I Sea: Awards are not the purpose of advertising
After the Cannes-winning I Sea app was kicked out of the Apple App store, Con Frantzeskos argues it’s time the industry refocused from self-serving creative awards and back to useful work that will drive results for clients.
I worked in the music industry for many years, with many globally renowned artists, songwriters, composers, producers and musicians, from Max Martin to Mutt Lange to David Hirschfelder.
These creative titans always only ever had one measure of success: ‘How many units did we sell?’.
To them awards were largely an irrelevance. Advertising seems to work the opposite way. Many people claim to be creative – not to sell, but to win awards. Awards are not the purpose of advertising. The only role of advertising agencies is to reduce price elasticity of demand for their clients products and services through inspiring, memorable, high-reach communications.
Great article, how quickly we can forget what we are REALLY here to do (make sales not art)
*a million claps for you*
” . . . it’s our duty to extract the intangible value and to inspire people to buy it.” Well said, Con.
Good piece Con.
I always like to remind people that the award system isn’t a level playing field anyway. Small agencies don’t have the resources either in people or cash to enter every awards program going, and many big agencies treat awards entries like a numbers game – enter as many as you can to increase your odds of a win. Doesn’t mean the work was better or drove better results for the client than a campaign that hasn’t been entered, yet sadly it’s still a question most pitch requests ask of agencies before you can make it onto a shortlist.
This is a good article, but it’s a stretch to judge the value of creativity (in this case music) by number of units sold. The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds was a sales flop, but it’s a classic album so respected by their peers it influenced the fabs to introduce us to Sgt. Pepper.
The core difficulty with awards is that – historically speaking – there has not been any other KPI for advertising creatives, particularly when looking for their next job. The awards culture that really kicked in around the time of ‘Think Small’ has transmogrified into the self-validating mindset it is today.
Whereas in the past, it was possible to claim a correlation between ‘creative’ work and sales, the data and processes available today and into the future are going to tell the real truth as to what works, though maybe not always why. But any assumption that this more granular capability in utility, process and path-to-purchase will do away with the need for persuasive messaging is just a furphy.
There will always be a place for great creativity in advertising. Awards, too. But based on more substantial criteria.
Spot on. its unbelievable this is an industry abusing billions of dollars aounrd the world with zero accountability. It’s been a long run but the gig is up. A company whose purpose is to abuse and take advantage of its customers will eventually fail. What kind of egos are running these networks to perpetuate such an insane culture?
Hallelujah!
Can I get an amen?
As a marketer, I agree with the broad point being made, but why is Mumbrella hating on Cannes so much – is there an ulterior motive here?
I imagine that Mumbrella makes quite a bit of money hosting its own awards event, as do several other ad trade publications, so why is it picking on the most famous industry event in the world?
It would be good if you could focus on some of the positive work being awarded at Cannes rather than sniping at it. If awards are such a huge industry issue, perhaps you could set an example and not host them.
Why is my response not being posted up?
As a marketer, I agree with the broad point being made, but why is Mumbrella hating on Cannes so much – is there an ulterior motive here?
I imagine that Mumbrella makes quite a bit of money hosting its own awards event, as do several other ad trade publications, so why is it picking on the most famous industry event in the world?
It would be good if you could focus on some of the positive work being awarded at Cannes rather than sniping at it. If awards are such a huge industry issue, perhaps you could set an example and not host them.
While I don’t believe in ‘scam advertising’ at all, some credit should be due to brilliant marketing ideas in general. Without this, how do we progress and inspire? Maybe there is a future awards body that awards creativity as a whole, not just creativity for proven advertising/marketing centric intent.
Hi Pot,
Indeed we do host our own awards, but they’re vastly different from Cannes in many ways, not least the rigour we put all entrants through with live judging, celebrating real work and the best agencies, media companies and marketing teams. It’s a bit like comparing apples and oranges, just like trying to judge work made purely for awards against work made to have business outcomes for a real client.
Obviously Cannes is a huge show so live judging would be impossible, but that also allows more scam to pass through unchecked. Our job as an industry publication is to ask questions of that work and highlight where we see issues.
Our motive here is simple, to improve the industry by celebrating what is real, client approved and has business results, not something that has been made up to win an award for personal or agency gain. You can read all about it here: https://staging.mumbrella.com.au/why-mumbrella-wont-attend-scam-lions-count-us-241198
We’ll continue to host awards and put real rigour behind our methods – just ask any of the nearly 100 judges who took part in our process this year.
We’ll also continue to ask hard questions of all these global shows, especially Cannes.
Cheers,
Alex – editor, Mumbrella
Watch this:
http://www.canneslionsarchive......s-to-watch
Then try the site here.
http://www.wordstowatch.com/
Not quite the same as the case study is it? Cannes is a joke.
that one picked up silver
Well articulated as always, Con.
I think it’s time the Australian advertising industry treated this job like a normal career, you come to work at 9 and clock out at 5:30. Clients too should start respecting that we are not at their service 24 hours a day. Unfortunately that never happens and the only reward agencies/worker bees get are awards for the crazy hours. Change the hours and lets loose the Cannes.
Great article.
“What advertising creates isn’t worthy of award, but it is highly worthy of reward.” Well said! If agencies recognised that the only measure of advertising’s success was business growth, they’d have a far easier time putting a price on their service and defending it.
Wow. That “words to watch” example is extraordinary. Easy to criticise I guess, but why wouldn’t the Cannes judges double check the URL once it was on a short list? #weak #fake
Could have something to do with career and salary advancement being connected to winning awards for creatives. I’ve seen many creatives with awarded scam move up the ranks while others, who’s ‘boring’ work delivered good numbers for clients, get left behind.
Dump awards and see who really stacks up.
What are you talking about? Looking at it now, the only difference between the case study and the actual website is one click.
What’s going on with your comments section, Mumbrella? This was in reply to ‘Here’s another, and another etc etc’.
AMEN