Agency: Doremus

Name of campaign: “STA Conference—Set Liquidity Loose”

Launch date: October 2009

Creative credits: Creative director: Evelyn Neill; art director: Lourdes Banez; copywriter: Howard Van Lenten; artist: Marius Watz; project manager: Janie Thomas

Why we liked it: In past years, Knight Capital usually had an “over-the-top” presence at the STA Conference. At the 2009 event, however, the company opted for a more scaled-back approach, more in step with the recessionary times. And instead of competing with other marketing messages at the actual conference, Knight Capital was a voice crying in the desert, quite literally. The event was in Scottsdale, Ariz., and in that arid area, Knight Capital focused on a theme of “What is liquidity?” The company positioned water coolers in areas around the event frequented by attendees. Stationed with the water coolers were Knight Capital posters that emphasized the firm’s own liquidity and financial health. “Trading an average of 8.7 billion shares per day or 372,000 per second,” trumpeted one poster. “The capacity to handle 20 million trades per day.” Sounds pretty convincing to us—and probably even more so if that’s the sort of information you’re thirsting for.