American Express Small Business Saturday

John F. Kennedy said, "Victory has a thousand fathers..." And that is very true of Small Business Saturday. A lot of people take credit because it's an on-going event.

But, only a scrappy few of us were there at the beginning, when we got a lowly PR brief for ideas in which American Express OPEN could show goodwill towards their small business card members. How about establishing a day during the Christmas shopping season to support small and local businesses? Along with AmEx and Digitas, who had similar ideas, we worked together to launch the first Small Business Saturday on November 27, 2010. The year following Congress made it an official day and even the President joined in to support Small Business Saturday!

Among its many awards, Small Business Saturday won 2 Grand Prix and 3 Cyber Cannes Lions, a Grand Clio, an Effie and the first ever Facebook Studio Blue Award. It was also named #7 in Advertising Age's Top 15 Advertising Campaigns of the 21st Century.

http://adage.com/lp/top15/#smallsaturday