Awards! Awards! Awards!

Last Nov. 5, we received the good news that our radio entry in the London International Awards (LIA) took home a silver trophy, the highest award for the Philippines. The ad, entitled “Sayang,” was for Procter & Gamble’s Vicks VapoRub. It had a simple, compelling idea: It lamented the many good scents that are wasted when the nose is clogged and congested. Picturesque language, humor and great voice acting worked together to claim the statue. The ad was created and written by multi-awarded executive creative director Ompong Remigio.

Campaigns & Grey was the lone silver winner in the Philippines. The competition was especially tough this year with a total of 13,117 entries from 78 countries vying for the coveted metals. For all these hopeful thousands of entries, the competition set very high standards. There were only 75 golds or .56 percent, 168 silvers or 1.28 percent, 197 bronzes or 1.5 percent, and only 192 were named finalists or 1.46 percent. Of the thousands of entries, a total of only 3.4 percent were awarded metals. What a tough competition indeed!

The London International Awards has established itself as a global leader. It is one of the most credible and prestigious international awards in the marketing and advertising industry.

Adobo magazine, the country’s leading advertising trade publication, has this official report:

“Campaigns & Grey topped the list of agencies in the Philippines in the statue tally for the 2009 London International Awards.  The agency won a silver statue with their radio spot, ‘Sayang,’ for Cosmetics/Toiletries/Pharmaceuticals. A bronze was won by DDB Philippines also in Radio-Sound Design. Lowe Philippines was awarded a finalist certificate in Design- Posters.  

“’This year, the Philippines has done especially well in Radio.  Considering the intense competition and highly stringent judging standards, agencies in the Philippines have a lot to be proud of,’ observed Barbara Levy, president of the London International Awards.

“The London International Awards honors advertising, design and digital media. Launched in 1986, it cultivates a celebration of the power of ideas, and recognition of the legends, iconoclasts, and avatars of creative excellence.

“LIA is also the first comprehensive award of its kind to accept all media and executions worldwide and judged by a truly diverse international jury of the most talented, recognized and awarded individuals.”

This year, it seems that the gods of recognition have decided to smile on us. Not only did the agency win the highest accolade from LIA for the Philippines. At the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) annual Golden Quill awards held last Oct. 22, our PR outfit, Campaigns Public Relations Inc. (CaPRi), had one of the biggest hauls of Quills. Richard Arboleda, managing director of CaPRi, went up and down the stage six times that evening on behalf of his beaming clients. They were honored for work on Safeguard for the launch of the first-ever Global Hand Washing Day campaign; GSK Cervarix “Dare to be Bold, the Tour of Hope”; Olay Regenerist “Skin Clinic on Demand,” P&G Beauty, “Making Beauty Dreams Real”; P&G Tri-pid for “Handog Edukasyon Program” and the Philippine Dermatological Society, “From Beauty to Beast.”

A merit award was also given for Maynilad’s “Dumadaloy ang Ginhawa” campaign, a client of Campaigns Social Response (CSR) headed by Rocky Tirona. This rounded off the abundant harvest of seven awards, one of the most bountiful number of Quills garnered in this year’s competition by the Campaigns group. Not to be outdone, our sister company, Campaigns Cebu, the number-one total communications agency in VisMin, headed by the power couple Zen and Vicki Pastoriza, also made a good showing at this year’s Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA), garnering trophies for Julie’s Bakeshop- “Everyday Heroes” and the Cebu Chamber of Commerce in partnership with DepEd for the TV ad “Preparedness.”

This week, from Nov. 18 to 21, the biennial 21st Advertising Congress will be held in Subic, the same venue that hosted the 20th Advertising Congress. It was originally set for the City of Pines until typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng rendered a lot of the roads impassable. So with a heavy heart, the organizers returned to Subic.

One of the highlights in the Ad Congress is the Araw Awards, the Philippines’ most coveted creative honor. Since the ‘90s, creative competitions began to lose their luster, not only in this market but globally as well. The award became its own end, forgetting the fundamental purpose that an ad agency has the contractual duty to sell the product and build brand reputation, and still be able to win awards.

Client-less scam ads, pro bono initiatives, “art for art’s sake ads” and even “arty” cause-oriented campaigns masquerading as legitimate advocacy, began to proliferate in competitions. The local award contests were not spared. It became fashionable to mimic the antics of dubious creative gurus like Neil French, who supposedly won a Lion for a scam ad that he entered in Cannes, just to prove that he could. This is the same “genius” who was eventually fired by WPP in 2006 for his inappropriate sexist remarks at a marketing forum in Toronto.

At the 20th Araw Awards, it became evident that the clients were no longer interested in attending awards. It had turned into a white elephant completely irrelevant to their brand building. The main focus seemed to be for stoking creative egos and bragging rights. It was happening all over the world. Less and less big marketing companies participated while more and more never-heard-of clients took home the plum honors. The more enlightened thinkers who tried to sound the alarm were dismissed as sour grapers, if not party poopers.

Coincidentally or not, it was during this same period that the local advertising industry also began to unravel. Almost like the silent revenge of clients, the unbundling of the full-service agency and the birth of media independents began to take place with the blessing of the client companies. The heretofore “shy” and retiring backroom media practitioners began to gain more prominence and importance, to the horror of the creative community. Suddenly, the pecking order evolved, and the creatives found themselves relegated to the lower rung, as the caregivers of the white elephant.

It took some time before the artistic purists realized that they had virtually imprisoned themselves in the ivory tower, unable to see the big picture from their tiny vantage point. At long last they have awakened from their ego-induced stupor. All over the world, they are beginning to see the light.

In the 21st Araw Awards, all creative entries are required to submit the effectiveness of their effort. Aside from jumping the bar of creative excellence, they would have to present proof that it performed to increase product sales or enhance its reputation. Finally, the competition is becoming pertinent and momentous once again.

What’s in an award? I am not against the value of affirmation and psychic rewards. Recognition and honor are as necessary to a human being as love, security and the basics of life. But the watch-out is to not make awards the center of one’s existence. This not only promotes the possibility of a narcissistic personality disorder, worse, if awards defined one’s self-image, what happens during a lean year? I say one must treat awards like eating chocolate: a bite is heavenly, too much is diabetic.

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