Time to call time on industry awards and get on with some work! Sorry all you award junkies, but its time someone said it.
Bravo Rob Mayhew for exposing the glaring hypocrisy at Ogilvy, McCann Worldgroup, as well as pretty much every awards scheme out there.
I’m done with the endless parade of self-congratulation. Our industry is packed with award-chasing egotists who crave validation from their peers rather than focusing on what actually matters which is real-world results.
Years ago, I banned big fish® from entering creative awards. It wasn’t a popular move (as you can imagine!), but I did it because we were spending more time chasing shiny trophies than driving real impact for our clients. It's real world results that truly count, not trophies in a glass cabinet!
But guess what? A couple of years back, someone joined our team and convinced me to start entering awards again. So, we did. And of course we won a load. Cue the selfies, the expensive black tie dinners, the social posts, the “award-winning” banners on our website and lots of smiles for a day or two. But did it move the needle? Did it make an impact on the world? Did our clients care? Nope. Not a sausage!!
What’s worse, I found out that the same awards schemes that patted us on the back were also handing out trophies to a bunch of morally questionable companies doing horrendous work for unethical clients!! That’s when I knew I'd been right all those years ago and that these awards aren’t just meaningless, they’re actually damaging.
So let’s cut the crap people. Just about every creative award scheme is as shallow as a puddle, most are conflicted, and just about all of them reward all the wrong behaviours.
Rob nailed it. Yes Ogilvy et al should be ashamed, but so should the Award Schemes that celebrate bad work and devalue every award that they've ever given. They turn the whole system into a joke.
I for one will be displaying all the awards we've won in a dustbin in our reception with a notice that says "we won these, please ignore them, we lost our minds and are now back at work focussing on what matters - your work!"
Just saying…
P.S. My advice to any budding creatives when it comes to awards? Save your money, focus on the work. Let your results speak for themselves. Real clients don’t care about your trophies. They care about impact.
If anyone wants to give you an award, let them, but make sure they don't ask you to pay for it or enter the work yourself. Let them come and find you!!
#boycottawards #justsaying #creativeindustry #awards
Just a reminder that Ogilvy won network of the year at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this year and also topped the Clean Creatives F- List charts as the Agency with the most fossil fuel contracts (alongside McCann Worldgroup) whist Cannes is literally underwater today.
Again, I love Ogilvy. They are a great agency. But please stop working with fossil fuel clients. You are not part of the solution.
If your agency made the list, feel free to ask them about it in the next company meeting https://lnkd.in/ekKTTH2f
Business Director Advertising, Brand & Content bei Ogilvy Switzerland | International Advisory Board Member @ Berghs
3moWonderful & effective work! Congratulations to the entire team!