So, we decided not to chase consumers with the typical offers and features — the same offers and features they’ll find at just about every other financial. Rather, we focused on charming them, appealing to their emotions, and showing them that Black Hills is different… At Black Hills, it’s like a family. We tried to boil that down as simply as possible. Our message: Join the family.

To illustrate this, we tied into people’s sentimental stories of a family member teaching them about money and savings. Often, these are the very experiences that shape their beliefs about money. These commercials are a montage of on-the-street interviews with real people sharing their stories or talking about advice they received from a family member. We focused on the funniest, most touching and most universal.

For nearly five decades, Graphic Design USA has presented national design competitions that spotlight areas of excellence and opportunity for creative professionals. The American Graphic Design Awards is the original and flagship, open to everyone in the design community: advertising agencies, graphic design firms, corporations, institutions, publishers and more. It honors outstanding work across all media: print and collateral, advertising and sales promotion, corporate identity and logos, internet and interactive design, packaging and p-o-p, broadcast and motion graphics.

The 2011 American Graphic Design Awards attracted a remarkable 8,000+ entries; a very select 15 percent were recognized with an Awards Certificate of Excellence. Rapid City-based marketing and communications firm Message will be featured for their work on the  2011 Black Hills Ammunition product catalog. The 20-page catalog showcased the entire Black Hills Ammunition product line while also shedding light on a handful of Black Hills Ammo’s trusted employees. The resulting piece is a testament to the dedicated souls who clock in every day to produce the world’s finest ammunition, right here, in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Message’s work will be published in the 300-page American Graphic Awards Design Annual — which serves as a combined November/December edition of Graphic Design USA.

GD USA

The idea of the campaign was to flip the traditional studio portrait on its head in an interesting and humorous manner while visually conveying a person’s passion and love for Americana music. The taglines, “As real as it gets” and “Music with a story” reinforce the idea that Americana music lovers, whoever they may be, take their music seriously. Very seriously.

Photography: Aaron Packard

Hair, Makeup & Styling: Chelly Halterman + Dennis Smith + The Factory Salon

Learn more about this great community event: http://www.thedahl.org/americana-music-festival.html

Friday, September 23 Headliner: Haley Bonar

Saturday, September 24 Headliner: Lionel Young

Imagine taking a photo of an Olympic weightlifter at his most powerful moment. You probably think of him holding the weights above his head in triumph. Or maybe he’s midway through the lift, grunting and vein-bulged. But the moment that conveys the most power is actually that split second right before the lifter raises the weights off the ground. This is the point at which human intention is strongest, where the future hangs in the balance.

It’s no different for someone who decides to change her life by going back to school. The greatest emotionally charged moment is the moment that decision is made. In that instant, anything is possible.

The following tv campaign for National American University captures that moment in a series of passing days and welds it to National’s simple proposition: Be a full-time student just one day a week. Our intent was to slow down our audience and make them think, to actually get them to stop what they’re doing for half a minute. As a society, we’re accustomed to taking days for granted and this spot is all about undoing that and seeding the truth: In the end, it only takes one day to change all the rest.

This year’s National award show was held in conjunction with the AAF National Conference;  June 1-4, 2011. in San Diego, CA.

Other nationally winning firms included BBDO, Venables Bell & Partners, GSD&M and Leo Burnett. Regional winners included Olson, The Karma Group
and Martin Williams.  This win marks the first national award in this competition for AAF-Black Hills.

View AAF- Black Hill’s National ADDY Award Winner here

Photo/Design Courtesy of AAF-District 8

Rapid City-based marketing and communications firm Message earned Best of Show honors and a Judge’s Choice Award at the AAF-District 8 Regional competition in Minneapolis, Minnesota for a brand video created for Black Hills Ammunition. The video showcases how the zeal and quirkiness of Black Hills Ammo’s employees provides the ultimate connection to the ammunition they produce.

In addition, Message won three golds for a product catalog photo series, print campaign and integrated brand campaign for Black Hills Ammunition. A silver Addy was also awarded for Black Hills Ammunition’s full-page ad.

The ADDY® Awards are the nation’s largest advertising competition. Each year the competition begins at the local level with the 210 AAF clubs across the country. Entries must first be submitted in a local competition to be eligible for regional and national competitions. Local winners advance to one of the 14 regional district competitions and District winners advance to the national finals. The National ADDYS® are held in conjunction with the AAF National Conference; June 1-4, 2011 in San Diego, CA.

Advertisers featured in the AAF District 8 show included Martin Williams, Olson, Appleton Coated, Adventure, Insight Marketing & Design, Lawrence & Schiller and the Karma Group, among others.

View AAF-District 8′s Best of Show Award Winner here

A full list of AAF District 8 winners can be found here

Message won 6 gold and 7 silver ADDY awards for work entered in print, broadcast, design, sales promotion and mixed/multiple media marketing categories.
This year’s ADDYs had more than 120 entries from Black Hills area advertising agencies, design firms and marketers. Message also won the Tommy award or Best of Show
in the mixed-media, national consumer category for Black Hills Ammunition.

Margaret Skillman was awarded the Silver Medal Award, which recognizes those who have made outstanding contributions to advertising
and have been active in furthering the industry’s standards.

The 2011 AAF-Black Hills ADDYs were judged by nationally recognized creative directors, including Adobe Systems Flash Evangelist Paul Trani
and Senior Writer/Producer Barbara Ruser from SKAR Advertising.

Notable agencies participating at this year’s AAF-Black Hills ADDYs included TDG Communications, Robert Sharp & Associates, Bernard Marketing,
Ross Johnson Design and Aurora Creative.

Here’s a link to the 2011 AAF-Black Hills ADDY Awards Video Entries- Featured is our work for Black Hills Ammunition, Big Brothers Big Sisters
of the Black Hills and Special Olympics Black Hills.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twP01lymLhg

Message was pleased to work with Black Hills Ammunition on a video showcasing the grit, zeal and quirkiness of their employees. Because of these people and their connection to the ammo – Black Hills is counted among the finest in the world.