Awards Experts’ Post

Navigating Awards in Advertising: A Dual Perspective   At Platinum Seed, we know that awards in the advertising industry can hold significant value, but we also approach them with thoughtful scepticism. As we approach awards-ceremony-season, this is our take on the dual nature of accolades: The Good: • Celebration of Creativity: Awards provide a platform to recognise and celebrate the incredible talent within our industry and help inspire teams to push boundaries.  • Credibility Boost: Winning an award can enhance an agency’s reputation, helping to build trust with potential clients and showcasing a commitment to quality and innovation. • Networking Opportunities: Award ceremonies gather the brightest minds in the industry, creating great opportunities for collaboration. The Less Good: • Subjectivity: Awards are often decided by a select panel, which means that what’s celebrated may not always align with our client needs. • Focus Shift: There’s a fine line between striving for excellence and chasing awards. While we love recognition from our peers, we will always strive to deliver impactful results for our clients. • Pressure to Conform: For us, it’s crucial to stay true to our vision and values. • Morale: While awards definitely boost morale, we hope that the real satisfaction comes from meaningful work and the positive impact we create. We celebrate every achievement, aiming to balance our pursuit of recognition with a focus on delivering real value. But who doesn’t love a good awards after-party?! #creativethinking #brandawareness #performancemarketing #Advertising #DigitalMarketing #Awards #Creativity #Innovation

System1 claim that this year’s Cannes entrants have the greatest potential for effectiveness seen for several years and, with 4creative's team supplying some of the winning work reviewed, in-house teams are now mixing it with the world’s best on that front. A recent In-House Agency Leaders Club study notes that few in-house teams possess a creative strategist, but it’s a role that’s growing as focus evolves from creative delivery to creative impact. The role often signifies a more ‘mature’ remit for the IHA, but it’s critical for the wider business to buy into this remit for the role to deliver. In a world chasing efficiency, effectiveness can, perversely, be a harder argument to make. #marketingops #inhousing #cannes #creativity WDC

🔔 I'm never going to disagree with the idea that you need planners in in-house agencies . But, as my WDC colleague, Stephen, points out below: what's critical is for the business to know WHY they need planners. 🎯 And the single biggest reason is that they take accountability for the effectiveness of the work - by guiding creative development with this in mind; and by measuring impact in relevant ways, so the business can make sense of it. 💪 This not only improves return on investment but also elevates the credibility of the in-house agency, making it more of a partner to the business. 💡 Do you have planners in your IHA? Or are you struggling to make the case for them? 🆘 If so, get in touch because this is exactly the sort of thing WDC can help with... #inhouseagency #creativestrategy #planning #effectiveness #marketingeffectiveness #cannes

I'm going to propose something that is going to be unpopular in the midst of awards season. (And no, it's not getting rid of awards. Many folks argue that the ungodly amount of time and money agencies spend on entries would be better invested in their employees. And while that's true, I believe awards are still an important tool in attracting, motivating, and retaining employees, as well as winning new business. Plus winning awards is awesome.) My proposal is that we share the credit among every team that worked on the project, not just the team whose idea wound up getting produced. I know that in our traditionally cutthroat, keep-your-work-close-to-your-chest industry that amounts to heresy. And I know we’ve all seen (and, let’s be honest, made fun of) awards show credits with multiple slashes. Did all of those people really work on that banner ad? But hear me out. In order for that one award-winning idea to live, a lot of other ideas had to die. And a lot of people worked just as hard on those other ideas. And who’s to say that the one idea didn’t live because of all the other ideas that died along the way? There are very few agencies that can get away with bringing just one idea in to a presentation. It was the breadth of the ideas, and the iterations on those ideas along the way, that led to the final winner.   To build a culture - and an industry - where everyone feels ownership the creative, let's give credit to every individual who worked on a project. And not just the creatives, the whole team. And by the way, I don’t just mean for awards shows. Let's celebrate everyone who contributed to making the work when we share it across the team and across the company. Position every project as a team effort. Embrace the slash. So congratulations to everyone on your enviable wins at The One Club for Creativity, D&AD and soon to be Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity! And I mean everyone. #awards #advertising #leadership

With the news that Ascential has acquired Effie Worldwide to become a stand-alone initiative within Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, there is further evidence that awards in the advertising sector are beginning to be held to higher scrutiny by those who invest heavily in entering. 🦁 🏆 “The coming together of Lions and Effie is a powerful testament to the fact that effectiveness and creativity in marketing are inextricably linked. All enlightened businesses know that creative, effective marketing drives growth," explains Philip Thomas, CEO of Ascential. Proving return on investment is something marketers are constantly being questioned about, and that is reaching as far as the plethora of industry accolades that always seem to be handed out. Entries into the Effectiveness category for Cannes Lions this year hit an all-time high too. Dani Gibson spoke with industry executives to understand how and why the perception of industry awards are changing and what they mean to different people. Thanks to Simon Cook, Laurent Simon, Matthew Waksman, Susie Walker, Pablo González de la, Guy Melzack and Brent Nelsen for sharing their thoughts too. I shall paste the URL in the comments below for you to read via Creative Salon Worldwide for free. 👇 #CannesLions #Effieawards #advertising #marketing #business #awards

A fantastic way to kick off the week - judging the Effie UK Awards! There's more than a few reasons it makes for an enjoyable experience... 💡 The bar is high so reading the entries always provides great inspiration 💭 Fellow judges bring a breadth of opinion and experience to learn from 🏆 Acting as a judge provides a new perspective on what makes award-winning work worthy, and the write up engaging, which can be applied to your own entries 🔎 Proving the value and effectiveness of advertising is important to our industry. These awards are evidence that advertising can and does have positive influence on brands and beyond #effies #effiesuk #effectivenessawards #effectiveness #marketingeffectiveness

The The Marketing Society Scotland Star Awards nominations have just been announced. They are our industry’s ’Oscars’; held each year to celebrate excellence in all aspects of marketing. And my goodness, 40 agencies/clients have been nominated for their work across 18 categories. That’s 106 nominations in total. The winners will be announced later this year; but just to get to this point, agencies and clients have worked hard to encapsulate their successes in the hope of persuading the judges that their work deserves recognition. So congratulations to everyone who’s picked up a nomination. ‘Respect’ as they say. Speaking for ourselves, I’m delighted for our passionate team at The Union who have managed to garner no less than 11 nominations. (Which happens to be more than anyone else.) And we feature in 7 different marketing categories. Clients such as The Scottish Government, schuh, Scottish Widows , PIRC, Zero Waste Scotland and The Data Lab have all been selected. This is no accident. It can’t happen without brilliant clients, and our Unionites who care deeply about the work they do. Not to mention the effort, skill and thought that goes into preparing a strong entry. But we’re not getting carried away. With over 15 years of experience in entering these awards, we know that a nomination is a guarantee of absolutely nothing. It all comes down to the judges’ final selection; and all will be revealed on the night. (Thursday 20 June 2024 at the O2 Academy in Edinburgh.) So we’ll be there in hope rather than in expectation. But it’s a night to look forward to; and to enjoy. https://lnkd.in/e4Ghj2Nu

📈 According to Nielsen’s 2024 Annual Marketing Report, global marketers expect to allocate more than 63% of their ad budgets to digital channels this year—but is that investment ready to keep up with digital’s rapid pace of change? Join executives from Nielsen and TikTok at Cannes Lions as they discuss how to measure success in a changing digital landscape. https://lnkd.in/eeeq3wSp

Another thought-provoking webinar from Mark Ritson: "Creativity isn't enough". Albeit, a slight evolution on what he's just presented in Cannes (and perhaps, a less polite version… to ensure better absorption? 😉) Key takeaways? 1. Cannes' 🦁 creatively awarded entries score slightly better on long-term effectiveness in 2024 than before (2.3⭐ out of 5🌟) as measured by System1 and rated by consumers. Yet, they are worse this year on short-term efficacy ('spike rating') - see the image below. Equivalent to a C-grade school average, overall. Nothing's wrong with that. Just reaffirms Mark's gospel that 'we' (i.e. marketeers/creatives/strategists) are not the customer. 2. Mark pushes marketeers to do more 🎯 "Creativity is not enough" is a rallying cry for the industry to promptly down that rose 🍷 and start getting involved in Product & Pricing improvements ("The way we communicate the price is more important than the price itself"), and Positioning. In short, the other three parts of the proverbial 4Ps - beyond the pure "Promotion" where creativity indeed has a huge role to play. Meaning, creativity is great but it's otherwise a small part of what marketeers should be getting up to. A link to a recent piece in The Drum by System1's Andrew Tindall explaining what consumers ✨ACTUALLY think ✨ about 🦁 Cannes Lions 2024 🦁 winners is in the first comment below. Thank you Marketing Week Mini MBA with Mark Ritson for the session! #Cannes #Creativity #Marketing

In an industry burgeoning with award shows (and as winners of a lot of awards), I'd love for us to see juries in award shows encompassing the actual people whom we market to, judge the work themselves. Or heck, here’s a thought - even an award show by itself! How about categories like 'Youth' being judged by youth themselves? Or 'Marketing to families' being judges by families? Or 'Travel' being judged by travellers? Or 'Automotive' being judged by actual car buyers? And so on. Versus simply by us and our peers, so we can be a little less self-serving? Thanks ArabAd for featuring this perspective among other positive yet honest perspectives about the work we do (and should do more of) collectively as an industry, and how that work gets recognized (and should get recognized) by award platforms. Publicis Groupe Middle East Angela Bak