WHY FOCUSING ON AGENCY AWARDS COULD ACTUALLY DO HARM…
SHA. Blog: Agency Awards
I couldn’t make an awards ceremony a couple of weeks ago, as I had a business dinner with a client. I was a bit miffed, so to make him feel the smallest pang of guilt for keeping me away from prom night, I asked him who he thought might win Agency of the Year and if any of his brand’s work had been shortlisted.
To my surprise, he confessed to not knowing anything about it and said he couldn’t care less. To celebrate a bunch of overpaid and underworked, pretentious creatives, indulging them in some sycophantic orgy of self-congratulation over work derived from phantom briefs with no business value was as alien to him, he said, as Martian poo.
As I stole away from the table for a swift toilet break, it made me think. If our clients have such scant regard for awards, if they literally mean nothing to them, then why do we get so worked up about them and spend a disproportionate amount of money entering them?
I’ve always considered “the most awarded agency at this year’s awards blah blah” at the end of the email quite a good little new business tool, but is it? It may occasionally have a negative effect.
To celebrate a bunch of overpaid and underworked, pretentious creatives, indulging them in some sycophantic orgy of self-congratulation over work derived from phantom briefs with no business value was as alien to him as Martian poo.
Anyway, back to the angry client. His rant continued long after my epiphany in the toilet, “Do you know award teams take the best creative talent in agencies and the real work for real revenue generating clients gets pushed out by the creative minnows?”, he whispered. “While all the hot creative love juice is flowing towards “name redacted to protect the innocent”, because you can produce a print ad that runs once in a magazine with a readership of four, we get less time spent on our account. Interesting I thought, I’ll get my coat.
Awards are vital, not just for creative progression, but for morale
Personally, I think awards are vital, not just for creative progression but for morale as well, they remind me of a British summertime. It’s only for a short period but it comes around every year. Everyone looks forward to it, everyone enjoys it, and it’s the time for optimism and brave new thoughts. Awards season is the same. It gets us out of the office, makes us all socialize with our peers and even befriend each other. If only we can figure out how to get the clients more involved, we’ll be laughing.
SHA is a strategic advertising agency, creating brand strategy, advertising, design for print and content for web and social. If you want to know more, get in touch with nigelh@sha-agency.com or visit our contacts page.
The opinions in this article are that of the author alone and in no way, reflect the opinions or viewpoint of the agency. Unless of course we happen to agree with those opinions completely, in which case they might, but otherwise they don’t.
