ThinkNW, the organization unifying Pacific Northwest advertising, marketing and media professionals, students and talent, has launched the first Cascadia Creative Awards (CCA).
CCA is designed to be a new annual multidisciplinary awards program to honor the most creatively driven, impactful and effective work of the year from agencies, brands and professionals in the Pacific Northwest. While there are other local awards shows, this is the first program that unites the creative industry across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, British Columbia and Alaska.
ThinkNW invites brands, solo practitioners, students and creative shops of all disciplines to enter, including advertising/marketing, branding/design, production and post-houses.
“This is about making a new creative tradition. What makes it different is the competitiveness between the markets. It’ll be fun to see how the competitive side comes out in people,” said ThinkNW co-founder and executive director Doug Zanger, who is a former ADWEEK agencies editor.
Zanger went on to say that CCA is market agnostic and wants agencies from all over the wider Pacific Northwest to enter the competition. He also noted that it isn’t trying to replace any awards—like the Rosie Awards that celebrated Portland, Oregon creative talents until it ended in 2019—but rather to celebrate the wealth of talent all over the region.
The inaugural Cascadia Creative Awards will honor the year’s most inspiring and effective creative work across eight categories: TV/video, audio, media, OOH/experiential, social/mobile, design, B2B/corporate and entertainment/gaming. There are also two additional categories, bold creative thinkers and student, which will showcase unique thinking and up-and-coming talent.
The program will be judged by a selection of global creative professionals led by jury president Laura Jordan Bambach, a London-based, globally recognized innovator and industry leader. She is a past president of D&AD and the founder of a mentoring platform, OKO. She is also the co-founder of SheSays, a network that works to encourage more women and non-binary people into the creative industries through mentorship, networking events and training. Previous roles include president and CCO of Grey London and co-founder of creative agency Mr President, where she served as chief creative officer.
“We know from awards like Cannes, the Pacific Northwest has a great deal of creative talent and vision,” said Jordan Bambach in a statement. “I’ve never seen a region so strong compete against each other like this. I am excited to see the powerful work and thrilled that I’m the first jury president, launching a new tradition that unites the region.”
Zanger said that Bambach is the best person to help launch the event as jury president because she knows how to build businesses and attract more high-level judges to elevate the work coming out of the region.
ThinkNW partnered with the Portland Garment Factory to build a unique CCA “trophy” for the 10 category winners, with the goal of creating the industry’s most sustainable award. ThinkNW will reveal the award at a later date via LinkedIn Live.
Originally founded as The Oregon Advertisers Club in 1906, ThinkNW is one of the first ad clubs in the United States. Today, the non-profit is cultivating and bridging generations of talent and leadership across the Pacific Northwest through various programming and events that aim to raise the visibility of its members. Aside from CCA, other tentpole events for the organization include a Q3 golf outing and a Marketing All-Stars event in November. The goal for the agency is to ramp up events and programming for the future.
The 2024 Creative Cascadia Awards winners will be announced at a celebration during the week of June 3 in Portland, Oregon. Call for entries open today and submissions will close on May 1.