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Advertising agencies have codified accolades through an annual awards ecosystem, the big show happening this week in Cannes, France. Now Publicis, one of the world's largest advertising holding companies, has decided not to enter any award shows in 2018, claiming they plan to reinvest the annual cost of awards shows (reportedly $2.2 million for just in entry fees alone) into an artificial intelligence agent named "Marcel." Not kidding.
Ah, award shows. It's a timeless argument, isn't it? Are they good or bad for advertising? I remember the same debates about award shows back in the 1990s. Clients typically hate them because they are a superficial measure of an ad's effectiveness (at best). Yet agency top brass wants awards to get more business, attract the best talent and build morale within their companies.
But why do creatives feel such a powerful need to award themselves? Is it superficial or is it an important ingredient to the ad world? I believe it's the latter, and rooted in a wonderfully healthy insecurity.
Despite outward appearances, creative people are insecure.
I've worked at several of the great creative shops in the country - Wieden, Goodby, Mullen, Arnold - and with some of the great creative people in the country, many of whom now fill my Ideasicle ranks. One thing I've learned: creative people tend to be insecure.
They may not look it at first. Bravado sometimes, cocky others. And it's not their fault. It's a result of the fact that the "product" they is utterly subjective. They don't create cogs that can be measured and quality controlled. They make ideas which, if any good, have never been seen or done before. That means there's no standard measure for quality...ever.
How can any creative person be secure?
Each new idea is a leap without a net. So imagine leaping day in and day out for years at a time and without knowing whether any of it is any damn good.
And so much is riding on whether or not any given creative person is any damn good. Opportunities for promotion, job opportunities at new agencies, other creative opportunities, all of it depends on subjective perceptions.
I don't blame creative people for being insecure. In fact, I would be insecure if they weren't."]So I don't blame creative people for being insecure. In fact, I would be insecure if they weren't. It seems to fuel them at times. But too much insecurity can't be a good thing and this is where award shows serve an important service.
Award shows give creatives tangible evidence of their value.
Winning Gold Lions means the top creative people in the industry think you rock. Knowing you rock is not a small thing when it comes to idea generation. A creative needs confidence to conquer the fears inherent in creating.
Award shows give creatives the outside attention, the validation and the motivation they so desperately need and can't possibly get within the confines of an agency culture.
Put another way, awards make creativity objective. It's no longer a question of whether you're damn good or not. With an award you know you are.
Business results are always the highest measure, but good results and a Gold Lion, well...
Good luck, Publicis.
I'm picturing hundreds of insecure Publicis creative people remaining insecure for the "no award shows" year. Good luck when your creative department's outlet for self-validation is thrown out the window. Good luck with all that insecurity running amok.
Oh, and good luck keeping your creatives at all. Because WPP, Omnicom and Interpublic will be looking closely at this year's award winners from Publicis. They will be ripe for the picking in 2018.
