By Srabana Lahiri
Major agencies shunning the Goafest creative ABBYs and opting to create their own internal awards, recent controversies and undercurrents at Goafest perhaps point to scope for change in the fundamental philosophy behind the industry’s premier advertising awards
After Lowe Lintas India, another creative agency has instituted its own award property to recognize internal work, shunning the controversy-hit premier industry platform, the Goafest Creative Abbys. Ogilvy and Mather India, which did not participate in Goafest 2013 after a three-year winning streak, has created ‘The ENVIES’ – by ad guru Piyush Pandey’s own admission, “out of basic frustration with the normal awards system in the country and the way it is handled”.
“Around 180 odd judges at the Abbys make it a free-for-all… Do I respect all 180 people?” asks Pandey, Executive Chairman (India) and Creative Director (South Asia), Ogilvy and Mather.
Earier in the year, speaking at Lowe Lintas India’s internal awards, the True Show, R Balki, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of the agency had said, “I do believe in credible award shows, but the basis of their integrity has always been questionable.” While Lowe Lintas and Partners celebrated ‘10 years of not giving a damn about awards’ at the ‘True Show’ event this year, Ogilvy is all set to hold the first edition of the ENVIES on December 16.
These developments draw the industry’s attention to a few issues around the Abby Awards.
HOW MANY JUDGES ARE TOO MANY?
Pandey’s comment about the number of judges at the Abbys draws this retort from a senior adman who does not want to be named: “The same Ogilvy participates at Cannes where there are more than 300 judges, so why this issue over the Abbys having more than 150 judges? Which award show does not have a large number of judges?”
Also, both Lowe and Ogilvy participate in the EFFIES, which has more than 100 judges, mostly made up of advertisers. For the agencies, it could be the fact that the Abbys don’t matter globally, while the EFFIES does - points earned by an agency at the EFFIES count for the global EFFIES.
The same adman points out that the large number of judges is also because busy industry professionals don’t have time to spare for judging; therefore more people are taken on board to vet the large number of entries. With around 4,000 entries at the Abbys, it is anybody’s guess how much time a small panel will take.
IT NEEDN’T BE ONLY ABOUT BEING NO. 1
The game of one-upmanship – or rather the battle for supremacy – is a fiercely fought one among creatives at the Abbys, often dividing them in ‘camps’, and turning into a psychological game to become No.
1. While at global platforms it is all about celebrating the individual merit of each piece of work, at Goafest the sole aim is to be declared Agency of the Year, creating scope for controversy. While the organizers of Goafest 2013 took care not to declare such a winner, only giving out a tally of metals earned by each agency, the media was quick to make its own calculations and come up with a No. 1.
In the case of Ogilvy – three-time No. 1 at the Abbys - a senior industry professional who did not want to be quoted said it could be the fear of having their hegemony broken, and balancing the risk associated there in with the rewards that kept them away from Goafest.
The accent needs to be on celebrating brilliant pieces of creativity, not being No. 1.
AS CONTROVERSY TAINTS THE ABBYS
To cite just a couple of instances involving controversy at the Abbys, this year, Leo Burnett withdrew its radio spots for Tata Lite from the contest, after which the Awards Governing Council (AGC) withdrew BBDO India’s ads for DHL and DDB Mudra Group’s work for Electrolux saying they were ‘similar’ to work done by Ogilvy Hongkong and Y&R Sao Paulo respectively.
The AGC received hundreds of complaints for the Creative Abbys, and set up a superjury to address the principal complaints. However, the superjury relied on technicalities and refrained from taking a clear decision.
In 2010, then Ad Club Bombay President Bhaskar Das received allegations that jury members were voting for advertisements produced by their own agencies, which is not allowed by the rules. After investigation, it found 29 such instances involving multiple agencies, out of 4117 entries for the awards. The consequence was that the Club just asked the erring agencies to voluntarily return their awards.
Industry observers say the Abbys lost out in award value due to such occurrences.
SHOULD ONLY ADVERTISERS JUDGE?
There is a whole debate about the legitimacy of creators judging and awarding their own creativity in the industry. So to be fair, shouldn’t advertisers – who are the agencies’ clients – judge awards? “There are various ways of doing it. You have effectiveness awards - clients are judges there and clients have become smarter to know that communication does make a difference. In cricket terms - the public decides the excitement of a match, the expert decides who was the best bowler.
Both must run parallel,” says Pandey. As for agencies instituting internal awards, it is always the agency’s prerogative to participate or not in industry awards. Pratap Bose, COO, DDB Mudra Group and President of the Ad Club, says: “I have nothing against an agency that holds its internal awards. It is good as it is motivating.”
However, it is astute to accept that internal awards are in their own space with agency professionals competing against their own work, while industry awards offer a platform where they compete against other agencies and the world. One cannot be a substitute for the other.
ABOUT THE ENVIES
Ten creative luminaries from agencies other than Ogilvyhave judged the entries for the ENVIES. They include Agnello Dias (Taproot), Raj Kamble (StrawberryFrog), Raj Kurup (Creativeland Asia), Ashish Chakravarty (Contract), Arun Iyer (Lowe), Akshay Kapnadak (McCann), Malvika Mehra (Grey), Josy Paul (BBDO), Sonal Dabral (DDB Mudra) and V Sunil (Wieden+Kennedy). The format does not provide for categories or different metals – just 25 awards for the best works. The ENVIES will be held yearly, unlike Lintas India’s True Show, held only when the agency decides it has some exceptionally good work.
Q&A: ‘We didn’t find any value coming our way at the Abbys, hence our own awards’
Ogilvy chief Piyush Pandey talks to Srabana Lahiri about the agency’s new award property, the ENVIES, his ire against the Goafest platform with ‘too many judges’, why he will still go to Cannes and what he would like to change in the world of advertising
Q] Why the ENVIES? What made you decide on an internal recognition system?
We didn’t find any value coming our way at the Abbys, hence our own awards. They have some 150-180 odd judges - if there were so many wonderful people in this country in advertising, we would be a great country. At the ENVIES, it is a very different system; there are no categories, no golds, silvers or bronzes. We just have 25 awards for the 25 best pieces of work in terms of idea, execution and impact. Getting a bronze at the Abbys means nothing to our people. I have seen those awards being left on the floor - and I remember my days when we used to keep awards above the level of our head - and that is disturbing. At the Abbys, we have won 50-60 awards, but decided on just 25 here to make people do the kind of work that the world envies. Therefore, the ENVIES.
Q] But you do go to Cannes and other awards – do you think there are no issues around the judging process for those platforms?
Those are issues beyond my control. People say there are cultural issues, that they don’t know what Indian culture is all about… Those are things you learn to live with. In our market, we want people to talk about our work. We want to reward work that makes an impact in our country, so we separate it very clearly from what happens internationally, though the awards that we really value internationally are the same ones that win in India also, such as the Fevicol bus or Lead India. I want my people to score double hundreds and after that if they do two reverse sweeps, then it is like a little bit of fun on the side.
Q] What do your clients say about the ENVIES? Are they as excited as they would be about the Abbys?
Clients are very, very excited about the ENVIES. They were also frustrated that in that huge big scenario at the Abbys, some of the work awarded seemed to their minds work that didn’t deserve to win.
Q] But you were always winners at the creative Abbys… you walked away with the maximum number of awards…
So that can lead to complacency. That can have my little young lady from office thinking that she is a superstar because she won a bronze in some category where 100 other bronzes were given… we want our people to actualize themselves, we want them to compete with the best and be better than what I have been in my lifetime.
Q] Is internal recognition good enough to motivate creative talents vis a vis accolades on an industry platform?
There are two things here – one, there is a huge disrespect within good agencies for external awards, the way they are conducted. Two, the judging at the ENVIES is done externally by a select number of people, while 180 odd judges at the Abbys make it a free-forall… Do I respect all 180 people? On the other hand, we have 10 people whom we actually respect as judges here and they are not our agency people, nor are they chosen because every agency needs to be represented, which is the way Abbys are conducted. So how much of it is internal and how much external… it’s a very thin dividing line.
Q] Would you like to talk about this year’s best work at Ogilvy?
There is a lot of best work. I think the Google ad has made waves, and the 5-star ad. Earlier in the year, Tata Sky made waves… In its own way, Binani made waves. I met ENVIES judges Aggie (Dias) and Sonal (Dabral) at the Times of India Literary Festival and both told me that there is so much good work happening at Ogilvy… it was very heartening for meto hear this from people I respect in the industry.
Q] After Rajiv Rao and Abhijit Avasthi, have you identified the next crop of creative leaders at Ogilvy?
Such a lot of good work would not be happening if Rajiv and Abhijit were not cultivating people. The Google ad that the world is loving has been written by Sukesh (Nayak) under Abhijit’s guidance. A lot of Vodafone work too comes from juniors - Rajiv kind of rides it, but the idea came from very young people. There are hundreds of young people doing great work. Our role is, sometimes we write, sometimes we guide, sometimes we protect their great work… They are all fantastic; it is difficult to name people. The ones who are leading are recognized today and others will be recognized tomorrow. I want us to be a battery of creative people rather than just one Brian Lara in a team… It is a continuous process.
Q] What do you look for when you take youngsters on board?
The guiding principle is that they have to be enthusiastic about life, respect life, their surroundings… people who are able to express their thoughts, are positive in their thinking, have a lot of good values in life and have a love for laughter. We have a lot of fantastic creative women working in the agency, and none of them has a fat moustache!
Q] Where is the industry headed in terms of recognition for good work... isn’t it getting too fragmented with so many different award properties?
I think this is a way of life, which will happen. If we think that Filmfare awards are the only thing that happened, there are 50 awards happening around the theme of awarding films. You don’t have to worry about the awards. You have to worry about what is the general response from people around you. I met the expolice chief of Maharashtra at a wedding reception and asked him whether he had seen the Google ad. He hadn’t, but said he would watch it when he got back home. In the morning, he sent me a message saying, “Incredible, unbelievable, fantastic… I love the work that your boys are doing. Congrats”. For me, this is a bigger award than receiving one on any stage.
Q] How serious is the issue of scam adscreated to win awards in India?
It is an issue which is fairly international; countries have been blotched on those lines. I differentiate between one-offs and scams. For example, if you do a great ad for Independence Day which can’t run every day, that is fair enough, but pointless ads are what I call scam ads. The issue has been there for decades, it cannot be solved on paper… it has to be solved in your conscience.
Q] Has the 10+2 ad cap regulation put pressure on admen to create shorter ads?
No. That is a wrong perception. There is pressure on creatives to deliver better ideas - even if it is a 2-minute ad idea, it should be so good that a client would want to run it and pay extra for it. Yes, we will have to think harder about smaller lengths for some people, but it is a great opportunity. One guy has the gall to run a Google commercial and agree to pay for 3.5 minutes, he knows for sure that he only has to run it for four days, and the world will know. Somebody else will do a 25-seconder and run it for five months. I don’t see it as a constant, not at all. If you have an idea which can be communicated beautifully in five seconds, no problem, respect it. If you have an idea which takes 30 seconds to make the same impact, do it, or do it in five minutes.
Q] How big a challenge is creating ads for new screens in the digital age?
If you have a good idea, all these are just media vehicles. Of course, you need special ads for different screens. But the idea is supreme. Nothing else. Now look at that Ogilvy 12th floor idea for British Airways in London… it’s an amazingly good idea, you could do it on anything.
Q] You have acquired a majority stake in PennyWise, a digital hotshop. What is the synergy there?
Digital is a new way of living and we have to infuse creativity into it. So Pennywise brings in the digital expertise and we bring in credentials of creativity. We learn from each other.
Q] After mobile advertising and branded content, which new frontiers do you see as the next big ones for creative agencies?
God knows! I am not a technology person and technology keeps surprising you every day. My aim is that there should not be anything which is new, latent, that we brush aside; we must recognize it, have a keen look at it, adopt it and infuse it with creativity… Lots of such things will happen in our lifetime, lots of things I will not understand but my youngsters will; they will help me understand…. What we have done in the past is not the be all and end all. Life will change, if we don’t adopt, accept and embrace it, we will be dead.
Q] One thing you would want to change in the advertising world…
I’d prefer lesser processes… Magic and processes fight against each other and I do understand that process is essential, but process must be like brushing your teeth in the morning… you do it without thinking and you know you have to do it. But if every time I pick up a thing to eat and I am thinking about my teeth and assessing them again, then life is very boring.
(With inputs from Saloni Datta)
Feedback: srabana@exchange4media.com
