Best of The Best Ad Contest

GRAND PRIZE WINNER: 2012 "Best of The Best Ad" Design Contest

Destination Mazda wanted an ad eaking down all the numbers involved in financing or purchasing a new Mazda. I'm not a numbers guy, so while reading the clients emails I thought to myself, this should be simpler - like in school. Bam. We had our theme. (Submitted by Matt of Black Press)

Runner-up

I loved the Metro Frame and had waited for an excuse to use in in a design. The poster project for the Bluffton Block Party was perfect! Because the Block Party was being advertised as an All American Day, the colors and the stars were just what I needed. The logo for the event incorporated another piece of Metro art... a silhouette of a family having a picnic. Again... perfect. 2 banners and t-shirts were also printed for this event using this art. I am very pleased with the design and the event was an unqualified success! (Submitted by Julie, The Low Country Sun)

Runner-up

This is a poster i designed for the 2012 PRCA Rodeo. I have been designing posters, ads and web advertising for this event for the past 5 years but this year is definitely my favorite design :) (Submitted by Courtney, The Eagle Newspaper)

Runner-up

This is an ad I created to promote our quarterly magazine, it's a play on the Devil Wears Prada movie poster. (Submitted by Stacey, Albert Lea Tribune)

Runner-up

Christmas themed group page for local Golden businesses. Each business's ad was made in the shape of an ornament. (Submitted by Tina, Colorado Community Media)

Honorable Mention - Great Tribute

This is a promotional piece about the anniversary of when Pearl Harbor was attacked. It was a double-truck in our Kanabec County Times. (Submitted by Marah, Kanabec Publications)

Honorable Mention - A Real Custom Feat

Recently, Destination Auto Group came to the NewsLeader with a bizarre request. Could we create custom-made wrapping paper around the outside of our paper that, when opened, would reveal a custom-made chocolate box full of next year’s top vehicles? (Submitted by Matt of Black Press)

Honorable Mention - Most Eye-Catching Cover Design

Our 2012 College & Trade School Directory is an excellent opportunity to promote your school’ s name and best features to thousands of potential students and their families outside of your regular market! The directory will be delivered to all local schools participating in the Newspapers in Education Program, so your advertisement and message will be seen by thousands of high school students as well. (Submitted by John, New Castle News)

Honorable Mention - Great Contest Idea

Brickyard themed Group word scramble page for newspaper (Submitted by Tony, Home News Enterprises)

Honorable Mention - Great Idea for All

Home party group page for newspaper (Submitted by Tonya, Home News Enterprises)

Honorable Mention - Beautiful Editorial-style Design

Built in InDesign for our yearly Progress Edition. Wanted something simple showcasing a variety of their vehicles. (Submitted by Roland, Del Rio News Herald)

Honorable Mention - Best Direct Mailer

Tokyo Japanese was a direct mail advertising piece we needed to have designed quickly, so in that instance the Spec Ads & Covers section came in really handy!! (Submitted by Krissy, The UPS Store in Kokomo)

Honorable Mention - Great use of Premium Placement Design

Our local liquor store advertised in our Bridal Edition. I figured it was my chance to use one of your premium placements designs! Upload (Submitted by Kristi, Zachary Plainsman News)

Honorable Mention - Excellent Web Ad

I created this ad for a gymnastic studio, I used their uniform colors and tried to make an exciting and beautiful design that showed what the future students could look forward to. (Submitted by Kimberlee, Civitas Media)

Honorable Mention - Effective Community Service Page

National Drunk & Drugged Driving Prevention Month. Each customer has a full colour logo with contact information. Also includes a 'Key' message to our readers. All graphics and the article from Metro. This printed very well, I was very pleased about that! Here I feel the written messages hold the same impact as the graphic messages; packs a punch! (Submitted by Manuela, Estevan Lifestyles)

Honorable Mention - Great 2-color Design

After Christmas Sale ad for a furniture store. Uses N1111P52005C.eps for the base art of this ad. (Submitted by Danny, The Paris Post-Intelligencer)

Honorable Mention - Great 2-color Design Part 2

Furniture store ad using N1210P57016K.eps, N1210P57017K.eps, and leaf eps files for the artwork (Submitted by Danny, The Paris Post-Intelligencer)

Honorable Mention - Clever Halloween Promotion

This is the first year that we have run this page in color. The metro art was very easy to adapt to the pix, making this the best looking page we have ever done for this promotion. (Submitted by Adam, Neighbor News)

Honorable Mention - An Amazing Breast Cancer Awareness Effort

This was a double truck for the Pickens County Courier, Pickens, SC 29671 Breast Cancer Awareness Section (Submitted by Emily, Pickens County Courier)

Honorable Mention - Clean, Fun, On Point

Just trying to keep up with technology... :) (Submitted by Tarsie, Tomahawk Leader)

Honorable Mention - Best Execution for a Difficult Subject

There was a devastating wildfire near here last summer and an advertiser ran this ad. I used Metro artwork as well as my own photo of the first day of the fire. (Submitted by Susan, Berthoud Weekly Surveyor)

Honorable Mention - Perfectly Targeted

This was one of my favorites. (Submitted by Manon, The Item)

Honorable Mention - Excellent Grocery Ad

This was a front page ad for the paper (Submitted by Andrew, The Valley News)

Honorable Mention - Great Product Extension Idea

This is an in house filler ad that we use for our Sign Design studio. It shows some of our examples of our signs we have done with also showcasing our sign design departments information. (Submitted by Amanda, Star Publications)

Honorable Mention - Best Front Page Ad

This was a front page ad for the paper (Submitted by Andrew, The Valley News)

Honorable Mention - A Wonderful Effort & Cause

Every month we run a page with our local SPCA trying to help adopt the animals that are waiting for their home. This was our Christmas design and we were told that 90% of the pets from this page were adopted as soon as it was published. (Submitted by Rebecca, The News Virginian)

Honorable Mention - Gotta Love This Self-Promo

This ad was created for a house ad to promote the Birth Announcements that we run. (Submitted by Connie, The Press/The North Ridgeville Press)

Honorable Mention - Great Use of the LBD

A full page ad to stop our newsprint readers and get them curious about our upcoming magazine, "Gloss". (Submitted by Terah, The Winchester Sun)

Honorable Mention - Great Use of the LBD

A Quarter Page promotion for the Black Friday Ads. (Submitted by Ryan, Peoria Journal Star)

We are in the business of publishing community magazines, it was quite exciting when the small town of Havelock celeated their 200th Homecoming this summer - The Ridge Restaurant took out a 3/4 page ad for the occasion. (Submitted by Caitlin, Ossekeag Publishing)

Benson Ford, Full Page Car Ad. Ran in the Pickens County Courier's Great Outdoors Special Section. (Submitted by Emily, Pickens County Courier)

We wanted to create a big splash for Emmerson Pools this summer so we created this ad using metro's fantastic pool photography. (Submitted by Caitlin, Ossekeag Publishing)

Holiday Section Section Advertisement (Submitted by Sara, The Leader)

Our annual Christmas greeting page. I had fun using Photoshop tricks to make our name look frozen, and took apart some metro art to create the rest of the ad. Hoping to spread Holiday Cheer! (Submitted by Terah, The Winchester Sun)

It's a full page ad for Vernon Auto Group. I used the turkey parade float with a starry leaves background. The background is actually the same image used twice, the bottom half is the top half just flipped with both top and bottom blended in the center with a 90 degree Linear Gradient feather of 68%. (Submitted by Gloria, The Vernon Daily Record)

A promotional Qtr page ad for our 12 days of Christmas contest. (Submitted by Ryan, Peoria Journal Star)

This ad for J.A.D.D.E. was in our Discover section of our shopper. It is a full page, tabloid-size, black and white ad for dance and music lessons provided in our area. (Submitted by Marah, Kanabec Publications)

This ad is a 1/4 page for our shopper. K&R Meats is advertising their specials for the holidays. (Submitted by Gail, Kanabec Publications)

This was a fun project to be included in a 'saver coupon" book for a pet groomer. I loved the image I found of the wet dog and and ran with a "date night" idea. The dog bone border from Metro worked perfectly for the coupon. The client was very pleased. (Submitted by Julie, Lancaster)

Coupon book ad for local pizza place (Submitted by Tonya, Home News Enterprises)

Spring ad for local market & greenhouse (Submitted by Tonya, Home News Enterprises)

Political ad for local coroner (Submitted by Tonya, Home News Enterprises)

Ad for local high school chorus group (Submitted by Tonya, Home News Enterprises)

Mardi Gras party ad for local bar/eatery (Submitted by Tonya, Home News Enterprises)

Zumba ad for local fitness/dance center (Submitted by Tonya, Home News Enterprises)

Event calendar for local hotel (Submitted by Tonya, Home News Enterprises)

I designed this for a local company in Camilla to run in the newspaper. (Submitted by Sarah, The Camilla Enterprise)

I designed this for an event in Albany this past year (Submitted by Sarah, The Camilla Enterprise)

The dealer wanted an ad promoting Sun Tracker pontoons, not much else was provided. (Submitted by Staci, The Papers, Inc. / WI Auto & R.V.)

This is a Halloween poster made for a local bar to promote a concert they were having. I used the zombie from Metro's resources and combined it with different textures to give it a vintage worn out look. Made in Photoshop & Illustrator (Submitted by Michael, Studley Printing & Publishing, Inc.)

Local car dealership running a pencil ad for the holidays. Most graphics are from Metro's website. (Submitted by Matthew, El Paso Times)

Advertisement for local winery's strawberry festival (Submitted by Bill, Metro)

Coca Cola ad for east cancer awareness special insert (Submitted by Bill, Metro)

Black Friday ad for local mall (Submitted by Presley, Metro & Thinkstock)

ad for local cabinet company (Submitted by Tonya, Home News Enterprises)

Small b/w ad for school reunion (Submitted by Tony, Home News Enterprises)

This was a "save the date" ad for an event we helped sponsor I also created the Band Bash logo for the event (Submitted by Dawn, Bryan Times)

Its for a idal show coming in Feuary that our company puts on. Its a huge money maker and a big deal to local businesses. Brides to be come from all over. I wanted to show that it would be a hip, modern show with a lot to offer without looking cluttered all at the same time. (Submitted by Jill, Columbia Basin Herald)

Ad built in InDesign for our yearly Progress Edition. Generic ad made for a local real estate company. (Submitted by Roland, Del Rio News Herald)

This ad was developed for a local grocery store, the ad is displayed in our "Holiday Cheer" section. (Submitted by Bryan, Tomahawk Leader Newspaper)

This was ad I designed for the Tomahawk Main Street "Win The Window" promotion. As you can see, they had several holiday "window" options, so I tried t make it a "warm" and "inviting" scene you might see looking through the window. (Submitted by Melissa, Tomahawk Leader Newspaper)

This was a favorite of the customer's as well as in our department. The Salesman, Mark Pekuri loved it as well. The customer pretty much gives us creative license and this is what we came up with for their most recent upsize color ad. (Submitted by Manon, The Item)

Local baseball legend Bobby Richardson turned 77 this year and a few of our local businesses opted to celeate by placing an ad. This was one of the creations. Bobby is a former Yankee's second baseman who was born and raised in Sumter, SC and came back to retire after his life with the Yankee's. (Submitted by Manon, The Item)

This was just a fun Thanksgiving Dinner Web ad done in Flash. I thought it would be fun having the turkey try to flee in fear. It is Illustrator art oken down to make it animated. I had lots of good feedback on it and was happy with the way it turned out. (Submitted by Michael, Shaw Media)

This is an ad from a Travel Series that we ran in the newspaper over a few weeks in the summer of 2012. (Submitted by Jennifer, The Daily Republic Newspaper)

XSIV Boardshop - providing name ands for skateboarding, snowboarding, motocross, bmx and wakeboarding. Always fun to design ads for xsiv. Ad some extreme sport pics from Metro a splash of very cool and voila! Moonlight Madness + xsiv = cool ad. (Submitted by Manuela, Estevan Lifestyles)

Needed something to showcase one of our local restaurants in an attractive manner, while making it something alluring to the eye. Also needed to fit in a good bit of information while eaking it up so it didn't look intimidating to read. (Submitted by Sherry, The Times Leader)

We have a Sanctity of Human Life Section that runs in our paper. The businesses and churches that run in this trust me to make them powerful, yet gentle ads that gets the point across without being over the top. This ad was one of my favorites. I could not resist when I saw the beautiful art work. (Submitted by Sherry, The Times Leader)

I created this ad for a salon, I wanted to make if fun and express Kountry Kutz style. (Submitted by Kimberlee, Civitas Media)

This ad was for a vineyard. I wanted it to look inviting and romantic. (Submitted by Kimberlee, Civitas Media)

This is an ad I created to promote a feature in an upcoming issue of our quarterly magazine, of an interview with Rosanne Cash. It's a play on one of her dad's album covers. (Submitted by Stacey, Albert Lea Tribune)

This is a full page ad that I made to promote our holiday gift subscriptions. (Submitted by Danielle, Dodge County Pionier)

Self-promotion web graphic for our newspaper's graduation section (Submitted by Karen, The Paris Post-Intelligencer)

Self-promotion web piece for our Easter coloring contest (Submitted by Karen, The Paris Post-Intelligencer)

Gulf Coast Cellular We can't seem to live without our cellphones. Our little communication devices are our lifelines to our friends, families, work and beyond. (Submitted by Effie, Thrifty Nickel)

9th Avenue Bingo: It's cold outside and it's the Christmas/Holiday season. Play Bingo, win, and use those winnings to purchase that special gift. (Submitted by Brian, Thrifty Nickel)

Staff Christmas card ad. (Submitted by Hannah, Humboldt Journal)

Fall Special Ad (Submitted by Hannah, Humboldt Journal)

This ad was for our Holiday Gift Guide. Artwork used: N1210P53002C.eps, N1211P21009C.eps (Submitted by Andy, Paris Post-Intelligencer)

We made this company's logo with your products years ago in black and white but this year they wanted a web ad that showed their services. Art used: N022585K eps, N0904P55041C.eps, and portions of N0908P54017C.eps (Submitted by Chad, Paris Post-Intelligencer)

This ad is for our bi-annual farm edition for our weekly newspaper. (Submitted by Daniel, Power County Press)

This was an ad for our local high school newspaper. (Submitted by Daniel, Power County Press)

Created in 2012 for a 2013 Pet Calendar I put together for The Empire-Tribune and Brownwood Bulletin. (Submitted by Joseph, Stephenville Empire-Tribune)

The client wanted to have Santa painting pottery. They were very happy with the image we used. It blended well with the background for a very effective ad. (Submitted by Adam, Neighbor News)

A re-imagining of an old and dated ad for a client of The Empire-Tribune (Submitted by Joseph, Stephenville Empire-Tribune)

For the Westside one we used a story from the Editorial section accompanied by a photo & many of the advertising spaces on the back contain artwork from Metro. (Submitted by Krissy, The UPS Store in Kokomo)

Wanstall's had received a new shipment of the industry-standard hunting rifle, the Springfield Armory M1A Standard, and wanted to promote it without being tacky. Knowing next to nothing about guns, I spent an afternoon researching the rifle and Wanstall's customer base in order to come up with an effective ad. While flipping through photos of fresh kills made by the hunting community in Maple Ridge, I let my mind wander in order to come up with the ad copy. I noticed the hunters were all very proud of their prey, so I wanted to portray that in the headline. Like a cowboy ad. Or Texas Ranger. Or Highlander. Something with strength and attitude. Since it was 2012, my mind eventually went to zombies and survivalism and I came up with "If only the strong survive, then I'm sure glad I ought my M1A." A hunter armed with the industry-standard rifle would certainly be a good partner to last the zombie apocalypse. Although, as long as he didn’t become a zombie, I think I’d side with Highlander. (Submitted by Brian, Black Press)

This was a house ad we ran for new subscribers, while also supporting the local wrestling club. During the time the house ad was running, it also happened to be around the Thanksgiving holiday. The house ad also spilled into the Christmas holiday and a Santa replaced the courageous turkey. It was a good opportunity to run a fun holiday ad. (Submitted by Bryan, The Tomahawk Leader)

This was for our Municipal publication. The ad qualifies to receive co-op reimbursement. (Submitted by Staci, The Papers, Inc)

This ad was designed to remind readers that as wonderful as the internet maybe, there are just some things that a newspaper still does better. (Submitted by Tim, Lander Journal)

cyber sale for december for a local car dealer (Submitted by Misty, Rensselaer Republican)

An ad for a local casino to ing some cheer to a cold, long winter. (Submitted by Tim, Lander Journal)

Through the use of graphics and color i believe I was able to feature several different items for this ad without having it be too cluttered. They were very pleased with the final look. (Submitted by Misty, Rensselaer Republican)

This ad was created for a local church who was holding an Easter Egg Drop for the first time and wanted their ad to really stand out. (Submitted by Meagan, Star Printing Company)

This ad was created with a mix of Metro graphics and pictures of the customer's own food for a new restaurant in the local area. (Submitted by Meagan, Star Printing Company)

The client wanted a ight, colorful ad that was also "catchy." (no pun intended, lol) (Submitted by Melissa, Tomahawk Leader)

This was the cover for our Social Security tabloid in September 2012. All the photos used were from Metro. (Submitted by Martha, New Castle News)

This was the cover of the New Castle News' Breast Cancer Awareness tab in October 2012. All artwork is from Metro. (Submitted by Martha, New Castle News)

This was our 2012 Student Housing Day tab cover. I gave the original Metro artwork a complete overhaul: I added faces to the students, drew clouds in the sky, changed colors on just about every element, removed cluttered patterns, gradients, etc. Next, I added some local elements like the cows, ducks, bikes, and our famous Davis water tower to give it that local flavor. (Most of the artwork was downloaded from Metro and later altered to make a cohesive design.) (Submitted by Rita, The Davis Enterprise)

Had one of our local Antique stores looking for a classy ad for a new full glossy ad to insert in our paper. Tried to make it short and sweet and still get the important information on there. (Submitted by Kim, Horse Trader)

One of our weekly advertisers, they are always so much fun to do, they like lots of color and information. (Submitted by Kim, Horse Trader)

Community & Visitor Guide to Lawrence Cty Lawrence County is represented throughout Pennsylvania at local distribution centers, Welcome Centers and rest areas from April through September; take this opportunity to offer your unique products and services. (Submitted by John, New Castle News)

This fall colored ad was used to invite customers in to enjoy wine & snacks while they shopped for new jewelry. (Submitted by Mary, Lakes News Shopper)

This jewelry ad wishes the graduates "ConGRADulations" and shows off the fun of tossing their hats with their goal of receiving their diploma. (Submitted by Mary, Lakes News Shopper)

This is an annual thing our news paper does, I fell in love with this Metro template and spiced it up a bit with a banner, and font changes :) (Submitted by Shayla, The Hub)

A promotion run to get people excited about using local businesses to get their after holiday clean up started (Submitted by Jill, Columbia Basin Herald)

This ad was fun to do because it captured every aspect of a fair. From the clowns to fireworks. I really love working with black backgrounds because it makes color pop. Originally this ad was killed, which means the client didn't want to run it, but I found out later that they loved it and reordered it the following week. (Submitted by Michele, Newsday Media Group)

It was really exciting to create this Christmas ad using both a photo and an illustration and have them work so well together. (Submitted by Michele, Newsday Media Group)

This ad was created for our Coupon Book that runs at the end of every month. (Submitted by Connie, The Press/The North Ridgeville Press)

Sometimes simple says it all (Submitted by Michael, Shaw Media)

This is a Spec ad I created for a potential client for Allegany Magazine, a publication of the Cumberland Times-News. (Submitted by Jeremy, Cumberland Times-News)

This is a campaign I did for our paper's latest contest (the first page of the PDF is the teaser ad that ran as part of a 4-page wrap to garner interest). I was given free reign in terms of imagery and since it's winter, and most people like to get away from the storms and snow, I thought it would be cool to design it like an "scary/action-y" movie poster. Apparently it worked and made people want to open the paper to see what the image and contest were all about. (Submitted by Dana, The Telegram)

A local salon needed a campaign to build interest after a recent renovation. They wanted something edgy and modern to ing in younger clientele. The only pre-requisites were "some kind of splashy stuff. Make it cool!"; this is the result. (Submitted by Dana, The Telegram)

I had a rare opportunity to do a full page, full color ad for our local eye doctor. When I saw this photograph I got the idea and came up with the tagline. They ran it continuously. (Submitted by Susan, Berthoud Weekly Surveyor)