D&AD Blog

Awards 2010 well and truly open for entries

If you haven't spotted it already, visit the brand spanking new Awards website.  Almost all Foremen are up and Juries will follow in about a month.

British advertising is not as good as it should be.

Why? Because five years ago the audience ran ahead of the advertiser and most agencies still haven't caught up. It may come as a shock to 75% of D&AD's membership, but people (sorry, should that be 'consumers'?) don't actually need advertising. The city of Cannes could break away from the French mainland in the third week of June, drift off into the Mediterranean and - shock, horror! - the world would still keep on spinning.

Traditional advertising has always been a bit like peacock feathers. If one bird's got them, then we all need them. And best if they're as big and bright and brash as possible. LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! Aren't I the avian's bollocks?

But things changed. Liberated by technology and social media, the audience took control. Advertising was no longer a necessary evil to be tolerated in exchange for TV shows and the latest news. But rather than letting their tail feathers droop, smart creatives realised that this was actually the best thing that could have happened to advertising. People don't necessarily need it, but they still covet content, information, community and useful services. And they're happy to engage with brands who can provide these things, so long as they are delivered on their terms and without the expectation of an immediate return.

The trouble is, not enough British brands have twigged this yet. At the annual D&AD ceremony in May there was a big fat elephant in the room. Those who weren't distracted by drink or libido might have seen it. He was the one wearing the t-shirt saying 'Foreign Advertising Is Better Than Yours.' He was the one clapping all those bright sparks from places like Japan, America and - no sniggering at the back - Germany as they walked onto a London stage to collect hallowed pencils for work that used popular digital and mobile technologies and social media platforms to engage people in multilayered narratives and conversations.

He was the one who smiled indulgently as local creatives jogged up to be rewarded for making quaint little posters and the odd TV commercial.

A couple of years ago Contagious posted a rant about the UK scene on our weekly newsletter. The president of the IPA had slapped the back of Blighty's admen (and let's face it, sadly it is mostly men) because the UK had just topped the Gunn Report, an annual chart based on the results of international award shows. On face value, this was good news. But (big but) the Gunn Report at the time only ranked TV and Print. Being Number One in this context was a bit like being the best in the world at making fax machines. Yeah, great, well done --- but wouldn't you have rather been making MP3 players and iPhones? You know, things that people actually use and like to talk about? Contagious also had a pop at a London art director who slagged off D&AD via Campaign magazine for not giving a Pencil to a Nike poster featuring a bare-chested Wayne Rooney daubed with the cross of St George. He made some jibe about foreign jonnie jurors not knowing a good ad from a half-baked schnitzel. The Nike poster was indeed very striking, but the jury were too busy salivating over another Nike entry to anticipate this kind of parochial fuss. They knew that the ad business was evolving rapidly. They recognised that the frontiers being opened up by emerging technologies were uncovering all kinds of entrepreneurial opportunities for creative companies. The advertising business was starting to behave more like Silicon Valley. That's why the jury awarded a coveted Black Pencil not to a Nike billboard but to a Nike application. A piece of 21st century intellectual capital brought to life by an American digital agency, R/GA; a device called Nike Plus. Here was a differentiating idea that gave Nike an instant competitive edge over its competitors; a connected product that plugged the purchase of a shoe directly into an enduring relationship with the brand via a social media platform and information hub.

Things have started to change in the UK - for example, BBH has just remodelled its entire structure to better reflect the needs of modern brands and digital wizards like AKQA can fight it out with the best of them on the world stage - but the change, in my opinion hasn't been fast enough to keep pace with global competition.

But that's just my opinion. It would be reassuring to be proved wrong! What do people involved in the education of the next generation of advertising creatives think? Is British advertising a load of old billboards? Or will there be more Union Jacks on the D&AD awards stage next year?

Paul Kemp-Robertson is co-founder & editorial director of Contagious Communications

www.contagiousmagazine.com

 

Creativity and the Brain

Thinkbox is a creative resource for anyone wanting to break into TV advertising. Here Lindsey Clay, Thinkbox's marketing director talks about the resource and how useful it proves as a teaching tool:

Creatives don’t generally wear white lab coats. They would probably align themselves with art before science. And, until relatively recently, if asked how creativity worked in advertising or why we actually need it, the answer would have been based more on gut feeling than scientific fact. It just worked.

But there have been giant steps in recent years in breaking down ad creativity, peeling back its finely crafted, precious layers to better understand exactly how it works and, from this, how to make it work better.

At the centre of this revolution in understanding is neuroscience. Creativity may have been thought to be a neuro-art, but the more we understand about psychology and how brand communications actually work on our brains – how they physically, chemically affect our grey matter – the more we understand the importance of great creative work in doing what advertising does: selling things.

So, I’d like to invite you to an event that has already happened. Last year, Thinkbox brought together some of the very biggest brains to offer their thoughts and research into how TV advertising works on the mind. TV was already proven to be the most effective ad medium around, but what actually makes it so effective?

On stage you can see the feted likes of Paul Feldwick challenge the assumption that ads need to have explicit messages in them; Robin Wight, Chairman of The Engine Group & WCRS, explore how theories about the brain and creativity are brought to life specifically and practically in TV advertising; and Justin Gibbons, Founder of Work Research and the man behind PHD's famous 'neuroplanning' research, talk about how brands actually live in the brain.

Sit back and let us welcome you to a world of ‘low involvement processing’, 'implicit' learning and ‘emotivation’; a world where the grey really matters. You can see it here. What you will see is how the art of creativity is behind the science of selling.

Product Design Nominations & In Book

We held Product Design judging at a different time to the rest of Awards judging this year, as the main week (20-23 April) coincided with the Milan Furniture Fair.  With a total of 10 entries going In Book, four nominations have been awarded to Seymourpowell, Apple, PearsonLloyd and bocci.  

These additional results, along with finalised proofed basic credits, have been added to the pdf on our website: http://www.dandad.org/awards/pdf/inbook09.pdf

The Awards website will go live on 22 May: www.dandad.org/awards09 and results will be announced on 11 June.

In-book entries list now online

D&AD judging at Olympia by Websites judge Jason McCann (TAXI NYC) - click to see it in its full-sized glory

We've now polished up our lists and you can now see all the In-book entries as well as the Nominations. Hearty congratulations to all those who made it in and better luck next year to all who missed out.

Nominations and In-Book results

We've got a record breaking 165 nominated entries this year from 717 In-Book.  A full list of nominations can be found here.  In-Book credits will be available to download from tomorrow.  All entrants have been notified.

Product Design results will be published next week, as judging will take place this Friday (1 May).

“I felt a touch of apprehension before judging began, especially so in a ‘recession year’.  Will the work be good enough?  Have slashed budgets cut creativity to the bone?  The results so far show that’s not the case,’ said D&AD President Garrick Hamm.  “D&AD is famous for it’s tough standards, but this crop of nominations shows that the industry continues to produce great work.  Will that translate into a record-breaking number of Pencils at the ceremony?  That remains to be seen.”

Black Pencil Judging will take place on 7 & 8 May in London and winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on 11 June.

D&AD Judging 2009 - Final Day

The final day has arrived and is nearly over... Votes have been cast, nominations are in and everyone is ready to celebrate the success of D&AD Judging.

After 4 days of intensive judging jury members have selected the best of the best professional work in categories ranging from traditional TV and cinema advertising to mobile marketing. With some judging lasting for the full 4 days and others only a few hours, everyone agrees the work has been of a high standard with many exciting new ideas surfacing through in a bid to receive a pencil!

Student awards has been just as intense with an array of work spread over 26 briefs. With jury members commenting on some work rivaling professionals, it has been an amazing year for unique entries. All work has been judged accordingly with the best being acknowledged and awarded. Good Luck!

Interviews with judges from both professional and student awards will be posted soon, giving an insight into the awards from the point of view of the decision makers!

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