This document summarizes the 35-year history of the Key Art Awards, which honors excellence in movie marketing. It began in a small venue but moved to more prestigious locations over time. Judging became exclusively from the marketing industry. Categories were added for new formats like video and the internet. The awards now take place at the Kodak Theatre and aim to recognize outstanding creative work in movie marketing and support the industry community.

1. 35 YEARS OF KEY ART AWARDS
and Kaleidoscope’s Steve Panama. Its role would be to help the
competition and ceremony better reflect the business and spirit of
the marketing community.
For the show’s 19th edition in 1990, festivities were moved to
Directors Guild of America headquarters in Los Angeles — a step up
in prestige for all involved — and industry members expanded their
involvement in production of the ceremony.
“There was wine and hors d’oeuvres, and it became a night you
wanted to be a part of — you wanted to be a part of the club,” Israel
says. “It was headed in the right direction.” The Key Art Awards
would spend nine years at the DGA.
The 1990 competition also saw the addition of a distinct category
for TV spots, with entries for “Batman,” “Glory” and “The War of
the Roses” taking honors that year and the latter winning the best
of show trailer laurel.
By 1993, the judging process also was being transformed. Gone
was a small group drawn from inside and outside the business; going
forward, judging would be done by a panel drawn exclusively from
within the marketing industry — a true jury of peers. The 1993
panel included 35 preliminary and 12 final judges; that total
has grown to more than 300 for this year’s program
“Every year, the goal was that particular year,” then-editor-
in-chief and publisher Robert J. Dowling says of the work of
the advisory board and those participating in the show. “I never said
to myself, ‘Fifteen years from now, this is going to be significant.’
The board, every time we met, talked about the validity, the
efficacy (of it). When we talked about judging, it had to be the right
people; it was all about the seriousness and the validity of what
those people did.”
As the first wave of the home-video revolution rolled over
Hollywood during the late 1980s, the Key Art Awards took note by
adding a Video Point of Sale category in 1989 and an award for video
packaging the following year. After briefly being removed from the
competition, video returned in 2003 with categories for posters,
spots and packaging.
“That was a big broadening of the base of the community because
it brought in a whole other group of studio executives and creative
boutiques that specialized in that sort of advertising,” Kaiser says.
The program has been tuned further during recent years. An
show, he adds, “the projector was in the room with us; it was a Internet category was added in 1999 (Sony’s “The Mask of Zorro”
rented projector, and you had a hard time hearing the trailers.” site was the first winner), and co-branded print and audiovisual
Recalls Kanew of his first trip from the East Coast to attend the categories were added in 2004, as were special-recognition sections
Key Art ceremony in 1989 for his trailer for “Dangerous Liaisons,” for the crafts of trailer motion graphics and copywriting.
which won first prize, “It was a much smaller venue, (inside) Looking toward the industry’s future, the Key Art Awards estab-
the Roosevelt Hotel. It was in this one little room, and the lished an annual student competition in 2002 to reach out to design
presentation got all screwed up. They were kind of feeling their way and marketing students who might wish to enter the field. Under the
at that point.” guidance of Jeffrey Bacon, the competition has attracted entries from
As the show neared its second decade, it reached a turning point a growing list of schools.
in the eyes of some in the community. What moved the Key Art In reaching out to the next generation of marketers, honoring
Awards forward, it turned out, was an embrace by the creatives they the industry’s pioneers and working hand in hand with those in
was formed to honor. the industry today, the Key Art Awards for 35 years have sought to
“It felt like something that was done for us that didn’t really shine a light on the art and craft of movie marketing.
include us — it didn’t really reflect the culture of the community,” “Through The Reporter’s sponsorship and attention to it and the
says Bob Israel, chairman emeritus of the Aspect Group of Compa- efforts of a lot of people in the community, it turned into something
nies, who has produced the ceremony for the past six years. “The real that had a lot of cachet and became a major event in the calendar year
turning point was when Joel Wayne sat down with Bob Dowling and for everybody that does it,” Kaiser says.
said to him, ‘This show really can be and should be something more Now ensconced at the Kodak Theatre and enjoying the benefits
meaningful to this community.’” of increased exposure for the community, the Key Art Awards look
Adds Wayne, a longtime executive vp creative advertising at to the future.
Warner Bros. Pictures: “I went to Bob Dowling, and I said: ‘There’s “As we celebrate the 35-year anniversary of the Key Art Awards, we
no really big, classy marketing awards show that recognizes also celebrate 35 years of extraordinary movie marketing,” says Tony
everything we do in marketing movies. If you want to put on a L. Uphoff, publisher of The Hollywood Reporter. “Movie marketing
classy show, I (will) work with you on it and try to round up good has become a massive global industry unto itself that also has a huge
guys, get people from around the business to participate’ — and impact on popular culture. As we look forward, the Key Art Awards
that’s exactly what we did.” will continue to acknowledge excellence in the creative art of movie
The first Key Art Awards Advisory Board was empaneled in 1989 marketing and serve as the environment for nurturing and serving the
and included Wayne, Tony Seiniger, B.D. Fox & Friends’ Brian Fox extraordinary creative community that creates it.” I
w w w. h o l l y wo o d r e p o r t e r. c o m 17