Explore Honored with 7x MUSE Awards in 2025 Contest
Midwest-based creative company Explore Commercial Productions is proud to share that they were awarded 7x MUSE Creative Awards in this year’s annual competition. Clients whose projects were honored include Dutch Boy Paints, Menards, Go RVing, 1st Source Bank, and Britton Marketing. Explore won 4 Platinum awards, the highest honor possible, for “Hotel Hassles”, “Leads”, “The Dog Whisperer” and “The Open Road” :30 advertisements. “Airplane Problems”, “Works Hard for You” and “All Kinds of Help” all won Gold trophies. All of the 2025 MUSE winning commercial productions are currently running on various national, regional, and local broadcast & digital channels. Read and watch more about all 7 of Explore’s award-winning entries below.
A Look at the Winners
“Leads”
1st Source Bank
Platinum Winner
Category: TV Ad - Bank
“Hotel Hassles”
Go RVing
Platinum Winner
Category: TV Ad - Travel
“Airplane Problems”
Go RVing
Gold Winner
Category: TV Ad - Travel
“The Dog Whisperer”
1st Source Bank
Platinum Winner
Category: TV Ad - Bank
“Works Hard for You”
Dutch Boy Paints - Menards
Britton Marketing
Gold Winner
Category: TV Ad - Travel
“The Open Road”
1st Source Bank
Platinum Winner
Category: TV Ad - Bank
“All Kinds of Help”
1st Source Bank
Gold Winner
Category: TV Ad - Bank
About the Clients
Explore and Britton Marketing filmed the principle photography for Dutch Boy Paints / Menards’ project “Works Hard for You” in Atlanta during February of 2024. After principal photography, Explore post-produced the entire campaign, with Jeff Nolan editing and outputting all of the commercials, color provided by Ron Sudul and audio cleanup, mix, and sound design by Rick Such of Earshot studios.
"We really loved working directly with the marketing team at Britton and their clients at the in-house team for Dutch Boy Paints.” says Jeremy Pinckert, EP & Director at Explore, “The process went extremely smoothly, especially considering this was the first collaboration bringing the brand, marketing agency, and production company together. Where previous productions had been bogged down by inefficiencies, we got approval for the first version shown by the brand team to the higher-ups at Sherwin Williams. These types of stories are why we end up working on repeat projects with clients, by always over-delivering on our mission.”
Go RVing, the multiple award-winning marketing arm of the RV industry, chose commercial production company Explore to produce their latest digital and OTT advertisements.
The 2025 campaign, titled Don’t Go There!, was initially conceived as part of a radio campaign, but in fall CMO/SVP Karen Redfern asked Explore to adapt these radio scripts into new, live-action advertisements. From this collaboration came two :30 spots: Airplane Problems and Hotel Hassle, along with :15, :10, and :06 versions, giving Go RVing a total of 16 deliverables. The Don’t Go There! campaign, is currently being broadcast nationwide via strategic digital channels.
Explore and 1st Source Bank won the most MUSE Creative Awards with 4 winning entries in the 2025 competition. Their award-winning campaign, “All Kinds of Help”, was produced using Explore’s direct to brand process. The key internal stakeholders at the bank communicated their necessary communication themes to the in-house marketing department. This brief then was used by Explore’s collaborating creative director, Larry Liss, conceptualize multiple scenarios and commercials for the campaign. Once creative was finalized, Pinckert worked with Michael Murphy, in-house creative director at 1st Source, on casting, the fine details of art department, wardrobe, and performance options. After principal photography, Explore post-produced the entire campaign. Jill Dugan edited and output all 5 commercials, with color provided by Sal Malfitano and audio cleanup, mix, and sound design by Rick Such of Earshot.
"We really loved working directly with the in-house agency and marketing team at 1st Source Bank.” says Jeremy Pinckert, Founder & EP at Explore, “They gain the ability to work one on one with the team who are experts in production, instead of involving the costly and time consuming extra of an advertising agency. Brands win when they have more input, and when they can get more value on their investment with a better product. It makes the direct to brand production model a no-brainer.”
“These types of stories are why we end up working on repeat projects with clients, by always over-delivering on our mission.””
About The MUSE Creative Awards
The MUSE Creative Awards, established in 2015 by the International Awards Associate (IAA) as part of the MUSE Awards Program, celebrates and honors excellence and innovation in creative design, advertising, and digital media. IAA was founded with a mission not only to honor and promote but also to redefine benchmarks for recognizing exceptional design and media contributions. This mission has been central in molding the ethos and aspirations of the MUSE Creative Awards.
Spanning a diverse range of categories, the MUSE Creative Awards recognizes the best achievements from advertising to digital media, as well as in marketing strategies and PR communications. Entrants from all corners of the world participate, showcasing creative advertising, design, and campaigns that inspire and set new benchmarks in the industry.