Get the Message

The American Advertising Federation—Suncoast held its 50th annual ADDY Awards this winter, honoring the best advertising campaigns in the region. We asked five of the top honorees to tell us the thought process behind the magic. All of these campaigns have won Amy Awards (an award given to an entry receiving the highest score in a particular category), a Judge’s Choice and/or Best of Show. Applause, please!

Speaking the Language

CAP Brand Marketing

Client:1st Guard Corporation

Awards: Amy and Judge’s Choice

Project:To create color advertisements for trade publications

Challenge: To reposition the company and help it compete against bigger firms with bigger budgets

Solution: Venice-based 1st Guard Corporation sells insurance policies to owner/operators who lease trucks to big companies. To best reach potential customers, 1st Guard needed to speak truckers’ language. “We went to truck stops and hung out all day, talking to truckers and observing what was going on,” says Sam Stern, partner and CEO at CAP Brand Marketing.

Doing so helped CAP come up with a whole new message and look for 1st Guard, everything from a tough-looking mastiff guard dog logo to a tagline (“the trucker’s insurance company”) to the eye-catching ads that ran in the publications Truckers News, Overdrive and Custom Rigs. (One read, “Why should I have to pay extra because some joker doesn’t understand the concept of slippery when wet?”) Stern says CAP realized that 1st Guard needed a new attitude. “If you want to play with the big boys, you’ve got to look the part,” he says. “The client hadn’t advertised in a few years, so we had to redo everything.”

The makeover took three months and generated buzz at 1st Guard’s first trade show following the face-lift. “They had their best trade show ever,” says Stern.