Congratulations to this year’s winners from last year’s. We should hang out and talk about how to best brag about our accomplishments.
No industry has perfected the humblebrag like the seasoned executives in advertising. And now that Campaign 40 Over 40 has released their winners once again, we’re back to help you humblebrag like a pro. This is next-level humblebrag graduate degree shit.
Like, say you run a boutique ad agency in San Francisco and you won the Campaign US’ Forty Over Forty award last year. How do you maximize your social media humblebrag, even a full year after you won?
No. 1 - Congratulate this year’s winners, from last year’s winners
This technique is more humble than the “Proud and Humbled” because everything is implied. You don’t have to say outright, “You know, last year’s winners vote on this year’s winners, and I won last year.” That would be downright narcissistic and, well, way over-the-top. It’s better to simply congratulate this year’s 40 Over 40 Winners. Then, in a simple caption under the top photo in a blog post, say something complimentary like: “Congratulations to this year’s winners from last year’s. We should hang out and talk about how to best brag about our accomplishments.”
No. 2 - Photoshop your picture from last year next to this year’s winners.
This technique is a great way to associate yourself with the winners, remind people you used to be a winner and, do it in a tongue-in-cheek way that makes people feel like you’re not totally glomming on to their moment in the sun, even though you totally are. And really, there are so many awards shows that no one can keep track of who has won what, which year. (Except a couple of British creative directors. You know who you are.)
No. 3 - Call out specific winners by name in a blatant attempt to suck-up
This humblebrag-congratulations-custom combo technique is perfect if you want to tell specific winners, like Sophie Kelly from Diageo, that you’re proud to have her in the 40 over 40 winners club with you (see how I did that.) This also creates an opportunity to say, “Hey Sophie, I’m a huge Bulleit Rye fan. Let’s work on a project together.” Or something like that.
Behave like the Woody Harrelson character (Hamish) in Hunger Games who won a previous Hunger Games and is now a raging alcoholic with a chip on his shoulder who gives advice to this year’s winners, as if they care what he has to say.
No. 4 - Give a shout out to a local winner inferring that you and the winner are somehow connected
By being, “Proud and humbled to congratulate Stephanie Prager from Twitter on her 40 over 40 win” people assume there’s a local bond between you two. Even though Stephanie Prager and you have never met, because, well, tech people don’t hang out with people from boutique San Francisco ad agencies. But no one knows that. It’s a freebie name-drop that makes the previous year’s recipient look important too. Kind of. Keep in mind, this is not a move for rookie humblebraggers. But, done right, it can really broaden the reach of your humblebrag audience.
No. 5 - Write a blog post about Humblebrags
If you’ve won some award, like the Campaign 40 Over 40 award, you can consider yourself a micro-niche influencer in the Campaign 40 Over 40 award space and write a blog post about how to extend the life of your award show glory by mentioning other winners in your blog post like Deena Bahri from StockX and Fiona Carter from Goldman Sachs and Kevin Frank from LinkedIn. Playing the long game, it’s important to mention that you voted for them. That way, if they need an ad agency someday, maybe they’ll see you congratulated them and that you two have a lot in common.
Congratulations to this year’s winners from one humblebragger to the next.
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