Canada's Next Top Ad Exec - And the winner is...

Warning... small novel ahead.  Would have made it more of a blurb, but it wouldn't have given the moment justice.  Plus, with the communication strategy we presented now property of General Motors, I had to fill space with something...

After three months, gallons of coffee, plenty of pints, good times, cold stares, and a lot of work, the Canada's Next Top Exec journey came to a thrilling, and entirely surreal climax for Kailee and myself.

On Sunday, March 25th, Kailee and I ventured to Toronto, Ontario for the three-day Top Ad Exec finals, hosted at the Toronto centre Intercontinental Hotel.  On Sunday we met our amazing fellow contestants, took pictures, and had a group dinner.  Monday we went to advertising agency MacLaren McCann for a tour and internship interviews, except for Kailee, who soldiered back to Hamilton to write an exam, only to come back in time for the Ad Exec industry and alumni dinner (and announcement of our victorious Quest to Win challenge).

Our wreck of a room, the night before

Tuesday, of course, was the big, huge, important day.  As much as I would love to say that we had been prepared for ages, got a great night's sleep, and woke-up bright and early and first in the prep room to learn the order of the day's presentation, none of that would be quite true.  We were working on our presentation into the wee hours of the morning, when we finally decided to go to bed, and by go to bed I mean lay down in an anxious/sleepy haze.  That is of course until we were awoken by a phone call asking where we were, and why we weren't with everyone in the prep room, which we promptly arrived at in pajamas, to find everyone else in suits.

We returned to the room, knowing that we were presenting 4th (roughly around 11:00am), got ready, had breakfast, and kept plugging away, practicing and refining our presentation.  We did one final practice, and proceeded to the presentation room, feeling both as prepared as we would ever be, and ready to be done with it all.

Upon setting up, we were waiting nervously to get started in a room of 23 academic, marketing, auto, and consumer packaged goods industry judges, when one of the judges, Mike Speranzini, Director of Advertising and Communication at General Motors, casually started chatting with us, he told us that he also went to McMaster University, and wished us luck.  Days after the presentation, we emailed him to thank him for everything, particularly for that casual chat, because it really helped to calm us down and restore some confidence prior to presenting.  He, modestly, said that it was nothing, and that we were obviously well prepared and ready to make an amazing presentation, and also said that he had been in similar positions in the past, and that he knows the value of that sort of calming, casual connection, and to be sure to pay it forward whenever we might be on "the other side of the room," so to speak.

Of everything that we might of learned throughout the entire contest, we both agreed that this was one of the most important.

Pre-presentation chat

The presentation went off amazingly well and we left the room feeling that we had done the absolute best that we could have done given everything that we had prepared, and were prepared for.  Essentially, we were satisfied.

Not being allowed to see the other presentations, we had lunch, and went out for a post-presentation, afternoon drink.

In the late-afternoon/early-evening, we re-suited up and went the pre-Gala reception being held in the lower level of hotel.  It was a blur of conversations with judges, photo-ops, and commiserating with our fellow contestants over the day's presentations.  Eventually, the Gala room opened and we were invited to take our seat for dinner.

Between well wishes and reassurances of the quality of our presentation, conspiracy theories on our seating location, and the sense that some of the judges kept indicating in our direction, Kailee and I began to get a good feeling that we could possibly end up in the top three.  Although, of course, every time either of us suggested this to the other, it was quickly returned with a "SHHH!  I don't even want to think about it!!"

After dinner, the mixture of anxiety, wine and water at the table reminded us how much we had each neglected to visit a washroom in the past few hours, and the only thoughts on our minds were, "could we possibly make it before they announce the top three?"  Of course, it was at this point that the MC invited up the presenter who would announce the top three, Mike Speranzini, the judge that chatted with us before our presentation.  At this point, any thoughts of a bathroom break left our minds for what would be another long time.

As I said, we received many reassurances of the quality of our presentation throughout the day.  However, I don't suppose you ever really expect someone to tell you that you sucked.  We had also heard that both a team from Queen's University, and the team from University of British Columbia had also really done a great job, and so, we had a chance of at least making third place.

The announcement started.  "Third place is..."

Internally, "us... us.. us.."

"The Team from UBC, Christopher Larryant and Veronica Yeung!"

In my ear, Mark Scattalon, a previous first place winner from McMaster University, a great help to us, and seated directly beside me, kept excitedly repeating, "you guys are going to be second, maybe first!"

Kailee and I could only give each other wide-eyed, nervous glances, gasping for air as though we were fighting for the last remaining traces of it in the room.

"Second place is..."

Internally, "us... us... us..."

"Queen's University's Emily Dimytosh and Elizabeth Harris!"

"You guys have just won the contest!" shouted Mark, elatedly.

"Shut up!  You'll jinx it!"  I nervously stammered back.  Kailee and I were no longer breathing, the room could have just been sealed air-tight and we would not have known otherwise.

"And the winners of Canada's Next Top Ad Exec 2012, are from my Alma Mater..."

That Alma Mater is McMaster University... if you didn't catch that

If the pre-Gala reception passed like a blur, then we might as well have been absent of all senses in the hour that followed next.  A steady stream of congratulations, hand-shakes, hugs, pictures, applause, trophies, keys, impromptu speeches, misunderstood jokes used in impromptu speeches, interviews, and returned keys (as they were just for the show of it, production had yet to even start on the cars we just won), poured forth.

When it was all done, after we called those important to us, and after we had finally gone to the bathroom, we proceeded back up to our room, popped some champagne, laughed, listened to music, jumped, and sighed incredulously for at least a solid hour, and then re-joined the festivities of the finale.

The funny thing, is that you typically assume such achievement-related elation to come from something that you have toiled over, have sweat over, have fought over, and have put every ounce of your effort into.  And although I can easily say that Kailee and I, undoubtedly, did each and every one of those things, I am much more happy to say that at no point, did it ever feel that way.  Kailee was a wonder to work with, we are better friends for it, I would work with her again in a heartbeat, and I look forward to racing our Chevrolet Sparks.  As for the project itself, even though it was a campaign for "just a mini-car," if I can find as much fun in my career as I did in this competition, I'd likely be found a skeleton, suited up, and still seated at a desk in some agency, copy and sketches in front of me, and a 1/5 full tumbler of scotch clutched in my bone-fingers, still trying to pull off my best Don Draper.

This was an incredible experience, thank you to the judges, thank you to everyone that helped along the way, and of course, thank you Kailee Jamieson.

Canada's Next Top Ad Execs 2012, Kailee Jamieson and myself