"That was so fun." Sounds like a perfectly proper phrase, right? How about "Every day should be as fun as a Phillies game?" Sounds fine, right? Nope.

That agency that ran an ad in Ad Agepleading to Cannes Lions officials to add a Verbal Identity category, CBX, is high-fiving itself today because the London International Awards has added the category to its 2015 design competition. Of the decision to add the category, LIA Founder Barbara Levy said: “When I read the ad that CBX took in Advertising Age, although the ad wasn’t directed at us, we realized that LIA needed to take action. As LIA has become one of the most progressive Festivals and continuously works with the industry on what they …

Contest Marketing? Yeah, apparently, it's a thing. I'm not surprised, of course. After all, the ad world is excellent at coining phrases and generally, making stuff up. So Raven5, an Ontario-based agency, has created a series of whitepapers and videos to tout its contest marketing practice. The white paper aims to define contest marketing as incentive-based marketing that uses both email marketing and social media marketing simultaneously. The agency says contests rely heavily on both as traffic drivers; email to alert new visitors to an offer and social media to increase engagement via social sharing. …

According to new data from the CDO Club, the number of Chief Digital Officers doubled from 2013 to nearly 1,000 in 2014.

Former Target Director of Media Strategy Melissa Schoenke is heading to Minneapolis-based Mithun to become executive vice president and managing director of Compass Point Media, the agency's media planning and buying division. Schoenke first joined Target in November of 2011 as group media manager. Before joining Target, she spent time at Carmichael Lynch as account director. Of Schoenke joining the agency, Mithun CEO Rob Buchner said: “The frenetic media world is the most exciting arena to express a brand’s creativity. Our future is in the Creative Sciences, the co-mingling of brand ideas, data analytics, …

Well, here's some good news. Huge, which has always had an unofficial maternity leave policy, has formalized things.

Back in the day, asking a date to the prom was pretty basic. You walked up to the girl and you asked. Or you called her. Today, like everything else in life, it's a bigger deal. Everything about prom is a bigger deal. Bigger dresses. Bigger parties. Bigger limos. And, yes, bigger prom proposals or promposals. Last month, Jed Renfroe, who owns Renfroe Outdoor, was asked by his son if he could use one of the company's digital billboards to post his proposal. Renfroe turned to Watchfire Design creative Spencer Gross who worked up a design that …

The group concludes that if the three months leading up to Cannes in June can do so much for so many, it would make perfect sense for Cannes Lions to occur four times a year instead of just once. No comment From Cannes Lions as yet.

Creatives Without Borders, a nonprofit organization that aims to better the lives of underserved individuals and communities by connecting creatives and doers, has launched a program to show support and bring aid to those in need in Nepal. In addition to providing food and other aid, Creatives Without Borders is encouraging people to send photos, videos and letters to show support for those who have and are still suffering from the earthquake in Nepal. The images will be projected on a large screen on Wednesday, May 6 at 8 p.m. at Naya Bazar in Kathmandu and be …

Seattle-based Wongdoody has introduced a Women in Advertising Scholarship, a fund that will award $5,000 tuition twice each year to women pursuing creative careers in advertising. The scholarship will be awarded once in the summer and once in the winter, to women who are currently enrolled in undergraduate or portfolio school. The scholarship aims to "empower promising candidates to further their education as they work toward an advertising career." Of the scholarship, Wongdoody Executive Creative Director Pam Fujimoto said: “Women are a huge part of Wongdoody's culture and success, and we’ve always worked to …