Ad Club gone, but student chapter, new design group carry on

CHAMPAIGN – Changes in the advertising business helped lead to the demise of the Ad Club of Champaign-Urbana.

The decades-old club – most recently known as the American Advertising Federation of Central Illinois – dismantled itself at summer's end after not getting enough volunteers.

"It was a difficult decision," said Dana Buerkett, the group's most recent president. "There were six of us that really kind of ran it last year. We tried to revitalize the club, and unfortunately there was just not the type of fiscal and volunteer support to keep it going."

When officers sought volunteers for the coming year, they got only one response.

"It's understandable," said Buerkett, a freelance marketing consultant who once ran a consulting firm of her own. "The economy has changed, the landscape of advertising has changed, and we really re-evaluated what the ad club was about."

John Turner, senior copywriter for Spinlight in Champaign, said the club had a wide membership base, "from writers, designers and account executives who worked in local ad agencies and in-house marketing departments to freelancers."

Twenty years ago, the club served a networking function, and its glamorous CHAAMPS awards event was a way to show off advertising talent to clients and the media.

The club was also a vehicle for disseminating professional information, Buerkett said. But today much of that information is available on the Internet, with "huge databases at your fingertips." Networking is online too, thanks to social marketing and social media.

"Ad clubs used to be very geographically based, but in our wired world, geography is less important," said Peter Sheldon, a former club member who is a lecturer in advertising at the University of Illinois.

Another change: Not as many people work for traditional advertising companies these days. More people work as consultants, partnering with graphic designers and programmers in other parts of the country, Buerkett said.

Plus, those in the advertising and marketing business have had to become more mobile as companies downsize and farm out work to freelancers.

Even geography conspired against the club. A few years ago, the Champaign-Urbana club banded together with its counterpart in Springfield to form the American Advertising Federation of Central Illinois. But the combination was difficult to sustain.

"Trying to combine two cities is a challenge," Buerkett said. "Whatever type of event we had in Champaign, we had to replicate in Springfield to be fair."

Disbanding the chapter means there will no longer be a local round of judging for the national ADDY awards competition.

Area competitors instead will have to enter contests in Peoria, Chicago, Rockford or Indianapolis, and pay higher entry fees if they're not members of those clubs.

At one time, the Ad Club of Champaign-Urbana gave three scholarships to advertising students, Buerkett said. And UI students often entered the ADDY awards competition through the local club.

"What I'm going to miss the most is the student involvement and the ability to give scholarships to deserving students," Buerkett said.

Sheldon said even though the professional club has dissolved, the UI student chapter of the American Advertising Federation is "thriving."

"Our student chapter is the largest AAF student chapter in the United States, and if anything, the scope of the projects they take on is getting bigger and wider," Sheldon said.

He said it's not surprising the student chapter survived while the professional chapter did not.

"When you're trying to break into the business and build your resume, being in leadership and being active is a great thing to show on your resume," he said.

But for professionals, "serving clients and making money is how you survive and thrive," he said. "It's a trade-off: Time put into running a club takes away from time spent servicing clients."

The demise of the ad club doesn't mean a complete end to face-to-face contacts for advertising professionals, though.

While the club was winding down, another professional organization was gearing up, with some of the same members.

Champaign-Urbana Design Org launched in February and has more than 50 members, said co-founder Madelin Woods.

"Most people involved with CUDO are graphic designers, though we do have some Web designers and marketers," Woods said. "We do have a fair amount of former Ad Club members in our group."

So far, the new organization has held gallery shows, networking mixers, studio tours and philanthropic events, she said.

Among the most popular: "Pecha Kucha" events, where artists and designers come together for a "high-energy extravaganza." Each presenter is given just six minutes and 40 seconds to "strut their stuff," she said.

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