Some of my best (and worst ) inspirations come to me at 4:30 a.m. That happened to me in early February when I woke up thinking about all of the creative marketing ideas I’ve heard about in the last 12 months. Some of them have come from clients, some from fellow ProVisors members, and some from lawyers and other professionals I meet who have a flair for garnering attention.
I decided at that moment that it would be great to give out awards for all of this creativity. I then began ruminating in bed about Latin phrases I could adapt (“The Juris Doctor Awards”, “Marketing In Limine”, “In Re: Marketing”). Suddenly, I was hit with a brilliant inspiration! I’ll call it “The Stevies”. Later that day, in a moment of greater clarity, I reached out to a graphic designer to start working on the artwork. Several days later, I received the sad news: The Stevies was already taken.
Despite the fact that my award was really just for fun (?parody), I decided that it was better idea to use another name and not risk a cease-and-desist letter (thank you Dan Batterman for that advice). After some deep thought (also at 4:30 a.m.–on another day), The Jennys were born.
You may be asking yourself “Who is Jenny”? Jenny is my wife Jenny Gamson. Since Jenny is a much more detailed person than me and someone who likes to analyze things in much greater detail, Jenny is the perfect person to be involved. I may get inspired by something creative that comes across my desk. Jenny will think it through and decide whether the idea is “Jenny worthy”.
The first Jenny Award recipient will be announced on March 17th (Beware the Ides of March). The recipient has already been selected because in many ways, he was the inspiration for these awards in the first place. Stay tuned for more info about that.
I’ll be on the lookout for future award recipients. The nominees must be individuals (i.e. these are not awards for firms). The main criteria are:
- Creativity
- Memorability
- Tastefulness (there may be some flexibility on this one)
There should also be some connection to the services provided by the nominee (again, there may be some flexibility on this).
Have any thoughts? Send me an email at stephen.seckler@counseltocounsel.com and tell me why Jenny should pick you.
In the meantime, special thanks to Ana Broding of Astoana Graphics for coming up with such a great design!
