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The vox is proud to announce that we’ve received 2 Davey Awards for the Hispanic campaign developed for Vonage- “Vueno Vonito Varato” (a familiar Spanish expression spelled with “B” vs. “V” meaning “Good, Beautiful, Inexpensive”).  This expression was used as a framework to communicate the benefits of Vonage and has been carried through our entire campaign. The campaign which has TV, online, and print components first launched in May of 2010.  Categories placed in are branding/ promotion and business to consumer.

The winners of The 2011 Davey Awards have been announced by the International Academy of the Visual Arts. With nearly 4,000 entries from across the US and around the world, the Davey Awards honors the finest creative work from the best small firms, agencies and companies worldwide.

The Davey Awards is judged and overseen by the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA), a 200+ member organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of traditional and interactive media. Current IAVA membership represents a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms including: Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Yahoo!, Estee Lauder, Wired, Insight Interactive, The Webby Awards, Bath & Body Works, Brandweek, Polo Ralph Lauren, ADWEEK, Alloy, Coach, iNDELIBLE, MTV, Victoria’s Secret, HBO, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Myspace.com, and many others. See www.iavisarts.org for more information.

About The Davey Awards: The Davey Awards exclusively honor the “Davids” of creativity, the finest small firms, agencies and companies in the world. David defeated the giant Goliath with a big idea and a little rock - the sort of thing small firms do each year. The annual International Davey Awards honors the achievements of the “Creative Davids” who derive their strength from big ideas, rather than big budgets. The Davey Awards is the leading awards competition specifically for smaller firms, where firms compete with their peers to win the recognition they deserve. Please visit www.daveyawards.com for more information.

The Davey Awards is sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms. Please visit www.iavisarts.org for a full member list and more information.

by Patricia L. Taylor

On Saturday, March 26, more than 48,000 spectators descended upon la casa de los Raiders in Oakland, California. They were there to watch Mexico face Paraguay, filling the Coliseum with green jerseys of passionate soccer fans that couldn’t wait to see Mexico’s hero, and Manchester United’s rising star, Javier “El Chicharito” Hernandez. Hot from a streak of goals for Man U, the 22-year old “Little Pea”, had traveled from England to play for his beloved national team. And he wouldn’t disappoint.

Meanwhile, Argentina began trending on Twitter around noon that day. Everyone was getting ready to watch “The Best Soccer Player in the World”, Lionel Messi, play for Argentina as the Albicelestes were set to collide against the USA at Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. More than 79,000 spectators broke attendance records there. Not only did they get a chance to root for the boys and cheer for Donovan; this was an opportunity to watch the FC Barcelona master known as “La Pulga” display his craft before USA fans. It just doesn’t get better than that.

For those of us who couldn’t be there to experience the joy of the game in person, Univision carried both matches live, back-to-back. This was primetime Saturday programming where pre-game and half time ads reminded us of the brands that believe in the sport and make Spanish-speaking viewers believe in them. From beer to phones, they marketed their wares to an audience with a soft spot for a wink, a captive minority ready for acknowledgement, a young and energetic target waiting for a pitch. Talk to me, they say.

World Cup year or not, soccer dollars are attractive, soccer passion is alive, and Hispanic soccer fans are an appetizing prey. Univision, Telemundo, Fox Deportes, and ESPN Deportes are driving content with international friendlies, and ongoing coverage of MLS, Mexican League, UEFA, Barclays League, and all the European and Latin American soccer they can find.

With the Gold Cup touring US stadiums in June, and Copa America coming to US television from host country Argentina in July, this is gearing up to be a great year for the sport.

It’s called futbol and the fever is on again from coast-to-coast.

I walked into the lounge and waited, surprised by the brightly colored space. An orange and black pair of rocking chairs sat at the center of the room, even as an Andy Warhol picture book stared up at me. I sat down and waited for my interview, leafing through the Warhol hardback.

Two weeks later, I found out that I had been accepted into The VOX Collective as an Accounts Services intern along with 8 other interns. I was ecstatic and ready to join up. Come Day 1, I felt like a rookie at NFL camp (ref: Dallas Cowboys Hard Knocks). I was eager to learn, dive in hands first and help out; yet apprehensive to feel that first hit! It never came! The team at The VOX took me, along with the eight other interns in as if we belonged there all along. The feeling was great!

Being my first internship, I had asked other friends and relatives of mine who had interned about their experiences. While most had a good number of horror stories about shady internships, uncountable coffee runs, battle scars (a.k.a paper cuts) and slow afternoons filled with filing. A few had great experiences to speak of as well- amazing bosses, ground breaking projects and all the fun aspects of learning from an internship. I hoped to fit into the latter group of few and far in between!

While I could go on and on about all the various projects and daily experiences that made my internship at The VOX an amazing experience, I have selected a few highlights that stood out. To begin with, the work atmosphere was casual. While I just recently started watching the show “Mad Men”; the image in my head of an ad agency was always one of a creative team in dark colored business suits and dresses sitting over drawing boards. However, at The VOX the dress code in no respect sets the standard for the work any team does here. My first real introduction to a campaign’s creative work came from the creative department and Mr. Andres Cortes. I was allowed to sit in on and sketch out my own set of ideas for a logo The VOX was creating at the time. I was thoroughly enjoying this experience because I was sketching away even on the my train ride back and forth from New Jersey and was soon able to contribute to the pool of ideas towards this project. Not to mention I got to see how color, change in imagery and even subtle nuances can add or take away from the meaning a logo portrays and stands for. In the advertising world, this is especially important. Case in point are symbolic logos like the – McDonald’s golden arches and Nike swoosh.

My next few weeks were then spent on putting together competitive decks for one of The VOX’s clients. This gave me an introduction to the inner workings of the Client Services department. While creating campaigns is one part of the agency’s work, telling the client- what geographic areas to target with the campaigns, how much media spend dollars to use towards each geographic area and understanding fellow competitors use of media spend dollars also encompasses a big part of launching a successful and lasting campaign. I got to work on a competitive deck and presented it to the accounts team. The feedback and positive criticism I received for the deck helped me learn about attention to detail and the need to present any information concisely and in an impactful manner.

Last but not the least, the work atmosphere – casual yet all business, while happy hours on Thursday and a casual Friday were the norm this past summer; the level of commitment to work never dropped. This was something I was truly impressed by and hope to work in a similar setting in the near future. No bureaucratic drudgery, ease of access to anyone from the agency’s Accountant to the CEO (all of who were literally over the shoulder) and more importantly an office space that resembled more of a bachelor pad than a workspace definitely made my internship on a day-to-day basis fun.  On the whole, my experience as an intern at The VOX Collective was fun and informative. Going back to college now, I will have the experience to understand theory taught in class and if you are an intern reading this VOX Blog on Day 1 of your internship along with the five or six other interns; believe me, you are in for one fun filled summer and a great internship. Learn what you can from every department at the agency and enjoy New York City to the fullest when you are here! Have a blast!

The next time you hear a voice over on a commercial be it radio or television here’s something to think about- it was not spoken into a mic as the ad was shot. More importantly it isn’t the actor’s voice you are hearing either. I found this out just recently, when I was given the opportunity to assist Broadcast Producer from the VOX Collective Mr. Jose Gallegos for a large department store’s Christmas theme advertisement.The casting for the voice over began, even as the sound engineers and Mr. Gallegos went about readying the studio for the soon to arrive kids. I was left to coordinate them in order, gather their information and portfolios and have them ready to walk into the studio as soon as the recording team was ready. And then it began! Batches of four stepped into the studio and behind closed doors and finely tuned sound systems began recording- voices, laughter, screams of joy and the script came to life.

The fun part for me during this entire process was watching these kids and the way they conducted themselves. Some of them first timers were nervous, practicing their lines over and over with equally anxious parents while others, veteran voice over experts so it seemed walked up to me with a smile, jotted down their information for me, took a seat, recorded in a jiffy and skipped out of the studio. At about the five hour mark, we had gone through 28 kids’ ages four to thirteen, recorded umpteen takes and were ready to make revisions.

Ah yes! Revisions! That simple word doesn’t do justice to the manner in which these voices were handled. The two sound engineers assisting Mr. Gallegos were adept at what they did. Cutting and pasting sound bites into seven samples even as Jose instructed, “Not that sample…” or “Okay let’s cut that one voice from the first sample and paste it over here…” I have to mention though, Mr. Gallegos’ work with kids was amazing to watch, he was quick and efficient yet took the time to warm the kids up to the script and give their best the minute they stepped in front of the mic. The entire process of revising and creating edits from the voiceovers took an hour. During which time I was able to see how detail oriented a sound engineer had to be in placing gaps between voices. I feel this can best be described as “a conversation”, in that an out of place laughter, uncalled for comment or low voices take away from the beauty and meaning of that snippet of conversation. Similarly, the accentuations and pitches you and I hear on radio or television ads add effect to the branding and imagery advertisers attempt to showcase. I found this process very intriguing and the attention to detail mind blowing.

Finally, we were done. Seven samples were compiled in a span of one hour, the kids names matched up to the samples for future reference based on the list I had compiled. The samples were then forwarded to the creative team at the VOX for review, surgical and methodical to pick out the best voices that would emote and capture the audience’s (you dear reader’s) attention and do justice to the brand it would stand for. On the whole, this experience while short; gave me a glimpse of the amount of work that goes into harnessing talented voices and putting them to the best use- reaching customers with a brand message in a memorable voice!

Ok, first let me give credit where credit is due: My 67 year old, conservative yet media savvy mother sent me this link.

It leads to a hub for disillusioned yet Americans in search for a new road map to follow.  Its main attraction is a well produced music video that puts its finger on the pulse of an American Population lost with within the tumult and turmoil that for better or for worse has turned our economy upside down. The premise that “I played by the rules and then the rules changed” is a valid one, if not the most empowering one. Perhaps in this new economy it’s not enough to simply play by the rules of the game, but we must also be prepared to see where the game is going and be prepared for changes. In a way, it’s a kind of therapeutic tool that builds community off of shared stories of personal sorrows. I think ultimately it will be an important part of our American history to chronic these stories of what the average American went through in the depression of 2009.
Its got a catchy tune as well.

http://www.bornagainamerican.org/

The vox collective is once again opening its doors to hungry and talented undergraduate and graduate students with a knack for advertising and marketing as a profession. We have received a great number of resumes and have now begun the process of reviewing applicants. You still have time to be part of the consideration mix. Amonng the areas available are client services support, research, creative (graphic design, project management, copy support). Send us your resume to jbrown@thevoxcollective.com. Kudos thus far to schools like NYU, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, SVA and FIT for sending multiple qualified candidates.