Build A Fish + Maker’s Mark Murals: Advertising 2020 Winners

The regular deadline for our Advertising 2023 competition is tomorrow; enter now and win big like these Advertising 2020 winners!

“Father’s Day Tool Fish” is a clever Platinum-winning campaign by the advertising agency PPK, USA for The Florida Aquarium’s special Father’s Day promotion, which offered free admission to dads for the Father’s Day weekend. Admiring the aquarium’s initiative, PPK wanted to develop an image that would grab people’s attention and bring this offer to life in a compelling way through posters, billboards, social media, and web assets. As the campaign’s theme and message, PPK focused on emphasizing how exciting and unique the aquariums’ gift offer is compared to more average Father’s Day gifts. This was represented with a one-of-a-kind fish made out of tools (the most common and stereotypical Father’s Day gift) to encourage people to “think outside the toolbox” by taking their dad on a free trip to the aquarium. The Florida Aquarium liked the creative so much that they used it in outdoor, digital ads, and web assets, and after the campaign’s launch, the poster’s eyecatching “tool fish” paired with the aquarium’s free admission offer stood out amongst the more traditional Father’s Day promotional imagery and sales, attracting a lot of attention and buzz from the local residents and leading to a strong turnout at the aquarium that weekend.

Maker’s Mark is a leading bourbon distillery based in Loretto, Kentucky, and is often regarded as America’s first premium, handmade bourbon. However, as the brand continued to grow in the bourbon sector, it soon realized that with its immense success and transition into a larger company, its target market has begun to associate them less with the “craft bourbon” image that is often reserved for smaller independent brands. To rewin their audience’s trust, the distillery worked with the team at Doe Anderson Advertising to create an out-of-home (OOH) campaign, which has historically been one of Maker Mark’s most popular and effective media platforms.  

“’Craft’ is more than just a label in the distilling industry. It’s a distillery’s character and the promise that its bourbon is always made with “care, conviction, and dedication.” To embody this ethos, Doe Anderson decided to create “Maker’s Mark Hand Painted OOH Murals” (above), utilizing the brand’s colors and bottle likeness as the stage for the campaign’s main message: “Character isn’t Made by Machine.” According to the agency, the act of painting the murals became just as important as the final product, as passers-by often paused to watch the artist’s work. To complement the murals, the campaign also includes a digital aspect that would give consumers a deeper look into Maker’s Mark history told through “bite-sized” videos and social content. As a whole, the brand campaign proved to be a success, driving volume gains for the Maker’s Make above their competitors, with its mural earning Doe Anderson a Gold award in our Advertising Annual. 

To see the complete list of our 2020 Advertising Annual winners, click here. Or if you’re interested in submitting your work to our 2023 competition, click here.