Dave Trott: The truth about awards
April 9 2009, 10:28 am | | 1 Comment
Here’s some thought-provoking pre-Easter fare…
Dave Trott has some straight-shooting comments on advertising awards:”They’re very nice, but they are not what we actually do”, he says.
Here’s some thought-provoking pre-Easter fare…
Dave Trott has some straight-shooting comments on advertising awards:”They’re very nice, but they are not what we actually do”, he says:http://community.brandrepublic.com/blogs/dtb/archive/2009/04/07/the-truth-about-awards.aspx
Building a Twitter-based ad agency for entertainment companies –
Tweeting Star Carri Bugbee explains her ‘Mad Men’ success:
http://adage.com/brightcove/single.php?title=18405513001
1 Comment
If scam ads are not what we do, then why is there pressure from within all the top agencies for creatives to make scam ads?
Here’s how you make a scam legit.
1. You find an agency friendly client from within the existing roster.
2. Tell them you want to make some ads with the sole purpose of winning awards. With luck, they’ll agree. Mostly they don’t, that’s why you have to pick your winners.
3. Tell them they’ll not have to pay for production, time, and any other associated costs. That’s usually the clincher. Leave that trick to last. Believe me.
4. Once the ad is made, pass it under their noses as a courtesy. Get sign off. No-one really wants the Lynx effect rubbing off on your slightly ironic black t-shirt.
5. Get a media partner to find a publication, TV station, or radio network and convince them find some cheap space for the ad to run. Regional trucking titles are my media of choice.
6. Run the ad.
7. Enter it in award shows. In your list of award shows, always opt for at least one show in the tropics. That means Asia. You know the rest.
8. Justify the entry when questions are asked by using the process detailed above to ensure you remain sqeaky clean.
It’s that easy.
Scam ads are here to stay. In years to come they will take different forms. But they’ll still be scams. Large reputations in NZ agencies have, are, and will continue to be made via the traditional scam route.
New Zealand is no longer in a strong position to produce the large numbers of traditional brand type ads that inevitably end up looking similar to scam ads. You know the type of ad – large pictures, small logo bottom right, one line of copy explaining the picture… just like that Dubai ad.
Kiwi agencies are stronger in retail than brand. Retail brings in the dollars. If you think otherwise, then you are living in the past.
Scams are kind of retro. They remind us of days gone by, they make us feel comfortable, safe in the knowledge that we too can produce ads with big pictures, small tag lines, and small logos.
Perhaps that’s the true purpose of scam ads: To remind ourselves of how good we all could be.