GrahamSpencer was pleased to be asked by longtime client RACVB (Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau) to help create video content for an upcoming 2020 Thanksgiving Weekend WREX-TV broadcast of the community’s annual Stroll On State pre-Christmas celebration.
As Mayor, John McNamara gave us his confidence. He gave us his optimism. He showed us it was OK to love our city – a place with an uncannily persistent inferiority complex.
I was born in 1987 in Rockford, Illinois. In that same year, in the same town, two young men founded a company called GrahamSpencer. As their business matured and I grew up, Americans have witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall, the destruction of the World Trade Center and now the COVID-19 pandemic.
Amid C-19, as if that alone and its shock waves weren’t enough, in Utah we have experienced earthquakes, brush fires that burned acres and threatened the possible evacuation of our home, watched the world in political and social unrest, and my back has been on the fritz! I mean, how much is enough 2020?!
At GrahamSpencer we had planned to present a case study this week on new work we’re proud of. But, it occurred to us that would be tone deaf and disrespectful. So, our team nominated me to say something representative of our thoughts on current affairs instead.
As many of your know, we at GrahamSpencer have worked in a largely virtual environment for years, rarely all together in the same place at the same time. We collaborate and create work via online apps, email, texts, video conferences and phone calls. And sometimes, via osmosis. Now, even those of us who normally work together in our downtown Rockford HQ are mostly working apart.
For 31 years, GrahamSpencer has been a dominating force in the regional American Advertising Federation ADDY competition (including the original “RADDY” competition before the regional club was affiliated with AAF).
In 2018, GrahamSpencer joined forces with the staff of Bosch’s Chicago Connectory to create, brand and promote an all-new symposium event themed around the Internet of Things.
Rockford, IL May 22, 2018 At the Northern Illinois Advertising Federation ADDY Awards, GrahamSpencer received Best of Show honors for the second consecutive year for its work rebranding a craft brewery.
In 2018, Best of Show work was done for Big Grove Brewery in Iowa City, Iowa. In 2017, it was Prairie Street Brewing Co in Rockford, IL.
GrahamSpencer seems to be getting this beer thing down. For the second year in a row, GS won Best of Show at the American Advertising Federation Northern Illinois Chapter for a our strategy, design and execution of a comprehensive craft brewing company re-branding project.