In partnership with V Foundation for Cancer Research, founded by ESPN and legendary coach Jim Valvano, we launched a new campaign in celebration of their 30th anniversary and Jimmy V’s famous ESPY’s speech. 

In the cinematic tv spot, a cancer researcher gives a “half-time” speech in the NC State locker room, reassuring the world that a cure for cancer is within our reach. Her speech gets the nod of approval from none other than the king of coaching and half-time speeches, Coach K. 

Check out the full coverage here 

Read more about the campaign here 

Connelly Partners is the 2023 AdAge A-List winner for Best Agency Culture! 

Over the past year, we’ve launched new programs, revisited long-standing traditions and gotten rid of what’s not working. The goal was to help employees do their jobs better, serve clients better, embrace curiosity and find the best balance between focus on CP as a business and as a place that continues to fuel and encourage employee life experience. 

We encourage employees to get outside of the office and their comfort zone, and bring those experiences back to the agency and our clients. That’s why we send employees to live and work around the world, provide a student loan paydown program, celebrate tenure with a sabbatical, and more.

With a renewed focus on our culture, clarity on what it means to us and how we can invest in CP in ways other agencies just don’t think to – we’re proud of the culture we’ve built. 

Read more about our win in AdAge here.

Check out the full list of A-List winners. 

In honor of its 30th anniversary, our client, The V Foundation for Cancer Research, launched a cancer awareness campaign featuring Coach K, the former coach of Duke University men’s basketball.

The spot titled “Halftime” features a cancer researcher delivering an inspiring locker room speech on the advancements made in the fight against the disease and the need to continue investing in cancer research to make progress in the future.

The spot ends with Coach K encouraging her on her speech and leading her out of the locker room. 

The campaign was released just prior to the start of “March Madness” and also coincides with what would have been the late Jim Valvano’s 77th birthday. 

Read more the full MM+M article here.

Check out our work for the V Foundation.

Each year, the HSMAI Adrian Awards are held to celebrate achievements in marketing across areas such as advertising, digital, and public relations/communications, with a focus on travel and hospitality. At this year’s 66th annual celebration, our “Life. At Your Pace.” campaign for Visit Williamsburg, won bronze in three categories. 

• Television (Advertising Division)
• Content Marketing (Integrated Campaign Division)
• Social Media Campaign (Digital Division)

In addition to these wins, the campaign has racked up a lengthy list of accolades, including a 2021 Silver HSMAI Adrian Award last year. 

Read more about the HSMAI Adrian Awards here 

Check out some of our work for Visit Williamsburg

Check out the details on last year’s win

Vaunnie McDermott, Managing Director of Connelly Partners Dublin, was the latest guest on John Kennedy’s podcast for Think Business. In it, she talks about how the digital future of advertising is… HUMAN. It’s that human-centric approach that’s CP’s key to understanding target audiences and creating work for clients that moves the needle. Not to mention, it’s that process and anthropological mindset that has also helped the agency land major wins like the National Transport Authority. 

Vaunnie has had a remarkable career. Including 20 years of advertising experience alone! After various positions in Paris, including work as an Au Pair and later a legal secretary, and working alongside Christine Lagarde (ECB President), Vaunnie went back to school to earn a degree in European Business with French and German. 

After she had her second child, Vaunnie plunged into entrepreneurship and opened her own business, Pinkie Hand & Foot Spa, which she ran for ten years before returning to the world of advertising in 2016. 

Have a listen to the full podcast episode below.

The Athletic’s Brendan Marks caught up with Coach K on the set of our V Foundation campaign shoot at NC State. Recently retired Coach K, a friend of the late Jim Valvano, has been continuing the V Foundation’s founder’s legacy by serving as a board member of the organization and hosting events. He is set to appear in a new campaign launching in March. 

Take a read here for a glimpse at what’s to come in Coach K’s second act, including his continued involvement with the V Foundation.

The Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs went head-to-head at the biggest football game of the year on Sunday – the Super Bowl. But for many viewers, the real action was happening between the plays.

Watching the Super Bowl’s over-the-top, star-studded commercials is nearly as time-honored a tradition as watching the game itself. The coveted spots typically air to upward of 100 million viewers, and this year, companies shelled out $6 to $7 million to broadcast their 30-second spectacles.

CP’s chief creative officer, Alyssa Toro shared her thoughts with The Boston Globe on what makes a great Super Bowl spot. She shares that Super Bowl ads are “typically very loud, very gregarious. People want to be entertained obviously, they’re very heavy on celebrities. But as somebody who’s in the industry, I’m always looking for the ones that are smart and a little quieter.”

With that in mind, The Boston Globe broke down the trends that stood out this year and highlighted some of the standouts. 

Read the full article here.

Manufacturers of air fryers probably won’t love the new Air Fried product line from Gorton’s Seafood. That’s because the frozen fish fillets and butterfly shrimp have already been air fried and can be prepared in a conventional oven, without an air fryer—the kitchen appliance made popular by pandemic-induced, at-home cooking.

In the leadup to this week’s campaign launch, Gorton’s relied heavily on TikTok to tease and then reveal the Air Fried line. 

Later this month, Gorton’s will launch an augmented-reality feature involving a filter to “gamify the product and make the brand have a bit more personality,” shared Alyssa Stevens, Director of Influencer Marketing and Social Media.  

Check out the full article here.

Gorton’s social-first approach sees the 170-year-old brand looking to strike a connection with Gen Z and millennials. Ahead of its latest campaign, the brand ran a strategic program to grow its social media following, amassing more than 65,000 followers on TikTok. Today, it has escalated to 90,000 followers. 

To build excitement for the air-fried product launch, Gorton’s enlisted a handful of creators who posted teaser videos featuring the brand’s iconic yellow slicker coat. On launch day, many of the influencers incorporated the product into recipes, emphasizing that the products were already air fried, so the only appliance needed was an oven. 

Over the coming month, more content is expected to drop, including an AR filter that allows users to “try” Gorton’s Air Fried products by catching them in their mouths using the filter. Since launching the campaign, #gortonsairfriedlaunch has gathered over 68,000 views. Creators are increasingly becoming a marketing staple, with 66% of brands last year having upped their spend on such efforts.

Read the full article here.

Exciting client news! The Williamsburg Tourism Council recently announced the success of its advertising over the last year. Williamsburg’s investment of $11.5 million in ad placements has influenced over 430,000 trips to the destination, generating over $830 million in visitor spending as a result. In addition, the Tourism Council’s advertising in 2022 reached 10 million households, a significant increase from 2021’s 4.4 million. 

Read the full story here.