A Snowy Night for Searchlight

By Brooke Nichols

As the snow began to fall on a brisk (relatively speaking – coming from Chicago) New York afternoon, the Yahoo! Searchlight Awards were just about to start. I escorted the Resolution Media presenters, Lance Neuhauser and Neal Wilson, to the Time Life building and it was apparent in the cab that I was much more nervous than either of them. As I mentioned in a previous post, Resolution Media was a finalist for the award. We were fortunate to have the support of FedEx in submitting their Super Bowl 2007 campaign. At the awards, we went up against the following stiff competition:
· Reebok Run Easy – Presented by Carat
· Smirnoff Ice and Smirnoff Raw Tea Summer – Presented by Outrider
· The Members Project – Presented by Digitas

To give a quick summary of the events and presentations, Carat kicked off the day with Eminem’s Lose Yourself filling the room while a vast array of Reebok Run Easy ads flashed on the screen. Then Outrider sent a swarm of preppies to toss beach balls and bling to the crowd while Tea Partay played in the background. Next, we were up with our game faces on to present the Super Bowl strategy with FedEx flare and a couple end zone shuffles.

Lastly, Digitas painted a beautiful picture of their cohesive strategies to promote the Members Project.

I’m sure you really just want to know who the winner was though, right? Well, the audience voted and Outrider won for their excellent work on the Smirnoff search campaign. Congratulations!

I’d like to thank everyone that helped us put together the presentation including our client, Bryan Simkins at FedEx, Diane Weeks and Keri Zai at OMD – our agency partner, and our own RM FedEx Team – Heather Davis and Kate Kana. And a special thanks to Neal Wilson and Lance Neuhauser for doing a great job presenting (and for helping calm my nerves with their confidence and expertise). We're looking forward to bringing home the trophy next year!

Finally, we extend a big thanks to Yahoo! for putting on a great event.