Backchannelmedia

Backchannelmedia

Fairfield, Iowa hawthorne direct, the direct response television advertising agency, won two Aurora Awards at the 9th annual competition. The Evinrude E-TEC informercial, produced by hawthorne direct in association with Crammer-Krasselt and Mojo, earned the highest honor of Platinum Best of Show in the infomercial category while A Treasure's Trove won the Gold Award in the same category.

"Having two of our productions earn such high merits at the Aurora Awards is a great achievement," said Timothy R. Hawthorne, founder, chairman and executive creative director of hawthorne direct, "We are humbled to be recognized by this panel of talented film and video professionals."

Evinrude E-TEC Infomercial Description:

This infomercial introduces a new and advanced outboard motor from Evinrude that is faster, tougher and needs less maintenance than other leading outboards. The objective was to create a documentary-style long form advertisement highlighting the design advantages of the new Evinrude E-TEC 2-stroke engine. The program compares the new E-TEC to the competition in head-to-head comparisons including a drag race between the Yamaha and Mercury 225 engines against the 225 E-TEC. All of the competitions were adjudicated by third party involvement and were independently documented by a separate documentary film crew. The creative features beautiful footage from speeding boats and overhead shots from a helicopter. The target audience was to be men 25-60, who love to fish and want the best, most efficient and reliable outboard motor available.

A Treasure's Trove Infomercial Description:

The A Treasure's Trove infomercial introduces the consumer to treasure hunting with the family. Michael Stadther, author and multimillionaire, hid clues to find treasure valued at over one million dollars. Clues to find the treasure were hidden in his best selling children's book, A "Treasure's Trove." The illustrated book and CD were offered via direct response television for $29.95. The special television offer also included a companion puzzle book, four illustrations from the book that may be framed and a stuffed animal featured in the book.

The Aurora Awards competition is an independent film and video competition for commercials, cable programming, documentaries, industrial, instructional and corporate videos. The Aurora judging panels are chosen from award winning industry professionals, mostly writers, producers, or directors who are previous award winners, from throughout the United States. Each entry is rated on its effectiveness, creativity, and production quality against an absolute scale of excellence, allowing each program to compete on its own merits rather than by arbitrary comparison with the competition.

hawthorne direct is a full-service direct response advertising agency, specializing in creative and production, long and short form media buying, telemarketing/fulfillment management and integrated marketing.

For more information about hawthorne direct, please see www.hawthornedirect.com.