The Secret to Award-Winning Ad Campaigns: Key Findings
Full-service digital marketing agency Colormatics won big at the 2025 Spokane American Advertising Awards, bringing home an impressive 14 ADDYs.
The agency’s award-winning campaigns included high-profile work for notable clients like PrizePicks, Squatty Potty, Gamma Knife, Sleeper, Spokane Teachers Credit Union, and CDA Casino.
View this post on Instagram
Colormatics' wins came in the following categories:
- Best of Show - Digital (Regional/National TV Campaign)
- Best of Division - Film, Video & Sound
- Gold - Online Advertising
- Gold - National TV
- Gold - National TV Campaign
- Gold - Local TV Campaign
- Silver - Local TV Campaign
- Silver - Online Campaign
- Cobalt - Print Advertising
- Cobalt - Online Interactive Social Media
The ADDY-winning campaigns will progress to the district leg of the competition.
The ADDYs, organized by the American Advertising Federation (AAF), recognize excellence in advertising across creative, design, and media categories.
Squatty Potty’s Happy Tummy Tour campaign won both Best of Show - Digital for Regional/National TV Campaign, and Best of Division – Film, Video & Sound.
Meanwhile, three of Colormatics’ PrizePicks campaigns won awards.
In particular, the Jingle Hoops 2.0 campaign, a hilarious remake of an iconic NBA commercial, won a Gold ADDY for Online Advertising and a Gold ADDY for National TV.
“These awards reflect the strength of our team’s creativity and the trust our clients place in us. Our team is proud of the recognition, but even more proud of the measurable results these campaigns delivered,” said Chris Marcus, CEO & co-founder at Colormatics.
Editor's Note: This is a sponsored article created in partnership with Colormatics.
Wins Beyond Gold
Colormatic’s wins extend beyond the many awards it has won. The agency also achieved significant results for its clients from a marketing and business perspective.
For example, Squatty Potty’s “The Happy Tummy Tour,” a 2.0 rebrand of Colormatics’ original 2015 ad, combined thorough market research and entertaining storytelling to release two well-received ads.
Overall, the campaign was able to achieve:
- 4x return on ad spend (ROAS)
- More than 1 million impressions
- Over 2 million clicks
Likewise, PrizePicks’ “Jingle Hoops 2.0” ad, which featured stars like Druski, Joe Budden, BigXthaPlug, Spice Adams, Kylie “Sketch” Cox, and Funny Marco, was able to take full advantage of nostalgia marketing while engaging a new, modern audience.
The ad was a massive hit on social media across both PrizePicks’ and Colormatics’ profiles.
On the PrizePicks account:
- 3.8 million organic views
- 173,000 likes
- 50,000 shares
- 2,400 comments
On the Colormatics account:
- 700,000 organic views
- 56,000 likes
- 19,000 shares
- 120 comments
For Marcus, all these wins boil down to the perfect mix of science and brand storytelling:
"Campaigns only break through when you understand both the data and the personality behind the brand. We dug into the market research, listened closely to how these brands wanted to be seen, and then used humor as the spark that made the message stick. That combination is what turned creative ideas into cultural moments and business results."
Rethink How Creativity and Data Work Together
If there’s one thing that everyone should take home from Colormatics’ wins at the 2025 American Advertising Awards, it’s this:
The best ad campaigns don’t draw a line between research and creativity. Instead, they build bridges.
View this post on Instagram
When agencies ground ideas in real audience insights and then let brand personality lead the storytelling, they create work that feels inevitable, yet fresh.
With 85% of ad campaigns failing to make a brand-building impact on viewers, based on a WARC report, the margin for error or a forgettable ad simply can’t be shrugged off.
After all, the one thing more costly than creativity is irrelevance.
