes that might accelerate the “viral-ness” of something, such as: 

1.) Influencers. These can be the old-fashioned ,guy-in-his-basement blog, or an established celebrity. If enough people follow someone and they reference something, it has a much greater chance of becoming viral. 

2.) Opportunistic speed. The kerfluffle over the “Peloton Girl” ad was a minor skirmish, which created the opportunity for the blazing forest fire of the Aviation Gin ad that it spawned. And even that lasted maybe a couple of days. But the window of opportunity to make this happen was literally hours long before the original source was too stale to reference. The good news is, that actress is now a big star, simply because the not-very-good commercial she was in went viral. 

3.) Payola. The good old-fashioned reward for good behavior. “Pass this video on, get a free smoothie.” Marketers are trying, but consumers are already way ahead of them, evolving the same thick skin they have to most other forms of marketing, to see through it and avoid it. On to question #2: How long will it take? How long? Impossible to say. These days, something can go “Viral” in minutes. (Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich, anyone? ) And if it doesn’t go viral instantly, it probably won’t at all. Culture is moving so fast, that if something isn’t fresh out of the oven, it’s irrelevant.

You can do all the right things and still not go viral. And the dumbest stuff (Keyboard cat) can, for no other reason than it’s completely idiotic.

I’m sorry that’s not a more emphatic answer. But we’ll be happy to get started right away.

Call or write with questions or comments. 

– Markham.

The machines are coming for us

MrRoboto
MrRoboto

The machines are coming for us. Good thing they still can’t tell a joke.

Every advertising publication today is rife with the ominous rumblings of the havoc to be wreaked on our industry by Big Data. The Krakatoa of analytics has erupted, spewing cheap, quantifiable accountability to the bean-counting drones of the world.

Consumer profiling data means we have never known more about who we are talking to, how they react to our communications and what they do next, than we do now.Suddenly, the Pandora’s Box of ROI has been split open and it’s raining KPIs. Now there are those clients who are crowing in triumph at finally being able to march down the hall and tell their bosses they can finally push their marketing dollars to the bottom line in the name of efficiency. This has pundits and perennial boardroom buzzkillers around the world wagging their fingers at us in the ad industry, with a warning that the days of our expensive creative storytelling are numbered.

Not so fast, Mr. Roboto.

While it is true that the digital revolution has created an unprecedented level of consumer data and this data can be molded, harnessed and leveraged to optimize certain dimensions of marketing, at the same time I would argue there has to be something to optimize.

Something that captures people’s attention. Imagination. Interest. And while data might predict what that might be (from an existing set of choices), it cannot create these choices from scratch.

Because Big Data is driven by two simple, efficient and profitable concepts: measurement and predictability. Big data can measure our behavior and use it to predict what we will do next.

The Zombie Apocalypse is here. (Bad news: We’re the zombies.)

My Spotify chooses music it thinks I will like based on not only my data, but that of millions of others. Amazon guesses what it thinks I will buy next. It’s good business. It’s efficient. Accountable. Quantifiable. And it makes us dumb.

It sucks to be reduced to an algorithm. Because predictable is boring. While they may be able to predict, to a degree, what we’ll listen to or buy, the stuff that makes us interesting is where we don’t stick to the script. This is the paradox Big Data represents for the ad industry.

Data-driven marketing is the equivalent of driving while only using your rear view mirrors. It’s great as long as the road is straight. But life is not interesting unless there’s curves.

Fortunately for us, and I mean for all of us with a heartbeat and a pulse, there is a human element that Big Data will never effectively replicate.

And that is humanity.

The organic nature of our humanity is the one thing that can’t be reduced to an algorithm. Which, my friends, is where we come in. Advertising is at its best when it is interesting. And many times, that is found in the unexpected.

Big Data is not compatible with the unexpected.

No computer could have come up with George Hamilton playing the “Extra Crispy Colonel Sanders.” A bot could not have cooked up “The Most Interesting Man in the World.” No microchip would spit out State Street’s “Fearless Girl” installation. And there’s no way big data would help produce Hormel Pepperoni’s “One Man Band.”

There is a positive side of the digital revolution. Not to reduce us to collective and quantifiable behavioral models, but to unpredictably expose us to the things we would in no other way come across.

There has been a quantum shift in the speed and depth of creation, simply because we have so much more to work with. This is where data has the ability to be the raw ingredients that we can build engaging, inspiring experiences with, instead of simply the funnel they go into, or the yardstick they are measured by.

With great data comes great responsibility. What we do with that is up to us.