When an advertising agency like PPK can masterfully craft marketing campaigns that make you care about tiger cubs and crave chicken wings, it’s clear they’ve got versatility and creativity down to a science. PPK’s award-winning campaigns tackled two entirely different challenges with impactful results. Their Big Cat Rescue campaign made us rethink the ethics of petting tiger cubs, while their Glory Days Grill campaign made wings as exciting as Super Bowl game day. Read on to explore how PPK turns bold ideas into unforgettable narratives, proving creativity can drive awareness and appetite.

By: Michael Schillig, Creative Director/Copywriter, PPK

A Win-Win Situation for Two Very Different Accounts

PPK has had work showcased in the renowned Graphis Advertising Annual for the past 17 years. And, in this particular case, it was incredibly gratifying to win Gold for two distinctly different accounts—the popular restaurant chain Glory Days Grill and a prominent nonprofit organization, Big Cat Rescue. 

I’ll start with Big Cat Rescue, which, for more than three decades, has been one of the world’s largest accredited sanctuaries for exotic cats. They’ve provided homes for over 100 abandoned, abused, and orphaned big cats, including lions, tigers, and many other species. Their longtime mission has been to safeguard the world’s exotic wildcat species—both in captivity and in their natural habitats. 

Our assignment was to develop a way to change the public’s perception about petting baby tigers and getting photos with them. We wanted to give people an accurate picture and educate them on why it’s not as cute and innocent as they may think. 

At the same time, we also wanted to visually show how uncomfortable cub petting is for the baby tigers and convey how it is the beginning of a horrible lifetime of cruelty and abuse in which the tiger cubs are continually exploited for profit. Many even end up being killed to sell their valuable fur, bones, and other parts on the black market. 

Since people pet the tiger cubs with their hands, it occurred to me that we could combine various hand shapes to form the face of a tiger cub. I did an initial sketch of this idea and came up with many different headlines, ultimately settling on the line, “A touching experience for you leads to a miserable life for tiger cubs.” Of course, now came the challenging part: bringing this idea to life. And that’s where the skillful hand of senior art director Pat Floyd, critical eye of creative director Javier Quintana, and a lot of great teamwork came into play. 

PPK has a full in-house production studio and team, including several top-notch photographers. But before we shot anything, Pat Floyd and our creative team came up with a wide variety of hand positions that we wanted to shoot. Then, our photographer, Patrick Guyer, shot a bunch of PPK volunteers, capturing all different kinds of hand formations. Pat Floyd painstakingly composited them together in a very realistic and captivating way. 

Our nonprofit client, Big Cat Rescue, loved the powerful poster image and message. It stimulated a lot more talk about this issue and compelled people to learn the real truth at a special landing page that we created called CubTruth.com. Here, we presented the facts about cub petting and helped educate the public on this deceptive way of exploiting exotic animals for profit.

Our goal was to get people to support a ban on cub petting and help pass the Big Cat Public Safety Act—the most critical piece of legislation ever introduced to protect exotic wild cats. We couldn’t be happier to report that the US Federal Big Cat Public Safety Act has since been passed and signed into law by President Biden, ending the private ownership of big cats as pets and prohibiting exhibitors from allowing public contact with exotic cats, including cubs.

PPK Also Achieves Glory in the Restaurant Sector

In addition to scoring gold in the public service arena, we’ve also had some notable successes with Glory Days Grill in the food and beverage industry. 

For this particular assignment, we were tasked with helping them increase traffic for the Super Bowl by promoting some special deals on their famous hand-breaded wings and more. 

We saw this poster as an excellent opportunity to promote their fan-favorite wings in a fun, attention-getting way that football aficionados could relate to and appreciate. Ultimately, we also hoped to create excitement for watching the Super Bowl game on Glory Days’ home turf and position it as a great place to get takeout for the game. 

After compositing the background (goalpost and stadium lights), art and creative director Javier Quintana created a wing in the image of a football, sparing no details, even down to the football stitching that he formed out of a dipping sauce. The final composited scene showed the wing going through the goalpost with my simple but ever-so-appropriate headline, “It’s Good.” 

Our client, Glory Days Grill, loved this dynamic, football-related approach and used the image in a variety of executions—from posters and counter cards to social media ads, in-store digital videos, e-blasts, and more. It certainly grabbed customers’ attention, as several even commented on how much they liked the image. All of which led to a large increase in traffic at the restaurant for Super Bowl Sunday and a substantial boost in sales.

Credits: 

Tiger Cub Petting Truth

• Agency Owner/CEO: Tom Kenney 
• President: Garrett Garcia 
• Executive Creative Director: Paul Prato 
• Creative Director/Copywriter: Michael Schillig 
• Creative Director: Javier Quintana 
• Senior Art Director: Pat Floyd 
• Photographer: Patrick Guyer

Score Great Wings

• Agency Owner/CEO: Tom Kenney 
• President: Garrett Garcia 
• Executive Creative Director: Paul Prato 
• Creative Director/Copywriter: Michael Schillig 
• Creative Director/Art Director: Javier Quintana 
• Account Director: Courtney Babic 
• Account Executive: Logan Haley

Established in 2004 in Tampa, Florida, PPK is one of the Southeast’s most decorated independent advertising agencies. Founded on the belief that sound, strategic creative strategy and communications plans coupled with true partnership and client collaboration will always deliver results. It’s not about egos. It’s about rolling up our collective sleeves and putting in the time, energy, and effort to drive the bottom line, regardless of the business challenge we face. Because at the end of the day, regardless of what category you’re in or what brand you represent, there are a series of business challenges that stare you down every single day. PPK is here to help you overcome those obstacles and take your brand to the next level.

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