ADCC Directions is the most respected show in the country due to their high creative standards and emphasis on craft. Our target was creative professionals working in advertising and design - a very specific demographic who are also very critical of the annual ADCC campaign every year. Past years have emphasized familiar award show themes, so we wanted our campaign to feel different. We interviewed award-winning creatives and discovered a simple, obvious insight. Creating great work is really, really hard. There are so many things that can derail the execution of a great idea, from client modifications, to budget cuts, to similar ideas being launched the week before your own. True creative greatness is so rare, that we knew we had to celebrate it. Each piece helped to build a powerful story along our campaign theme: Celebrating the improbability of greatness.

The campaign was comprised of three printed pieces, all within a design system that was stripped back to be as simple as possible, putting all of the focus on the concept. Each piece created a different physical experience for the recipient. The call-for-entries poster was delivered in a gold bubblewrap envelope, hinting at the precious contents within. The poster was printed on the thinnest paper stock available, causing many of them to be ripped, proving the poster’s headline to be true: Greatness is fragile. The event invitation required a full minute of scratching to reveal its message: Greatness requires patience. The final piece was the Directions 2017 Annual, handed out at the event itself. It was displayed under UV lights to reveal a final message in UV-sensitive ink: Greatness must be seized for it is fleeting. A message that disappeared forever once recipients left the event.

Results are difficult to measure for this kind of campaign, though feedback was unanimously positive with several recipients posting the pieces on social media. Long-time ADCC Executive Director Dawn Wickstrom remarked “We have never, ever, done anything like this before.”