Fresh, brave and good at beer: how Aussie ads stack up
What do global advertising honchos really think about Australian ads and why should we care in the first place? Robin Hicks asked around in Cannes to find out. 
A few weeks back, I asked some bigwigs at the Cannes Lions advertising festival what they thought of Australian advertising.
I hoped they’d back up my angle for a feature I was writing for Encore by saying that it had hit a new low.
But due to media training, politeness, ignorance, or because they didn’t agree with me, they did not oblige.
It was annoying. Andrew Robertson, global CEO of BBDO, sporting shorts, thongs and an outrageous tan, almost sounded convincing when he told me that Australian advertising had struck a “remarkable” vein of form. Although he was mostly talking about two of the biggest Aussie award winners – which happen to report into him.
Fernando Vega Olmos, global creative director of JWT, said that Australia “speaks to him” for its beer ads, with their cheeky sense of humour, “for not taking itself too seriously”, and has overtaken Argentina as the home of “fresh, brave” advertising.
Mark Tutssel, global creative director of Leo Burnett, reckoned Australia is “pound for pound, one of the top street fighters in the world at the moment” and has come back with a vengeance this year (but he did also say that Todd Sampson being on The Gruen Transfer helped Leo Burnett Sydney make better ads). “Australia is tiny in global terms, but punches above its weight,” he told me. “In terms of pure creativity, Australian agencies have some of the best in the business.”
The global big cheeses usually only ever really see the best of the work – not the unwatchable 90 per cent that we are subjected to. But the point is, Australia has a strong reputation for its advertising among the honchos on Madison Avenue, albeit with the slightly patronising label of a battling underdog.
Australia’s reputation got stronger in Cannes as we recorded our best-ever year. Though the local ad market doesn’t tend to care much what outsiders think, it really should.
A strong reputation is needed to attract good people, as tax perk the Living Away From Home Allowance disappears and Australia seems that extra bit further away for talented foreigners.
Robin Hicks is the managing editor of Mumbrella.
- This article first appeared in Encore magazine. Download the iPad edition, now free.
