download the PDF version - Strategy

BY MEGAN HAYNES
Shine or bust: Advice for winning awards
It’s time to enter Cannes – the Oscars of adland – and
agencies are busy choosing and perfecting their entries.
Between the international, national and regional award
shows, the quest for recognition is costly and time
consuming. And then you walk away with only a merit
and you wonder, are awards even worth it? How do you
sell your boss and client on the idea? How can you get the
most bang for your buck?
What’s the secret to award-season success? Strategy.
Lions/One Show/AToMiC, etc.-winning vets share their
amassed jury-wooing learnings as they dispense killer
Dear Abby-style award advice.
SMALL FISH SYNDROME
Judy John, CEO
and CCO, Leo
Burnett.
52 www.strategyonline.ca
Dear Judy,
I’m from a small independent shop and we can’t seem to break
onto the international award show circuit. We’ve got plenty of
regional wins and a few national, but we seem to be going about
the internationals all wrong. What am I doing wrong? How can I
win? Is it even worth our time?
Small fish, big pond
Dear Small ish,
The short answers: Better ideas in easier
categories. Don’t know. And yes.
The long answers: Let’s deal with the most
important question irst. Is it worth our time? Yes!
People like to work for and with a company that
wants to do the best work. If you win, it helps you
attract and retain great talent and clients.
When I was a couple of years in the business,
I did some freelance work on the side for my
portfolio and coughed up my own money to enter
into international shows. It paid off. I won a couple
of Gold Lions, which translated into job offers. But
more importantly, it created a desire in me to have
my work amongst the best of the best.
So how can you win? A great strategy followed
by a great idea. Then a great execution.
If you’re looking to make the shortlist, good
insight/idea and beautiful execution will get you
there. If you want to go for Gold, you have to have
something that’s never been done before or makes
people say, “That’s genius. I wish I’d done that.”
Let’s assume you have a killer idea. I have two tips:
1) Categories. Some categories are really hard –
Integrated Campaign, for example, is a really
tough category. You’re up against American
Express’s “Small Business Saturday.” It’s hard
to compete with a killer idea with that kind of
investment and media coverage. Start looking
at some of the more obscure categories. Be the
biggest ish in the small pond.
2) Keep the materials (boards and videos) you
enter simple. The amount of work a jury goes
through in a few short days for a show is in the
thousands. The entries that are complicated,
gimmicky or drawn out are instantly killed.
Judy
Bonus tip: Don’t tell the judges it was a “great idea”
– no jury likes to be told how they should feel.