The University of Minnesota took home the win at this year’s district NSAC competition! After months of research, planning, and practice, five student teams from AAF District 8 (North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin) pitched their campaign to a panel of esteemed judges.

Minnesota creatives took the regional American Advertising Awards by storm! More than 30 entries scored big this year—many of which are now headed to the national stage to compete with the best in the business.

Every year, the next generation of advertising greats come together to enjoy a weekend of community, collaboration, and creativity. This year the event was hosted here in Minneapolis at Colle McVoy.

Since 1906, AdFed has been the heartbeat of Minnesota’s advertising community. From agencies to students, we’re the go-to hub for networking, education, and celebrating the creativity that puts Minneapolis on the global map. The AdFed legacy is one of impact and innovation, and now we’re excited to welcome a new Executive Director to help make that legacy even more enduring. 

Welcome, advertising enthusiasts, movers, and shakers! Have you been wondering who’ll be at the helm for the 2024-2025 board year? We’re happy to introduce you. This team of power players is ready to bring fresh energy, unbridled creativity, and some serious momentum to the Minneapolis advertising community.

Are you involved in the advertising community? Do you work for an agency or larger company that communicates in some way? Do you make cool shit? Do you like seeing other people make cool shit? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, keep reading because you might be a great fit for the AdFed Board of Directors.

The Paul Foss Award is given out every year recognizing an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the Advertising Federation of Minnesota. They have dedicated their time, energy, and passion to helping AdFed and Ad 2 grow, by bringing impactful programming to our community, recruiting board and committee members, and being incredible representations of what our association stands for.

This year AdFed honored two brilliant, dedicated, inspiring women with this award – Kate Kearns and Althea Larson, who both currently serve on the AdFed Board of Directors.

It’s time to submit your life-changing creative and design pieces! Entries for The Show 2024 are now open. Read on for details about how to enter, deadlines, entry fees, and more. Then mark your calendar for Friday, March 1 to celebrate (and take home some pins) at The Show.

Are you involved in the advertising community? Do you work for an agency or larger company that communicates in some way? Do you make cool shit? Do you like seeing other people make cool shit? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, keep reading because we’ve got an opportunity you won’t want to miss.

Congratulations, Madeline Betsch – AdFed’s 2022 Silver Medal Award Winner.

The Show ‘Best Of’ Winners 2022

Tickets for AdFed’s The Show Now on Sale

AdFed’s The Show 2022 is back and it’s happening in person at the Minneapolis Institute of Art on March 4th. Tickets on sale now for $75 per person.

Women’s Leadership Panel 2021 – I’m Good: A Conversation About Mental Health

This year’s theme is a timely and important topic for our advertising industry to address. The pandemic changed the way we work and made us more aware of how it impacts our mental health. During this event, we’ll dive into topics such as hustle culture, burnout, setting boundaries, active communication, self-care, knowing your worth, and the great resignation.

At the start of 2020, mental health was a topic on everyone’s mind. There is no doubt that the global pandemic massively changed how we work and live, but the spring of 2021 held much promise, specifically around a “return to normal.” Now, three quarters through the year, in many ways we seem to have found ourselves back where we were at the start of 2020.

For 32 Under 32 this past year, Ad 2 worked with Digideck. 

With the onset of Covid-19, our team was forced to pivot to digital solutions for many of our annual events. After witnessing some minor technical issues with our first few shows of the year, we knew we wanted to knock it out of the park with a unique digital experience for our 32 Under 32 Awards. 

Are you involved in the advertising community? Do you work for an agency or larger company that communicates in some way? Do you make cool shit? Do you like seeing other people make cool shit? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, keep reading because we’ve got an opportunity you won’t want to miss.

Fredrikson & Byron P.A. attorneys John Pickerill and Courtney Thompson covered a lot of ground in their Advertising Law Trends presentation on April 1, 2021. If you missed the program, here are a few of the highlights!

For 95 years running, The Show has been the best party in Minneapolis. It has everything: Egos. Awards. Booze. High fives. Hugs. Tears of joy. Tears of vodka. Coat checks. Everything.

Needless to say, this year was a little…different.

Brought to you by Ad 2’s D + I Committee. The Twin Cities are home to organizations that support the Ad, PR, and Marketing community and help young professionals advance their careers. Highlighting these hidden gems and their incredible resources: Soona, The Minneapolis Egotist, Extra Grind, Boundaryless, and The BrandLab. This is the first event of its kind for Ad 2!

A new virtual spin on the classic event mixes virtual and physical elements for an event like never before. AdFed’s The Show is back for 2021 in a whole new format – an immersive virtual experience. It’s THE SHOW 2021: because nothing on earth can quench the creative need for praise. This award ceremony has celebrated Minnesota’s advertising community’s achievements in creativity for almost a century. The Show 2021 will be the event’s 95th year.

On January 27, AdFed went where all winners go – Behind the Pin! AdFed sat down with some of the “Best Of” winners of The Show 2020 as well as the judges who deemed them worthy to discuss what makes work #winning.

As the unprecedented 2020 has brought us many challenges, it was time to dive deep at this year’s Ad 2 Women’s Leadership Panel. With the new virtual format, leaders in the advertising industry got together to talk about Difficult Conversations. 

In a time when diversity and inclusion are becoming common buzzwords in the corporate world, we knew we needed to do our part to create actual change within our industry. That is why we kicked off our Representation Roundtable Series this past month. These sessions serve to give people access to raw conversations about the biases and prejudices that minority professionals face in this industry – and more specifically, within our Twin Cities ad community. 

AdFed sat down to have a candid conversation about mental health in the advertising world because let’s face it, it is a crazy world out there and it takes a toll. While living through a global pandemic and civil unrest, many of us may be feeling bouts of despair, anxiety or profound sadness. These are emotions that people who struggle with their mental health feel every day of their lives (with or without a pandemic).

The past week has been deeply painful for Minneapolis and America alike, as we were once again witness to the death of a Black man at the hands of the police. This is not the first time this has happened in America, much less Minneapolis.

Let’s take this time to focus on the task at hand: justice for George Floyd, the rebuilding of our great city and protection and celebration of our Black community and their allies.

We know it’s crazy out there right now. Some of us are old enough to have lived and worked through the 2008 recession and know this feeling all too well. The good news is that, even if it doesn’t feel like it right now, there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. And sometimes it’s even brighter than the light behind you.

If you’re finding yourself in this situation, here are a few steps you can take right now.

When the #shelterinplace order was mandated and you were told to work from home, you probably felt one of two things: excitement about the idea of working in pjs or stress about the idea of your kids/roommates barging into your virtual meetings every two seconds. But if you are like most people, you have since realized there are a lot more considerations than just comfy clothes and kids/roommates that factor into the work from home experience.

At AdFed, we are thinking about how to ease your mind as you apply for additional capital for your agency or business – because we all know it’s about the MOO-LAH! In addition to it being trying time for everyone, the chaos of constantly changing programs and plans make it even more difficult to navigate. However, our friends over at Lurie are experts and have organized an incredible list of resources.