Warc, 19 February 2014
DUBAI: Several regional industry figures have spoken out
about the make-up of the jury for the Dubai Lynx International Festival of
Creativity taking place there next month.
"The absence of Arab jurors at the Dubai Lynx is an
absurdity," declared Hubert Boulos, CEO Middle East at DDB. "I feel
it is actually insulting to all of us," he continued. "I can't
imagine something like this happening in France, for example."
And Mounir Harfouche, CEO at Lowe MENA, concurred, telling a
session of the International Advertising Association, that "[o]ur people
need to be part of the [advertising] experience, including taking part in
judging regional awards".
He was enthusiastic about the value of awards, however,
pointing out that advertising was the only industry where creativity was used
to deliver a business-driven objective. "That's where it becomes a
currency and the best investment a brand can make," he said.
But to avoid that creativity being simply an artistic
expression, it required a context for its value to be measured. "Clients
and agencies need to be aligned on the definition of creativity and that's how
we can improve the outcome of the work," he added.
Lance de Masi, president of the IAA UAE Chapter, offered
AMEinfo his idea of the perfect judging panel: "a diverse group of
communications professionals, many of whom have themselves won awards".
He further called for "diversity in nationality, native
language and, of course, professional extraction".
De Masi added that there was "a robust body of evidence
of correlation between work that wins (creative) awards and work that builds
business".
Warc has regularly published articles on the links between
advertising creativity and business effectiveness. James Hurman, author of The
Case for Creativity, said that a Cannes Lion represented the global standard
for creative excellence, and an Effie the same for effectiveness, but noted
that few campaigns ever won a gold in both.
And Martin Wiegel, a past judge on Warc Prize for Asian
Strategy, advised that "cash, not social media metrics or tracking study
scores are what businesses exist to generate, so calculate the financial
return".
Data sourced from AMEinfo; additional content by Warc staff
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