Sun - December 12, 2004
Advertising awards
Useful branding vector, low signal to noise ratio
Awards are nice, and I've been lucky enough to have my share. But now
– as I switched industries, I'm concerned more about the business of my
clients than about how cool I am – the institution of advertising awards
often seems to me a bit self-indulgent and lacking direct relevance: the winners
are (among) the best agencies on the market, indeed, but usually not because of
the awarded work, but because of the silent, 'serious' work.
I think awards have their purpose: they are great for branding (agency's brand, that is). External – attaching 'creative' and 'success' keywords to their brand name associations list, and internal – motivating teams, recruiting better people, bonding. All this is not necessarily true if the submitted entry was a ghost, especially the internal part.
On the other hand, I see awarded work that does damage to the client in countless ways: lack of style consistency breaks effectiveness, lack of focus dilutes positioning, cheap 'coolness' alienates b2b key accounts and hunts for peanuts while losing the fat cats, 'sponsored jokes' ruin the brand value of trust, and so forth.
Mark Wnek writes in the Independent [subscription req.] about the line between winning awards and being creative when it comes to real clients [via Cup of Java]:
I don't say that awards are bullshit altogether, because I've seen good work getting prized, I just say that – considering their low signal to noise ratio – you need to take them with a grain of salt. Even two.
I think awards have their purpose: they are great for branding (agency's brand, that is). External – attaching 'creative' and 'success' keywords to their brand name associations list, and internal – motivating teams, recruiting better people, bonding. All this is not necessarily true if the submitted entry was a ghost, especially the internal part.
On the other hand, I see awarded work that does damage to the client in countless ways: lack of style consistency breaks effectiveness, lack of focus dilutes positioning, cheap 'coolness' alienates b2b key accounts and hunts for peanuts while losing the fat cats, 'sponsored jokes' ruin the brand value of trust, and so forth.
Mark Wnek writes in the Independent [subscription req.] about the line between winning awards and being creative when it comes to real clients [via Cup of Java]:
« Awards competitions are the last bastions against the intrusion of business, where creative people can lionise their "art" unconstrained by commercial considerations. Criteria for victory have now become eccentric if not esoteric, removed from the real world in which advertising is supposed to function and be commercially effective.
Advertising with tiny or absent product logos does well in awards competitions. Ads in which the product barely appears do well. Stuff which is cool and groovy and young does well. Work which is original for the sake of originality alone does well. Commercials directed by directors with Hollywood or underground cachet do well. Advertising which is antisocial or offensive does well. Work which is little more than a sponsored joke does well. Work which is wild and crazy and incomprehensible does well.
Nearly all of the above advertising has as its sine qua non a would-be avant-garde but in reality highly narrow-minded aesthetic of cool - narrow-minded because it's not designed for anyone above the age of 24. That's leaving out quite a lot of people with quite a lot of money to spend. Like the whole of Middle England (and Middle America) for instance. »
Advertising with tiny or absent product logos does well in awards competitions. Ads in which the product barely appears do well. Stuff which is cool and groovy and young does well. Work which is original for the sake of originality alone does well. Commercials directed by directors with Hollywood or underground cachet do well. Advertising which is antisocial or offensive does well. Work which is little more than a sponsored joke does well. Work which is wild and crazy and incomprehensible does well.
Nearly all of the above advertising has as its sine qua non a would-be avant-garde but in reality highly narrow-minded aesthetic of cool - narrow-minded because it's not designed for anyone above the age of 24. That's leaving out quite a lot of people with quite a lot of money to spend. Like the whole of Middle England (and Middle America) for instance. »
I don't say that awards are bullshit altogether, because I've seen good work getting prized, I just say that – considering their low signal to noise ratio – you need to take them with a grain of salt. Even two.
Posted Sun - December 12, 2004 at 02:02 PM
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Published On: Aug 25, 2006 01:48 AM
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Published On: Aug 25, 2006 01:48 AM
