A big debate was kicked off on the day of the Advertising Conclave at Goafest 2013 when speaker R S Sodhi, MD of Amul India, said creative awards should be done away with altogether as admen make ads and judge them themselves. After this opened a can of worms, Shobhana Nair spoke to a few industry stake-holders to find out what they think
SAM BALSARA
Chairman & Managing Director, Madison World
“Awards which are judged by your peer group tend to be highly respected. I think we could have another set of awards that are judged by consumers because there could be good barometers or good feedback for the industry to know what consumers think of the advertising that we create. Of course, individually, most advertisers do their own research to figure out whether the advertising has been liked and understood. I think to do awards ceremony at an industry level is not a bad idea.
MITRAJIT BHATTACHARYA
President & Publisher, Chitralekha Group
“It’s a farce if the same people who win awards also sit on the jury panel. And if creativity is only understood by creative people to be declared worthy of winning awards, then one can really understand where advertising is headed. Advertising is created for the target audience of the clients and not for the ad industry itself. There should be representation of clients, media owners, and other stake-holders represented in the jury. Also, due to lack of any other currency for judging creativity, winning metals has become the barometer for the star value of our creative heads and their agencies and hence this mad rush to win awards at any cost. Scam ads exist because they suit the industry. One should learn from Bollywood awards where they have become entertainment shows (good for them), in fact the bankability of stars like Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn have grown in spite of them not winning/ staying away from awards. Let the awards stay, but let’s make them more inclusive before they lose relevance.”
CVL SRINIVAS
CEO GroupM South Asia
“Firstly, awards are absolutely essential for the industry. It is a huge motivation for people to win awards. Also, it helps people strive for excellence in doing great work. As far as the process is concerned, it is a good idea to get clients and consumers to sit on the jury and not just the peer group. The process is there, but the composition of the jury could be relooked at.”
T GANGADHAR
Managing Director, MEC
“Awards are not an end by themselves. And when they become an end by themselves is when it becomes a problem. There’s a certain level of navel-gazing in the industry that has to stop. People should try and solve brand problems by capitalizing on the brand opportunities and if that ends up becoming award winning, then that is great. But the starting point should never be ‘let me do award winning work’. There’s a lot of pressure on people to win awards and that has become the standing in the industry for you. Unfortunately, that is the currency. Your resume has to have awards, otherwise the industry doesn’t recognize you, which is very sad. Somehow, we seem to have created a perception that without awards, you are not counted instead of asking how many big and interesting brand stories have you been part of.”
AJIT VARGHESE
Managing Director South Asia, Maxus and Motivator
“Are awards for people or for the work? If awards are for the work, then lots of marketers and brands actually do creative work which works for the brand. But they are not doing work to get appreciated by the industry. Stick to your work and to the core of your brand, and then it will automatically work for the brand. What has been seen across the world is that creative people change the consumer and creative logos, brand strategies, without understanding the consumer so well. If the consumer likes consistency, stick to it. You don’t have to be creative for the sake of it. If you look at these award functions, the creative people start getting highlighted and not the work. Are you doing it for work or are you doing it for the person? If the person is becoming more important than the work, then there is a problem. We should do away with awards.”
ASHISH BHASIN
Chairman India & CEO South East Asia at Aegis Group
“I don’t think we should do away with awards, but I do agree that we should review the entire judging process as in who should be judging it. There is merit in the industry people judging it because they do understand the medium and after all, it is an industry award. But there’s also merit in considering that the voice of consumers should be heard. And we need to find a hybrid. In my view, the shortlist should be done by the voice of consumers and then the final judging by people from the industry who have an idea. I feel the awards should go on, but I do believe that for the media awards at least, we should get the consumers’ voice in.”
RAHUL WELDE
VP, Unilever Asia, Middle East, Africa, Turkey & Russia
“Awards are a great way of recognizing the good work in the advertising industry and they should be a celebration of great work.”
