Forget "Battle of the ad bands" in Cincinnati there's an Ad Fight Club

We do not know if the first rule about Ad Fight Club is to not talk about the Ad fight Club, so we might get banned now for breaking it, but this is not your fighting until you get black eyes, are drenched in sweat and tears. This requires your creative sweat, your frustration tears and if you give your work partner a black eye for repeated puns, that's on you mate.

Ad agency Barefoot, Possible and Rockfish are competing in the inaugural “Agency Fight Night,” a real-time competition where those who generate the most ideas the quickest under extreme time-constraints and without any prior preparation wins. The event will be held at the historic Woodward Theater in Over the Rhine from 7:30 until 9:00 p.m.

“We conceived Agency Fight Night as a fun, unique event that brings our creative community together and celebrates the abundance of top-notch talent we have here in Cincinnati,” said Troy Hitch, chief innovation officer at Barefoot Proximity. “While the best ideas can take weeks, or even months, to develop, we thought it would be a blast to watch agencies compete under intense circumstances while showing off their creative expertise.”

The Cincinnati Reds have agreed to take part in the event, so each brief in need of a solution is somehow tied to them. That Omnicom and WPP firms are there to compete shows a heightened energy in the Cincinnati creative community.

"Our whole town has been undergoing a renaissance in the past five years that has exhibited itself in many ways, but definitely in a more robust and talented creative community for sure.” said Troy Hitch

"Part of the charm of Agency Fight Night is that the contestants won’t know exactly what will be asked of them until that evening,” said Jason Bender, chief creative officer of Rockfish. “It could be anything from naming products to concepting a Twitter campaign to roughing out a logo. Maybe all of the above.”

“Of course we love just about anything competitive,” said Phil Castellini, the Reds’ chief operating officer. “We are excited to see the ideas generated during these high-pressure circumstances, and feel fortunate to be the focus of our town’s creative genius for this extraordinary event.”

Agency Fight Night is open to the public and free of charge. However, one must register at AgencyFightNight.eventbrite.com as tickets are limited and an RSVP is required. The audience is able to participate in the competition, they award "peoples choice" points. The agency with the most overall points will be declared a winner - ad juniors & veterans alike should try to get a seat just for the fun and possibility of making new ad friends as well as seeing old ones.

“No TV show or one-night event can depict real intuition and ingenuity when it comes time to crafting ideas for clients,” said Adam Kahn, executive creative director of POSSIBLE, one of the three agencies competing. “This real time experience is a great depiction of the pressures we face on a daily basis when refining ideas.”