Go Wild For Knitting with Wild Wooly

Last night I attended the local Addy Awards put on by the RAF (Rochester Advertising Federation), one of the many clubs affiliated with the AAF. I hadn't been to the annual awards ceremony in a couple of years and thought it was time to reconnect with some of the people in the local ad community, especially since I was previously on the RAF board for 8 years as well as a past president. I also just wanted to have some fun.

Well I have to share with you the entry that won the Best of Show... Go Wild For Knitting which includes the funny blogged adventures of the Wild Woolies. Who would of thought that a ball of yarn would win over big brands such as Kodak, Bausch & Lomb, Wegmans, Constellation Brands and Xerox!

Well, it did and it just goes to show how social media combined with great creative can build a brand and connect with an audience very quickly. The campaign allows you to follow the Wild Woolies as they make their way across the country and invites you to locate them, pass them on, add your comments and share what you've done with your ball of yarn. All from a little shop in Rochester, NY called Wild Wools owned by Lucinda Snyder.

One of this year's Addy judges, Jane Murray, Associate Creative Director at Ogilvy & Mather in Toronto said about the entry "The fact the campaign was so quickly embraced, adopted, loved and propagated by the people it was intended for, told us that Wild Wooly was our hands-down winner".

I recently read an article on the Click Z Network By Rebecca Lieb "Why is a Website Like a Women", which she summarizes the book "Marketing in the In-Between: A Post-Modern Turn on Madison Avenue" by Len Ellis, who was Wunderman's EVP of Global Strategy. Lieb goes on to quote "Why is a Web site like a woman? Both want you to talk to them. This is a strong listening metaphor and a powerful argument as to why businesses would do better to invest in inbound, rather than outbound, marketing...such as why big agencies are so slowly and inadequately rising to meet interactive challenges."

I salute the women creative team that created the Wild Woolies campaign and who definitely rose above the interactive creative challenge, while both not being from any of the "big agencies". Congratulations to Anne Esse, designer and Kate Sonnick, copywriter. In today's Rochester Democrat & Chronicle Anne modestly gives Kate credit for the concept. While I personally haven't have the opportunity yet to work with Anne, I have worked with Kate and can say she is one of the most creative people in the business. 

I'm really anxious to find out what Phase 2 of the Wild Woolies will be. Can you ladies give us a hint?

Comments

[knitlit kate]

i'm wild about this post. thanks donna!

[Anne Esse]

this post is great! Thanks Donna! Hopfully we will get to work together someday..... :-)

[Donna DeClemente]

Thanks Kate and Anne. I'd love to work with the two of you together on a project soon. Let's talk about adding a promotion to further promote the Wild Woolies.