McKay Advertising + Activation has won a Silver American Advertising Award (a Silver ADDY) from AAF Tampa Bay for the “Live Great. Eat Greek.” campaign the agency created for The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill. The award recognizes creative excellence, the standard at the heart of every ADDY.
Conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the American Advertising Awards are the advertising industry’s largest and most representative creative competition, drawing tens of thousands of professional and student entries each year. The competition runs in three tiers. It begins at the local level through AAF chapters such as AAF Tampa Bay, advances to one of 15 district competitions and culminates on the national stage. AAF Tampa Bay is part of AAF District 4, which represents Florida and the Caribbean, the same district that created the American Advertising Awards competition back in 1960.
A Silver ADDY at the local level means a panel of judges evaluated the work against agencies and creatives from across the Tampa Bay market and singled out McKay’s entry for recognition.
When The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill approached McKay, the brand wasn’t just looking for new ads. It was looking for a new direction. The assignment was a brand evolution meant to capture the lifestyle behind the food. Not just what is on the plate, but how it fits into a customer’s day, family and daily routine.
According to the agency, the right line didn’t come quickly. The team worked through a long list of ideas before stepping back and recognizing that the answer was already built into the brand itself:
The tagline is simple, memorable and versatile, and it connects lifestyle and food in a way that is easy to remember. The platform is rooted in three core brand pillars: health, togetherness and convenience without compromising on quality. It encourages customers to live their best life while reinforcing what The Great Greek Grill stands for (fresh, flavorful, affordable food), and it folds the brand name into the message. It was also built to travel. The tagline can live across future campaigns and in-store experiences, reinforcing the brand wherever it appears.
That combination of a strategic insight and ownable creative is what the ADDY judges recognized.
For The Great Greek Grill, the award-winning campaign is one piece of a broader partnership. Company president Robert Andersen connected the creative to the brand’s larger promise and to McKay’s franchise focus:
“The McKay Team helped The Great Greek Grill build on the strength of our brand promise, “Live Life Deliciously,” by introducing “Live Great, Eat Greek,” a strong creative campaign that has earned industry recognition, including an ADDY Award. What sets McKay apart is their understanding of franchising. They bring discipline and accountability to the marketing process and provide the location-level visibility we need to understand how our marketing dollars are performing. As we continue scaling toward more than 100 restaurants and $150 million in systemwide sales, that clarity and partnership have been extremely valuable.”
– Bob Andersen, President, The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill
McKay Advertising + Activation is a Tampa-based agency that works exclusively with food brands, positioning itself as a “Franchise Whisperer” focused on strategic, creative and performance-driven marketing. Founded by Bob McKay in 2005, the agency uses a model it calls the Activation Bridge to connect creative to measurable results, tying marketing to store traffic and revenue.
For an agency built around performance, an award for creative excellence underscores a point it often makes: Great creative and hard results are not opposing goals. Strong creative earns attention, builds a brand customers remember and helps drive traffic for franchisees.
Lindsey Cataldo developed the “Live Great. Eat Greek.” tagline and creative strategy, along with the campaign creative itself. From there, the rest of the McKay team brought the platform to life across channels: Kyle Norstrem ran it as a paid Meta campaign, and Mary Ann Kaplan extended it to billboards. Since the launch, the full McKay and Great Greek team has continued to carry the platform through additional initiatives and brand efforts.
