Everyone loves a winner. None more so than the advertising industry. The problem is, how many is too many? Now of course, personally, I love a good awards show – an opportunity to get dressed up and celebrate the industry. But let’s get honest about why the industry needs these awards shows and answer the question: are there too many?
First, let’s look at the various types of awards the advertising industry participates in. There are creative awards – think Cannes Lions, London International Awards, D&AD and the home-grown AWARD. Then there are the industry organisations handing out awards for criteria beyond creativity, with categories such as creative agency of the year, media agency of the year, or emerging agency of the year Then we have the effectiveness awards, with the most prominent being the Effies and the IPA Effectiveness Awards, but with many of the other award shows adding effectiveness to their categories. And now we are seeing more agencies entering more of the awards available recognising “Best Place to Work” and “Best Employer” etc.
It is this last category that is the most instructive when considering why awards are so important to advertising agencies. The truth is that the number one reason agencies enter awards is to be more successful in attracting talent. People want to work at companies recognised by the industry as winners. Talented people want to work at agencies where they have an opportunity to be a winner too.
By Dennis Flad
Some agencies will argue that they enter awards to be more successful in getting new business. But lists of award wins are not the silver bullet many agencies think. Take what is possibly the most awarded Australian creative campaign this century – Metro Trains’ Dumb Ways to Die. Here’s what it won:
• London International Awards 2013 – 15 Gold, 11 Silver & 3 Bronze
• ADMA Awards 2013 – 10 Gold, 4 Silver & 1 Bronze
• Cresta Awards 2013 – 2 Brand Prix Winner
• Spikes Asia 2013 – Agency of the Year, Client of the Year, 7 Grand Prix, 11 Gold, 5 Silver & 4 Bronze
• The Australian Effie Awards 2013 – 1 Silver Effie & 2 Bronze Effies
• Cannes Lions 2013 – 5 Grand Prix, 18 Gold Lions, 3 Silver Lions, 2 Bronze Lions
• D&AD 2013 – 1 Black Pencil, 5 Yellow Pencils, Agency of the Year
• Webbys 2013 – 7 Webbys
• One Show 2013 – 3 Gold Pencils, 1 Bronze Pencil, 4 Merit awards & Best of Show
• One Show Interactive 2013 – 1 Gold Pencil & 1 Merit award
• One Show Entertainment 2013 – 2 Gold Pencils
• New York Festivals 2013 – 1 Grand, 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze
• Clio Awards 2013 – 3 Gold & 1 Silver
• AdFest 2013 – Grand Lotus for Film, 3 Gold, 1 Silver & 1 Bronze
• Sirens 2013 – 1 Gold, 1 Silver & Campaign of the Year
• ACES 2013 – Best Australian Television and Cinema Commercial
• 2013 Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards – 4 Gold
This doesn’t include all the local awards the campaign also garnered. But when long lists of creative awards appear in the agency credentials presentation or an RFP document, no-one pours over the wins, other than to turn the page thinking the agency has entered a lot of awards, particularly if it is for a client they don’t recognise and a campaign with which they are unfamiliar.
This is very different to winning an award for an existing client, who will at the very least be happy their agency has been recognised and at the most feel as if they can bathe in the shared glory of victory. Several recent clients have also used awards as a way of incentivising their agency, with cash bonuses for awards success. But in all cases, they have been very particular about the awards to be won, mostly focusing on effectiveness and global creativity.
Also, many of these awards are very industry-focused, recognising excellence in either a media channel (TV, Print or Digital) a craft skill (Editing or Cinematography) or function (Creative Agency of the Year). Where are the awards that actually acknowledge the client’s challenges in a particular category of operations (Consumer Package Goods, Automotive etc)? If you wanted to enter an award for new business, then the one you need to win is for the category in which your potential new client operates. All the others risk being seen as advertising industry navel gazing.
The diminishing status of awards has been exacerbated by their increasing number. More and more commercial organisations have built financial models on pandering to the need of agencies to be recognised. Clearly, there is still an appetite for this, with a new awards show popping up even in the past few weeks. But if agencies keep funding all these awards by paying entry fees, the awards will keep on multiplying to the point where everyone will be able to win an award recognising how special they are.
And as Pixar’s Mr Incredible said, “If everyone is special, then nobody is”.
See Also: Woolley Marketing: When the winners are the losers
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Darren Woolley is Global CEO of TrinityP3, Australia’s largest and most influential independent marketing / pitch consultancy and is well known to the advertising industry. Founded more than 20 years ago TrinityP3 has a significant presence in Australia where it leads the pitch process for many of the country’s leading advertising accounts as well as having offices in London, New York and Zurich.
Darren Woolley
Dennis Flad is responsible for Trinity P3 EMEA and founder of t’charta, a management consultancy boutique for strategic product management, pricing and go-to-market based in Zurich, Switzerland. Dennis worked his entire life in marketing and advertising, which allows him to infuse his whimsical drawings with a realistic understanding of management practices and behaviours.
Dennis Flad