Betty, Quad’s creative agency, won a bronze Effie Award for its “So Clean. So Hot.” campaign for household cleaning client CLR Brands, securing one of the advertising industry’s most prestigious honors for marketing effectiveness. Unlike many creative awards that focus on craft alone, the Effies celebrate work that delivers measurable business impact. Betty earned the accolade for reinvigorating a legacy brand for a new generation of consumers, demonstrating the agency’s ability to turn bold, strategic creative thinking into meaningful business results. Rise, Quad’s full-service media agency, was also recognized as a contributor for its leadership of the integrated media plan.
The American Advertising Federation’s (AAF) three-tiered American Advertising Awards competition further underscored Betty’s position as a leading creative agency, with Betty collecting a combined 49 awards across the local chapter, district and national tiers. The annual competition is the advertising industry’s largest, attracting more than 25,000 entries each year, and Betty’s winning work spanned a range of disciplines, mediums and industries.
At the local Minnesota chapter level, Betty earned one Best of Experiential, two Judge’s Choice, nine Gold, seven Silver and 21 Bronze ADDYs awarded to work for seven different clients.
Notably, “So Clean. So Hot.” was also recognized by the American Advertising Awards. The campaign collected a Judge’s Choice award, two gold, four silver and six bronze awards across both campaign and individual spot categories, as well as awards for specific craft disciplines like art direction, copywriting and video editing.
“Our mission at Betty is simple: create great work that works greatly,” said Chief Creative Officer Mike Caguin. “Receiving recognition for copywriting, design, editing and experiential work is a testament to the Betty team’s ability to deliver ideas that help our clients grow and that make our mothers proud. Getting to celebrate our teams and see their talent recognized by our industry peers is one of the best parts of being in a creative business.”
Betty collected a “Best of Experiential” at the Minnesota ADDYs for its Heckova! Trade Show creative, a booth design and interactive experience that included partnering with social media personality RxCKSTxR to lend a voice to “spokesdogs” thanks to a hidden microphone. Other award-winning client work included efforts for Natrol, The Minnesota Lottery, Cub Foods and NinjaTrader, reflecting a breadth of clients from Betty’s portfolio.
Last year’s “Wrap the Gap” agency holiday gift project inspired by the legacy of Betty Quadracci, Quad’s co-founder and the woman behind the agency’s name, also collected three bronze local ADDYs in self-promotion and art direction categories. The project was a limited run of wrapping paper designed with a 20% gap in the pattern to highlight the senior leadership gap women face in the workplace while also driving donations to Milwaukee Women Inc., an organization Betty Quadracci helped establish.
At the district level, where Betty’s gold-winning local work competed with the best entries from local advertising clubs throughout Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, Betty collected four more gold awards for its work on Heckova!, CLR Brands and Minnesota Lottery, as well as a Judge’s Choice award for art direction in the “Strip Tease” spot for CLR Brands. The gold entries advanced to the final, national level of the American Advertising Awards, where “North 5” for Minnesota Lottery was awarded a Silver ADDY for Elements of Advertising: Music With Lyrics.
