‘The Oscars of advertising’: Can the Clio Awards parlay its Mad Men fame into more entries?
The Clio Awards is looking to cash in on its fame with more entries from overseas agencies. Alex Hayes sat down with its president Nicole Purcell and one of Australia’s most awarded creatives, Andy DiLallo, to talk about the role of creative awards, tackling the creative department gender gap, and getting the Clios back on TV.
Fans of TV series Mad Men may well be more familiar with the Clio Awards than many in the Australian ad industry. But its president, Nicole Purcell, is determined to change that and to translate its “pop culture” fame into new entries for the competition.
Despite being one of the biggest creative awards programs in the US, the Clios have struggled to gain traction in Australia compared with larger rivals, the Cannes Lions and D&AD.
Part of that drive includes a new global initiative to hand an Agency of the Year award to the top performing agency from its top 15 countries.
Considering what happened to the Clios in the 1990s, this is a remarkable turnaround in credibility and chutzpah. Google “Bill Evans”, Clio, cocaine and prostitutes for a laugh.
That aside, shouldn’t this award have been handed to Tom Mac and Ben Welsh?
It was clearly earned on their watch.
“you don’t set out to just win an award”
Funniest thing I’ve read in ages!