This past Saturday night, our team had the privilege of attending the annual AAF Hermes Awards Ceremony. This is an amazing night, where the best of Dayton’s advertising professionals come together and celebrate their achievements. Over 400 people attended this year’s event, held at the Dayton Marriott.

In addition to all of the agencies and other professionals being recognized, this year special recognition was given to Sara McCatherine, the director of AAF Dayton. Sara was awarded the AAF Silver Medal, a recognition of an individual making outstanding contributions to advertising and who have been active in furthering the industry’s standards, creative excellence and responsibility. Congratulations, Sara!

Two of our projects were honored with Silver awards. Our web design for Wright State University – Hotspot placed Silver in the Elements of Advertising – Responsive Web Design category. The Wright State University HotSpot showcased the experiences that living on campus brings to students. The HotSpot was designed as a showpiece on a touch-screen display at open houses for prospective students and parents. Viewers could touch any box, which would then expand and take you to external websites, if selected. Additionally, viewers could scan a QR code to visit the HotSpot on their mobile phone.

Another project for Wright State Instagram Scavenger Hunt also placed silver in the Digital Advertising – Games category. This was a really fun project where students were assigned teams based on their residence halls and took photos from a pre-designated list. Students uploaded photos to Instagram and/or Twitter and included two hashtags; “#wsuscavenger” to enter the contest, and a second specific to their room assignment, such as “#JH1” for Jacob Hall, First Floor. The website allowed students and visitors to view submitted photos and served as a checkpoint to see which photos had been collected. Floors with the most photos collected by the end date won items like free Chipotle, suites at basketball games, bookstore gift cards, etc.

Both projects came out of several enthusiastic brainstorming sessions with the client, determining what the target audience (Wright State college students) would be most engaged with – in these cases, their cell phones and the popular social media platform, Instagram.

On both projects, Carla Hale was project manager, Paul Garcher was graphic designer, and Josh Cope was programmer. We are very proud of our team and can’t wait to see what next year holds!

Pictured Left to right: Paul Garcher, Designer; Dan Bertsos, Director of Residence Life and Housing at Wright State; Carla Hale, Project Manager; Josh Cope, Programmer.

Pictured Left to right: Josh Cope, Programmer; Carla Hale, Project Manager; Brad Cullman, President; Paul Garcher, Designer.

Carla Hale, C-3′s Social Media Manager, will be teaching “Social Sense: Effective Social Media to Enhance Your Business”. The class is presented by Sinclair’s Workforce Development and in partnership with the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce.

The class will focus on using Social Media effectively for your business. With today’s options, you now have the unique opportunity to join in engaging discussions with your customers, others in your industry, and key influencers like never before.  Find out how you can effectively employ the social media basics, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as well as how to evaluate new developing technologies and trends for 2011.  Determine how to create and implement your Social Media Strategies and Goals to ensure your increased success.

The class will be held July 20 from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Register for “Social Sense”.