Celebrating creativity as it turns into something new
Last night the Boston advertising community celebrated its 49th annual Hatch Awards. The gala, perhaps the country’s most important regional advertising award show, handed out a slew of awards to a group comprised almost entire of badly dressed young white men. (The lack of diversity is fodder for another piece, but if the subject interests you, read Kerry Shea’s very funny post.)
The show, like advertising, reminded me a little bit of China; advertising clings stubbornly to the past while (attempting anyway) to race furiously toward the future.
There were the obligatory newspaper ads, which while clever, well-crafted and even laugh inducing, seem somewhat irrelevant when you consider the most awared executions in the category advertised a radio station no one ever heard of and ran in newspapers hardly anybody reads.
Some beautiful magazine ads boasting crisp and clever headlines for a popular golf brand dominated the print category. Though if you looked through five-year old award show annuals you’d see pretty much the same thing.
There were some very clever :30 Radio commercials – the hardest category in which to do anything compelling – that actually managed to hold your attention. (The question is whether anyone other than award-show judges listens to radio commercials.)
In the TV category, a few strong campaigns dominated. Yet even some of the winners, while brilliantly casted and really well executed, are arguably derivative and not quite as inventive as the work that might have inspired them. From everyone I talked to after the show, this was a universal consensus. (Of course I don’t include the highly awarded Boston Bruins work in that category since my agency, Mullen, did it. Smiley face goes here.)
I actually thought some of the most interesting ideas appeared in the newer, less entered categories. Dunkin’ Donuts’ Dunkin’ Run took social media beyond the basic platforms of Twitter and Facebook to an incredibly useful and community inspiring app. It lets your friends know when you’re making a coffee run and offer to bring them something back. Pretty social.
PJA’s Hash it Out site for Novell invited users to enter competing hashtags and see the results. Maybe it’s not brilliant, but it is a reminder of the experiences you can create with Twitter’s API. (Note: It may soon be obsolete with the impending introduction of applications far more robust, such as LiveFyre.)
Pod Digital Design served up an interesting integrated campaign for the History Channel’s Expedition Africa that included content, digital experiences and a virtual 970-mile trek from Zanzibar to Ujiji. It was the only all-digital campaign and earned the shop top honors in the integrated category.
The show added 11 new categories this year, among them blogs, social media campaigns, mobile advertising campaigns, iPhone apps, and experiential marketing. (Full disclosure: I was chairperson, a position I accepted under the condition that the show would start to recognize creativity in more of the new media.) Added at the last minute they garnered fewer entries, and of course the small number of winners were relegated to the back pages of the award show book.
After the show I got two reactions: one from creatives who were excited about the new stuff and anxious to start exploring the possibilities; the other, of course, from the older of those white males who stubbornly cling to the attitude that if it’s not a thirty second TV spot they really don’t care.
This is an interesting time for the creative community. TV is still big, but becoming a smaller piece of the media pie. Print is shrinking — if not outright disappearing — to the chagrin of all those who love the medium and the craft. Social media is taking off. Yet other than a few amazing ideas – think Nike Plus, Chalkbot, CNN/Facebook, Whopper Sacrifice – we haven’t really established the creative standards we aspire to surpass.
But it’s time to do so. The old media, the big budgets, and the outbound messages that have subsidized copywriter’s and art director’s salaries for a long time are slowly going away. Advertisers are moving their budgets and interest to social media. And guess what? The more of them that do, the more they’ll depend on creativity for their competitive advantage.
Hopefully whoever takes the helm at Hatch will push even harder for the new stuff. In the long run it will be the best thing for advertising’s creative community. Because as digital and social slowly grow to dominate, the question isn’t whether or not the thirty-second TV spot will ever die. It’s whether or not creative people insistent on doing nothing but will manage to survive.
Your thoughts? And, as always, if you like what you find here, or are least are provoked by it, consider subscribing, either by email or RSS. Button’s at the top right of this page. Thanks for reading.
Comments
Hey, how are things at DDB? Hope well. But come on, as you should know: 1. monocles don't make for a badly dressed man and 2. it was never a monocle, it was a lorgnette, which is not something that you "wear." Come on, learn the difference among your spectacles, will you?
I work at a big, "brand name" agency. (Hence the "Anon.")
Despite all the talk of embracing the new, I've seen creatives crank out fake print stuff year after year (myself included) to enter into shows like Hatch. When we win, we're rewarded by the ECD with better opportunities, promotions, money, etc. Do I want to do it? Shit no. Do I have to do it? Hell yes. And don't tell me to have courage and break out and take a chance, blah, blah, blah. Fuck courage, I have bills to pay.
You got it. Even Jeff Goodby revealed his hypocrisy when he hired that notorious scammer from france after writing several articles deriding scam work.
I'm currently looking for a job right now, and every single person I talk to still says "Let me see your t.v. reel" and "How many awards have you won." That's all people care about.
I'm getting a little tired of being preached at to have courage and be innovative at an industry that has no idea what those words mean.
Should say "I'm a little tired of being preached at to have courage and be innovative by an industry that has no idea what those words mean."
Anon
Just make sure your ads actually run. Otherwise you could be in really deep shit. People have lost real jobs for entering fake ads. I'm neither preaching nor am I telling you what do to, simply suggesting that the future belongs to a new kind of creative, whether your CD knows it or not. Also, I assure you if you went to either CP&B or R/GA, the two agencies I'd aspire to work at if I were starting out, they'd want more than a bowl for a print ad. That being said, one of my other points is that if you're clever enough to think up an award winning ad or TV spot, you're probably creative enough to invent experiences, engagements, etc. in the new space. Many of the people at my shop creating good social media and digital work came out of the general side of the business. Creative is creative. It's up to you where you want to apply it.
Something done well in any category should be rewarded I guess. Though I amazed at how little most of the stuff seemed - how little impact on the culture it made. I'm a pretty voracious consumer of media and I didn't see most of the stuff in the show.
I don't want to spend my time doing fake posters for pretend clients to win a bowl. But that's what agencies want.
I'm particularly dismayed that the Best in Show was a video made for last year's show. Couldn't we do something better for our clients than we did for ourselves?
Ah, the old "we have the ads, not let's go find the clients," approach to award shows still lives. How idiotic in today's world. And, I hate to say, a reminder that there are still some people doing the work only for their own personal purposes rather than for why they're hired by clients in the first place. True, local shows often have meaningless, invisible work. However, there were some strong efforts for brands like Carnival Cruise, Liberty Mutual, et. al. But, let's face it, nothing even close to something like Whopper Sacrifice. I believe you know as well as I that despite a creative person's love for the purity of the traditional work, untouched by consumers, rather than inviting their participation and co-creation, it's probably the latter will emerge as more important in years to come. We shall see. Consumers can be fickle and technology can be game changing. But you don't want to miss the train as it's pulling out of the station.
Let's hack advertising.
Existing formats and spaces hacked.
New formats and spaces created.
No categories.
.-= Ben Malbonu00c2u00b4s last blog ..The Coming Age of Augmentation =-.
Definitely agree. No more categories.
.-= Mark Truebloodu00c2u00b4s last blog ..Home changed =-.
We should. If anyone is reading this, go to http://electthejury.com/ That's the Andy Awards jury and vote for Ben Malbon, John Winsor, Clay Shirky and some of the not so usual suspects.
Edward:
This makes me very sad, but I wonder how much of it has to do with clients rather than agencies? I don't see the same enthusiasm for social media with clients that I do with agencies. Integrated campaigns by and large are still built on a foundation of traditional media and direct mail, largely because clients have a hard time seeing the power of social media. Until they experience it themselves, they see more risk than reward. Perhaps more awards shows that emphasize those risky campaigns that work are exactly what we need more of.
.-= Carol Phillipsu00c2u00b4s last blog ..What Mad Men Tells Us About Why Millennials Feel Special =-.
Don't be sad, be motivated. I've found pockets of desire and resistance in both places, just as with the web back in the 90's. Mullen and others are racing furiously into the new stuff, and truth be told, I've made a board or exec level presentation a week for the last three months to clients who are interested. There are more considerations and more moving parts and less control, so it takes some a little time to get their hands around it. Plus there are all kinds of new terms: crowdsourcing, etc. But it is happening. The groundswell on the marketer's side is about to catch up to the one that began a few years ago on with the user him/herself.
I feel like I'm sort of stuck in the middle. I think it's incredibly important, and inspiring, that award shows heap rewards upon the work that uses technology to evolve the industry.
But I'm also firmly in the camp of "a compelling idea is a compelling idea, no matter what it's wearing."
I have no doubt that the Hatch Show work all had smart and compelling ideas behind them. But I sometimes wonder if, in our long-overdue rush into tech and social, we're confusing the tactic with the idea. New and shiny whiz-bang technology without a killer thought behind it is not going to get us where we want to be, anymore than insisting on print and t.v.
The Denver Ad Club awards seem to have it right. They award the (50?) best entries, no matter what medium they're in. No categories. Sounds good to me.
Mark:
That is brilliant on some ways, the idea of just 50 awards no matter what. Maybe we'll consider it but I bet it will be a battle. On the other side of the coin is this: creative people, whether they know it or not, must migrate their skills and talent to the new media even more aggressively, not inventing messages, but experiences. Why? The consumers and the money is going there. If they want to stay relevant there's no other choice. I predict that soon the differentiator in the world of conversation and community will be creative, in whatever form it takes. Do you want to relinquish that to someone else, or be the person who's known for the best solutions?
Agree with everything you say Mr. Boches.
But I still feel the best ideas, no matter what medium they're wearing, are experiential.
I can think of more than a few ads that affect and inspire me so deeply, I have an emotional reaction to it. I want to be compelled, not messaged to. That's the experience I want to create. And I believe it's possible, using old media, new media, or anything else.
That's my ultimate goal, even though I think I've only really accomplished it fully with one project in my career.
Believe it or not, I'm long on radio spots. I think they can be a compelling alternative-the price is right and you've got a captive, and most likely, bored audience, so I think they're listening. Radio also has a "live" quality to it. Guys like me listen to sports radio more than they watch network tv.
Let's hear if for the radio spot. I'm sure someone will be glad to hear there are people out there who actually listen to them. (I'll be tuned into NPR.) :-)
One of the attributes us Brits admire in the US approach to business is the early adoption of IT methods.
We're beginning to pull focus on the new challenge, however UK dogma for the old ways is going to be a difficult beast to usurp. I think the main reason (one which you may have alluded to in a previous post) is hefty company structure. Agencies needs to act internally like democratic communities if they are to imbibe creative ideas within them.
Sam,
There are certainly models to admire (R/GA) and simple ways to affect change (alter the creative team to include developers and alternative media types). The fact is that if consumers are engaging with content in different ways and in different places, it's incumbent on us to find better and more compelling creative solutions that live in those places. Thanks.
You refer to them as "badly dressed young white men." This, coming from the man who tried to wear a monocle.
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