Ted Horton: Awards are like the new FIFA they’ve ‘corrupted what we’re here for’
Ted Horton speaking at Mumbrella360
Creative ad legend Ted Horton has compared agencies chasing awards to a cult, suggesting the desire for awards has “corrupted what we’re here for”.
Speaking at today’s Mumbrella360 conference in Sydney the founder of creative ad agency Big Red, best known for its recent work for Coles, said the awards fascination makes the ad industry as a business look “self-obssessed”.
“I haven’t entered awards since 1991. I stopped because I lived in that world, which I call planet advertising, awards are totally out of control. It’s just taken over,” Horton said.
Well said! Wise words from an experienced elder of the industry, but sadly an industry that has little or no regard for wisdom and experience.
The awards-cultism is a by product of the selfie era, where self comes before those you’re meant to serve: clients. And the winner is: narcissism.
Ted is correct. In the big agencies, it’s all award focused.
I spend my days putting forward ideas that “must” win awards, or at least are award worthy. This usually means, the idea can not have been done before. It’s genuinely gruelling work for most creatives and not sustainable long term.
Finally someone with the courage to say ‘the emperor has no clothes’
2008 CANNES FILM LIONS JUDGE – Ted Horton, Executive Creative Director, Big Red Group, Melbourne (far left)
The awards oasis is why so many mugs crash and burn before they turn 40, while business focussed creatives like Ted are accepted in the clients boardroom and running a successful business at his age.
There are a number of CDs out there that have seen the writing on the wall for big agencies and gone into independent agencies, smaller specialist shops and digital businesses including consultancies. There’s even a few client side.
Get out there, the opportunities are plentiful for creative that know that advertising as practiced by ad agencies is broken.
You’ll never look back.
Big Red’s right, but he ain’t going to change a thing. The money tap is the only thing that will drive change. Clients need to look elsewhere and adopt creative and production models that drive business, not Lions.
And here is the primary reason why I got out of agency land. Well said.
Makes it impossible to do well by your clients when half the focus is on winning awards.
As usual Ted makes a huge amount of sense. The truth is, that sadly, there’s an awful lot of creatives working in big advertising agencies that care far more about awards than they do about their clients business.It’s not necessarily their fault, it’s the agencies they work for that perpetuate that culture.
One or two potential clients in the audience eh Teddy, you shameless ad man you. Ha.
Finally. Over the years I’ve found clients really only want one thing – and that’s for the money they reluctantly spend to work and work hard. Ted is still a beacon of hope. I still use a lesson he taught me way back (as I do an Isherwood-ism while I’m at it). cheers
Is it because Teddy doesn’t win many, it’s a bit hypocritical to bag awards after being a judge and entering in the past, but that’s Ted for you.
We are professional service providers. In other words, growth agents. Cheaper and faster is easy to understand. But ‘better’ needs more definition. There’s no doubt some, unfortunately a minority, of very creative and award-winning work does grow business. That’s work that is better. Faster and cheaper does not automatically equal better.
If i understand Ted correctly he’s not against what he called ‘the cherry’, just the fact it’s ‘become the whole cake’….so i don’t view his role as a judge remotely hypocritical.
Wise words from am experienced elder of the industry ? Well, yes, I suppose that is one way of phrasing an honest reply, but there is more than this to consider.
Awards are fine, they are recognition for having produced something exceptional, but the associated problems are behind three questions: Why? and Who? and For What Purpose? Why did the award come your way, who was behind it? and what were the criteria?
Great cinematography, beautiful shooting, but failed to lift the product in the market place.
Lousy budget, ordinary shooting, simple story, mediocre talent, hey it managed to improved market share.
Awards are fine, we just need to be careful about who is judging, why, and or what purpose. Clever clogs production, high budget, celebrity front people, great scripting and a Hollywood director, will not guarantee a successful ad, but it might encourage the wrong judging panel to give it an award.
For years, Patts eschewed awards- until they started doing work good enough to win some. And don’t just blame the agencies, there are plenty of clients out there who love to flaunt them.
No wonder we’re obsessed with awards, isn’t AWARD school how most of us get into the industry? That’s based on someone winning!