Advertising to the MAX

Mardi Suhs | Cadillac News At work in his Freelancer Productions office in downtown Cadillac, Eric Wotila edits a current project.

CADILLAC — When Eric Wotila tired of building computers and producing feature films, he decided to tackle the world of advertising. He started a company called Freelancer Productions to produce promotional videos, television ads and Web sites.

With his usual moxie, Eric rented an office, printed a business card and began knocking on doors.

Soon he was juggling high school classes with production schedules.

Two of his projects were recently singled out for top honors in the MAX Awards, designed to showcase the best advertising work created in northern Michigan. One of those awards was for a Piranha Hose project.

“As I remember it,” Eric said from his downtown office, “Piranha Hose contacted me when I was 16 to edit a project they were shooting in-house.”

When Eric arrived for his first appointment, he took one look at their equipment and convinced them to let him re-shoot.

“You’ll end up with better video quality if I shoot and edit,” the teenager advised.

Using their script, Eric created a promotional video for use at trade shows.

In May, Eric Wotila’s name was called during the 2007 MAX Awards ceremony held by the Northern Michigan Ad Club. His Piranha Hose video took an Excellence Award, the top honor given this year in corporate/industrial video production. He also received a Merit Award for a marketing video he produced for Kettunen Center.

At 18, he was the youngest professional to receive honors at the MAX Awards.

Schmoozing with northern Michigan’s top ad agency executives at the swanky event was fun, he said.

“I met a lot of people in the industry. I walked up to get the award and it was like — what? Is that a kid? I did a lot of networking and it was a fantastic dinner.”

Eric, the son of Cindy and Roger Wotila, is a recent graduate of Cadillac High School. He is currently enrolled in DePaul University’s School for New Learning, an online program “for people with business commitments.”

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MAX Awards

The MAX Awards are a yearly recognition dinner and award ceremony called the pinnacle of the Northern Michigan Advertising Club’s season. The purpose of the event is to celebrate and recognize excellence for advertising created in northern Michigan. This year a teenager from Cadillac picked up two awards for marketing videos he produced from a company he founded called Freelancer Productions.

The MAX Awards Show and dinner was held at Black Star Farms in Suttons Bay on Friday, May 18, 2007.