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Agency:

Client:

Description: A brief description of the work and creative idea:

Amperspam: Turning Holiday Spam Into Real Good

A handcrafted, cured meat font designed to spam people for good this past holiday season. Carved from actual SPAM, our one-of-a-kind typeface transformed a symbol of excess and digital clutter into a powerful tool for awareness and action. Instead of just filling inboxes with holiday spam messages, our unique creation was downloadable and all proceeds went to local food pantries—turning a playful concept into something meaningful. By reimagining SPAM as both an art form and a call to action, we turned the familiar into the unexpected, ensuring that every message sent carried more than just words—it carried impact.

The Brief: What was the brief? What were the challenges and objectives?:

Make it Matter & Make it FUN.

The brief was simple: Create an agency holiday card/email that cut through the clutter, grabbed the attention of advertising and trade media, and, most importantly, raised money for good causes in the cities A&G calls home: Boston & Philadelphia.

In the creative ad community, agency holiday cards have become a battleground for bold ideas—each year, agencies push the limits with increasingly extravagant and unconventional executions. Standing out in this landscape is no small feat; it takes a truly one-of-a-kind, never-before-seen concept. As a small independent shop with limited resources, we faced an even greater challenge: making a big impact while punching well above our weight class.

Solution + Results: How did you solve the brief? What were some of the results?:

Creativity with purpose breaks through. Amperspam, crafted in under a week, made a bold impact across email, social, and industry press.

Email: With a 64% open rate and 9.8% click-through rate, our campaign outperformed industry benchmarks and drove strong traffic.
Social: Our launch post became our most-viewed of the year, reaching 3,000+ accounts, 69% non-followers—proving the idea was Unignorable.
Press: Within 24 hours, AdAge featured us alongside 14 top agencies. MediaPost and DesignRush soon followed, and by midweek, ADWEEK highlighted Amperspam as a standout example of creative giving.
Fundraising Impact: At $12 per download, we raised over $1,000 in just two short weeks to support local food pantries.
Industry & Global Reach: The campaign sparked buzz across the industry, including a 4A’s callout (using our font!) and international interest from BOLD SCANDINAVIA in Stockholm for commercial use.
Bonus: A “Double Thumbs Up” from indie agency McGarrah Jessee made our day.

AI Usage (optional): Did you use AI in any part of this work? If so, what was it?:

We chose to handcraft the typeface rather than use AI because the physicality of carving SPAM by hand added authenticity, craft, and a deeper connection to the message. The imperfections and textures made it uniquely human—something AI couldn’t replicate. Plus, the process itself became part of the story, reinforcing the effort and care behind the initiative. And finally, we had FUN doing it!

As for the materials, we ensured nothing went to waste. After photographing the type, we used the remaining SPAM to cook a meal. It was a conscious choice: not just to create something visually compelling, but to do so in a way that honored the very issue we were addressing.

Where This Was Entered (optional): Which other shows did you enter this work and in which category/categories? It helps with context, and listing only:

This work was entered into ADC this year under the categories of digital campaign as well as "Wild Card" category.

Executive Creative Director:

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