For some reason I have yet to discover, the editors at Communications Arts magazine invited me to judge their prestigious Advertising Annual competition. I'm trying to be cool about it, but I truly feel thrilled and honored. The judging has now begun, and the first two categories -- radio and web banners -- were judged at my office. In the case of radio, they sent a CD. For web banners, they sent a series of links. Here are a few nuggets of feedback:
1) The radio category had only about 65 entries total. Apparently a lot of people realize it will be tough to win and therefore pre-judge themselves out of competing. I was rather surprised about that total. I had been expecting closer to 200-300 radio entries.
2) Most radio entries did not take advantage of the "theater of the mind." Sad fact. Many were corny or "under-produced." Most did not feature new concepts or approaches. A few possessed genuine surprise and delight value. There was a couple of nationally known radio campaigns that showed well. And one not so well-known national advertiser with a campaign that really slapped me in the face. I played the campaign a handful of times because I enjoyed it so much.
3) The web banner category is actually mis-titled in my opinion. Any advertising that appears on the web goes into that category. That made judging difficult because you would see a classic html banner, and then view a four-minute mini-movie with incredible production value. Be forewarned -- if you are entering a banner in this category, it will be very difficult to win. There were some page takeovers that were rather innovative, however, and competed, from a conceptual standpoint, with the big-budget pre-roll and YouTube videos.
4) As with the radio campaign, there weren't an overwhelming number of entries -- probably about 75.
Obviously, I can't be any more specific than that. And when I visit CA headquarters later this month to complete the judging, it should be very interesting to experience the process, and assess whether politics or favoritism plays a big role. By the way, I'm not allowed to vote on our Richter7 work. Understandable. Still, I hope a number of other judges will see fit to give it an "in" vote.
3 comments:
Congrats, Dave! Looking forward to hearing about the experience.
Hooray for new posts! And congrats on being asked to judge. I wish I knew more of the ad language lingo so I understood more of what you were judging!
Oh, stop being humble. Of course they asked you to judge! :) It was interesting to hear your thoughts on the entries!
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