The AME Awards honors not just campaigns that are creative, but campaigns that hit the bullseye for brands, triumphing in both creativity and effectiveness and AME’s Grand Jury are the genius minds associated with many of AME’s award-winning entries.

AME’s Grand Jury’s high standard of excellence ensures that AME’s 26-year legacy is upheld and respected globally both by winners and industry reports measuring creative distinction.

2020 Grand Jury Member Patricia Swindle, Founder of The Loring Partnership, is a C-Suite marketing and brand consultant. An award-winning innovator, she has guided the strategic and creative direction of world-class iconic brands that change consumer behaviors and deliver measurable results. For the last 2 years she has consulted to Russell Stover on their brand position, agency hiring, and helped create and launch their first brand campaign in over 20 years. The campaign, Make Happy.™, debuts in national media on September 30.

Her passion includes teaching Integrated Marketing at the University of Chicago Graham School where she emphasizes the power of modern technologies and media to increase customer engagement, market response and measurable effectiveness.

AME Awards: Tell us about your process of creating and delivering effective results.

Patricia Swindle: My mantra is, “it takes a village”.  I teach integrated marketing and I start my class by telling them advertising is a team sport. Gone are the days of the “lonely creative”.  A great process starts by understanding that too much process kills creative thinking.  A great brief that is single-minded and creatively inspiring is a critical first step. It should never come as a surprise to the creative team. The right people have to be at the table from the beginning and that usually means in addition to the creative team, someone from media, strategy, content management, and production. Then it becomes an iterative process of give and take, one-on-one conversations and team reviews: listening, debating and brainstorming.

AME Awards: As a strategic creative, what do ads that have taken the brief and turned it into a campaign that transforms opinions, evokes action and raises the bar for the brand have in common. 

Patricia Swindle: First and foremost, ads that transform opinion and evoke action are based in emotion. Emotion drives behavior. So great and effective ads are culturally relevant, address a real consumer tension point, and perhaps most important, they entertain. In sum, they have all the elements needed to create and strengthen memory structures for the brand and when you have that, you have a right to make a call to action. When I look at last year’s AME winners, all of them shared these principles even though they ranged from package goods to fashion to not-for-profit and then some. 

AME Awards: Why are effectiveness competitions like the AME Awards important? 

Patricia Swindle: Effectiveness awards are more important than ever in today’s marketing climate. With increasingly diverse targets, an infinite number of media channels, and client emphasis on performance, we are all in a learning mode. I have been a long-time fan of the AME Awards especially because they offer a public forum that facilitates open discussions across disciplines and gives marketers access to best in-class solutions. 

AME Awards: What makes you share you time and energy to participate on the AME Grand Jury and what do you hope to learn? 

Patricia Swindle: Serving on the AME Grand Jury is a privilege and a true learning experience every year. Marketing and advertising changes every month with new technologies, new channels, and new ways of thinking about creativity. The AME lets me see the best of the best all in one place and challenges me to really think about the key trends, as well as what is truly effective in driving meaningful business results and achieving creative greatness. 

AME Awards: What campaign or campaigns are you most proud of and how did it move the needle for the brand?

Patricia Swindle:  I have had the privilege to work on three famous and highly effective campaigns. As a consultant to MasterCard in the late ’90’s I was part of the “Priceless" team.  That campaign literally turned the tables on the category and elevated MasterCard to a true competitor with Visa. I then had the great fortune to work with Unilever/Dove on the foundation and expression of "The Campaign for Real Beauty”.  That work created the platform to transform Dove from a beauty bar soap to a worldwide portfolio of beauty products.  I think that I am most proud of McDonald’s “i’m lovn’ it” which led to 10 straight years of year-over-year growth.