My CAB Award

June 8, 2004

From March to May of 2003, Cherri Ellis and I headed up the commercial production for a Johnny Rockets TV spot. The entire production was racked with drama and frustrations as you can read about in the DefVideo section of this site. By virtue of having the honor of winning Charter Media's award for top :30 spot in the Gulf Coast Region, the spot was automatically submitted to the Cable Television Advertising Bureau (CAB) for consideration in their national awards.

The highly coveted CAB award is the top award in this country in the cable advertising industry. Awards are given in market size categories. I received word in mid-May that the Johnny Rockets spot was a national finalist in the category of markets with 200,000 to 500,000 subscribers. This alone was already a huge victory not only for Cherri and me, but also for my department and the entire company. The other finalists in my category hailed from Saginaw, MI; Albuquerque, NM; St. Paul, MN; and Wichita, KS. The awards banquet was to be held in Chicago on June 8th and the company was flying me up for the evening.

Well, Cherri had flown up a couple of days earlier and I arrived on the morning of the 8th. They put me up in the Chicago Hilton (overlooking Michigan Avenue near Lake Michigan and Soldier Field) for the night, with a morning flight back to Birmingham. All the major cable networks and various vendors catering to the advertising industry were represented in the expo. I picked up a few knick-knacks with network logos on it. Patrick Duffy was there at the ESPN booth promoting SoapNet and I saw a Discovery Channel-themed motorcycle made by the crew from AMERICAN CHOPPER. That evening I joined Cherri, our regional chief Farrel Ryder, and our regional marketing executive Steve Burbank for the awards ceremony.

And guess what? We WON!!! It was a great moment. The ballroom was filled with all the industry leaders. Every President, VP, CEO, etc. of every cable company was there as well as the chief Sales and Marketing executives from every cable network. Ed Helms from The Daily Show on Comedy Central was the MC. When he called my name it took me a couple of moments for it to hit me. My spot was then screened on the big projector for everyone to see and only when it started and Cherri started running for the stage did it hit me that I needed to go up there.

The spots were judged by a committee of Marketing executives from a handful of cable nets (MTV, Court TV, Food Network and some others). Mine was selected from a pool of a little over 800. All of the highest level suits from my company were there and they are thrilled for the win just in terms of image for the company. The statue is kind of small, but very heavy. It's golden-colored and is in the shape of a TV set (with a cable box) sitting on top of this, like, classical Roman pillar. "Cable Advertising Awards" is engraved into the TV screen. It's all on a pedestal with our info on it. You can take a look at it here.

I come back to work today and I find out that management here is going to put a huge marketing push behind the whole thing. They are writing up a press release and sending it out to all the ad agencies in the state, as well as business journals and trade magazines. And, also, the newspaper here in Birmingham. I don't know if the paper will pick it up but some of the trades might and I've been told that I may get a few interview requests within the next week. Today, the office is holding a little celebration at 4:00 so that everyone in all the departments here know how big a deal it is. I'm excited and a little embarrassed. It's a nice spot and all but it doesn't cure cancer or anything. But more important than the spot (and much more important than me) is the fact that the company can blow its horn, strut around a little bit and maybe attract a couple of big clients that it hasn't been able to get before. (If that happens, I'm asking for a bonus!) Woo-HOO!

The award is a victory for everyone in the department and in no way do I see this as an individual award. I did the storyboards, directed the shoot and edited the piece together. But Cherri handled all the (very frustrating) client meetings, hired all the talent, arranged for the cars, did all the scheduling, costumes, and props. The other people in my department all helped with the location shoot and James Carr did a lot of the color effects and rotoscoping for us.
It is a team victory all the way and it is something that Charter Media is very proud of. I'm just happy to be a part of it.