Cannes I get a witness?

I often get asked by clients, “how will we know it works?”

While little is certain in life, there’s a very good chance if your sales/users go up with the only difference being sustained effort and investment in creative comms, it’s working. Because we’re an impatient bunch of monkeys though, we can’t wait that long, and awards have become a proxy for what works.

Awards like the Cannes Lion are coveted because we tell talented young people they matter, and because clients need to provide social proof to decision-makers for their choice of agency (‘have you seen their reception!’). And it’s not cheap. The Venn diagram for most awarded agencies and those with high disposable income is a circle. Network agencies: if you really give a damn about that cause, contribute your award entry fee to it instead.

When you’re young or headstrong, or know what to ignore, awards are smashing. But people with the most to gain/lose from them are waking up. At Cannes, awards are being handed back, young creatives are standing up to polluting or profiteering clients, and advocacy groups of the calibre of Greenpeace have cottoned on to the fact the industry needs an honest conversation about what matters.