LaughlinOutLoud

Precious Medals

We’re proud to announce that Laughlin Constable recently won four Gold Awards in the International Graphis Awards for advertising. Regarded by many in the industry as one of the most prestigious competitions, LC bested many shops from all over the world to be featured in this gorgeous hard-cover book. Our best showing to date was three golds last year, which we surpassed this year, winning four golds.

The winning work was produced for: Kimberly-Clark (Cottonelle), St. Paul’s Fish Market, The Hank Aaron Trail and the Eisner American Museum of Advertising & Design.

Big credit goes out to Chad Nauta, Kirk Ruhnke, David Hanneken and Gina Ferise.

Our very own Dan LaVigne is also featured in the book for a campaign he did last year while working at Freight Train.  Great work, Dan!

Check out the winners:

Laughlin Constable had a strong showing last Thursday during the 2009 Milwaukee 99 Advertising Awards show.

LC walked away with 13 merits and four metals during the presentation which honored the best 99 pieces of communication produced last year.  The Milwaukee 99 showcases the most outstanding work by various ad agencies, design firms, digital houses and in-house departments from around Southeastern Wisconsin.  In all there were over 500 entries and the 99 finalists were chosen this past July by a panel of five creative directors who came into town from such cities as Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Chicago.

The metal winners were:

GOLD:
Kimberly-Clark’s Kleenex Anti-Viral Tissue “Sleepy Baby Webisode” in the Interactive Viral category

SILVER:
Red Cross T-Shirt “Band-Aid” in the Guerrilla/Ambient category

BRONZE:
Kimberly-Clark’s Kleenex Anti-Viral Tissue “Sleepy Baby“, “Rodeo“, & “Ice Skater“ Webisodes in the Interactive Viral Campaign category
Kimberly-Clark’s Kleenex Anti-Viral Tissue in the Integrated Campaign

Congratulations to all our clients and the many staffers who worked on these projects.  Now let’s get going on more great work for next year!

At Laughlin Constable, we look for the best talent available to the agency.  Always have.  Always will.  We owe it to ourselves and we owe it to our clients.

But that quest for the best talent works both ways.  Job seekers are also looking for the best places to work.  Always have.  Always will.

So, to stand out amongst the masses in a competitive world, it is imperative to be innovative and forward-thinking, and have a flexible workplace.

We believe our agency meets those criteria with programs and policies in place that meet the needs of busy, on-the-go employees.

That belief was verified recently.

We couldn’t be happier to say that Laughlin Constable was awarded two workplace awards for 2009: the annual MetroParent Family Friendly Award and the prestigious National Alfred P. Sloan Award – presented by FUEL Milwaukee – for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility.

The MetroParent Family Friendly Award recognizes companies in the Milwaukee-area that have family-friendly practices in place that go above and beyond the norm.

The National Alfred P. Sloan Award honors employers of all sizes and types that are using workplace flexibility as a strategy to increase workplace effectiveness, yield positive business results, and attract and retain top talent.

It is a core belief at Laughlin Constable to be, and remain, flexible and family-friendly.   It works for the agency and more importantly, works for our employees.

I started at LC in (gasp) 1992… at that time, I was in my mid-twenties and all I cared about was that LC had the reputation as the “it” place to be in advertising.

At that time, kids were the furthest thing from my mind.  But, as the years went by, I met my husband (at the agency!), was blessed with a son, then a daughter and then, at the ripe old age of 39, yet another daughter.  And, my parents aged.  Life changes things.

But fortunately for me, the agency was way ahead of me with family-friendly policies and flexibility.  At the VP level, my job was reconfigured to allow me to focus on one major piece of PR business, just on part-time schedule.  With a super dedicated team, attention to the client never suffered, budgets grew and today – 17 years later – my client is one of our longest standing pieces of agency business.  Everyone is happy… but mostly me because I’m able to enjoy the fleeting days of my children’s childhood while keeping my career going strong.

So, it’s with more gratitude than I can put in words, that I congratulate LC on the MetroParent and Sloan awards for workplace flexibility.  I didn’t go looking for a family-friendly employer way back when, but I honestly can’t imagine what a royal mess my life would be without one.

Even though the days of happy hours downtown after work are gone for me, I’ll gather my kids around me tonight and we’ll raise our juice boxes and organic milk in cheers to LC for well-deserved recognition!

Congrats again, from Hank, Ellie and Mary Jane’s Mom.

As a PR consultant, it is my job to tell my clients’ stories and garner publicity by getting them in the news.  I enjoy it.  And I think my clients appreciate my work.

From time to time though, there are situations that require “tooting my own horn.”  This is one of those times.  But not just my horn.  I’m going to toot Laughlin Constable PR’s horn in this space.  A recent event calls for it.

Hey, if we do great PR work for clients shouldn’t we do it for ourselves, too?

Outstanding work done for Laughlin Constable clients Wolverine, McDonald’s and Café Manna has recently earned our agency three Paragon Awards from the Public Relations Society of America.  We feel pretty good about that.  So we thought we’d share.

So, how did we treat such good news?

• A: Snuck on to the Miller Park field after the awards ceremony and ran the bases before being tackled by the Brat, Polish and Italian.  Not sure what happened to the Chorizo and Hot Dog.  They were asleep at the wheel on security detail apparently.
• B: Took the red-eye to Vegas, checked-in at the Palms and gambled the day away.  All the while carrying our awards around everywhere we went.
• C: Went straight home and got the mandatory eight hours of sleep, and were up early the next day ready to work.
• D: Took the Amtrak Hiawatha to Chicago, hit Rush Street ‘til 4 a.m. and worked out of our Chicago office the following day.
• E: Drafted a press release touting our achievements and hit the local pubs (that’s short for publications).  Although we have been known to hit a pub or two.

The answer?  We’re not saying.  But if you chose “C” you don’t know us very well.

Now that I’m done tooting, you can read the release here.