I’m really pleased for the LIA Awards that the chief creative officer of DDB Worldwide, Amir Kassaei, has agreed to endorse them.
It’s a marketing idea with merit, especially given the noise, weight and number of competitors the LIA Awards have.
But I’m also a little confused. In January this year in Campaign, Kassaei published a no-holds-barred attack on ad awards – or as he called them at the time, “false recognitions” – and on adland’s attitude towards them.
You can read (or re-read) his whole argument in Campaign…
…or the main points here: “Too many of us in the industry have bought into the idea that winning awards is proof of creative effectiveness, so much so that we’re willing to sacrifice our integrity to get them. And in turn that has lessened the integrity of the awards themselves. So if we believe that we are a great creative or an amazing agency or a great network because we won such and such meaningless award in a sub-sub-sub-category at an advertising awards show where ad people award ad people’s irrelevant solutions for problems that often do not even exist, then we’d better think again…
“Our industry has lost focus about what really matters. All of us who are working in advertising and marketing communication have only one purpose: to use our creative talents and insights to build relevance and influence in today’s world that consequently creates substantial results for the brands, products and services of our clients.
“If we do that in great, unseen, fresh and innovative ways, we will move people. We will impact societies and shape culture. That is the real and only relevant recognition that we as an industry should aim for. And that is the only currency that is valid out there.
“Because we believe that winning awards only means that you are good at winning awards…”
Now Kassaei appears to be encouraging adland to enter the LIA Awards.
To be fair, Kassaei didn’t say in January that DDB would be boycotting any awards. He said, “You will see less work from DDB at some of the shows.”
And he did single out submitting a lot of entries (especially for meaningless awards in a sub-sub-sub-categories) to win agency or network of the year and submitting “phony prototypes” for his vitriol.
But it does seem strange.
Or perhaps, if it’s from Kassaei, it’s the highest endorsement that an awards program could dream of having?
The LIA Awards entry deadline is July 13. If you want to be “good at winning awards”, show off what your agency can do, advance your career or increase your agency’s cred, and haven’t submitted your entries, hurry.
by Candide McDonald, editor.
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