Recently, we've seen scandal after scandal as almost weekly another agency is stripped of its award for cheating. Scam ads seem an epidemic, if not a cancer, that's undermining awards and, worse, undermining the industry.
At a recent awards event, a financial client told me that in a recent review they had dismissed agencies that put their awards within the first three pages. "Don't get me wrong," he explained, "we actually want a creative agency but we want one that'll win us more business not just an award for themselves."
There is a difference and clients are wise to it. Winning the top gongs may have been a business driver 10 years ago, but today it could be the biggest reason for a client to pass you by.
As a creative director, I'm all for winning awards for work that has been through the blood, sweat and tears. But having just started a new agency, you very quickly realise that bragging about creative awards can undermine your pitch. Clients no longer trust agencies and you can understand why, with so much cheating about. They want you to put their needs first and park your company ego outside. Honesty is the key to trust.
After O&M were defrocked, many people within the industry seemed accepting of this practice. "It goes on all the time, what's the big deal" was one well-known creative director's comment. I guess he thinks sports people taking drugs and politicians taking back handers is OK as well. Cheating is cheating and actually reduces real creativity. Take away all the frauds and we may not like what we see, but it might make us try harder. All the scams do is to kid ourselves that we are doing great work.
Even my grandmother can do an award-winning ad if she ignores the brief, funds the execution herself and swings a free page in a cheap low-rent mag. Kidding yourself that the client is getting the benefit of a free ad is no defence as the ad will do nothing for their business, as was the case with the French charity Medecins Sans Frontieres. The fake ad, produced by a Brazilian agency, could have got them into political deep water.
The way to stop all this is simple. Many of which are apparent when you read the DMA's pack -- strangely one scheme that's never had a scam ad win an award. Why? Because the work has to show results and be signed off by clients. Which is probably why it's one of the most respected awards among clients.
We need to clean up our industry, take action against those that think scamming is OK and try to win the confidence and trust of clients back. Great creative minds will always come up with great ideas no matter what the brief, budget or deadline. The mediocre minds will just have to resort to some real blood, sweat and tears to get them there.
Chris Arnold is a creative partner at FEEL. Email him here.
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