Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Judging CA's Advertising Annual - The Inside Story


Dave Newbold judges CA, believe it or not.
Proof I was at CA's offices, since you probably don't believe me.

























The truth, and nothing but the truth -- from my recent CA judging experience:

--judges joined me from Deutsch (LA), BBDO (NY), the Martin Agency, Leo Burnett, Arnold Worldwide,  Goodby, and Bailey Lauerman; all very senior.

--Patrick Coyne, the editor and owner, divided the judges into three rooms of three judges, with employees of CA laying out the work and playing the TV spots for us in each room.

--we reviewed roughly 300 TV spots on Sunday, many quite good.  Some were downright bad.  TV was the strongest category of the show, in my opinion.  Watching it was far more fun than watching Super Bowl spots, because the overall quality, at least of the best spots, was far better.

-- we also reviewed about 500 print pieces on day one.  Times that number by three and you'll get a feel for how much work was reviewed on day one.  Some of the print work was very classy, conceptual and well executed, as you might imagine.  Some were very easy to recognize as freebie, pro bono work that a client would never buy.  That work got rejected by the judges very quickly.  Much of it came from out of the U.S.  Some pieces were beautiful, but not geared to sell in the least, not even a website address on them; those were quickly trashed, too.  By the way, I could not judge any work entered by Richter7, nor could any of the other judges cast votes for their own agency's work.

--all the judges were very cordial, however most of the big-city judges tended to stick together; the two I judged with the first two days heavily laced their conversation with profanity -- lots of f-bombs; many went out for beers at the end of each day, no matter how late we went.

-- best TV: All-State Mayhem, VW, New Era with Alec Baldwin, P&G's ode to mothers, Jet Blue, Coke, Whistler Film Festival (my personal fav featuring a bear rug), and Geico.

-- the videos used to present integrated campaigns are quite elaborate; mini case studies mostly done in Prezi or in AfterEffects; moving type and art elements, big-time music tracks, with results mostly talking about impressions and likes, but, sadly, not sales and share increases.

-- QR codes were mocked.

-- discussions with the other judges in our off-hours leads me to believe the big agencies are struggling with monetizing social, and how to prove its value -- just like we are at Richter7.

-- distressed type is way too common and cliche.

-- we judged lots of gimmicky social media and non-traditional ideas, and they appealed to very small audiences; even with their pass-along numbers - judges called that failure. We wondered how they could justify the creative production expense just to get  "likes."

-- there were very few conceptual print ads -- many were just design decorating a tricky headline; the strong, simple concepts really stood head and shoulders above the others, and the we really appreciated them.

-- very poor work in trade and collateral categories.

-- the remaining print pieces, after finalists were pulled off the tables, we're simply slid into a big garbage can at the end of the long row of tables.  Ouch.

-- yes, there was a lot of corny humor in TV; subtle, well-acted, classy humor was rare.

-- the Coynes are very gracious hosts, and very nice people; they're struggling, like all other magazines, due to severely reduced subscriptions, and wondering how to monetize online readership.

-- CA's offices are very much industrial elegance -- renovated warehouse style with cement floors and lots of skylights; staff of about fifteen, plus two dogs.

-- Patrick very complimentary about R7 work; judges are selected by region and by having previous ads featured in CA, and by their recognizable, national work. Also, Jean Coyne likes to include a few women (on principle).

-- the judge from the Martin Agency (Steve Basset) is a very pleasant guy who's headed Geico's creative  for ten years; he prefers to live in Virginia because of the lifestyle; he hires mellow types who are easy to work with, he says--only wants to work with nice people.

--I discovered it's wisest to enter print work as hard copy because it is more carefully scrutinized by judges – and when shown digitally it washes out.

--Roger Baldacci from Arnold Worldwide indicated that writer and AD's are teamed together for radio, as well as for print and TV…as that seems to make better, more conceptual spots.

--one night at dinner, the judges all agreed that most of their young staff members (Millenials) all seem to have an attitude of entitlement, and therefore don’t work that hard. Also, they don’t know how to figure out problems on their own without constant direction.

--there was some very smart non-traditional work, but much of it seemed to be apps, or games (not true non-trad work). Some was very gimmicky, or only appealed to a very small audience…and, once again, didn’t justify the expense of production.

--Surprise, CA will begin to hand out trophies next year.


I'll report additional CA judging tidbits at the New.Bold. site.  Check it out.