BtoB's Best - Single Print Ad: General Electric Co.

Winner

General Electric Co.

Agency: BBDO New York Campaign: “GE Works: Power” Launch date: November 2011 Creative credits: Chief creative officer: David Lubars; executive creative director: Don Schneider; creative directors/copywriters: Michael Aimette, Tim Roan; creative director/art director: Eric Van Skyhawk; art buyer: Betsy Jablow; executive senior account director: Emma Armstrong; account director: Carrie Lipper; photographer: William Huber Why we liked it: Print ads are all about stopping power; if there's not an arresting visual or stand-out copy, the reader will keep flipping and the moment of opportunity will have passed. GE's “Power” ad seizes that moment, stopping readers in their tracks with a striking photo of a worker inside the cylinder of a giant, red GE machine. Copy wastes no words telling how GE powers the world, and the white text picks up a white swirled drip at the upper left corner of the ad. The drip, upon closer inspection, is a magnified version of the swirled tails in the GE logo. It plays nicely into the whirlpool momentum the image creates, and also serves to stop the reader if the photo somehow didn't.