The Big Idea Chair award, which honors unconventional ideas in advertising, was introduced at Clio's pre-party at the Eden Roc Renaissance Resort & Spa's spacious new pool area. A huge purple chair sat front and center where guests were invited to sit and smile for photographers. Why the setup? To whet their appetites for the new award—an oversized, plush, purple chair that boldly lets winners know their ideas were grand enough to merit such a large piece of outrageous furniture. Concurrently, hundreds of four-inch-tall purple chair replicas were displayed as décor and then given to guests to take home as part of the branding campaign. Naturally, the color purple played a big role in the festivities—"Creative Juice," a specialty drink made of grape juice and vodka, was served at the Yahoo-sponsored "Creative Juice Bar." Purple-hued cosmopolitans were also served to the ad crowd who sat at tables dressed in purple linens.
ACT Productions was responsible for bringing the four-day awards ceremony to fruition, making sure all the audiovisual needs, lighting and décor were taken care of properly. At the 45th annual Clio awards at the Eden Roc—during the portion honoring excellence in print and Internet advertising—Jerry Shereshewsky, Yahoo's ambassador plenipotentiary to Madison Avenue (at least that's what his card said) presented a slide show of this year's big winner—TBWA chairman and chief creative officer Lee Clow sitting on his very own Big Idea Chair.
Following the awards, the Design District's Newton Building housed the after-party, which was co-sponsored by Bacardi and Yahoo. To drive the message home, more miniature purple chairs were displayed prominently and guests were encouraged to take them home as a reminder of this year's big way to stand out among advertising professionals.
—Charlie Ortiz