Jury president Jean-Marie Dru concedes UK advantage in Creative Effectiveness Lion playing field
The jury president of the new Creative Effectiveness Lions has conceded that UK agencies had an advantage in the category because of their familiarity with the demanding British based IPA effectiveness awards.
The comments from Jean-Marie Dru, chairman of TBWA Worldwide and president of the Creative Effectiveness jury, came after no Australian agencies were shortlisted. The grand prix was won by a British agency.
He conceded: “It could be true. Because of the IPA awards in the UK we believe the UK agencies have been slightly advantaged by the process because they knew how to enter this category in a very strong way.”
Australian juror Sudeep Gohill, executive planning director of Droga 5 Sydney, told Mumbrella that four or five Aussie agencies had come close to making the shortlist with Leo Burnett’s Canon photochains work falling at the very last.
He said: “Australia was really strong out of the gate. There were five or six really well written papers.”
But he said that agencies had not managed to make jurors understand that what sounded like a modest achievement was meaningful in the Australian market.
He said: “Scale helps a lot. Obviously we can;t make out country any bigger. If we’re not able to talk about the scale side of things how can we provide a context? If there are incredible numbers for the Australian market, we’ve got to explain how difficult the job was.”
The creative effectiveness award seeks to recognise the actual business impact that creative communication can have.
However, there was one local winner, with Colenso BBDO Auckland winning a Creative Effectiveness Lion for its campaign for The Pacific.
The winner of the first Creative Effectiveness grand prix was Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO London. It won for its campaign for Walkers crisps which saw the UK town of Sandwich transformed, with Formula One driver Jenson Button becoming the town taxi driver and soccer player Frank Lampard coaching the local footy team.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aua3UuT_FI4
Another British entry to win a creative Effectiveness Lion was Leo Burnett London for its “There’s a McDonald’s for Everyone” campaign.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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